Invalid carriage blue Mk1 Cavalier

[Noel Tidybeard]

 

 

 

fnar, fnar, fnar it says FLAPS arf, arf, arf

[fordperv]

This is going to be a heart breaker when it's finished, I don't think they came this good from the factory,

 

what are you using to remove the paint?

[4wheeledstool]

This is going to be a heart breaker when it's finished, I don't think they came this good from the factory,

what are you using to remove the paint?

Thank you kindly Mr.Fordperv! I'm using a combination of poly abrasive discs, wire wheels and drill attachments. It's slow going, but paint strippers don't appear to be much use on it!

 

Boot lid finished off today -

 

 

Made a start on the bonnet - this has been resprayed at some point, and is a pig to strip! It's gonna take some time!

[4wheeledstool]

Several hours later - the easy side is done!

 

[4wheeledstool]

Finished the other side of the bonnet today - just need to remove the catch, then take the paint off its bracket. The end of paint removal is in sight!

 

[4wheeledstool]

Some nice new parts arrived this morning from a bloke called Peter. New indicator units, badges, badge grommets, washer bottle, door pull surrounds and a fuel flap.

 

 

 

Theres nothing wrong with the fuel flap that came with the car, but now I can keep hold of the original one to remind me how ruined the paint was.

[4wheeledstool]

After searching for a correct spring compressor for some time, I decided to try and rebuild my front suspension without one. Someone on the Retro Rides forum said it was possible to do it with the threaded bar and hooks type tool - I can tell you, after 6 hours struggling, modifying tools, and more struggling - it is not. Lowering springs could be compressed enough, but not the standard length ones. If anyone has the correct tool, I'd be incredibly grateful if I could borrow/hire it. I just can't fathom a way of doing it without fabricating a copy of the original tool. This would obviously cost a lot more time.

[John F]

Coil spring compressors are dirt cheap, just do a search for them on ebay.

[4wheeledstool]

Nothing available for sale is of any use - it needs a specific tool. I'll put up a picture of one later.

[4wheeledstool]

The upper wishbone stops any spring compressor designed for a McPherson strut from being any use.

 

 

The spring needs to be compressed onto the bottom arm, then the arm and spring are fitted together as one unit with the compressor. When the ball joints are done up, the compressor is removed.

 

[plasticvandan]

Ratchet strap?

[4wheeledstool]

Ratchet strap?

Thought about that, but don't see how I can keep the spring squarely on the arm whilst ratcheting?

 

Got some painted pieces back today, so I plonked the wings on for a look -

 

 

 

They'll have to go back for rectification though, there's a couple of places where the paint has been polished right through on the top edge that faces the bonnet.

 

The doors aren't too bad, just need to finish off the polishing when they're back on the car.

 

 

[michael1703]

I can't see why you couldn't use standard spring compressors on that spring

[danthecapriman]

Blue is the colour! That looks amazing.

[4wheeledstool]

I can't see why you couldn't use standard spring compressors on that spring

When the spring is in place, the top wishbone comes down either side of the spring. A standard spring compressor would prevent the top wishbone from being fitted - and the top wishbone has to be in place to do up the upper and lower ball joints to the hub carrier. Basicly, the upper wishbone, and lower arm are both in the way - if a standard spring compressor would do the job, it'd have been done months ago.

[purplebargeken]

No-one in the Vauxhall lickers club got one to lend?

 

Tis a bit of a ball ache.

[4wheeledstool]

Blue is the colour! That looks amazing.

Cheers! Should be half decent once the polishing is finished.

No-one in the Vauxhall lickers club got one to lend?

 

Tis a bit of a ball ache.

Someone in the club has one, and has offered to lend it to me, but has lent it to someone who he can't contact to get it back. The offer to lend it to me was made in February, and I'm still waiting! It's gonna get to a point in the next month or so when it becomes a proper ball ache. I could smash it together with brute force, pry bars and other pikey techniques, but it would make painting all that stuff up nicely utterly pointless. I'd really like to avoid such desperate measures!

[agw9262]

It doesn't look like something you couldn't knock together given the skill and ingenuity you've shown to date. Little fabrication, welding etc with some plate and threaded rod and I think you could have something knocked together.

 

 

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[4wheeledstool]

It doesn't look like something you couldn't knock together given the skill and ingenuity you've shown to date. Little fabrication, welding etc with some plate and threaded rod and I think you could have something knocked together.

 

 

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I've already made plans to make one, a mate has offered to help. Threaded bar, nuts, flat pieces of steel and steel tubing are all available. What I'm not so sure about is steel rod to make the hook parts out of. It's easy enough to shape the rod, but I don't know if it'll keep the required shape, or straighten itself when the full force of the spring is bearing on it.

[agw9262]

Any chance of using a pre threaded hook eg http://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-hook-shield-anchors-m10-x-115mm-5-pack/39991

 

 

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[4wheeledstool]

Any chance of using a pre threaded hook eg http://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-hook-shield-anchors-m10-x-115mm-5-pack/39991

 

 

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It's a possibility, but I'll probably need to make them to get the shape right.

 

Made a start on the roof earlier - using paint stripper to take the blue paint off, then I'll hit it with the poly abrasive disc to remove the primer and rust.

 

[Pillock]

I've already made plans to make one, a mate has offered to help. Threaded bar, nuts, flat pieces of steel and steel tubing are all available. What I'm not so sure about is steel rod to make the hook parts out of. It's easy enough to shape the rod, but I don't know if it'll keep the required shape, or straighten itself when the full force of the spring is bearing on it.

 

Make the hooks longer, and then something like a jubilee clip around them below the coil once they're on to stop them unfolding?

[vulgalour]

1970s Alfas (and probably older) have similarly horrible front springs and you can get a variety of tools to sort it out.  The one Mike persuaded me to use was essentially three long threaded bars through two plates that compressed the whole arm and spring assembly together to aid fitting and removal.  Worked quite well but there was an element of fear because it felt like it'd take out an eye at a moment's notice.  It didn't, I still have both eyes.  This is the only illustrative picture I've found online, I don't think I took any when we did the job.  I'm not sure how useful this would be for your application, but instead of hooks onto the springs you can see the nuts on the bar above the bottom spring pan.  As the threaded bar was wound in you could put a second nut on to lock it all in place as you compressed.  Slow going, but it does work.

 

[michael1703]

Alfa springs are about a millionty lb's of pressure too,deadly things

[vulgalour]

Indeed!  When we'd done the threaded bars had all stretched, even though we were advised they wouldn't, so couldn't be reused.

[dollywobbler]

And to think, folk are scared of Citroen hydraulic suspension. Spring compressors give me serious fear. I'll stick to green blood.

[4wheeledstool]

McPherson struts never looked particularly appealing until recently!

 

This is the reason all the exterior paint has to come off -

 

 

Most of the roof, boot lid and the top half of the door skins had blistered. The roof is definitely the worst affected panel - the doors and boot lid didn't show much blistering, but there was lots of little rust spots under the paint that hadn't yet made it to the surface. If the doors, boot lid etc. had been painted without stripping right back first, it would have blistered through the new paint soon enough.

[purplebargeken]

Bare metal was the only sensible option, but think of how good it is now and how long it will continue to look good for

[twosmoke300]

Alfa springs are about a millionty lb's of pressure too,deadly things

Glad I'm not the only one to find this . I changed a spring on a 147 I think it was and almost had to have it cool bound to get the top nut on . I was pretty clenched I can tell you !

[4wheeledstool]

Wednesday saw everything covered in plastic sheeting to prepare for the shitstorm ahead -

 

 

Thursday I stripped the scuttle panel back -

 

 

Today was mostly about getting half of the roof back to the metal - stripping the top coat off with paint stripper first means that I don't put as much heat into it, so there is a lot less chance of warpage -

 

 

I'll probably be at this most of the weekend.