306 replies to this topic

[Mopeytitan]

I like the thread title as it is unique! Just get shot of the green interior stuff. Yuk

 

don't worry that will be going aswell.

[Mopeytitan]

Good work al. Car looks great on the compos mate. Looking fwd to seeing you crack on with the rest of it.

 

Cheers G been watching yours, looking good.

 

I've got some plans for it but keep changing my mind will hopefully come out good when it's done

[Mopeytitan]

Got a bit more done today. Would have liked to get more done but my mate asked me to go help him with some work in his house.

 

I started with the Front left and began by taking off the brake discs, so had to first get the calipers out the way. Quite an easy job so only took a few minutes.

 

 

Once i had got the disc out of the way i decided it would make sense to get the track rod end and roll bar drop link off. Drop link came off with no issues so was quite happy with my progress as i moved onto the track rod which after i had got the nut half way it all started to spin... not sure what to do then got the hack saw out and just cut the nut off. I wasn't to worried about cutting bits off as i plan to replace most bits from the suspension. After about half an hour off hammering and a lot of swearing because the lower ball joint wouldn't pop out it finally went. The upper literally took two hits and it freed. (Yes i was using a ball joint fork thingy)

 

Loki heard the noise and decided he would come and watch for a bit.

 

He didn't stay long i think he got sick of the banging. haha

 

So two hours after i had started the upright was off!!

 

Moved onto the wishbones, upper was really easy. Removing the suspension bracket gives just enough room to get a spanner on the nut and with the steering at full lock left moves the steering rack out of the way.

When i started on the lower i got myself confused and couldn't figure out how i was suppose to take the rear bolt out. I looked underneath and seen a few bolts which i decided must hold a panel on so i started to take them off. (Turns out they're for the foot rest ) so after a little search i found a guide thread and found the rubber bung that covers the head of the bolt in the cabin.

 

 

With that bolt out and a little wiggling the last wishbone came free.

 

 

With that, it was one side down one to go and the front would be done. A couple of hours later and the other side was done as well.

Unfortunately i did end up rounding off the little hex bolt that holds the brake disc on and couldn't get it off!! Nevermind I guess it makes sense to change the discs while i'm at it. I wasn't to worried about the disc being stuck on the hub as i am going to replace them all aswell due to the ABS problem.

 

 

 

All bits removed ready for sand blasting and powder coating. Will be taking the uprights into work to use the vise as i haven't got one to get the bearings out.

Will be getting in touch with a local powder coating company so i can get them sent off soon.

 

Couple of questions for you guys.

1. Any ideas where the best place to get a full bush kit for front and back?

2. Where would be the best place to get new ball joints8 for top and bottom wish bones? (i ended up having to cut the rubber part off the lower ones to get them off)

 

Will need to start thinking about what colour to have the suspension parts done in. (don't worry Rudy it won't be green ) I might just go with the boring black or blue... any thoughts?

[Sticky]

Why didn't you remove the hubs from the upright whilst they were on the car?

 

The massive nylock holding the fake driveshaft is torqued up to about 200NM IIRC and the 3 19mm hub bolts are also difficult to get off at the best of times?

[Mopeytitan]

I didn't really think about it until i had already got them off that i just decided i would take them to work to get them off. got a better range of tools there as well.

 

If it comes to it and i need to put them back on the car to get them off i'll do that when needs be.

[Sticky]

Fair play!

 

Some of the balljoint/wishbone junctions don't half go with a bang when they let go don't they

 

My neighbour came round to see if I was ok the first time it happened

[Mopeytitan]

haha yh when that bottom one eventually went i crapped myself. didn't expect it i was about to give up and ask how to get it off.

 

The only time my neighbour would come round would be to ask me to shut up

[TazN]

bearings and hubs can be separated off the car, I had massive trouble with mine while on the vx so took them off as one piece and down the local tvr garage and got a chap there to take them apart in his lunch. 1 crate of beer later and I picked them up.

[Gedi]

 

Couple of questions for you guys.

1. Any ideas where the best place to get a full bush kit for front and back?

2. Where would be the best place to get new ball joints8 for top and bottom wish bones? (i ended up having to cut the rubber part off the lower ones to get them off)

 

 

http://www.seriously...refresh-kit-175

 

 

 

Will need to start thinking about what colour to have the suspension parts done in. (don't worry Rudy it won't be green  ) I might just go with the boring black or blue... any thoughts?

 

Definitely satin black. Anything else looks a bit silly

 

I'm guessing you've read through this guide before getting stuck in?

http://wiki.seloc.or...wishbone_bushes

[haggi961]

Mine are all orange and I love the look. Everyone goes black.

[FLD]

Fair play!

 

Some of the balljoint/wishbone junctions don't half go with a bang when they let go don't they

 

My neighbour came round to see if I was ok the first time it happened

 

Dont they just!  When I did my suspension refresh I took the whole corner off the car in one go and broke it down in the shed.  BIG MISTAKE.  One of those big bangs sent big bits of heavy metal flying about and I ended up with a broken finger.  Damn plastic skip!

[JamesC]

The hubs can be a challenge to free from the uprights but I did mine off the car the first time.  They looked in a lot worse state than yours, a bit of patience and some force will get them separated.

 

I dont know if you have anyone lined up blasting/coating and although not very local to you I can recommend STP Coatings.  http://www.stpcoatin...o.uk/?page=home

 

They shot blasted and powder coated, my wishbones, uprights, steering arms and ARB for £150 all in which I thought was reasonable.  He masked off all mating faces and they were turned around quickly.

[Mopeytitan]

The hubs can be a challenge to free from the uprights but I did mine off the car the first time.  They looked in a lot worse state than yours, a bit of patience and some force will get them separated.   I dont know if you have anyone lined up blasting/coating and although not very local to you I can recommend STP Coatings.  http://www.stpcoatings.co.uk/?page=home   They shot blasted and powder coated, my wishbones, uprights, steering arms and ARB for £150 all in which I thought was reasonable.  He masked off all mating faces and they were turned around quickly.

I've not really got anyone lined up as such I know of one fairly local to me that I'm going to go to to get a quote but for 150 it's worth a look into. Thanks Al

[Mopeytitan]

Got the rear wishbones off today.

 

Whoever designed the front upper wishbone bolt was definitely not the sharpest tool in the box!!! what a PITA!!!

 

and don't get me started on the front lower!! there's me bloody taking the bracket off thinking the nut was hidden away for it to be a bloody captive nut!!!!! ARGH!

 

anyways few pics of progress today.

 

rear right

 

didn't get a pic of the left but i'm sure you can all imagine it

 

parts for powder coating are building up just steering parts to get to now.

 

 

Now a question for all you fibreglass gurus... how do i fix this?

 

...

 

 

its the front of the sill and it's the same on both sides. basically what happened was when i was fitting the splitter a while back i had it on ramps and i (being a tool) forgot to put the handbrake on and it rolled down the ramps with the stops for the wheels putting some nice big holes in the sills!! ( the ramps where backwards so i could get to the front end).

 

once again not a very productive day but will get there slowly

Edited by mopeytitan, 22 May 2014 - 09:06 PM.

[TazN]

Check out a thread by Fezz's on repairing his sills.

 

Basically it will involve laying up a sheet of fg then slotting it up into the hole and bonding it to the backside of the sill so that you can repair over the top of it.

[Mopeytitan]

I'll have a search for it thanks. Would you say it's difficult to do? Fibreglassing that is, I've never done it before so will be a steep learning curve when I start that part.

[TazN]

As I'm sat at working with very little to do

 

sill repair

 

Fiberglassing is not especially difficult. You'll need some csm, resin, brush, cups, mixing sticks.

 

It may well be worth just speaking with a local bodyshop that can do the repair and see what they think it's likely to cost. DIY is fine and doable but just takes time, something I've fast started to realize. Oh and ofc there is paint to do afterwards but thats another kettle of fish to sort out.

[Mopeytitan]

Cheers il have a look at that today. I plan to do a full respray aterwards anyway as I'm going to be getting a new front clam. I've done some spraying before so will be giving it a shot and if it turns out crap I've got a guy at work that works in the spray bay that's willing to do it for me.

[Mopeytitan]

Been a busy weekend.

 

Got the uprights stripped from the hubs and everything off to the Powder Coaters will be getting them back in two weeks as the guy is going on holiday for a week.

 

I decided to stick with Satin Black for the wishbones, uprights and various brackets. I also put the calipers in and which are going to be done in a metallic gold. << Which i'm still uming and aing about whether to phone them and get them to do them in black. Should probably make up my mind soon though

 

I will be ordering the suspension kit from seriously lotus when i pull my thumb out.

 

I also made a start on the sill repairs which i feel considering having never even thought about fiber glassing before have come out not half bad.

 

After having read the thread supplied by TazN of Fez's repair a fair few times i went out to Halfords and bought a fast glass repair kit, aluminium mesh and some fibral repair paste.

I started by bonding the mesh which i had cut into sections onto the inside of the sill, allowed it to dry and applied in small squares the fibre glass matting. Starting from the edge working in towards the middles. While waiting for the first layer to dry i made a start on the other side and followed the same process. Once dry i cut a piece of fibre glass cloth an inch larger than the hole and stuck it on. Once this second layer had dried i appled the fibral paste (which is like a body filler but fibre glass?). I then sanded it all back using 150 grit and moving down to 240 before applying standard car body filler and sanding that back to get it smooth.

 

A couple of photos of the repairs.

 

Before

 

Mesh Bonded in

 

Before Sanding

 

During Sanding

 

After Sanding

 

You can probably see in the pictures that there was also a repair behind the one i repaired which was an old one that hadn't been sanded back. So i took the liberty and smoothed that out aswell. It doesnt look like it in the pictures but you can't even feel it when you rub hand across it.

 

I also made a start on the sanding of the rest of the sill for the re-spray (still a long way away yet but figured "while i was there"

 

Sam got pretty bored of me being in the garage and decided to come out and chat to me... and thought it would be fun to write in the dust!

 

Now onto the boring part...

 

The cleaning

[techieboy]

You should really fit a grommet or edge trim to the hole in the A pillar, where the chargecooler hoses come out to prevent any chaffing issues.