Nominal's Morris Minor RPU

[Nominal]

Some of this stuff has been together so long it's crapped out.

This lower ball joint has to come out. I'm not even sure what it's from - hopefully a Mk4 Cortina like the suspension upright. It's in the 12t press now but hasn't moved. I'll have to look up a bigger press.

Had to do some research on where these calipers came from - apparently I got them off a Subaru Liberty (flaky memory)

Have lined up the NDT man so need to get the suspension arms off and power coating removed.

 

[Nominal]

Apparently sitting around for (mumble) years is bad for ball joint covers...

 

My little press, and the local garages bigger one wouldn't shift these, so took them back to Graham Berry Race Cars where they were built. Came out OK with maybe 30 tons? They told me they are BJ55 Holden parts.

I couldn't immediately recall what the calipers were from. Some forum stalking indicates Subaru Liberty. I'll need to go through these as at present they are wrecking yard take-offs from 10 years ago or so.

 

The Escort rack supplied with the chassis (at rear) was invoiced as rebuilt. Probably was, but one boot had disentegrated and the other was ugly. The mounting bushes (some sort of blue plastic) had crumbled as well. The other one is a spare from Trademe that I hadn't even taken out of it's box for years. Looks to be usable but boots were also had it.

 

Tack welding the rack end parts together should keep them in place. This is on the rebuilt rack.

 

[Nominal]

The rack mounts on the spare are pretty ugly too, so have some Whiteline ones on order from BNT. New correct boots are coming from Palmside. Cleaned up my special borgeson steering universal that connects the Nissan column to the Escort rack.

Cleaned up one hub and spindle, need to take the other side apart, but it's cold out there. My father made the new hubs so I could get 5 stud Ford/Toyota pattern at both front and rear.

 

Got the arms sandblasted at Steam and Sand in Porirua. Nice and clean for the NDT man.

 

[Nominal]

The NDT man says I need the following paperwork

Make:
Model:
Registration number (if it has one):
VIN number (if it has one):
A description of the parts.
LVVTA form completed by the certifier.

Had to go paperwork mining to find this:

The dairy kept it until 1973 when it was owned by Walerian Swierczynski of Levin, it then staked in the Levin/Otaki area mostly until going to Wellington in 1991.

I've owned it since 1997.......

Managed to find the chassis tag after a bit of hunting (no ashtray to stash them in)

Made the inner guards years ago, but have decided they need to be removeable to get at the engine plumbing, so working on that today.

 

[Nominal]

Been dinking away on this from time to time.

Bought a home made folder on TM, should be better than angle iron and a hammer. Welded it onto this trolley for mobility. It uses air rams to clamp the top.

Cleaned up the bare metal (again) on the firewall and inner guards.

and splattered some primer on it. Mainly to stop the rust that collects over time. There is still welding need for the inner guards but I'll just clean that off and re-prime as needed.

Quite a bit of time has gone into fixing this after Hanmer, the grille needed to come out to be glued back together which meant removing the slam panel. I stripped and repainted that while it was out. A couple of clip-on nuts (what's the right term) dropped out of the inner guard panel, included one that holds the bonnet bumper stop. Getting these back in meant removing the guard, which in turn needs the front bumper removed. Kinda wished I hadn't used such a sticky sealer on it last time it was apart. Good to see it's in nice shape behind the guard though. 'Just' needs putting back together now.

 

[Nominal]

Felt guilty about walking past this in the shed and never touching it, so finished off inner guard mounting this week. Tune in in a couple of years for next update.

 

 

 

[Nominal]

I let these suspension arms sit around so long that they went rusty and the NDT place disappeared. Now I've cleaned them up and will get them tested by SGS 'real soon'

 

[Nominal]

Real soon? Well, the pieces were with SGS for a year or so due to delays on both sides (mostly mine) but I got them back with the requisite paperwork so that's good.

Then they sat around another few months getting rusty again, so they went back in the molasses tank.

I made an effort over Easter to deal with all the rusty / cleaned up bits and pieces around the garage.

Things flash rust really quickly when taken out of the molasses tank. 

 

Lift makes a handy hanging rack.

Couple of coats of Durepox should keep things tidy for the next few years.  

I intend to get some new lower balljoints and assemble the front suspension (at least) so I can move the thing around. Next update in 2+ years.

[Nominal]

Annual-ish update?

I need to get this at least rolling to move it. Bought some new lower ball joints - I think the reason the old ones crapped out is that the come with no grease in them (facepalm)

 

Managed to break a 1" chinese cast press plate using my 10 ton chinese press when trying to get the second one together. It was a bit out of alignment, so probably exceeded the point loading.

Visited a friend to straighten up the press tool, then used his press to jam it together. Went in easily.

Hope I can remember what goes where, it's been a few years 

[Nominal]

A bit over 6 years since it came apart. I bolted the front suspension back together without many dramas

 

Put the steering back in

Enlisted a helper to tighten up the caliper mounts

And moved it!

Out of the garage then winched back onto the lift. Will drop the engine/box back in before fagnats hopefully.

[Nominal]

Say Aaaaaah

[Nominal]

One the plus side I labelled the plugs

On the minus side they have mostly faded.

Dug out the intake piping, surprisingly well made I thought considering that I did it, but needed a good clean up

 

Inside and out. I don't think I had roloc discs back in the day, they are good for this sort of job.

 

 

Squirted some good old black zinc inside, will do the outside tomorrow then look at my silicone tube and clamp supplies. 

IIRC the radiator needs to go in first.

[Nominal]

Got some paint on them and baked it with the heater for a while

 

Good thing I have some photos from when I took it apart 7 years ago to refer back to for what goes where.

 

Got one side done, looks better with the pipes painted I must say.

 

Had to stop and tidy up the work area as we have a couple of house viewings tomorrow. I don't usually tidy up until either the stage of the project is finished, or I can't find what I need.