[James3990]

Update time!

So that's around 25 hours of grinding done to the underside of the car, all back to bare metal.










Very kindly asked a mate of mine to come round with his MIG welder to do the easy bit












I did offer him some welding gloves to wear but he refused...Thankfully no burns!


Cleaned up all the welds and then applied some heavy duty chassis paint like Ive done round the rest of the car.












So that's 95% of the chassis stitch welding complete which should make a massive difference to the handling of the car round track. I just need to finish the underside of the floorpan/chassis legs which I'll do at another time.



Next job is to inspect the fuel system & rear suspension, replace and upgrade a few parts and then get the car back on four wheels.

Thanks for looking

[James3990]

Small update,

I’ve started prepping some of the suspension components ready for reassembly. Cleaned up the metal ready for painting and also burning out the 30 year old bushes ready for new modern material.

Ordered most of the rear end suspension bushes from Superflex:







Brought an aerosol of Black Hammerite paint, and then turned half my garage into a spray booth. As you can see, I had to improvise with the beer fridge and some ladders for my paint stand!




Painting went well 8)




I always like to warm up the new bushes just to soften them up a little which helps when pressing them into place.






Anti roll bar looks good 8)






Rear top mount bushes:

Before picture showing the old bushes:


Comparison:


After picture showing the new bushes fitted:



All done and ready for the car. Just waiting for SuperFlex to send me the 20mm bushes for the anti ARB and that’s the rear suspension nice and tight! The only bushes I didn't touch was the rear tow arms. They are crazy expensive and I just can't see the full advantages with these being upgraded.




Thanks for looking.

[GTiJohn]

[James3990]

Another update to report.

With the suspension all done, it was time to look at the fuel tank I removed a few weeks back. First job was removing the fuel pump.




Fuel system seemed fine when the car was running, but looking at the general condition of the pump, it was starting to show its age. I wanted to remove this from the housing for a better inspection.




Getting my inspection light inside the tank revealed way too any ‘bits’ sitting at the bottom. Some of it I believe was fuel sediment, but there was signs of flakey red paint from the previous chassis which means the tank has been opened up in the past and wasn't thoroughly cleaned beforehand allowing dirt to get inside.

This is one job I wasn't anticipating on doing, cleaning out the inside of the fuel tank but glad I spotted this potential problem now.






First of all, I needed to remove the fuel from the system, so out came my £4 gravity fed siphon from Halfords! Did the job perfectly






Given the state of the tank, I wanted to further inspect the fuel pump which meant removing it from the plastic housing which is a straight forward job.





Both the external strainer and built-in strainer looked in good condition actually for their age.




After doing all of this, I decided to replace the pump with a brand new unit. Having a quick google of the part number didn't reveal any replacement OEM pumps at a reasonable price, therefore I decided to go with the popular (and more powerful) Walbro GSS341 upgrade which will also give me that extra margin of duty should I decide to add any future power modifications. Obviously I would need to change other fuel components for that idea, but at least the hardest part is done.

Here is a side by side comparison of the new vs old, its a like-for-like replacement in terms of its physical construction - inlet & outlet fuel connections, electrical connections etc.




What's included in the kit:






Pre-assembly of the new pump:




The plastic housing did need some trimming with my dremal and also the new power supply wiring needed splicing and soldering onto the existing 12v connection. I’ve never messed with the fuel pump assembly before, but it was actually really easy!




Before this can be fitted, I needed to clean out the fuel tank with some hot soapy water.




I then used the missus hairdryer to make sure it was completely dry inside, she wasn't impressed




Much better






I then got carried away and wanted to preserve the outside of the tank too, so I’ve treated the small rust patches and then a few heavy coats of under body seal using Hammerite products.












This stuff takes ages to dry so whilst that is happening, Ive decided to start reassembling the rear end of the car.





Thanks for looking

[JOHNDQ]

Top job

[Topcat Tomcat]

Top job

It certainly is!

[JOHNDQ]

Top job

It certainly is!

Glad to see someone is getting on

[James3990]

Thanks for the comments chaps

Another update to report:

Given the condition of the exisiting fuel pump, I also wanted to inspect the seperate fuel sender unit.

I was intrigued on how the sender works behind the metal box, so I removed this cover to find out.











Gave it a good clean inside by removing any loose debris and cleaning up the surface rust. Then it was time to reassemble the fuel tank.



Decided to replace this section of rubber fuel pipe that is tucked away underneath the car with new.



Cleaned up the fuel filler neck and also got this refitted to the car, all ready to accept the tank.





Tank straps put into position and then up up and away!



Everything plumbed into place, fuel tank harness refitted too ready for reconnecting to the car.

I’m leaving the tank dry for now whilst I finish reassembling the rear suspension and getting the car back down on four wheels for the first time in 2023!











95% back together now, need to reconnect the fuel tank wiring to the car, refit the rear crash bar, bumper & get the brake & fuel fluids back in the car.

I haven’t done anything about the rear trailing arms yet as I’m planning on fitting a spare set in the near future which I’m heavily modifying at the moment.

Thanks for looking.

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Where are you sourcing the fuel hose from James?

[James3990]

Where are you sourcing the fuel hose from James?

Halfords £6