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Floorpan Rebuild

 

Floorpan stripping and painting
Before anything could be painted the first thing that had to do was to fully strip the car down, and to separate the pan from the body.

Now at this point I must say, the paint has always been an important part of the build for me, and here only the best will do. This is why I chose not to do it myself and to get Nick and Stevo at Double H Restoration to do the job.

However, they’re in Coventry and I’m in South Wales so I needed to get the floorpan to them! In order to do this I built a transport frame which fitted into the back of my van. It only just fitted though!!

Once the floor pan was delivered the first thing Stevo did was to media blast it. Luckily they found no serious rust in it, other than a small amount of pitting.

Stevo then worked his magic on the pan, undersealing the bottom, filling any pitting, and finally giving it a coat of gloss black. I am so impressed with the finish on this. It's BETTER than a new pan!

Here’s the freshly painted pan back in my garage. I am so pleased with the finish on this. Note the flat and polished bulk head and frame forks.

The underside of the pan was undersealed as its going to be a car that gets driven.

 

Other chassis parts painted
Not only did Stevo paint the chassis, he also painted a number of other suspension and chassis parts. These pictures show the quality of his work.

Painted spring plates, wet flatted and polished.

Other parts painted at Double H Restorations.

And here’s a few parts I painted. Well I say ‘a few’ parts, there were bloody hundred of little chassis parts that you don’t think about that all need stripping down, prepping, and painting!!

 

Front suspension
The first thing to do was to bolt the beam on.

As the car is low at the front, caster shims are fitted to correct the geometry. The beam was bolted on using standard, but plated, high tensile bolts. Where possible I have replaced steel bolt/ nuts with stainless, with the sway-a-way adjuster bolts being a good example of this.

The standard steel grease nipples were also replaced with stainless steel items.

Caps were fitted to keep the grit and dirt off them.

The drop arms and shocks were then fitted. Due to loss of paint on the KYB shocks when the outer casing were removed to give clearance on the beam I decided to repaint them. A similar grey with a slight metallic was used. However, after initial painting I decided it wasn’t shiny enough, so I lacquered them as well!!

Rather than used standard steel nuts on the drop arms these were replaced with stainless nuts and washers.

Next up I bolted the axles on. Not surprisingly stainless steel link pin pinch bolts were used.

Oh and even the link pins got a coat of paint!

The freshly painted steering box was also bolted on at this point. A later box was used in the end as it allowed me to incorporate steering stop, so that the tyres didn’t rub on the inner arches.

Note the polished steering box top, done by hand in my front room, taking two nights much to the annoyance of my wife who hates the smell of autosol!!

Now a steering box is no use without tie rods, so here’s the tie rods fitted. A steering damper has also been added.

Again more stainless items. This time the tie rod locking tabs. These will be locked down once the tracking is done.

So here’s the chassis with the front suspension all the way out to the stub axles done.

 

Gearbox
One thing I hadn’t done in the trial build was to fit the gearbox I was going to use. This was important as I needed to re-drill the nose cone hockey stick so that it correctly connected to the urethane gearshift bush allowing all gears to be selected.
Luckily the transport frame I built for the van also allowed me to install the gearbox without removing it. Here is the gearbox trial fitted with the nose cone drilled and all 5 gears working (4 forward and one backwards, not a 5 speed!!).

It was then time to finally fit the gearbox for real. Thank you very much to my good friend Stretch for his help with setting the axle play and also for fitting the gearbox with me (as well as fit the spring plates). :-)

The rear mount is fitted using stainless framework bolts and washers. Rhino gearbox mounts are fitted both front and back, with a BERG mid mount in the middle. Again thanks to Stevo at Double H Restoration for the amazing paint on the rear and mid mount.

The second hand high torque starter motor I had also looked a bit shabby so I decided to repaint/ polish it. This took the best part of a week on and off, as there were lots of bits to paint and I changed many of the bolts for stainless items. Really happy with the end result though.

Here the clutch arm fitted. The original spring I had broke so I had to fit the new one pictures here. The nut has been replaced for a ‘six shooter’ style nut making adjustment of the clutch much easier.

Where I could I replaced the original nuts and bolts on the gearbox with stainless items I did. It was fun trying to find these m7 bolts for the nose cone, as it turns out these are not a very often used size, especially in stainless!

And the side plates (yes they’ve been polished!) nut changed for stainless items (before the axles were fitted).

The clutch operating arm is held in location by a dowel bolt and as ever I decide to change this for a stainless item as it let the rest of the gearbox down. Nobody actually sells these so I made this from scratch myself with a drill, a grinder, and a lot of careful measuring.

Here the gearshift coupling fitted up (correctly with lock wire), and the super shiney painted cover plate. Note the three stainless hex head bolts to hold it down rather than a self taper.

 

Rear suspension
The rear suspension has been a bit of a nightmare, as I had issues with the original spring plate covers bending with the new rubber suspension donut as they were not strong enough. This was annoying as I had had these items painted and polished.

Being an ‘early’ car however, it was swing axle but had spring plate end which pertuding through the spring plate covers. However nobody sells swing axle spring plate covers with a hole in them!! Thus I had Paul at Bears Motorsport machine holes in some spring plate covers for me.

And finally them painted and fitted.

And here’s the shocks fitted up as well as the rear disk brake calliper bracket and bearing cover.

The completed rear end with the gearbox and suspension all fitted up.

 

Fuel system
Before I bolted the beam on, I fitted freshly painted tunnel cover plate with a fuel line bulk head fitting.

And here’s it exiting at the rear of the tunnel (This was done before the gearbox was fitted).

The filter and pump were then fitted in the bulkhead.

Note, the aluminium part of the pump body has been polished, with the raw steel part as well as the clamp being lacquered to stop them rusting.

And here is the fuel line connected to the front bulk head connection.

 

Braking system
Next I turned my attention to the breaking system. Firstly I fitted the 944 master cylinder and reservoir, as well as the line lock. I know it’s sad, but the brake lines have been polished.

And here’s a good photo of both the braking system and fuel system.

Here is the brake lines at the back. It took me ages to get it all run nicely!

The brake line furrels are actually stainless steel items (which were hard to find!) as the steel ones I used in the trial build had rusted, thus I decided they needed replacing with stainless versions.

Talking of braking systems, here’s the handbrake. I originally wanted to paint it factory correct stone beige (L471). However, after asking 5-6 paint shops you’d think I was asking for unicorn tears!!
In the end I colour matched some factory painted parts to the closest colour I could, and I’m happy with the result.

And still talking of brakes, here’s the pedal assembly all painted, and bolted up. Until you rebuild your pedals you don’t realise how many parts there are, I.e. how many parts I had to repaint!!

I didn’t like the wobbly z bar thing on the accelerator pedal so this has been swapped for an adjustable rose joint system. The pedal stop plate and l bracket thingie has also been swapped for stainless steel versions.

I also replace the standard steel version of the grease nipple with a stainless item, just because I can basically.

And finally onto the disks brakes themselves. The disk had sat in my old damp garage for ages, and a bit of surface rust had appeared. However this was soon cleaned off, and the centre of the drum was given a new coat of paint.

Here’s the before and after of the front brakes.

The callipers were also treated to a coat of paint as they were starting to look a bit shabby.

And the front brakes all fitted up. Please not I HATE the gold grease caps, and these are to be replaced with black powder coated items soon!

Turning my attention to the rear disk brakes these had also rusted a bit, but again this was soon cleaned off, and given a fresh coat of paint.

The rear callipers also get dismantled, and a fresh coat of paint.

And the rear disks and callipers fitted up.

Here you can see the handbrake cable and brake lines also fitted, using a custom made split bracket.

And all the brakes fitted. :-)

 

Finished Floorpan
Well if I’m going to get the chassis rolling again it going to need some wheels. Although there only copies, I thought I’d give the ‘workshop’ wheels a clean and polish. Yes I know I need 4! I still had one left to clean up at this point!!

And finally the rolling pan.

Well it’s nice to finally get it finished, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. :-)

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