Sunday, October 31, 2010

Drive shaft loop

Firday night I was tired so did not spend to much time in the garage. But I did manage to get the drive shaft loop bolted in. I "think" that covers all the chassis fabrication work ... besides all the things I have forgotten.


Loop all bolted in.



Next will be learning how to do automotive wiring. Sure its easy if you have done it before. Everything is easy if you have done it before but I haven't, so another learning curve. So to help with that I got the following book. Started reading it ... felt like I was back in school... made the brain hurt.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Clutch hardline mounting

The hydraulic clutch has moved a little and I wanted to mount the hard line properly. As with everything so far on this rebuild It seems I have completely rebuild new. The old clutch mount was just bolted to the wooden floor and the hard line was held in place with just zip ties.

Now that I have made a proper  mount for the clutch master cylinder I had to re-route the hard line. Its thicker than the brake lines, its 1/4inch tube so stronger and hard to bend.

After much scrambling under the RattyT and bending I finally got the rough mock up of where it need to go. But that was late last night so i stopped at that point. Tonight I started the actual mounting of the hard line.

First step was to shorten the existing hard line.
Putting on the new double flange on the end of the shortened tube.

I had to make some mounting brackets, so out with the trusty sheet metal. Cut a 20mm strip and then cut and wrapped around the spare tube to create exact sized mounts.
In the vice getting a good round tight fit.
Three completed brackets

Clutch master bolted in and and the hard line tighten on to it. Then the brackets used to hold the line in place.

The hard line routes from the right side under the gearbox in front of the main gearbox cross member. I routed it up much higher than last time and it now well hidden and protects from any road debris

left side all mounted and the soft line connected.

While I was at it I needed to make a bracket for the left brake line that routed under the gearbox. I was secure enough, but wanted to make sure it was super secure.

So that is all the hard lines mounted, soft lines done. Getting very close to getting the body back on.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Radiator respray and mounting

My current plan is to slowly work front to back and finish off all the little jobs that I haven't done in fabrication. All those little jobs that I either forgot or didn't realise I hadn't done.

The first part of that was the brake lines and the soft line mounts. Next was the poor old radiator. It was looking very second hand, it needed a good spruce up. I saw my neighbour out water blasting / clean his car so asked if I could use if for a couple of minutes and blasted the radiator down to get is good and clean.

I then left it in the sun to dry.

After I had let it dry for a good couple of hours I gave it a quick spray with high temp paint. Now it said black on the can, true it was black, but it was a brown black and when I put it against the chassis paint it really stood out. So the next day I went and got another brand of high temp paint and resprayed.

Check out the high tech spray booth. the end result was much better and a closer match to my super fantastic brush paint job on the chassis :)



While I was in the painting mood and stinking out the house I gave the front body sub frame a once over with the anti-rust paint.

The next night I mounted the freshly painted radiator. After a bit of a struggle I got it mounted. the issue was that the bottom radiator hose is a close fit against the cross member. I had to put the hose on first and then "encouraged" the radiator to line up with the mount bolt holes.


After I finally got the radiator mounted I then started to look at the clutch line, I spend the better part of two hours trying to figure it where to mount it and then bending the old tube to fit. I will need to make a number of bracket to mount the clutch hard line.

I also tidied up the left brake line and added some extra hard mount points. That concludes last nights progress.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Brake front softline mounts

With the progress over the weekend I realised that I need to create some mounts for the front soft brake lines. After a quick noodle and hunt for something suitable, a section of 25mm square 2mm box was decided upon.

I cut a section off, then cut into two.


Marked out both the holes, one 6.5mm for mounting to the chassis, and the other 10.5mm for the brake line. After some filing and corner rounding they were ready for a test mount.



I drill in to my nice newly finished paint, a 6.5mm hole drilled to mount the little brackets.

Test fit, the hard lines had to be fiddled with to get a good fit.

Both lines mocked up.


So after the mock up I bolted them in place tight using 6mm hex key bolts and nylon nuts, then I gave them a quick paint.
While I has the paint out i took off the steering stop and gave them a once over as well.
 
The plan is to work front to back and find and finish the little fab / chassis jobs that I my have missed. Once they are all done it will be onto the body.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Its going back together...

There was a fair amount of progress over the weekend, a couple of hours each night after the girls were in bed. Friday night was finishing off the painting, It came out OK, Nothing flash ... but good enough to get going if I want to be on the road this summer.

Saturday Night: I spent a couple of hours putting the brake system back in place. All the mounts have been painted and I had all the new nuts & bots ready to go. First up was the rear T joint mounted to the bracket.

 

Bolted back on to the diff and the hard lines re-plumbed.




Next up was the proportioning valve which goes in line between the master and the rear brakes.

 
All bolted into its final spot

 


Next was to mount the brake master / booster to the newly shortened and painted mounting bracket.
Here is is all bolted up. Note the center mounting bolt is on place already, otherwise there is not way to get it in there.




 

Before putting the Brake master in, I re-plumbed the front right hard line.

 

Master / Booster all bolted up with new bolts and nylon nuts.


That was it for Saturday Night

 

Sunday Night: Mounted the steering box. Hopefully for the final time. New high tensile nut and bolts used.  

 

 

Carrier bearing and first part of the steering in place. Next I spent time re-plumbing the left hand hard lines and fuel lines.

 
I then spend some frustrating time getting the shocks back in place, the left hand side was a complete arse to do as I had to not only line the shock up in the mount, but also the stabilization arm. So after some swearing I finally got the left shock remounted. The right hand side was a breeze..

So, chassis paint 98% finished, will run around with the paint once everything is buttoned down. brake hard lines 90% done, just need a few more mounts for the front soft lines. battery box, Brake master / booster back in.

After all that I really needed to make sure that there was still a big old lump of V8 underneath that plastic cover. Yip shes still there .... waiting to get fired up and go.

 

Front right corner, Steering box, shock, brake line.

 
Brake booster / master and the battery box in there final homes.

 
Rattyt in all her current glory.

 

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Paint ... pep talk ...

Ok .. F@&k it ..
I'm not going to get a good paint job with no budget or spray kit, fact...!
The car is supposed to be a RattyT .. not professional T..
So brush and rattle can WILL be fine ....

Just get on with it ... its nearly summer ....

So after my little pep talk to myself action has happened.



The RattyT up on jack stands so I can get underneath and brush on some paint.


Most parts painted and ready for some rattle can on the exposed chassis rails.
The paint will be "fine" a blind man on a fast horse wouldn't notice a thing!!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

New brake booster linkage..

Well its been a long time between drinks. But I did finally get out to the workshop and make a little progress on the brake linkage. Since I changed the booster to a smaller one to give more ground clearance I had to change the linkage as the thread on the booster was 3/8s, and before the linkage was 12mm.

So after some hunting in shops for a couplings that may work ... and finding none, the old grey matter finally kicked in and I remembered that the old booster was 3/8s and I still had bits of the old linkage somewhere. After a bit of looking I found what I was looking for.

The 3/8s internal threaded rod. However it was truly stuck on the connecting rod. I cut two tabs so I could use a wrench on it to undo it. Worked a treat.

 

Here is the internal threaded rod on the new brake booster, Next step was to thread the other end so it would connect to the 12mm connecting rod.


 

 

After using my hand lathe, (a hand file, must get a lathe somehow) to thread it I needed to get the rod down from 14mm to 12mm so I could use the 12mm die.

 

Here's the threaded end all done, the next thing I did was drilled out the coupling about 8mm so when the newly created adapter was screwed in it seated deep with in the coupling. Just to give it extra strength.

 

 

The final master piece, I can now focus on finishing the frame painting and I can then start putting things back on the old girl.