Red Rallye resto

[Ben_w]

So today was about as much fun as working on an old French car, outside on a cold windy March day.........oh, hang on....

So today wasn't the greatest day. High hopes of achieving lots, countered by the actual doing of not a huge amount. Bugger.

So job number one was pick up the Xylene I needed to thin down the Electrox so I could go over all the chassis seams and get it to flow into them as much as possible. Toolstatioin stock it, one in Nuneaton, off I went.



Job number two was get the Mothers day present for the wife from the daughter. Done on route home. Thirsty work that lot, had to stop for a brew...

First job on the car was to remove the Deox gel I'd put on on Thursday! Came off easily though and did its usual great job. Next job was to remove the cat. Now i knew getting the cat off was going to be an ar$e. And it was. It needed to come off, I thought, so i could remove the final heatshield and finish the underside of the chassis. I'd tried undoing the nuts, only to have the whole nuts/bolt assembly turn. Tried to get a spanner on the top nut. I'd have done better trying to get Leicester City to win a game.....no room for the grinder, couldn't find the cutting bit for my dremel, b0llocks to doing it with a hack saw blade so I got out the metal drill bits and eventually got the nuts off. Hurrah. Ben wins. Then promptly looses by realising the subframe needs dropping to get the heat shield off. I very nearly called it a day at that point.

Ummmed and arrred for a bit, had another cup of tea and some lunch, then decided I better see if I could undo all the subframe bolts. Given the propensity of things on this car to shear, I wasnt particularly hopeful.... As it went, I got all of them undone except one. The front mount 18mm bolt in the drivers side front wheel arch didn't want to play. Gave it as much as I dare, still nowt. The 2 13mm bolts holding the subframe mount to the chassis however, did, so thats a result. I shall just undo those to get it off the car i hope, cant remember if the big bolt that wont undo is threaded into the chassis leg as well....It was tea time again.

Got busy then mixing up a batch of thinned down Electrox and went over every chassis seam and a few other bits I wasn't happy with and had bare metalled again. Nasty horrid job as once thinned, it runs down the brush, your arm etc. Flowed well into the seams though. Painted up all the bits I finished the other night too, just to get some protection on it. Xylene must dehydrate you as I had to have another cup of tea.

Wondering what else I could do, I remembered the nasty box sections by the bump stops, and the sheared bolt when I removed the bump stop cup. A selection of wire brushes on the drill, and a little judicious screwdriver wielding for the tight corners and one side is now ready for deoxing....





Having also bought some new metal drill bits, I fancied my chances with the sheared bump stop cup bolt. Working up through the sizes, I managed to drill it out enough that I could get the remnants out. I *think* I might be able to get away without having to retap a size bigger as well.....quite pleased with that.



So tonight, being March 14th, will consist of Chill Con Carne for dinner, (to be fair, I had a 48oz steak last the local pub last night), followed by lots of cider, and reading up on how to remove the front subframe whilst the wife sleeps in the chair.......awesome.