WITW - Ricky's van attack

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by Green Goblin

Not much danger of anything catching fire from welding work on a D2 - everything’s ususally soaked from water ingress. Who needs fire extinguishers when you’ve got Botang’s Hole

Painted the repaired area today but that's all. I'll hopefully get the tank done tomorrow.



Silver rustoleum. Not like it actually needs painting since it won't rust, but it seems incomplete to leave it bare...

[MikkiJayne]

I put the tank back on yesterday. It took about 30 minutes to put the tank back in place and bolt it up, and then an hour fighting with the pipework to the filler neck

Back in the way it came out - lower the car on to it, being careful not to trap anything in the process. Note how close the fuel filter is to the arm of the lift - its equally tight on the brackets for the under-trays so I shall remove this next time.



The vent pipes can be put through the hole in the chassis leg when the tank is still 6-8" down from final position. Lifting them up to meet the hole saves bending them horizontally.



Reattached. The pipe clips are NLA and a bit of a mess so I've used jubilee-type clamps in this pic, but they are too bulky. I'll need to recover the originals I think, and research an aftermarket solution for future projects.



The dual hose clamp here is also NLA as it's D2-only. Tbh I don't see any reason to attach the two clamps to each other - that only makes it harder to assemble. They're stock sizes though so easy to replace with single clamps.



Subframe next

[RICKY D]

Whenever there is a new WITW thread, we also find out what else is now NLA

There appears to be so many specific D2 parts not shared with other models. I suspect the thing that makes D2 so appealing to me, and probably others (exclusivity) is the same thing that makes them a bit more of a PITA as they get older.

One thing I wanted to ask MJ, is there a possibility of bent shock absorbers with these types of impacts? I’m not even sure how you’d spot this unless it was a super obvious bend on the body of it.....check it with a spirit level laid horizontally perhaps??

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by RICKY D

Whenever there is a new WITW thread, we also find out what else is now NLA

There appears to be so many specific D2 parts not shared with other models. I suspect the thing that makes D2 so appealing to me, and probably others (exclusivity) is the same thing that makes them a bit more of a PITA as they get older.

But we also find solutions to many of them The vent hose clips actually cleaned up fine with a bit of elbow grease so not a big problem.

Originally Posted by RICKY D

One thing I wanted to ask MJ, is there a possibility of bent shock absorbers with these types of impacts? I’m not even sure how you’d spot this unless it was a super obvious bend on the body of it.....check it with a spirit level laid horizontally perhaps??

My main concern with the shock was that it may have bent the shaft at the top where it goes in to the top mount - this is the usual failure mode for them. Luckily in this case the top mount had enough give to accomodate the angle of the shock and so there is no damage. I checked it by rotating the shaft and looking for runout in the top mount and there isn't any

[MikkiJayne]

Lunchtime update - the subframe is back on

1°C in the workshop this morning, so the heater is working hard today. Thank you to all who contributed to that last year



The original clic-clips cleaned up ok in the end so I put them back on.



Mike helped me reassemble the subframe the other day so its ready to re-fit



The trolley worked well for the fuel tank so I'll use the same solution for the subframe



The diff heat shield is always corroded and loose, and of course NLA. I reattached this one with cable ties, but I may look in to laser-cutting these in the future.



Lower the car on to the subframe



Reattach the ABS sensors before the subframe is fully in place as they're easier to get to like this



I also reattached the prop to the diff, and the handbrake cable to the subframe





Lower the car the rest of the way, put the bolts in, and lift off the trolley



There's no obvious way to align the rear subframe, unlike the pins at the front, but the rear bolt holes have a quite deliberate machined recess in them so I suspect the factory used something in these rear holes. I made a pin which was a snug fit in both the bush and the thread and used it to align one rear bush then the other



The pin goes through the bush and centres it on the hole



Support the subframe with the transmission jack so it can't move, then remove the pin and replace it with the bolt



Bad pic, but you can see the bush is centred. I did this on the right first, then the left, then did up both front bolts. The alignment rig should tell if this trick worked.



About this time I realised I also should have put the heat shield in place while the subframe was down, as now I have to drop the propshaft again Luckily I didn't torque the bolts up so not terrible.



Brakes and springs back in next. Maybe back on wheels by teatime ready for an eyeball-alignment

[David's8]

That subframe looks in great condition now. Good job MJ ...... and Mike (as an ex-Navy man he should be good at painting stuff - usually grey, though)

[The_Laird]

That was serious subframe porn! Pleased to hear that you managed to keep warm enough to get the job done. I’m doing a few minor jobs in my garage - about 20-30 minutes at a time before I have to come back in the thaw out (my thumbs stop working first).