|
|
|
Reliant Scimitar SE5a
Well there is plenty that needs doing to this car before I would feel happy to drive it too much, but seeing as I sold the pug I haven't got much choice! so important jobs were started straight away. Tuesday 14th of November First things first I will have to drive this car at night and the headlights seem to point to the sky (not sure how that got through the MOT?) so I adjusted them and gave the chrome a polish at the same time. The offside headlight turned out to be loose as one of the mount bolts had go walkabouts so I fitted a new stainless cap-head and all is now well. Next was to sort the embarrassing racket coming from the tappets, an easy job that doesn't take very long at all. After whipping the air filter assembly, rocker covers and the top section of the radiator ducting off (so you can access the crankshaft end to rotate the engine) the adjuster nuts were easy to get to. I found I did have to remove the alternator belt and push the alternator upwards so I could get to one of the rocker cover screws which was a bit of a pain but there is so much space in the engine bay compared to the pug its a joy to work on. After working out the firing order from the pretend Haynes manual I got hold of it was possible to set the tappets up quickly using a set of feeler gauges and a ring spanner or socket depending on the rocker in question. Once a nice sliding fit with a little drag was achieved it all goes back together again and starts up and sounds much nicer! job well done. I must say there is so much space to work with under the bonnet that I can actually sit comfortably where the spare wheel should sit and work on the engine. which is good as its not comfortable to stretch over the sides of the body and into the engine although it has its advantages as after laying rugs/towels down tools can be stored safely along the body in easy reach when working!
Thursday 23rd of November Hmm after a good spell of rain and the car filling up with water I ordered a big batch of seals from a friendly chap on eBay. Seen in the first photo are seals for the windscreen, door to body, window glass strips, hatch T seals and glass seals. Also in the post today came a set of mirrors which should make it easier for me to spot motorcyclists that want to rip past ;). Today I decided to start with the hatch and get the seals sorted on it. Four bolts later and it was sitting on a bit of old carpet on the workbench. The outer T seal was so rotten it just fell apart as I gently teased a screwdriver down the slot for it to sit in! The screws that hold the two chrome sections were completely rusted in so I had to drill these out. I used an old broken drill with the end sharpened as all I needed to do was take the heads off them. This reduced the chance of slipping or drilling through and hitting the glass. With the screws out and the back plates out of the way the chrome strips pretty much fell off (if only getting them back on was that easy) As the original screw backing plates were rotten I made some new ones up out of stainless and tapped them M4 as I happened to have some M4 CS setscrews kicking about. With it possible to fit the chrome halves back together again I thought it best to get the seal sorted. This was a right bastard and I'm not sure how you are supposed to do it but I ended up spraying everything with a very soapy detergent mix out of a little spray bottle and then squeezing the U seal and chrome trim back onto the glass. After than it was a case of squeezing the screws back in. The T strip was easy to fit and only took about ten minutes using a little soap and the back of a spoon. I then fitted the hatch back into the car and it fits a lot better now indeed! Before going in for the night I decided to fit the mirrors. The drivers one was easy but the passenger one required me to get an assistant to hold the mirror in the right place. Unfortunately not as well as I expected as once I had bolted it in where they said it was when I said I could see it...well it wasn't and I can only see about 1" of one corner when I glance across at it. Ah well the drivers one is good and I can see a bit out of the passenger one when I lean back! The mirrors were easy to fit, a bit like raw plugs, drill two holes poke the mount plate through and once you screw the screws into it the ends flair out and stop it coming back out through the door.
Monday 27th of November Didn't do a lot to her today but fitted a new thermostat and flushed and filled the radiator up with clean water and antifreeze as it will be two weeks before I can fit my new Scorpio radiator and fan unit. With that done I then went to pickup my new stainless steel fuel tank and cobra Drag-slots from Telford. Ok well they aren't new but they will do good and the tank has got to be better as it doesn't have a hole in the top!
Friday 1st of December Today I thought it would be a good day to fit the alloys. After checking out the wheel nuts I realised they wouldn't fit the alloys and it needs the nuts to locate the alloy on the hub. So I took the old wheel nuts for the steels and turned them down to suite the new wheels. Its handy to have a lathe for jobs like this! The tyres on the rear alloys were almost new but the thinner front ones were shagged. So I have fitted the steels back on the front with some spare wheel nuts and will swap the tyres over next time I can get down Ian's. With the front alloys not on the car I gave them a bit of a clean and rough polish just to make them look a bit more acceptable.
Saturday 2nd of December Today Ian wasn't down the yard so I fitted the stainless tank. This was very straight forward, requires a bit of bumping and shuffling but easy to do. I disconnected the fuel line out of the tank (have rags ready as a little fuel may come out) also whilst under the car remove the fuel level sender plugs. Slacken and remove the filler hose. Then under the car I removed the two front strap bolts as I couldn't get to the rear ones. The tank then slid out towards the front of the car nicely and to my surprise cleared everything. The new tank installation was just the same if a little more fiddly as I had to push the tank up into the back of the car as well as wiggle it about a bit, its handy to have someone else watching in case you get the filler neck caught on the inside of the boot. Note in the photo I have glued the bit of foam to the top of the new tank, this helps stop the tank booming and echoing sound around as it certainly likes to do this, and there is no worry of it holding water against the tank and rotting it anymore. In the first photo you can see the old tank as it was in the car, the hole tapped out much bigger with a screwdriver once I had removed it. Thursday 7th of December Not a lot done today but plenty of driving around picking up bits! Went to French's avenue scrappy and got a good selection of radiator hoses to help with the new radiator install when I get round to it. Then moved onto A5 French car salvage as they are a good bunch of guys in there and managed to find a pucker bit of 2" hose from a Xantia, which I think came from the induction system but it was in the boot. When home I replaced the filler neck to tank hose with the 2" Xantia one and it fitted a treat. No more petrol smells in the car for me! had a crack at the seatbelts but the bolts are rusted solid, sprayed a bit of penetrating oil in and will try another day when its not raining Tuesday 12th of December Today I managed to get the rotating stud off the rear hub. As I didn't want to damage the stud I ground a slot around the nut and split it with a cold chisel. This allowed me to get the wheel off and in turn the drum. I then put a little tack weld on each stud, ok so it might not be the best practice but I really cant be bothered to go through that again and if I need to change a stud then the little spot will grind off easily! Also gave me a quick chance to check over the rear shoes which are fine which is nice. And notice really how bad the rear suspension bushes are... well all of the suspension bushes, good thing I have 90% of the bushes required in bag which is full of spangly new polyurethane ones which should improve the cars ride no end! With the stud off I was free to fit the new tyres to the rear wheels which went on a treat and put what was on the back on the front. Before fitting the front wheels on the car I went around the nipples with a grease gun although had to use my tiny old one not the big new one I picked up at Halfords as it was missing the grease nipple attachment DOH, got to take that back and get it swapped.
December some time With The front of the car still leaking from the windscreen I decided it was time to change the weather strip. The windscreen came out in under 5 minutes but after a polish it wouldn't go back in with the new weather strip... eventually after much struggling there was about 5cm of seal left to tuck over the glass and daddio who was lending a hand pushed the screen a little too far and it cracked. Whoops. Auto-glass reckoned 3-4 weeks so I told them to sod off and found a nice chap on ebay who sells screens for classics and also fits them, and will do it on the insurance. sorted! it just so happens the Lotus Elan plus 2 screens also fit the scimi.
4th of January (I think) Today I had a little mishap on the way to work. The last roundabout before I turn off for doesn't go according to plan and I end up coming sideways off the roundabout into a curb. I'm not sure what really happened as one minute I was navigating the roundabout and the next minute a bang and I was stationary after a close encounter with the curb. Anyway after getting the car towed home the damage could be clearly seen. A bent half shaft and damaged alloy at the back, and a the front a bent lower wishbone assembly and mounts. BALLS. *note to self* don't buy tyres made of Teflon in future even if they spin up nicely, they loose grip rather suddenly. 25th of January Today most of the parts I have ordered off eBay arrived and then in the evening i drove up to Nottingham to pickup another rear axle from a very nice chap who has a Locost kit car in his garage. A very friendly bloke who looks to do everything by the book and didn't result in having to pry the axle from where it had sat in his lawn for 3 years but instead it was sitting on little stands on a bench! nice one. The axle looks in very good condition with just a minor bit of welding to the radius arm mount and the brakes rebuilding. All the bearings feel good and it hasn't got any leaks. a lick of paint and it should be perfect. During the day I managed to pull out the old axle which required some mutilation of suspension bushes and bolts but I got there in the end. also whilst removing the offside half-shaft I managed to explode my hub puller so i withdrew the whole assembly in one piece using a slide hammer to free the bearing. Note the rust hole i found after tapping a bit of loose skanky waxoyl with my screwdriver, doh so that will need welding up too. Also the exhaust system had to be removed to allow the axle to be removed, it needs a clean anyway. As it came out, and after a quick polish. mmm much nicer.
Monday 29th/ Tuesday 30th of January Today I set about ripping out the front suspension. it took a while as getting to bolts which haven't been moved for...well forever and now had a bent bit of metal in the way was not easy but its all off and looking good. ready for new powder coated tr6 gear to go in there. New discs, pads, drop-links, track rod ends and braided brake hoses are in the post too! I'm going to be skint this week!!! With the new suspension fitting the car should really handle a treat, as I'm building it up with new ball joints, new trunions, new poly bushes, new wheel bearings. as you can see in some of the photos below the old pushes were a bit past it! Oh and my new camshaft turned up. Its a Kent-cam V63, claims a 18hp gain so 14hp or so would be nice! The engine will be pulled out soon and rebuilt with a bit of tuning and the overdrive fitting.
February 1st - 20th Forgot to update site for a few weeks. Not a lot done. Forgot how long it takes to refurbish and paint parts. Anyway over the past weeks, not only have I been cleaning and painting but also realising how much more of the car was buggered and how much work it really needed. The previous owners must have forgotten about the grease nipples as they hadn't seen grease in some time! most of the running gear for the suspension was falling apart. It defiantly had a fixed mot on it when I bought it. I'm hoping to impress the MOT guy when I take it for its a real one in November. I have cleaned and painted the callipers, but to be honest these have been possibly the only thing in good nick on it! They are in VERY good condition and must have been refurbished items fitted not that long ago as the pistons don't even have surface rust on the inside of them, there is no rust on the calliper bodies themselves and the rubber piston gaiters are immaculate. I few coats of paint to keep them this way is all they needed. The discs and pads were not in such good condition, The outer quarter inch of the discs was almost rusted away and there was a big lump of pickup on the rear of the nearside disc about 1/2" wide 1 1/2" long and 1/8" deep!!! To solve this a nice new pair of EBC sport discs which are slotted and dimpled were supplied by a decent chap on eBay, oh they are also zinc coated too so shouldn't rot around the edges and on the hubs! I also added a set of EBC 'Greenstuff' pads to the order for good measure. When I removed the disc backing plates I cut the brake lines as the nuts were rusted solid and they didn't look too clever so I have picked a set of Goodridge ones up which should help with the braking feel too. The rear cylinders on the replacement axle I got were seized so I have cleaned up the ones off my original axle, the same applies for the adjusters. Its all looking rather clean and new now!
With the brakes sorted it was time to get cracking on the radius arms and steering rack. The steering rack was easy, wip off the covers and gaiters. pull out the rack from inside its casing. I then gave it a good clean a fresh coating of grease and back in it went. The pinion was packed with grease and then I fitted new gaiters and new track rod ends. a quick clean up and that was ready for paint too. The radius arms were next on the list of jobs to do. I started by getting the old bushes out, This was achieved by burning the rubber inserts out. After spending way to long on the first one with a little propane torch I decided it would be a good idea to hack them out with a oxy-acetylene torch, this proved much faster. I then found out by heating the outside of the casing enough it broke the bond with the rubber and little persuasion and the inners would push out without making so much mess. With the inner parts out I turned up a press tool to use at work to press the bushes out in my lunch break with our hydraulic press. This made short work of all the bushes but the one from last when it jammed and the tool wound up jammed around the bush after removal. I couldn't be bothered to make another tool so used the old school method of cutting the bush with a hacksaw then collapsing it and tapping it out. I adopted the same technique for the watts linkage arms as well to save making bushes as there were fewer bushes to release. With the bushes out I gave the arms a good bashing with the wire wheel in my angle grinder before I applied several coats of anti-rust primer two coats of gloss black Hammerite. Finally after a few days to cure I went about fitting the poly-bushes I bought a while back. Surprisingly the Superflex cotton reel bushes were one piece. as I needed to fit them then and there and could think of an easier way to do it I cut then in the centre using my lathe and a Stanley knife. I used a crush tube 2/3 into the chuck and then pushed the bush on. to hold it on I setup my pipe centre in the tailstock and then ran them up to speed. A dab of light oil on the knife and it cut straight through by hand. The bushes were now a much easier fit and went together a treat!
Alas there is snow! No work is going to be going on with the car when its covered in snow! I decided to slope off to the garage and get some more work on the axle done. I cleaned out the insides of the differential casing cleaned the threads and refitted the cover torquing it down carefully with a thin film of 'Hylomar' on the jointing surfaces. A clean and a lick of paint were also sorted for the watts linkage centre mount. I noticed these threads where also bad so I ran a tap down them too, not impressed with one of the threads integrity though, I may have to helicoil it or swap the covers
Another day and some better weather allows the fitting of the first new bits back onto the car. I fitted the new, genuine reliant front wishbone brackets and then got the upper and lower wishbones back on. I have refitted the standard shim for now but may have to change this as the car will sit slightly lower with the tr6 wishbones. Before fitting a lick of rust proof primer was added to the chassis where the mounts meet it, this is just to save the new parts really until the summer when I can get the body off and give the chassis a good going over.
Wednesday 21st February Today my new shocks and springs arrived. They are rather pretty I must say! One of the original front shocks was damaged and one of the rears was leaking badly so this seemed like the most sensible option although my wallet may disagree. The are Avo sport classic shocks with adjustable spring seats and adjustable dampening. The springs are sport ones from Queensberry road garage and they look very good. (note pik below shows one resting in place without top spring seat fitting... I could wait to see what they would look like lol)
Sunday 25th February Another day of pissing rain!!! After connecting up the optimate under the bonnet I set about finishing the axle and making a start on the prop shaft. The the Axles offside shock hanger was looking rather sorry for itself, strangely it was rusted heavily yet the nearside one was mint with not a spec of rot. It looks like the drain holes were full of Waxoyl and it had filled with water and rotted away. As there was still metal there and it was just a little thin in places I decided to plate over it instead of fab up a new hanger. I did this in a few simple steps and took photos so any one else needing to repair their hanger should be able to do so in the same way.
I must stress don't patch up your hangers in this way if they are very rotten as you need decent material to weld to in the first place otherwise it may let go and could cause a serious accident!
After getting the axle ready for paint with a little more cleaning I thought it would be a good idea to sort the prop shaft out as well and paint them at the same time. The prop shaft Hardy Spicer joint is easy to change when you know how. First give the retaining clips a good clean and then remove them. The ones in my universal joints were a right bastard, one snapped and one decided to part with its removal tabs. Luckily I got the opposite one out so could push the bearing down a little then snap the clip with a chisel. as they are hard they are easy to snap with a shock load. To remove the bearing spider which looks to be held in there with no way of getting it out open your vice jaws up and rest the prop in so that one of the forks is supported, then using a soft mallet bash the perpendicular fork and its bearings should start to come out, this is harder to explain that it is to do! the pictures will explain more, notice the copper coloured marks on the forks side face from the mallet. Once the bearing cap is half exposed it can normally be pulled out with a pair of mole-grips and the rest can be extracted. Once the prop shaft is all apart that got a good wire wheeling and to be safe I cleaned the bearing journal bores with a flap wheel to make assembly easier, if one bearing cap picks up and wont fit on re-assembly you may have to scrap that new joint!! A lick of paint was then supplied
Monday 26th February Got up relatively early and gave the axle and prop shaft a coat of black paint. Much nicer than before. Now to tackle the holes in the radius arm mount tube support thingy. First I ripped the old shocks out as they are no longer needed and that gave me better access to get in there with the wire wheel and help sent the Waxoyl on its way. A quick poke around with a screwdriver also removed any loose rust around the rotted sections. With The damage exposed it was clear The whole section needs replacing but this can wait until the summer, when I take the body off. So for now I have patched them up. I did this by making a cardboard template then cutting out some sheet the same way I patched the axle. In order to provide strength to the braces I folded them into a 'U' section in the vice using a large mallet After a quick test fit I then removed them and gave the areas that are to be welded a good clean with a small grinding stone in the trusty dremel. Half an hour later and I had freed the welder from its home under the bench and got it setup outside with a big CO2 fire extinguisher at the ready. A bit of spatter and rust busting and they were welded in place. One scare from smoke pouring out from next to the fuel tank turned out to be a vent hole in the chassis exhausting all the smoke from inside the leg. Realised this after Unleashing some CO2 under the car lol. A quick dab of paint and into the garage to build up some brakes.
Tuesday 27th February Today got up a bit late but no loss as it was pissing down with rain anyway. Into the garage I assembled the brakes on the axle, Not a hard job just remember to put the rear cylinder clamp plates around the right way otherwise they will be fiddly to remove. I reused the shoes that were on the original axle I had with the car as they are had almost no use at all. I gave them a quick scrub with a scotch pad to rough them up and them fitted them as well with a bit of copper grease on the hold down pins etc, I have chosen to leave the drums off to keep the axle as light as possible whilst I'm fitting it. With the brakes assembled I lifted the axle up and placed the supports on the hubs so I could get to the whole surface of the axle tubes to paint and fit the brake lines. The originals off my damaged axle were in good nick so I gave them a clean, straightened them out and bent them to fit the new axle better and out of the way of the chassis bump stops. They do look quite tidy and I'm pleased with the results considering I don't have a brake pipe bender. Will defiantly have to get one for the trike however. After getting the axle sorted a few coats of paint were added to the patches that the stands were sitting on before that I couldn't get to. With the paint now dry on the prop shaft I fitted the new bearings. these are a doddle to fit and only took a few minutes. Pop two opposite caps off the spider, place one into the yoke on the prop shaft and tap it down a little to seat it, striking the outside of the bearing with a hammer should not do any damage as they are hardened steel and no great force should be needed. Then insert the spider into the yoke and into that bearing cap. Place the other cap into the opposite side of the yoke and start to tap this in. Once they start to get close to the spider make sure it all lines up and tap them home with a socket which fits into the yoke nicely as can be seen in the photo. Tap the caps down until they are level with the cir-clip grove. Apply some copper grease to stop the cir-clips sticking and then fit the largest socket you can into the yoke and give the cir-clip a sharp blow with the hammer to make sure it is definitely seated properly. Now repeat the same for all of the other caps on the spider and then do the other end. I will also mention that I made sure all the caps went back onto the same seat of the spider they came off however I'm not sure if this is necessary, better to be safe than sorry. one last tip, make sure the work area is completely spotless before you start because if you get any thing in those caps like grinding dust then they will not last long. Finally give the grease nipple a squirt of good quality grease to make sure that they are all ready to go! With new bearings the prop feels a lot better. There is no slop and the joints are tight but silky smooth.
Monday 12th March The final push, a bastard of a day though finding the scimitar uses larger outer front bearings than the tr6 do AND different calliper mount plates so I swapped all of these again, luckily they come apart easily, a quick clean in the lathe then the hubs went back on with the new discs, callipers, pads and Goodrich brake hoses, all looking a bit swish. I also fitted the new tie rod ends and set them up roughly with a few long lengths of tube. Took it for a drive and it goes great and is bumpy as hell... must be those stiff as feck springs. After looking for my mole grips for a while I found them still attached to my tie rod after a days driving about!
|
