Friday night was a gentle session, just loosening a few nuts and bolts, generally getting the easy work out of the way. Saturday morning we started to get serious.
I still wasn't sure exactly how the body was coming off, but I figured it would be better if the car was in smaller bits, so the engine was taken out of the car to reduce weight.
I was getting quite good at this now, in fact my dad used to say it would come apart itself if I just put my overalls on and showed it the toolbox.
The whole car was raised about 2 foot 6 inches off the ground, wooden planks placed under the sills and the bodywork supported on a metal frame. The wheels were there as an insurance and also because there was nowhere else to put them in the garage !
Once in the air, the front and rear suspension were removed, again pretty fast because it had already been pulled apart (several times) in the previous 2 years.
After un-bolting the chassis, it was levered out of position in the bodywork and slowly dropped onto the floor. As you can see the differential, driveshafts and gearbox were left in the chassis.
Ah, now there's a novelty, I haven't had the diff out before and it's leaking oil from all the bearing seals. Now who would have thought it ?
The end of the first full day.
A very rusty chassis sits next to the empty bodyshell. The chassis was most probably the original and there wasn't much left of the red paint.
The chassis had been plated over corrosion on the front uprights, next to the lower wishbone studs. This makes the chassis look ok to the MoT man, but on my car corrosion had continued in the front crossmember.
The headlight vacuum wouldn't hold, and I found holes in the tops of the turrets which could only seen from inside the engine bay - but you already know that, don't you?
