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Post by djm16 on Oct 13, 2020 8:59:45 GMT
The 3-litre has been off the road now for 18m. As I live in Australia, and road tax is around $800 per year, I returned the licence plates and have saved myself $1200 so far (paid for the camshaft bearings!). Before I put the engine back, I determined to tidy up the engine compartment which has been largely untouched since its manufacture in 1963. Here is the starting point: Unfortunately white / cream does rather show the dirt and it is hard to tell what is white paint, black paint, underseal or just dirt. I have already removed the heater box, stripped and refurbished it (pictures elsewhere to come). The first step was to strip absolutely everything off the inside wing and firewall. I am doing this one side at a time as there are just too many parts to get mixed up and lost, and only limited storage space for the myriad parts. I actually went further and removed the steering box and chassis mounts too. Had I planned this right, I would have spent a few hours steam cleaning the area before taking the engine out, that is if I had a steam cleaner. Instead, I spent many hours patiently scrubbing away at the inner wing with white spirit, a toothbrush and a wad of steel wool. As you can see, it does make a difference! You can see where I have been.
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Post by djm16 on Oct 13, 2020 9:17:57 GMT
The area of the wing in front of the firewall where the brake fluid reservoir leaks was in poor condition. The brake fluid must have lifted the underseal, paint, and primer all in one, and allowed corrosion to set in. This came off fairly easily with a needle gun, then coarse glasspaper and KB Rustblast (phosphate based etching solution). The remainder was flatted with 240 sandpaper. Here we are after masking up. And a coat of 1k epoxy etch primer. Finally, 2k topcoat, black enamel and underseal.
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Post by enigmas on Oct 13, 2020 9:42:51 GMT
Enjoy! Now's a good time to pull the subframe for a clean, paint and refurbishment?
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Post by djm16 on Oct 13, 2020 10:44:10 GMT
I am sure you are right about the subframe. I could make the excuse that I don't have room to pull the subframe out from under the body (which is true), but honestly I am running out of energy. Fortunately the subframe is in pretty good condition and will respond to a bit of cleaning and maybe some rust preventative injection.
If I get the engine back in and running before Feb (and 40C days) I will be happy.
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Post by Ken Nelson on Oct 13, 2020 14:45:26 GMT
Great job! Looks very nice. When I had the engine out I did somewhat of a similar cleanup that helped the appearance. The only thing that I overlooked was considering checking or replacing the subframe mounts when I could have easily gotten to them.
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