More fettling

Finished the paint job by whipping off the bonnet and blasting the underside with rattle-can Hammerite, and I have to say the engine department looks pretty damn good.  Then Richard discovered a bijou problemette during a routine foray under the chassis.  The brackets which hold the sway-bar bushes onto the chassis should have two bolts each side.  Actually they each had one bolt, a broken bolt and a half-hearted bit of tack-weld which had (predictably) failed.

Both broken bolts were duly drilled, heated and shown the extractor.  One surrendered easily, but the other wasn’t co-operating so we ended up drilling it out completely and putting in a helicoil.  So that’s all sorted.  (Maybe this was part of the reason why I was bouncing around like a pea on a drum during the last UAQ event.)

The plates which protect the bonnet from the bonnet pins were pretty well mangled, they appeared to be made out of chrome-plated tissue paper which is probably OK on a normal car.  So Richard made up some new ones from 1mm galv, and backing plates of the same with rivnuts inserted.  The result looks a great deal more business-like, plus we have shiny new bonnet pins which slide in easily.

Still on the ‘to-do’ list is the battery bracket, which is not convincingly anchored to the body, and the on-going hub-stud issue.  Looks like two of the studs have stripped their threads, so we need to dismantle the hubs and helicoil the offending holes.  Finally the car has to go to Bin Sulayem Garage for its annual test, then we’re going to treat it to some new Castrol 10/60 and a change of gearbox and back axle oils.  Oh, and a new battery and tyres!