Busy day again and got stuck in to something that I was worried about doing but knew I had to get it fixed and that is the removal and making of a new scuttle.
What got me finally to do it was the difficulty in removing the windscreen wiper drives, I could not undo the nuts without the whole drive turning and bending the drive shaft, and it was next to impossible to get a grip on it from underneath. So before I resorted to a hacksaw on the nuts I decided to get the scuttle off and try to get access, this still turned out to be an impossible task so the hacksaw came out.
There are a few things to remove to allow the scuttle to come out, firstly and the easiest was the battery box, the fuse box lifts, turns and drops through the hole so that was easy. The bonnet stops unscrewed and that left just the windscreen wiper motor.
The scuttle has a dozen cracks in it, mostly where the bonnet hinges are bolted on, where it is all broken into pieces.
The motor drive is kept on with a circlip on the cog and a nut where the drive tube enters.
After undoing the nut and removing the circlip the drive pulls off and the whole motor can be lifted from the car, undoing the electrics first.
I also removed the drive arm and fitted it back on the motor as no doubt when I come to refit it, it will have disappeared.
The drive tube fits through a nice tight hole in the scuttle which was probably put through from the outside and the wiper drives slide on and tightened in position, unfortunately I can't get to them so I just cut the plastic and slide the tube through the slit. I was also unwilling to attempt to remove the plug from the power lead, so a hole was cut and the plug pushed through.
It is surprisingly rust free underneath after 26 years, just a few odd bits here and there that where easily sanded clean.
I was now able to get a grip of the drive underneath with a pair of mole grips but the nuts still refused to come off so as Terry B suggested I took a hacksaw to them and off they came.
Once the cut was made the nuts turned of easily.
Terry also suggest S-V-C as having spares nuts, they also have nice chrome outer bezels and chrome jets so when I call about the nuts I shall order new chrome parts.
The wiper drives pushed through the holes and the mechanism easily pulled out along with the jets.
Once all out I got busy wire brushing and sanding the frame work and giving it a good clean before painting.
I have just returned from the sheet metal shop where I took the scuttle, I am having it bent in 1mm galvanised steel. I don't expect the metal shop to take there time and get it to fit perfect especially as they don't have the car to test fit. So I am only having them do 3 bends, the front bend and the 2 at the back.
I shall then slit both sides where it drops for the hinges and fill in the sides, when all welded I'll have it powder coated and fingers crossed it will look the part, if not I shall repair the original and put that back but that's for next time home
See ya Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment