MadaboutKitcars

Thanks for that Paul, I'll try it with the next photos I take.
Cheers, Paul (A)

Well, a little bit of an update as (some) progress has been made! The car port / shelter has walls and part of a roof on.


I cut the front, bumper support, off the chassis



Front suspension coming apart quite nicely


All gone - nearly!


Some bloody BL assembly worker's idea of a laugh!!!!!

And there's more!

All in a day's work - most of this stuff came off today. I have taken lots more photos so I don't have to rely on memory to know how it all goes back together.


And at last, a chair so I can sit down and admire my handiwork - so where's the well deserved beer then?


Well, that will be it for a few days I think. My wife is "suggesting" that I do some of the painting I started a few weeks ago but lost interest in when the bits for the Fiorano started to arrive. My Minilite / MGF wheels should have arrived today but unfortunately only the bright zinc plated wheel nuts made it. The kit is on order with Mick at Fiorano but it won't be available until the 24th of JUNE. I guess that gives me some time to clear out all the rubbish in my Mum's garage (and there is a lot!) and also figure out how I am going to fit the Fiorano kit plus my Honda CBR600f into a single garage. The plan is to do all the dirty work at my friend's farm house under the car port and once all the welding is done, the assembling stage of the kit will move to my Mum's garage.
I have asked Chic Doig for a price for all the parts to rebuild the front and rear suspension and will, hopefully, be going to collect them on Thursday or Friday. I can't really do much more until I have taken the engine and gearbox out. Then I can remove the outriggers, the gearbox mounting blocks and completely degrease the chassis. I am still waiting for a price to have the chassis shot blasted but if it's too dear, then I'll probably just attack it with wire brushes etc. then a rust killer. Any suggestions for an easy and relatively not messy product to use?

Jjjjjjkjkkkkkk

Old Jock – Great progress.


I’ve used “Kurust” on my build, which was the first time I’d used any sort of rust killer.

I like the fact it goes on a milky white, so you can see where you have “painted”.

You might need more than one coat to get the job done.

Hope that helps, Paul.

PS

Did you lean on the keyboard by mistake?

Thanks Paul L, Do you know if you can weld the metal after the Kurust has been applied, or do you have to do the welding first?
Cheers, Paul (A)

15" Minilites have landed!!!! Stripped the brake drums, wheel studs and brake shoes etc from rear half shafts. I'm taking them to Chic Doig for him to remove the rear hubs while I pick up my box of parts. Then it's time to start cleaning and painting the suspension parts, new bushes, bearings, nuts and bolts etc. - I could be some time!

I always do the welding first. Less contaminates in the welded areas.

If I had to weld an area that had been previously covered in Kurust, I'd make sure the area was ground back to bare metal first.

Not much actual progress has been made recently. I removed the differential yesterday, which only took about 15 minutes, and generally faffed about for about an hour tidying up. Over the last few days I took delivery of a compressor, sandblaster hopper with a gun, 100 kilos of fine grit and protective headgear and respirator/air filter mask. I have decided to do the sandblasting of the chassis myself as there are plenty of other parts which need to be cleaned and de-rusted before they can be painted - hopefully I won't blow any holes in the chassis!
I have also been buying engine paint too - aluminium for the block and Ferrari Corsa red for the cylinder head (for those of you who don't already know, Testa Rossa means Red Head).
I checked that the engine is still free to turn and it is, but there is not too much compression. I can't find the old type Redex upper cylinder lubricant which was so good at releasing gummed-up piston rings so am going to try just putting clean engine oil down the bores to see if that works. We have put an extra steel beam in the roof of the car port to attach a chain hoist to, to get the engine and gearbox out. This will hopefully happen this coming weekend and then I can get on with degreasing the chassis etc before sandblasting the chassis and painting it with weld-through primer. With any luck that will all be done before the kit arrives towards the end of the month - fingers crossed!

Good luck, hope the sandblasting goes ok

Just found this thread through a link on the Sammio page. Looking forward to following progress but I have one observation so far: Triumph fitted the wishbone bolt that you can''t remove without first taking off the suspension turret as a safety measure - if the nut falls off the bolt can't drop out and leave you with no front wheel. I agree it's a PITA to fit and remove, but it's how Triumph intended.

Hi Mister Towed, Thanks for your clarification of the bolt problem. I wonder why they didn't do the same on the other side?

Somebody's probably replaced it at some time in the past by cutting off the old one and pushing a new one in from the wrong side. Or it could just be sh*te quality control at the factory.

All the current exploded diagrams from the main parts suppliers show those bolts going in towards the suspension turret, so I could be completely wrong about it being a safety feature, but that's what I was told by a retired Triumph engineer when I asked the same question.

With modern lock nuts you'll be fine whichever way round they go in.

Thanks once again. I will have to take the suspension turret off anyway as there is a bit of rust at the bottom which I found this morning while cleaning it. The work will have to wait for a while though as I have a trapped nerve in my neck, shoulder and bicep and it's too painful to do anything meaningful!

Just a quick update. Today I removed the engine and gearbox and put it on a wooden pallet. I had bought a chain hoist from Lidl a couple of months ago for £30.00 just for this occasion and it worked perfectly, albeit a little slower than I would like - a bit like me I suppose! I also have removed the rusted front suspension turret from the chassis and am waiting for the replacement ones to arrive. I have also bought some of the shims to increase negative camber at the front and some shims for the rear tie bars. My friend's son has told me that he may be able to get the chassis steam cleaned on one of the local farms, so if that comes off, it will save me quite a bit of work and time degreasing it before I sand blast it.
I also had a bit of bad news regarding the delivery date for the kit from Mick at Fiorano. It seems that the body shop who make the fibreglass bodywork have been "very Busy" and it won't now be ready until the 4th - 8th July. I have to admit that I am more than a little disappointed as what was supposed to be a 3 week lead time has now turned into more than 2 months. Oh well, I guess that means I have more time to arrange all of the other bits and pieces which need to be done.

Enjoying your build progress. I built a Marlin Roadster donkeys years ago - the donor had the same issue with the suspension tower bolt as I recall, although it didn't matter as the roadster had a new fabricated chassis so the suspension towers had to come off anyway.

Interesting how much you have to cut off of the front of the chassis. Doesn't modifying the chassis mean you have to do the IVA test? Or perhaps there are some things that are permitted?

Cheers, Robin

No idea about the IVA and the chassis mods Robin, although Mick at Fiorano has assured me that no Fiorano has required an IVA. The less I know about it the better as far as I am concerned, I will just leave it all up to the welder. I have been told that cutting off the front bumper support is ok as it is not "the chassis" and the same applies to the outriggers. Case closed for me, so please, anyone who reads this, leave me in ignorant bliss.

I had a bit of fun removing the front and rear outriggers today. Lots of cutting, banging with a hammer and chisel, grinding and generally making a racket. Still a few little bits and pieces to remove before the chassis goes to be steam cleaned but nothing major.

And there they were - gone!









The keen-eyed among you may have spotted that the front suspension turrets are also gone. This is because one of them had a little hole in it and I bought two from Ebay for a tenner - it would have been rude not to. Wouldn't it?

Chassis looks in pretty good nick! The classic place that they rust (other than everywhere...) is in the dip under the rear driveshafts.

Do you have to move the engine back for the Fiorano? The trick that used to be used by some of the racers was to swap the front suspension towers from one side to the other which effectively moves the engine mounts from the front to the back of the towers. Moves the engine and box back about 6 inches as I recall.

Cheers, Robin

Hi Robin, Yes, the chassis isn't too bad, just surface rust and flaking paint at the rear end really. I will find out more once it has been steam cleaned. I took a close-up of the rear end of the chassis as I was taking it apart and it looks like this:


Yes the engine and gearbox are moved back to improve the balance of the car. I hadn't heard of swapping the turrets before though.
Cheers, Paul

Good news today. IT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!

Still on the truck after a 500 mile journey.




Just managed to squeeze it all in the garage




I think I may have to find alternative accomodation for the bike

As the first line says, my Fiorano kit finally arrived today safe and sound. Mick at Fiorano managed to shame the bodyshop into doing the bodywork a week earlier than they had told him - after they had been too busy to do it in the timescale they had suggested at the time it was ordered! The kit was collected and delivered by a chap called Ronnie Ryan who does a lot of work moving restored classic cars around the country. He doesn't just do work up here in Scotland but can pick up and deliver from and to most places in the UK. He was recommended to me by a friend who has a business renovating all sorts of cars from E Types to 1904 Cadillacs, Bentleys and 1930's Bugatti GP racers.
If you need a car or kit moved give him a call on 07738 274660. You may save yourself several hundred pounds, I certainly did - end of plug due for good service. I didn't have any time to play with my new toy this evening but will find a few moments tomorrow, all being well. I'm still waiting for the chassis to be steam cleaned and have visitors from Saturday until next Wednesday so my wife won't be letting me out to play.

Get that ape off of there as soon as you can. Will save a bunch of work later. NICE!

Hi Molleur, Thanks for the advice. Although I kept looking for a very large monkey until it dawned on me that you had missed out a "t"! Yes, that will be my first job when I get into the garage this afternoon.

Removed the sticky tape which held the bonnet and boot in place during transportation following Molleur's kind advice. The finish of the outside of the bodywork if pretty smooth all over except for where the "joins" are on the top surface and around the small air intake on the bonnet. No rough patches as far as I can see and no pin holes etc so, hopefully, not too much rubbing down and filling other than around the edges to improve the shut lines of the bonnet and boot. I'm quite impressed and happy with the overall finish. All of the other chassis and various bulkhead parts come in associated packages with identifying labels of what's in each package which will help once I get to the body assembly stage. I haven't opened any of them yet but what I can see through the plastic wrapping looks to be very neat and clean with nice smooth edges to the plywood and aluminium. Unfortunately, I won't be able to play with it until later next week when I will have to decide if it's likely that the offer of steam cleaning the chassis is going to be fulfilled or if I just go ahead and degrease it with Gunk myself and then shot blast it. Oh, all these decisions!