115/3067 bought back from France

[Kevin Birch]

Your burgundy seats look great with the black/ dark paint work. .

Thanks for your comments, for reference, they're more of an oxblood colour, and the car is yet another dark blue, but I think they go well together too. A friend of mine disagrees, but we all have different tastes.

[Kevin Birch]

Have recently bought a Jensen 8 track stereo with MP3 input, and have finally managed to squeeze it in and hook it up. Have also managed to source some Voxson speaker grilles, which I will use to replace the awful door speakers presently fitted. Photos will be forthcoming once it is all completed, which will mean the interior will be back to how it should be.
Meanwhile, I now have a full set of front and rear suspension poly bushes sitting in the garage waiting to be fitted, so that is my next job.

Kev

[Kevin Birch]

8 track now fitted, with Voxson speaker grilles in the doors, looking a lot better than the Kenwood speakers previously fitted. Will source more suitable screws for the speakers, probably slotted oval head.

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[PaulMcElhinney]

Very nice Kev.

[Frankoid]

Just need to get those speakers removed, and appropriate ones installed.
Kev

....The Voxsons look fantastic, clearly what was first fitted. A great improvement !

[Kevin Birch]

I used the Kenwood speakers already fitted, as they fitted the hole, and were of decent quality. I set them further back in the door card, and the screwed the Voxson grilles over the top. There is still an imprint of the round grilles, but hopefully these will fade over time.
Really grateful to Frankoid, for supplying the grilles.

Have now set to work on the front suspension, even though the car rode really well, have now found some horrors. Basically seized bolts, perished bushes, and previous poor repairs, including the lower fulcrum pin being held by a half moon pin, instead of a cotter pin, and one bolt holding the spring pan to wishbone having a big washer on it as the hole in the pan was bigger than the bolt. Lower wish bone pin on drivers side seized to the triangular mounts either side of the chassis out riggers, which is proving very difficult to remove,even with lots of heat and WD40. May have to cut off the one triangular mount to get the pin out, but Jason at Rejen has got a replacement if needed.
Good news is the springs are good, correct length, lever arm shockers are in excellent condition, and the king pins have no wear to them, tested with micrometer for ovality. So just need to replace perished, worn minor items, nuts & bolts, degrease, shot blast, etch prime and paint all items. Will weld the spring pan hole, and drill to correct diameter, then reassemble, should be a vast improvement.
Look out rear suspension/axle, next on the list.

[Christian]

Lower wish bone pin on drivers side seized to the triangular mounts either side of the chassis out riggers, which is proving very difficult to remove,even with lots of heat and WD40. May have to cut off the one triangular mount to get the pin out, but Jason at Rejen has got a replacement if needed.

Hi Kev,
One of the triangular mounts on each side is cogged and so is the pin in this section. That should be the eye of the needle. So I would suggest pushing it out in the direction to the cogged side. My suspension was dismantled while my car was with Paul Baker for bodywork. I travelled there with all wheels on on my trailer. Problem after that was that I had to study how everything fits together from parts book, pictures etc...
One thing I couldn't find out till today is, which side the cogged part of the pin goes: to the front or to the back?
Can anybody help?
Another problem was that the blasting company did the powder coating, too. But they didn't mask off the pin holes, so that I had to get off the powder coating again from each part. Very annoying work...
Christian.

[Kevin Birch]

Hi Christian,

The cogged or splined part of the pin must go at the front on each side, as the triangular mounts fitted to these splines are extremely tight and would be almost impossible to seperate whilst still on the car. You can only remove the pins in a forward direction, as there is not enough clearance at the rear and they come out with the front mount still attached.

Kev

[Christian]

Thank you Kev! That makes sense.
Let the WD40 work some days and then try again. Never underrate the factor of time. Wire brush the protuding part of the pin to the rear so that it's totally clean. Add more WD40 to it. I would take an old 5/8-18 nut to cover the thread of the spline and give it a good hit with a mallet (2kg) from the back. I can't imagine that this wouldn't do for the needed inch. Once the brushed part reaches the mount it should come out easily to the front with the forward splined mount attached. For my cleaned parts the unsplined mount fits snug to the pin, but it's possible to move it by hand with some lubricating.

[Richard Calver]

I wouldn't use WD40 for this. It's a water displacer. Use Yield, if you can find it, or else make up a 50-50 mix of acetone and ATF in a glass bottle, stir well and use fresh and liberally, renewing frequently over a period of days (stir well as it will tend to separate into layers). If that won''t free it up, nothing will.

[Kevin Birch]

Christian,

I would love to be able to smack the end of the pin with a 2KG hammer, but the chassis tube is in the way, so can't hit it squarely. Will keep trying penetrating fluid, and Richard's home made concoction (thanks Richard), with some heat, but a bit wary of the heat as it is close to the petrol pipe & pump.
Worst case would be to cut it off, Jason at Rejen has some spare mounts on old chassis, but he may have the same issue to get one off, but don't want to go down that route if I can help it.

[Christian]

Hi Kev,
I had to look at my dismantling-pictures to see what you mean. But I'm sure you'll get that thing out without cutting it into pieces.
Good luck!

[Kevin Birch]

Now in the process of putting the suspension back together, not been too bad a strip down, some problems but all relatively easy to overcome. The first issue was getting the front O/S lower wishbone pin out as it was seized to the aluminium support bracket. Finally got it out with heat and an air hammer. One of the spring pans had one bolt hole twice the size it should be, the rest of the issues were just siezed bushes, which were all cut off as they were being replaced anyway. Both springs are in good condition, and are of the correct length, and the Armstrong shockers have been checked by local firm Stevson Motors,(who charged me £7 to check for play and supply me with 0.5L of oil) who gave them a clean bill of health after topping them up. I would recommend this company, it was a delight going to their premises, it was an old wooden hut, with old engineering kit, and was like stepping back 50years. All components were degreased, shot blasted and ahve been painted, (etch primer and satin black) ready to go back on. New poly bushes, brake hoses and other odds & sods, but all major components as is. No play in the king pin, so just checked and found to be in good conditon,with no ovality on the bearings. Brake calipers were rebuilt 12 months ago, so nothing to do there.

Spring pan hole

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Spring pan after welding up and hole redrilled

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Parts for one side all laid out ready to be put back together

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[Kevin Birch]

Finally got all suspension fitted today,after waiting for the rain to subside to get it all back together. Took her out for a spin, and everything felt good, it felt good before, but not this good. Will do a hundred miles or so, then check it all, to make sure nothing is working loose, and the tracking is OK.
N/S

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O/S

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[Kevin Birch]

Rear axle is now out, conplete with bent panhard rod, which I've now straightened. Have stripped the springs, oiled and wrapped them, degreased, derusted the axle and repainted it. All thats left is to clean and degrease the brake pipes and handbrake mechanism. New shock absorbers and bushes already bought, so should be close to putting it back in within the next fortnight.
On the diff casing, I found the number J68 107 stamped into it, anybody know what this means, I presume the J is for Jensen, and the 68 is the year, but what about the 107?
Axle ready for paint.

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Unknown markings, J68 107

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