Good news! Bits from the ESM Motors in the UK have arrived to help us get the old girl running. Timing was impeccable as the courier delivered them 2 hours after Joel and fam arrived back from a restorative skiing sojourn in Japan.
Turns out ordering parts from the UK is surprisingly easy - delivery took just over a week after the order was placed. We have now received a new muffler, brake shoes, handbrake cable,thermostat and housing, engine manifold, as well as a myriad of other bits including gaskets, bolts, clips, pins and bushes...
Gavin displays the old vs new mufflers. We're very happy with our decision to purchase a ready made exhaust and muffler rather than have to get one fabricated here. This way it (hopefully) will all fit together easily. No need to drive sans muffler to get one fabricated..
Gavin has been becoming more and more itchy to get the car fixed up mechanically and back on the road. A short term win would be a nice motivator on this project.
Joel wisely checks the delivered parts with the manifest to make sure we've got all the bits.
Papa Goodman also inspects some of the parts delivered for quality assurance purposes. [he promises to invoice us for his consulting services]
We're yet to receive the replacement clutch plate we need as they were out of stock but are expecting this to come shortly. Also yet to come are replacement steering rack boots.
But, now that we have nice shiny bits ready to bolt on there is a renewed sense of excitement about the project. We will be back to business playing with the car now that Joel is back from his oriental exploits. That's the plan, at least...
We're trying to figure out what the rubber in the middle of the front suspension arm pictured below is called as Joel carelessly punctured it whilst degreasing the area with a sharp, thin screwdriver (Gavin exxagerating here). Any thoughts? We'll need to order new ones.
Another thing we'll need some advice on is where we need to replace these carbon parts for the clutch - is this crucial that we replace these whilst we replace the clutch plate? They look okay - we haven't ordered replacements from the UK.. Any thoughts out there? What are these bits even called?!
Here's what the old thermostat looks like. We've got a nice shiny replacement. Notice also how rusty and damaged the bolts are that hold the thermostat housing onto the engine head. We've bought replacements for these. Any advice on how to pursuade the old ones to unscrew from the engine head without damaging the threads? Papa Goodman recommended applying some penetrating fluid and leaving it for a week to seep in. We've done that but Gavin worries that this won't be enough..
Gratuitous engine bay shot. Joel's brother BrotherElliot is sceptical that changing the colour of the car can be done, given how many folds and creases that there are that need to be rubbed down in order to do that.
Notice that the mounting at the rear of the engine which connects it to the firewall preventing lateral movement has broken away. This will need re-welding. The battery tray is serviceable but also needs some metal added to the driver's side lip. Any recommendations/advice out there?
You can see the old manifold here. The bottom of the manifold snapped off whilst we were removing the exhaust, hence the replacement we have bought. We still haven't quite worked out what type of air filter we will fit onto the carbie, as the one on the car was totally unoriginal and ugly.
And here's a shot of the interior as it is right now. You can't see it, but the seats are unbolted, the panel covering the gearbox has been removed as have the brake and clutch pedals. Its going to be a fair bit of work to put all the peices back together.
Hope we can remember how... Joel reminded Gav that the service manual is very descriptive and has great pictures and explanations. This is a good point.
This mudflap is one of the last remaining... We wanted some quick wins and pulled the rest of the delapidated mud flaps off already with the engineering assistance of Dr Paully, an occasional contributor to the Lowlight project. Does anyone know if these are considered necessary or desirable? In our minds it doesn't really seem necessary to bother finding replacements.
