monkfish24
Well-Known Member
I've decided now is a good time to strip down the S3, bit of spare cash and I've ben nagging the wife for ages about letting me take some time from my building work around the farm. My garage is one of the buildings on the rebuild list so while it's drier than other times of the year I decided that now would be a good time to get it done.
So, I went in to this thinking of worst case scenario, maybe requiring a new galv chassis, plus obviously all the added costs of new fittings etc.
The current problems it has before going in for it's strip down that I was aware of is;
two new spring mounts for the rear driver side,
front passenger spring hanger,
new fuel tank,
gearbox layshaft was whining away,
reverse flap didn't have enough tension causing the stick to wobble too much, making 1st and 2nd hard to find,
new door tops,
some bulkhead repairs
and front radiator panel has gone past it's best before.
So I started the strip down,
during this, I found the rear crossmember is completely rotten, I ended up ripping half of it off with the fuel tank. I already have on order a new quarter chassis which will then kill two birds with one stone, what with the rear spring mount being a bit fubar'd too.
The chassis however had been looked after by a previous owner, meaning, when I started to attack it with the wire wheel I found bare metal! very impressed considering it's a late 70's chassis which were notorious for bad steel. I won't be sure about the internal metal obviously until I cut the back end off.
One of the other jobs is to obviously get the gearbox out for repair, I will try and do some kind of write up on it as it'll be my first time and so I'll be taking loads of photos! As you can see, it looks like I have a fairey overdrive fitted.
I'm really not sure of the origins of this series, it has factory fitted half height rear windows, a rear fuel tank, overdrive, paint remains of a "cruise control" manual throttle lever and cut outs for radios on the dash. It is Luton registered and painted yellow with a white roof, I'm fairly certain it was a runway vehicle in a previous lifetime.
My plan now is to contact Buzzweld and get a chassis coating sorted out to make her last at least another 5 years before I can then think about having a nice new garage built and somewhere warm to work. I already have a new quarter chassis and tank ordered, all new S/S bolts from YRM and will be looking for new brake lines and other spares over this weekend.
So, I went in to this thinking of worst case scenario, maybe requiring a new galv chassis, plus obviously all the added costs of new fittings etc.
The current problems it has before going in for it's strip down that I was aware of is;
two new spring mounts for the rear driver side,
front passenger spring hanger,
new fuel tank,
gearbox layshaft was whining away,
reverse flap didn't have enough tension causing the stick to wobble too much, making 1st and 2nd hard to find,
new door tops,
some bulkhead repairs
and front radiator panel has gone past it's best before.
So I started the strip down,
during this, I found the rear crossmember is completely rotten, I ended up ripping half of it off with the fuel tank. I already have on order a new quarter chassis which will then kill two birds with one stone, what with the rear spring mount being a bit fubar'd too.
The chassis however had been looked after by a previous owner, meaning, when I started to attack it with the wire wheel I found bare metal! very impressed considering it's a late 70's chassis which were notorious for bad steel. I won't be sure about the internal metal obviously until I cut the back end off.
One of the other jobs is to obviously get the gearbox out for repair, I will try and do some kind of write up on it as it'll be my first time and so I'll be taking loads of photos! As you can see, it looks like I have a fairey overdrive fitted.
I'm really not sure of the origins of this series, it has factory fitted half height rear windows, a rear fuel tank, overdrive, paint remains of a "cruise control" manual throttle lever and cut outs for radios on the dash. It is Luton registered and painted yellow with a white roof, I'm fairly certain it was a runway vehicle in a previous lifetime.
My plan now is to contact Buzzweld and get a chassis coating sorted out to make her last at least another 5 years before I can then think about having a nice new garage built and somewhere warm to work. I already have a new quarter chassis and tank ordered, all new S/S bolts from YRM and will be looking for new brake lines and other spares over this weekend.
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