nearly stripped down to the metal.

Well, I’ve been busy stripping like a £20 tart.

I now have the entire front of the car back to the chassis, apart from the brake master cylinders and pedal box. I’m leaving them in situ just at the moment because I need to convert the clutch pedal from cable to hydraulic. The plan is to cut the necessary circular hole in the right place and fir a bearing in place in the pedal to take a clevis acting on the master cylinder.

I’ve started to take the side panels out, drilling out rivets and whatnot. One option would be to leave them in place and get them powder coated with the rest of the chassis, but I just don’t know if the rush has got in behind them. I’m going to go with plan-B. Get the chassis blasted (a nicely keyed surface then) and epoxy the panels in place, securing with advel stainless rivets. These have upwards of 3000PSI clamping force rather than the crappy soft alloy ones. You can’t put them in with a hand riveter, but luckily I have an air-riveter. I may get the chassis done, then epoxy them in place. Assuming the job is done well, I will be putting epoxy onto epoxy – not a bad idea if it’s keyed first. Saying that, just writing that down makes me want to go with plan-A.

I’ve also got the rear hubs and half-shafts out, and everything split down as needs be (again, the original IRS installation rear hub carriers are rusting to buggery).

The half-shafts are in good condition. I will probably replace the handbrake cable. I’ve changed one without the car being stripped down and it’s a hellacious job.

I kinda wished I hadn’t stripped things back so quickly – it means I don’t have a rolling chassis in order to work with when I bend up some side-intrusion bars. I still have the side pods and tub handy, so can certainly mock most stuff up.

The rear shocks are off as well – all that’s left is the diff and diff-carrier then it’s back to the bare chassis.

SBDev have got my bits ready, so I can proceed with the engine rebuild. I will at least need to get the sump on before I start offering engines/bellhousings up to gearboxes and cutting the tunnel to get it as far back as possible.

Should be a good day tomorrow – the strip down will be complete and I’ll start looking at how I’m going to tig in the new roll-bar.

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