Troublesome.

The front suspension has been proving troublesome, plenty of penetrating oil and plenty of care. Slowly but surely my collection of disassembled parts has been growing. I’ve also been busy compiling a list of all the replacement parts required together with those parts to be reconditioned by Ward Engineering. Wards will be taking care of the diff, rear hubs and callipers. A full car set of reconditioned (including high and low pressure testing) callipers - front four pots, rear two pots and separate hand brake callipers at 245 quid in return for my own units as exchange seems like a particularly good bargain compared to the amount of work required to do it yourself – or am I just being lazy?

Front Suspension Strip

Whilst the rear hub was being abused by messers Thompson I had been busying myself with dismantling the front suspension. This is a bit more of a hassle, many of the fastners appear corroded fast and have been requiring plenty of penetrating oil over a few days to come free. After having broken one bolt in the diff – I didn’t want to break any more.

However the lower shock bracket bolts were stuck fast – time to break out the angle grinder (grinding has turned out to be particularly therapeutic) followed by a drift and lump hammer.

Having discovered the pleasure of aimlessly grinding metal – It was pleasing to find that the lips worn onto the edge of front discs were preventing the callipers (pads frozen in) from passing. 10 minutes of showering sparks – sorted.

Satan's Rear Hub - 5 - Good Triumphs over Evil

Sorted – Hub removed and only charged a tenner – big thanks to Tony at T Thompson and Sons.

Satan's Rear Hub - 4 - The End is not so Nigh!

Following the application of 20 tonnes over 24 hours the driveshaft was still refusing to part company with the hub – I was assured that the application of a “gas spanner” (an acetylene torch to you and me) would sharp sort things.

Satan's Rear Hub - 3 - The End is Nigh

Found a small family run Automotive Engineers close to where I work – took the stubborn rear hub in and was assured that it could be removed no probs.

Breaking Things

One of the last things to do is to remove the lower wishbone inner pivot brackets from the differential housing. These seemed to be particularly stubborn but came out after a few days of soaking with penetrating oil. However after 3 out of 4 came out the last one snapped off with no warning – this was probably due to the application of too much force on my part.




A quick phone call to Ward Engineering who will be reconditioning the diff assured me that the broken bolt could be removed easily - simply by me paying them an extra 25 quid – better than having to find a new diff casing.

Satan's Rear Hub - 2

Still not decided what to do next with the offending article!

Potential Boredom

Having dismantled most of the Jag Independent Rear Suspension I spent a fair bit of time dismantling Universal Joints – Haynes recommended tapping the side of the UJ yoke with a rubber mallet and the bearing would work itself to the outside and could then be removed by hand. This seemed too easy – it does work they just don’t tell you that it takes about 45 minutes per bearing – 4 per UJ – 4 UJ’s in total – that’s gonna be 12 hours!!!. Having done the first couple of bearings I realised that as I was going to replace all the UJ’s I didn’t need to remove them carefully – as long as I didn’t damage the Yokes. I then quickly devised a fairly brutal method involving the direct metal on metal application of force. Result….. less than 5 minutes to dismantle a complete Universal Joint.

Not sure what to do about the stubborn rear hub.

P.S. I have been noting the position of all the camber control shims removed from either side of the inboard discs – hopefully this may make getting the correct camber on re-assembly easier – although I have a sneaking feeling that I may have to start from scratch with this.

Satan's Rear Hub - 1

A quick foray on Ebay results in me being the proud owner of a Haynes Workshop Manual and a Haynes Restoration Manual – having digested the contents I was ready to start stripping my pile of junk. First job is to remove the rear hubs. Ahh…. First job is to purchase a hub puller. A bit of brute force is required but ultimately the splined drive shaft is driven out of the hub. It then becomes a relatively simple task to remove the shocks, wishbones and drive shafts.

The other hub however came from a world were thread locking compound was obviously given away free with breakfast cereal and had to be used in copious amounts! Result – what I thought was the shaft “popping” out of the hub was in fact the hub puller snapping!

A visit to Machine Mart armed me with a hub puller on steroids – only this time the only thing I was going to break was my arm! – the more leverage I could apply the nearer I came to a nasty accident.

So I removed the hub complete with the entire drive shaft and universal joints – I need to think.

Differential Paranoia

The main cause of my paranoia at the moment is the thought that the differential may not be serviceable – I can wait no longer – out with the socket set and off with the diff back plate. Fortunately the diff is in good condition – full of oil, no wear or rust and apparently no excessive backlash between the crownwheel and pinions – I’ll have to find something else to worry about now!

Expensive Scrap Metal?

I spend some time looking at what I’ve got for 200 quid – it doesn’t seem like much!

I think we're gonna need a bigger garage!

Time to get the Donor Parts – only they are in the West Midlands and I’m in Newcastle upon Tyne – (Couldn’t find anywhere closer!). So more internet and phone calls secured a cheap hire for a transit pickup.

NOW FOLLOWS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT TLS VEHICLE RENTAL:

T for TOTAL
L for LOAD OF
S for S###E

“I’m sorry but we don’t appear to have your booking” I only made it yesterday and you confirmed it to me!!!

So I find myself armed with a 7.5 tonne shed on wheels – I’m sure Roy Shneider in Jaws said “I think we’re going to need a bigger garage!”

So following an uneventful (if somewhat lengthy and boring) journey at 60mph and what appeared to be 6mpg I find myself the proud owner of a heap of scrap metal and a V5 for a Daimler Double 6 – this is perhaps the most important thing as it will avoid ending up with a “Q” reg – I will be able to retain the donor’s registration.

In the Beginning - was there Light?

So where to start? – With an attempt at explaining why!

I am a Chartered Structural Engineer currently responsible for the Bridges and Structures stock at a Local Authority. It is unfortunate in my chosen profession that career progression entails increased “management” activities which increase to the detriment of hands on engineering. The hands on engineering bit was the challenging bit – that’s not to say my current position is not fulfilling – but I have had to accept that I can’t spend the rest of my life designing bridges – we all have to move on.

Therefore in a desperate attempt to avoid the onset of dementia I needed to find a project to keep the “engineering” parts of the old grey matter working.

I remember a few years ago looking at the possibilities of building a kit car but I think I managed to sidetrack myself by taking my bike test and then wasting all my money on motorbikes!

So kit cars were revisited and then I remembered about replica AC Cobra’s (try this wikipedia link)– and before a conscious thought could be formulated – a decision had been made! There then followed a period of research – browsing magazines and the internet. I didn’t need much more convincing, all I had to do was choose a manufacturer.

To me (and my engineering brain) there appeared to be only one option – a Gardner Douglas 427 – I’m not going to go into an in depth discussion of the pro’s and con’s of various manufacturers – there’s plenty of that to be had elsewhere on the net! – and in any case this is very much a personal thing, common sense does not necessarily apply!

STEP 1 – IGNORE LOTS OF OTHER STEPS (COST – BUILD PROGRAMME ETC)

STEP 2 – FIND THE DONOR COMPONENTS

THE PLAN? - Reconditioning the donor components (front and rear axles, suspension, differential and drive shafts) appeared to be the most b*ll aching task to me - so the plan was to get through this without totally pi##ing myself off - if tis was the case then I would go ahead with ordering the chassis and continue with the rest of the build.

First thing you need then is a donor car – I was planning to build the Jag based version of the GD 427 so I was gonna have to find a Series II or III XJ6. However on second thoughts I didn’t think the domestic authorities would be too taken with me dismantling an XJ6 on the drive (wouldn’t fit in the garage) – plus how do you get rid of it once you’ve taken all the running gear off?

Quick whiz on the net – followed by a phone call secured a front and rear end off a Series III together with a choice of V5! - all for 200 quid (guaranteed fit to be reconditioned) – too good to be true? Only time (or blog) will tell…….

The first posts up until the 10th December will be just be catching up with what has happened up until the 10th as that was the date I decided to write a blog – possibly to just record events for myself – although there may be someone out there that finds this interesting???

P.S. I think I may end up using my own blog as somewhere to organise all my info and on-line resources!