Here we are, one week after the shock absorber adventure. It's still REALLY FREAKIN' COLD! But I have a day or two off, so let's get the rest of this front end apart before I forget what all the different parts are or where they go. Once again, this is a procedure that is better suited to video than photos. Plus my wife, Ali, was available and (sort of) willing to help out by holding my phone/camera. I really should apologize for the quality of the vids I've produced. I'm not a film major. Of course, if you have watched the videos, you also know I'm not much of a mechanic, either! Nonetheless, the front suspension is now out. And nobody got hurt (amazingly!) I wish that the last panic was not on a stat holiday, so I would have had access to the proper tools. Canadian Tire, which is a big auto-parts chain in Canada, has a program where you can borrow a tool, use it, and return it in a day or two. This service is free. However, I could not borrow the spring compressor on Jan 1st because they were closed. However, they are open now, and the spring compressor is available, making for a much safer situation. Still, there had to be a glitch. Normally, the spring seat would unbolt from the lower A-arm, allowing the spring to either a) drop down through the hole, or b) clear the "hump" on the spring seat and come out the side. A couple of the A-arms had bolts that were frozen, preventing the removal of the spring seat. This led to a more "persuasive" method of removal. No one ever said I was smart. But the front end is off now. The steering rack and column are still in place, for now. As are the rear springs and differential. But other than that, the car is basically down to the tub. VIDEO HERE: https://youtu.be/PWyMu7qpRcY
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Well then. So we had a bit of an unexpected time crunch fall upon us with regards to the Austin. I was phoning about yesterday, just trying to find information on different stuff and generally update my to-do list and timeline, when I happened to call Worldwide Auto Parts. The plan was always that Pete Caldwell would rebuild my old shocks, as he has a great reputation and has come highly recommended by pretty much everyone I've spoken to in the Austin Healey world. Since we are in the middle of a cold snap, I thought I'd make arrangements to have some of this stuff done during the winter, so it will be ready to install back onto the body when it is done. My discussion with Peter was brief (it was New Years Eve, after all!), but the general takeaway was that the new year would see new pricing. Fair enough, he hadn't raised prices in a dog's age, and deserves to make a living. However, he also told me that if I could get the shocks sent away in the next day or so, that he would honour his old pricing. PANIC! Now I've got to get the shocks off the car, boxed, and sent! One of the front shocks is already off (it was pulled while my brother and I were trying to figure out why the drivers' side front suspension was staying compressed even after the weight of the engine was removed.) Turns out the front shock itself was frozen solid. OK, so one shock is off, but that still leaves three others on the one car, plus the two shocks on the new front end. My original thought was to send all six shocks, and if the frozen one was too far gone, no harm done. My review of shipping rates later changed that, and I wound up sending the two original rear shocks along with the two working shocks from the new front end. The biggest issue with all of this is that in the normal progression of front end disassembly, the shock absorber is most definitely NOT the first part you want to remove. This led to some... interesting... solutions to problems. So there I was, outside in my unheated garage on New Years Day, swearing happily away at the Heirloom Austin suspension. I don't have many photos of this, but I do have the process on video. The vids are broken down into two parts... Front and Rear. I'll do a step by step description in the Technical (tips and tricks) section of the website shortly. Until then... VIDEO HERE: Getting Our Shocks Off, Part 1 - REAR https://youtu.be/Y7oLBS-RiZg Getting Our Shocks Off, Part 2 - FRONT https://youtu.be/l7CYNYRbwkc Haven't really done much, but I was chatting back and forth with a couple of guys on various Austin Healey forums and Facebook groups, and I thought I'd mention this here. I spent a bit of time working in a custom shop. There are a LOT of parts on a car. I don't know about anyone else, but there is no way that I would remember where everything went or how it went together. That's why there are so many photographs (not all of them are on this site, I assure you!). Often, I do a video describing how a part is attached prior to removing it. These will be used when I reassemble. Otherwise my Heirloom Austin will be about as close to the original as the frog/dinosaur hybrids in Jurassic Park. But it's not just about remembering how the parts go together. It's also about not losing them, or being able to find them in the pile. In order to keep things organized, I have a shit-ton of ziploc bags in varying sizes. Our local dollar store has some that are HUGE! Like, they'll fit several soccer balls huge! Those bags are used for larger stuff like the front suspension. I have the left side suspension in one bag, and the right side in another. Within each bag, each individual component has a gift tag on it (the kind with a string, not adhesive, so it doesn't fall off the greasy part). Each tag has the part, part number, and diagram number on it. This, combined with the inventory book and database, has made my wife think I am slightly insane. However, I would be much more insane if I had to hunt everywhere for that damn cotter pin or nut to fit on this or that part! So yeah... For the record, I do not have OCD. I may have CDO, which is like OCD, but with the letters in alphabetical order. LIKE THEY SHOULD BE!!! ;D Not much here, really. I just did some checking. As most car guys know, every jurisdiction is a bit different when it comes to licensing requirements.
I used to live in a different province. In my old home, if you wanted "Vintage" or "Antique" plates on your car, you needed to provide proof that it was all original. Engine, suspension, the works. Some safety modifications were allowed, such as adding seat belts or even disc brakes (if they were a factory option in that year), but everything had to be approved. Or you could get "Collector" plates for modified vehicles, but they, too, were severely restricted. So, the other day, I decided to find out if I could, in fact, do my disc brake conversion on the Austin and still get Vintage plates in my current location. Turns out that Saskatchewan is pretty easy going on the mods. Not only can I add my disc brakes and seat belts, but it turns out I don't even need the original drivetrain. As long as my serial number is more than 30 years old (as a 1959 model, it qualifies), I'm good. I can even put a 1275 and ribcase gearbox in her if I so choose. Actually, I could put in an LS if I wanted to, but that seems a tad... well... stupid and reckless. But it would be exciting to drive. When you push on the gas, and you don't know if the car is going to slew right, left, or straight up in the air, that's exciting! But I am now considering the 1275 swap, as opposed to the original 948 and smooth case. I'm open to thoughts. Not much has happened on the Heirloom Austin lately. There's been a few reasons. I'm back at work. Have been for a couple of months. That, of course, cuts into the Austin time. One other factor is my annual calendar project. I like cars. There is a company called Factory Five Racing, based out of the eastern USA, that sells kit cars. They have multiple models... their mainstay is a Cobra replica called the Roadster. They also offer a 65 Shelby Daytona Coupe replica, a 33 Hot Rod and a 35 pickup. Those are their classics. They also have a Subaru-based modern car called the 818, and the granddaddy of them all, a mid-engined, Corvette based GT-M supercar. Anyway, I have a dream of building one of these cars one day. Over the years, I became active in the Factory Five online community, and at some point I wound up doing calendars for each model's respective owners' group. So I spent much of Sept and Oct designing the calendars, and November getting them to print. This takes up quite a lot of my time, so not much has been dedicated to my Austin project. Oh, and we had a COVID scare. I was negative, but I've been sick for much of the autumn, and it still hasn't fully gone away. Some days I pray for Murder Hornets to show up and put me out of my wife's misery. How do those Murder Hornets work, anyway? Do we just send them a list of names, or what? Sample images from this year's calendars.... So a few days ago I was surfing Facebook, and I saw someone offering up a set of Bugeye floors, along with inner and outer sills for sale. The price was very reasonable, especially for Heritage parts, so I messaged the gent. It sounded good, so I followed up with a phone call, and we got talking about our projects. I definitely wanted the floors, as they would save me a ton of time and effort fabricating new ones. At the price he was selling them, it would have cost me almost as much for the raw materials, so it made sense. During our conversation, Ian (the seller) asked me about my plans for the front end. I told him I was considering a disc brake upgrade (largely due to my brother's ill-fated adventure with water and the front brakes of this car), but that it was a big cost and I was weighing it carefully. That's when he dropped the bomb. It seems he had a parts car/tub, which he had acquired for the rear half, along with the engine. He had basically cut the car in half at the firewall, and didn't need the front end. It had disc brakes. Would I be interested? HELL YES! He lives about 9 hours drive from me. For those of you in Britain, that seems like a lot. In Canada, not so much. Remember, driving from coast to coast in Canada is 4025 miles (6,500 km). To put that in perspective, London to Moscow is 1798 miles on the M1. (per Google). So for us Canadian folk, 9 hours is a nice Sunday drive. So I borrowed my friend's pickup truck and drove out to Ian's house. The front end was everything promised. It has disc brakes, but no master cylinder. Oh well. I would have wanted to replace that anyway. It also has the full front suspension, steering rack, and enough sheet metal for me to make as many patches as I like. Plus I bought the floors and sills. Oh, and while we were talking, I noticed several steel bonnets on his wall. One of the parts I need to replace is the front apron below the grille. It is very damaged from my brother's meeting with the pole mentioned way back when in the car's history. So I asked him about cutting the apron out of one of his bonnets. He said no, too much work. Just load up the entire bonnet. YAY! And then he threw in a heater/blower motor with a cracked plastic housing. I can fix that, and save another bundle! Overall, Ian was awesome. He has more parts. But I'm not publicizing them here, as I may still go back and get some more! And then when I got home, my wife helped me use my engine hoist to unload it. Only downside... I got a photo radar ticket on the way back. Yeah, it was my buddy's truck so he got the ticket. But I paid him for it. It's only fair, really. VIDEO HERE: us using his small front-end loader to put the thing on the back of the pickup truck is here... https://youtu.be/YqyVb3OsKfk My rear shroud has arrived. I'm very happy with it's condition. The wonderful folks at Autofarm packed it beautifully. For now, it's just laid on top of the car. I will start bodywork in earnest in the spring. Right now, it's getting a bit chilly at night, and my garage is not heated. I want to be able to spray primer as soon as possible after stripping/grinding/welding, and I want it to be warm enough that the primer can properly cure overnight, without leaving time bombs for future paint problems. But yes... one of my major searches is over! As the title says, I continue to take parts off the car, labelling and bagging each one. After everything is off, I will go through it bit by bit, inventorying and assessing each part as I build my "shopping list" and my "keep it list" Disassembly is reasonably straight forward, so no need for explanations here. But I will post a couple of videos. And a lot of photos. These are mostly for my own reference so I can see where things go when I try to reassemble everything. I must say, though, that I was shocked at how easily the old girl came apart. Of course I had some issues here and there, but overall there were very few rusted/stripped/broken fasteners. Most of them came out with a shot of penetrating oil and patience with the ratchet. The vast majority were able to be removed with my air ratchet, without damage. As noted previously, everything that came off the car was "bagged and tagged" for future assessment as to whether it will be cleaned up, replaced, or upgraded. On another note, I got keys cut from Triple C Motor Accessories. I used the number on my ignition barrel, and ordered the keys by that number. They fit perfectly and turn smoothly in my ignition switch. I also ordered leather, vinyl, and carpet samples from AH Spares, Moss, and AHead4Healeys. Those have started to arrive. Before I put up all the pics, I thought I'd give a link to the compilation video I put together. It shows a walkaround body assessment, and then several short vids for referencing where some of the bits go. I figure I might need this during reassembly. Video HERE: https://youtu.be/Zst0TJ-6hs8 on YouTube I mentioned in earlier posts that there were some family concerns that were taking priority over working on the Austin. This was the main one. I've been laid off work since March, so I've been able to see her every day. The COVID thing was a pain, but I was able to gown and mask up and go in to see her in the hospital, and later at the hospice.
My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and given months to live. That happened about 10 years ago. She refused chemo, and basically was only being treated for pain. Still, she fought on. And on. And on. We were starting to think that the end of the world would see her, Betty White, and Keith Richards, the last 3 people left on earth, all stomping cockroaches and hanging out together. But it was not to be. When I bought this car last year, she so badly wanted to be around long enough to have a ride in it when it was finished. I just couldn't make it happen. I'm sorry, Mom. Well, something very cool happened, which will save me a ton of work. I was searching around for different parts suppliers, surfing parts catalogs... you know, all the general stuff that we do when trying to avoid doing something productive. During the course of my surfing, I found a supplier in Ontario called Autofarm. (see links page)
These guys do a bunch of stuff, mostly to do with big Healeys, but they are also getting into the Sprite end of things. The owner is tearing down a Bugeye parts car, and will have the rear shroud available as a used part. I jumped on it right away. I also sent them a preliminary list of parts I may be needing, and got back an estimate on cost. But right now, I'm super into that shroud coming in! I was concerned about fabricating the part. Smaller bits are fine, but something the whole width of the car, a couple of feet long, and which needs to be perfectly symmetrical with compound curves... that's a bit of an ask. I would have done it, but now I don't have to. Welding her in will be See Spot Run stuff by comparison. And, while I wait, the disassembly begins in earnest. VIDEO HERE: My free version of Weebly hosting does not allow me to post videos directly to the page, unfortunately. But here is a link to my YouTube video from the above paragraphs.... youtu.be/ChorrRj93os |
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