[tompinney]

Great to see that there's still life in the old dog

Its certainly a bit 'ruff' in places John

I didn't manage to update this thread last week, but I spent Sunday removing the front suspension. I still need to separate the lower arms from the hubs, but unfortunately my ball joint separator fork died while separating the second track rod end so I need to wait for its replacement to arrive. Fortunately no nasty rust related surprises found at this end of the car. Probably helped by the fact the T-series leaks more oil than the Exxon Valdez!


The ZS180 rims have been rubbing in the front wheel wells on full lock, so I'm going to source some stops to put in the steering rack to marginally reduce the turning circle and prevent a recurrence after the rebuild. I believe rack stops were fitted to the Tomcat racers, so shouldn't been too hard to retrofit something to the rack I hope.

This is the collection of parts removed last weekend.


This morning I resumed work and removed the rear subframe. One of the captive nuts for the anti-rollbar mount has sheared off so that will need a new one welded on, but it's in otherwise very good condition.


This is the steering rack removed from the car ready for a service and installation of some stops.


And this is where I got to at the end of today.


In the last couple of weeks I have sourced an entire rear crossmember to replace the rotting one on the car. I also have rear arch repair panels and complete sills for both sides. Just the panel for the rear seatbelt mount in the arch to source; I suspect I may need to find a scrapper and cut the bit I need out of it.

Next weekend I plan to drop the tank and remove the fuel lines and that should be everything that needs to come off the belly of the car.

[tompinney]

Spent a couple of hours on the car this morning removing the fuel tank. The tank strap bolts came off with no fuss, as did all the hoses. Fortunately its removal didn't reveal any further unexpected rust issues on the floor pan.


Even the fuel lines are in remarkably good condition for their age and mileage.


The same can't be said of the fuel tank! Prior to the accident back in 2013 it would smell of fuel if you put more than half a tank in it - a classic sign of corrossion on the seam between the two halves of the tank - so I had already sourced a new tank for the car back then. After a decade sat in the box in the garage it will hopefully soon find its way onto the car.


There is cororsion all over the tank, but the worst of it seems to be concentrated on the rear upper half.


Just need to remove the exhaust centre section, disconnect the remains of the handbrake cables from the lever, remove the brake calipers and fuel pipes and that's everything off the belly of the car. Being an early car the brake lines run up the inside of the shell, so they can stay put.

[tompinney]

Been a bit of a break on the car progress the past few weeks due to family visits and preparing for building work on the house, but yesterday I managed to complete the strip down of the belly of the car, at long last.

I removed the exhaust centre section, front arch liners, fuel lines, remains of the handbrake cables (which I had to cut off previously), the gear linkage and the front subframe, which I've realised I'll probably have to put back on briefly to allow me to jack the shell off the stands before it goes to the bodyshop.


So this is what I'm left with. Next task is to build a trolley out of some spare 5x2 timber and plywood sheets I have here, but there is going to be a brief pause again due to a holiday and building work starting in the next week or so, I hope.

[Topcat Tomcat]

Blimey. I wouldn’t have a clue where to begin to do something like that!

[tompinney]

I have my coupe as a visual reference to help me put it all back together again should I manage to forget where anything came from.