Last Saturday I set about patching the chassis. It had distorted where I had to jack it – I couldn’t get onto the main section of the chassis because it was too low. So quickly and simply I made a section, cut out the old and welded in the new. I planned to do the same on Sunday to the other side but plans changed when I saw a section of the out rigger was rotten. I’d repaired the opposite side a couple of years ago but whilst the bulkhead was off it seemed silly not to take the opportunity to replace both sides.
I’d never used Fitchets before so decided to give them a try. I’ve found no fault with them as the ordered parts arrived the next day via UPS. That was rather handy as I was off work today and had planned to cut out the out riggers and strip some more of the bulkhead.
A box of goodies, dog (helper) not included.
Pickle
A package also arrived from James Paddock – next day delivery as well. In my opinion, the rubber strip included in the body mounting kit is inferior to the one I bought separately from Fitchets.
One thing I have decided to do is strengthen the out riggers so that if I have to jack in the center of it again (which I will) it won’t distort. So a triangular plate was made and welded in. I trimmed the corners off and drilled a small hole underneath for water the drain out.
Next I attacked some more of the bulkhead with a wire brush on the angle grinder and then took the o/s/f outrigger off. I could have welded it in but decided I’d had enough for today. One hold-up to todays work was finding out that the n/s outrigger on the car is actually in the wrong place, so that’ll be sorted out with the new one. So this is how it’ll look until Saturday when I’ll weld it together and then do the other side.
Now I’m going to eat and then go out and paint the bulkhead with some Hydrate 80. Hopefully it’ll get offered up late next weekend and painted the weekend after that.
The other day I started the car up and it sounded rather rough so I had a check and the water pump seemed to be a touch noisy. A quick trawl of eBay saw me pick one up for £15 delivered (not the silly price of £69 Rimmers want) and it arrived the next day. So today before the gym I took some short cuts and had it off in 15 minutes. Bad idea as later on I was removing the crankshaft pulley (cheers to Mr Dave for some help locking the flywheel) as it was getting dark and putting it all (pulley, start motor, battery, etc) with only a torch in my mouth to work with. One point to note was the poor machining of the new pump. It had lots of rough and uneven edges so I went over it all with a file. Anyhoo, it’s all on now and working fine. I’ve now found out that the dissy is noisy so that’s the next job but it probably won’t get any attention for a few weeks due to work/Herald/going to Kelbrook. As normal, some pictures…
Old and new side-by-side. Luckily they’re almost the same.
Only real difference were these cut-outs
Crap machining.
One for the Acclaim haters who say it’s just a re-badged Honda. 
Slow progress today as I only got four hours sleep last night. Entirely my own fault – I decided to listen to about seven albums rather than nod-off. I have to see The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs live one day!
Anyhoo, the bulkhead. It wasn’t too bad to remove in the end. Only six bolts and three came out dead easy. Two others were seized and one had a non-existent captive plate which just went round and round.
It does feel strange being able to walk through the car now. It’s also amazing when you realise how little the front section of the car weighs;
When off I was able to take a good look at the underside. The below snap is of what appeared to be the good side. In fact, a previous owner had replaced the floor pan at some point (the guess is 20-25 years ago);
I can now also inspect the chassis properly. There’s one tiny section which has a pin hole so I’ll replace that. It’s near the out-rail where I have to jack the car up. I don’t like doing it there but have to as the trolley jack won’t fit under the main chassis despited having much smaller wheels made for it. I was surprised to find that the outer rail was only held together by the bolt which goes to the body mount. I don’t know if this is normal or correct but looks wrong to my eyes so will most likely get a quick zap with the welder. I’ll check on the CT forum first to see whether or not it’s a good idea.
