Hi all,
I thought i'd share some of the photos of my TCS project, it's a family affair with both my kids getting hands on and dirty at 5 and 8 years old they are loving being part of the process and learning while doing is just great for them.
I thought i'd share some of the high and low points so far.
1. I only found four bolts that held the body to the chassis. two at the front and two at the rear, apart from the seat belt buckles that was all that was holding one to the other, I had been told there were more bolts inside the cabin area but nothing found. So getting the bodywork free was pretty easy.
2. Getting the lower part of the steering column off was a nightmare, no way to reach the bolts in the UJ and could not loosen the rack as the bolts for the rack mounts are not captive so real tricky as they turn. I don't have a lift so doing this on my back under the car was not fun. Problem was solved with a cutting disk when I chopped of the bolt heads on the mounts. When this gets re-assembled I am going to weld some strips of steel to the bolt head so they will not turn in the T section.
3. Found most of a skeleton of some critter inside the T section, not a problem but the kids were a little freaked out. Must have smelt to high heaven for a while. Funny though there were not any air fresheners inside the car
4. Doors, OMG the doors!, One came off with some ease, using a cut down and slotted wrench, the other would not budge at all, weeks of penetrating oil made no difference, but a mini reciprocating saw made pretty swift work once I'd decided that was the only way to go. I am going to re-assemble using the banks brass top and bottom hinge, no more steel pins for me.
5. The bulkhead is completely gone, a combination of old age, water penetration and the fact it was made of cardboard or something similar in the first place has not held up at all. I am thinking about how to address this problem. I did find a company "aandbracing" that have made a steel replacement but its costly and adding weight is a little counter intuitive for a Lotus.
6. Getting the outboard drive shafts out of the rear bearing carriers was not straight forward at all, the shaft was well and truly stuck in there, when I did finally manage to get it moving with a combination of heat, hammer and a press the shaft took the inner bearing with it, still stuck on the shaft, not in itself a problem except the diameter of the bearing is greater that the hole in the radius arm so could not withdraw one from the other. Since I was planning to replace the radius arms anyway out came the cutting disk and problem solved.
The body work is in pretty dismal shape with huge holes where the firewall used to be and the paint is just unbelievably bad, but that is all ok with me, this was always going to be a long process and i'm in no hurry.
The chassis has just been blasted and it about to be powder coated along with all the suspension parts. The motor re-build was done by John McCoy at Omnitech engineering in Washington State, I have only the pictures so far and hope to have it in my garage in a few weeks. Lots to do before needing it, but will be great to see it in person as it were.
When the chassis comes back next week I will begin the rebuild in earnest, the team is looking forward to working with nice clean new pieces for a change
Bart.
