A long day today with lots done. First job was to recover the other AC hose connector. The first one I did in the bench vice but this one is still attached to the car so needs something of a contrivance to hold it still. The stump of the condenser is clamped to a large axle stand which is tucked in to the chassis leg. There's a wet lump of paper towel wrapped round it so I can heat the nut up with the mapp gas without melting the hose
it takes some heaving to crack the nut loose even after it's heated up
The nut is some super-hard grade anodised aluminium and takes the threads from the condenser with it as it comes off. It takes so much force to break it loose that even the hard aluminium is distorted a bit
Properly mush in here with the galled up thread from the condenser still stuck in the threads of the nut
I made a die set from a couple of steel thread couplers with slots cut in with the grinder. These are progressively wound further and further in to the nuts a little bit at a time and clean up the threads as they go
I keep going until I can thread the coupler in completely by hand
Internal threads cleaned up
On to the arches. Left side first
Better
Left engine bay also cleaned
Driver's side arch
The fuel pipe clamp was rusted to dust
Apply all purpose cleaner and agitate, then rinse off with water
Amazing tar contamination. I've never seen one this bad before
the left side had a lot of tar, but nothing like as much as this
Cleaned up with Gtechniq tar remover
and the other side of the bay also done. I'll treat all this with sealant tomorrow