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Much respect!
You are doing a grand job and I am only too thankful that I did not come across the same horrors when I stripped mine down.
Mind you I think next time I think I would get the chassis dipped and powder coated its been a right arse with a knotted brush angle grinder...having to drink copious amounts of wine to warn off the lead poisining from the dust!
Plan is to finish the welding on the chassis and give it a couple more coats of red hammerite.
Then rebuild the rear suspension before stripping the front suspension, blasting and hammeriting the bits hidden by suspension components, cutting the front springs down by 90mm and then rebuilding it again so I've got a rolling chassis.
Once that's all done then it's time to sandblast the bulkhead, replace the rotten o/s floorpan and give that all a damned good hammeriting before bolting the whole thing back together, putting the engine and gearbox back in, etc, etc.
I've got to say, this is far from the simple concept of unbolting a herald/vitesse body from the chassis, bonding a fibreglass bodyshell on and driving away into the sunset.
But hey ho, once it's finished I'll truly be able to say 'all my own work'.
A while back I asked if anyone knew what thread type the rear spring to differential mounting bolts were. I got a couple of different answers Gary J said 3/8" UNF while a couple of others said 3/8" UNC, so I identified a 3/8 UNF bolt removed from my chassis and it didn't fit. By a prociss of elimination I ordered enough 3/8 UNC threaded rod to make new studs for my extra lowered lowering block.
When the UNC rod arrived it didn't fit. I tried a new UNF bolt and it fitted. Checked the supposedly UNF bolt from my chassis that I'd used as a gauge and found that someone had used a UNC where it should've been UNF.
I can confirm, therefore, that the studs/bolts for the rear diff are 3/8" UNF.
No harm done, though, I'll be using the spare UNC rod in my handbrake mechanism.
'Had to think quickly when she asked why it was so high: she'd go spare if she knew it was for car parts so I told her 'Canleys' was a lapdancing club.
I'm just glad I didn't order the parts from Rimmers...
Anyway, family commitments today meant I only had an hour to play with my chassis, so I spent the time available preparing the gash in the main rail for welding tomorrow. Unsurprisingly another couple of holes appeared when some filler fell out, leaving me with a run of over half a metre to repair.
Better news was that I was able to check the existing repair on the bottom of the main rail from inside and it's sound, so I won't need to cut it out and replace it.
I can't wait to get my car on the road but I have to say I am really enjoying the journey, despite the setbacks.
'Bit of progress over the last couple of days: I've finished the welding on the chassis now and given it all another lick of hammerite.
Just scroll back and take a look at the previous pictures of the rusted out areas, what a contrast!
I also rebuilt the back end with new, blue polybushes, new brake shoes and new shocks before stripping the n/s front suspension. Wasn't able to strip the o/s front suspension down due to the hammerite still being wet preventing me from turning the chassis over again.
Once I'd bent one of my spring compressors and then fired the shock obsorber into a low orbit trying to decompress the front spring, not easy by any means, I cut the spring down to radically lower my front end when it's reubuilt.
And if the one on the right turns out to be a bit too low, I'll try the one on the left.
In case anyone's interested I'm taking 95mm off the front springs and if that turns out to be too much I'll just source some second hand ones. If all else fails, new ones are only about £50 a pair from Rimmers.
Back to work tomorrow but I'm aiming to have a rolling chassis finished later in the week.
looks like good progress! i'll be interested to see how it looks with those lowered springs. i think i ended up dropping mine 80mm and it's LOW. so i'm dying to see 95mm
looks like good progress! i'll be interested to see how it looks with those lowered springs. i think i ended up dropping mine 80mm and it's LOW. so i'm dying to see 95mm
Yep, I'm aiming to get mine 'king low! I'll just have to program my sat-nav to avoid speed humps.
And cats-eyes.
Just been on Rimmers site ordering a few nuts'n'bolts for the front suspension. They do a 'quck rack' for the Vitesse. Anyone tried one?
95mm, that is a lot... how did you work it out? or just guesssing? I was going to get the body on and lower on jack until i got the look, then measure gap and get some new springs upping the poundage a bit and what ever the length turned out to be.
95mm, that is a lot... how did you work it out? or just guesssing? I was going to get the body on and lower on jack until i got the look, then measure gap and get some new springs upping the poundage a bit and what ever the length turned out to be.
I used my 'engineers eye'.
Which means I Guesstimated the drop I'd need to match my extra low back end.
Your measuring and calculating the reduced poundage could work too though Gary...
I lowered Skippy 80mm I wouldn't wont to go much lower, with a block in the back and the loose springs removed and cut down front coils all originals the ride is pretty solid and is just under 600kg from the heralds 750kg, Pat
I lowered Skippy 80mm I wouldn't wont to go much lower, with a block in the back and the loose springs removed and cut down front coils all originals the ride is pretty solid and is just under 600kg from the heralds 750kg, Pat
Did you go with poly bushes Pat?
If so, were they sport or standard?
As I recall you're also running very low profile 15's which will make a difference to the ride quality.
I want mine to be very low indeed which is why I've gone for an extra 18mm drop at the back and a further 15mm at the front. The main reasons are 1, I like low cars, and 2, I'll struggle to climb over the side if it's too high.
If it's gouging up the tarmac when I drive it I can always take out the extra cut down leaves from the back and source replacement springs for the front.
If you look at some of the modified VW's running around out there you'll be surprised how low you can go and still drive it on the road.
All the bushes are as the factory fitted, rubber standard as Skippy's donar was part restored a long time ago and never finished I had nothing to do to the chassis so I haven't touched it, PAT
I'm looking to buy my ply for the floor and cockpit walls over the next couple of weeks.
I'm going to use phenolic impregnated 12mm ply from a Norfolk lumber yard for the floor (thanks for the tip Psycho), but how many sheets of 9mm ply have people needed to do the walls?
I'm looking at using shuttering ply for these as it's much cheaper than smooth ply and will all be hidden under the trim panels once the car's finished anyway.
It's also worth mentioning that if you get stuck on any Sunday afternoon sessions where you run out of material, B&Q do sheets of exterior ply, cheap(ish)
I've spent the last couple of days rebuilding the front suspension.
My radical lowering job, cutting 95mm out of the front springs, threw up a bit of a poser for me when I found that there was still about 1/4" of daylight between the top of the springs and the upper spring cup with the top and bottom bolts fully tightened.
The solution was to put both of the 1/2" thick rubber bushes on top rather than one each side of the spring cup. I don't know what impact this will have on the life of the dampers though as the top of the dampers now contact the spring cups directly. At least there's now a tiny bit of tension in the springs at full travel.
I also now have a fully rolling chassis for the first time in months.
I've currently got 190mm ground clearance front and rear, but that's on 13" wheels and without the engine and gearbox in place. I'm hoping to end up with about that once the 14's are bolted up and the engine and box are refitted.
Next step will be refurbishing the front bulkhead then I might just be able to start building my Spyder.
I think I would get the chassis dipped and powder coated its been a right arse with a knotted brush angle grinder...having to drink copious amounts of wine to warn off the lead poisining from the dust! 
but I'm aiming to have a rolling chassis finished later in the week. 
