MadaboutKitcars

2 points Andy

1 Are you paying?
2 Have you seen my welding?!?

:-)

I have seen this same list in a lot of places. I wonder if it is right, i have my doubts.

A bit of heat from a blow torch can help a lot too. Combined with WD40 ( or similar )before and after, it will sort out most rusted bolts.

I Agee with most of what has been said about releasing rusty nuts.

The challenge here, as I tried to show I the photos is actual access to the nut. It is basically a socke or grips. A standard sockets just spins and grips have no space to work.

I have bought those special sockets so tomorrow will tell. Either success or expletives

If it was me doing this job, by now I would have cut the bolt off with the grinder and replaced it with a short bolt going through the other way. Its easy to hold a nut on a spanner with some tape so it doesn't fall off, feed it in behind the bracket and do it up from the front. ( I've also glued a nut on a spanner with a dab of epoxy )

If you are going to resort to an angle grinder, use a 1mm thick cutting disc and cut the nut as close to the threads as possible without damaging the stud threads. It doesn't matter if there is still a little bit of the nut left next to the stud thread the combination of the heat and a small sliver of nut on the thread should be easy to remove, if you can't get to it with grips knock it round the stud with a drift.

I've found that by the time you get to that stage, with the heat from the angle grinder, the nut is ready to almost fall off anyway. Time to clean up the threads and apply a new nut. With a hint of copper grease of course.

If you do damage the threads you can run a thread restorer nut down the thread. The advantage of using these is that you don't need much room unlike a tap & die set. I find that I use them quite often and are well worth keeping a set.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Britool-RHDS3-5-Piece-Metric-Thread-Restorer-Die-Set-Made-In-USA/371216224762?epid=1537051097&hash=item566e3611fa:g:ElUAAOSw0vBUkDy1

They are a good idea. Old-timers used to make their own by cutting a new nut in half.

The Britool ones that I have are a hardened steel the same as tap and cut just as well. It is just that they don't need as much room to use.

Today's lunchtime update is that some shiny stuff arrived.

I will be removing, cleaning and treating the old bracket before fitting it to the new front ARB links.
20180124_123025 by WCA!, on Flickr

Another new thing was the special 'difficult nut' sockets. The sockets have a sort of petal pattern and the bit provided with them suggests they are meant to be used on an impact drill. Unfortunately I don't have one but I do have an adapter socket so I can get my big wrench on to the end.
20180124_123238 by WCA!, on Flickr

Less than two minutes later and the first nut was removed. The second took even less time. Why didn't I get the right tools earlier.
20180124_124109 by WCA!, on Flickr

These are the offending nuts. I think that most of the damage was done before I got the new sockets rather than being caused by them so it looks like they work well on rounded nuts.
20180124_124802 by WCA!, on Flickr

I am happy to have got the nuts out. I am less happy that the corner of my carpet was sticking out of the garage door when I left it and has managed to act as a wick for all the water so I now have a wet back. Once I get the garage floor a bit drier and have a little time I will loosen off the clamps and release the rear ARB. If it ever stops raining I will blast over it with the angle grinder and then measure it for new bushes and drop links.

A quick bit of wire brushing has added a couple of brackets to the 'ready for paint prep' shelf.

A before and after of the ARB links
20180124_171411 by WCA!, on Flickr

The front ARB bush brackers before and after
20180124_174246 by WCA!, on Flickr

This photo shows the inside of the bush bracket and the 'after' one is still a bit lumpy.
20180124_174259 by WCA!, on Flickr

The second one polished up better than the first so I gave the first another go and it improved a bit.
20180124_175057 by WCA!, on Flickr

Enough for tonight

Looks like a handy set of tools to have, where did you get those ones?

The socket things were from Screwfix for £12. There is a link on the previous page I think.

I used them to undo the nut on the ARB link (top picture) and it came off smoothly with no damage. Definitely worth getting although the size range is limited.

Why don't they make all sockets work this way?

Suddenly I might be running out of time. I have two separate pre-ops appointments tomorrow and apparently turning up greasy, dusty and generally manky is not considered good form so that is most of tomorrow written off. I hope to get the rear ARB off though in the gaps. Next work tell me I might be in Zurich on Friday and if I am then I will be back again Monday - Wednesday ready to return for the op on Thursday.

Busy weekend ahead I guess. Let's pray for sunshine.

Knocked off work early for some pre-op stuff at the hospital which finished in time for me to play some more.

The sun was shining, or at least it wasn't raining so I blasted the rear ARB with the angle grinder as it was pretty crappy before.
20180125_145857 by WCA!, on Flickr

I was a bit worried about how much metal I was removing but when I removed the old bush to revela clean metal you can see that the rust is raised up and when I remove it I am going back to almost the same level as the original was
20180125_150119 by WCA!, on Flickr

Balls of steel and pubes of bronze. Cheap wire wheels grrr
20180125_151054 by WCA!, on Flickr

All the brackets cleaned up okay too
20180125_153509 by WCA!, on Flickr

I had bought this heavy duty cleaner to degrease.
20180125_153910 by WCA!, on Flickr

A little bit came out ot the bottle top when I decanted it and my hand went from ground in grease and dirt to clean in seconds. Gulp. Waer gloves when using it.
20180125_154137 by WCA!, on Flickr

Chuck everything in an old wheel barrow and spray liberally
20180125_154338 by WCA!, on Flickr

Decide to clean the mucky Workmate too
20180125_155046 by WCA!, on Flickr

Clean and ready to put the bits on
20180125_155340 by WCA!, on Flickr

Heat gun speeds the drying process before MetalPrep and the bits look really quite good
20180125_160114 by WCA!, on Flickr

Spray with MetalPrep and keep wet for 30 minutes
20180125_160709 by WCA!, on Flickr

Washed off the MetalPrep and resting overnight in the garage.
20180125_162949 by WCA!, on Flickr

Close up to see if anything changes overnight
20180125_163000 by WCA!, on Flickr

TFR is traffic film remover, ideal for washing down lorries, I don't think it is really designed to be used as a degreaser.

TFR is traffic film remover

I agree but is also is a very effective de-greaser when diluted less and washes off easily.

My take on degreasing is to use the thinners relating to the next coat of primer/paint.

Well the degreaser was all washed off and then MetalPrep applied so hopefully it will all be okay.

Here is what it looks like the morning after being MetyalPrepped.
20180126_110823 by WCA!, on Flickr

The various brackets ready for paint. The POR15 carefully stirred, not shaken, and then tape applied around the top of the tin. The idea is that no paint will get trapped around the lid rim as that can 'weld' the lids on. I will see if it worked this afternoon.
20180126_111328 by WCA!, on Flickr

All painted. POR15 is very thin and a little goes a long way, you can see the puddles where it has dripped off the metal.
20180126_114520 by WCA!, on Flickr

ARB hanging from the rafters. Now I just wait a few houirs before putting a second coat on, assuming the tape on the tin trick will allow me to reopen the paint.
20180126_114539 by WCA!, on Flickr

A second coat applied once the first had dried to just slightly tacky gave a much more solid silver look to everything. Now I just leave it until tomorrow for the top coat.
20180126_141838 by WCA!, on Flickr

Tomorrow is planned as a dirty day special. I will be using my new softer wire wheels on the angle grinder to clear everything I can from under the car.

Big fan at one end of the car and open garage door at the other will hopefully stop me dying. The degreaser and wash off should finish me off though

That paint looks very thin, not wanting to teach you how to suck eggs but have you stirred it with a screwdriver to make sure it hasn't settled. Even new tins can settle.

I agree the paint is very thin. I a happy for you to point this out as I am quite good at over looking the obvious but this time I was okay. The paint was well stirred in advance. This was definately necessary as there was much thick gloop at the bottom of the tin and it took a fair bit of stirring to get it mixed properly.

Please continue to question my methods as I am posting all this so you don't need to make any of the mistakes I do but can benefit from anything I learn.

Currently I am nursing a cup of coffee trying to raise the enthusiasm to go under the car with the angle grinder...

IMPORTANT UPDATE : Ignore most of what I previously posted about cleaning the underside of the car.

What you need is a big fan to blow the dust out towards the garage door, and angle grinder and a soft wire brush for it. They wear out pretty quick but they are only £4 at Screwfix.
20180127_102137 by WCA!, on Flickr

Before (which is actually after cleaning it with the hand drill)
20180127_100714 by WCA!, on Flickr

After - about 5 minutes later
20180127_103325 by WCA!, on Flickr

The wire brush and angle grinder can be a bit hard to control in the small space and you still get covered in crap but it makes the job so much quicker and better. I was a bit worried about going over brake pipes and the like in case it broke them but after running them over by mistake and suffering no damage I gave them the once over and they cleaned up nicely.

Once I have picked up a couple of new wire brushes I shall finish the job ready for clean, prep and paint.

I did the rest of under the car. When cleaning the front end I popped the bonnet to get some light and spotted a couple of rust spots on the slam panel so blipped them with the wire brush too.
20180127_112709 by WCA!, on Flickr

I sprayed degreaser all over the underneath and left for 20 minutes before washing off with a pressure washer. It would have been really convenient if the guy who laid the floor had sloped it towards the opening instead of the back left corner by my beer fridge.
20180127_114449 by WCA!, on Flickr

Fan and heater blowing for the rest of today to hopefully dry it all ready for metal prep tomorrow which will mean I have to flood the bloody garage again to wash that off. Grrr,,

Anyway, I will now top coat the components I POR15'd yesterday