Fatttty's FRP #401 - Underbody restoration and rebuild

[Fatttty]

Had all the parts sent off for blasting. They used a mixture of glass, soda and vapour depending on the material.

Ended up having pretty much everything done that had come off the car so subframe, ARB, wishbones, knuckles, hubs, manifold, gear link, mounts and steering rack.



Really pleased. Can get on with painting and powdercoating now. Should have some good updates in the next few weeks.

Alex

 

[Fatttty]

Had everything powdercoated. I can strongly recommend Protech Coatings in Wolverhampton if anyone locally wants anything doing. Great prices and superfast, all my parts were done within 24 hours!

Had my front subframe and wishbones done in a satin OEM black finish and had my knuckle steering joints and ARB done in a graphite grey to break things up a little.









Had the inside edges of the knuckles joints taped off so the bearings can be easily pressed back in. Will be off to my uncles engineering shop to have the bearings and bushes pressed back in.

Happy days, Alex

 

[Fatttty]

Pressed my bearings into the the knuckle joints and also pressed in the new Powerflex bushes into the wishbones.





Will be repairing my hub later this week too, had it welded last week and will get it on the lathe for turning down sometime in the next few days

Alex

 

[Fatttty]

Had all my bolts electroplated by the usual place I use. They did a top job as normal. I had spent about 3 hours cleaning them to ensure they would plate well and the finish would be good.

I had two batches done one in silver zinc (subframe, wishbone bolts etc) and another in yellow passivate for the smaller items, I like anything that's painted silver to be bolted with gold bolts to get a nice contrast and help break things up... I'm odd, I know!

Before -

And after -

 

[Fatttty]

More parts were sent for blasting. I think this is pretty much the last of my parts that needed stripping. Had the drive shafts, intermediate shaft, ABS rings, and a few power steering brackets done.









Also had my hubs back from being chemiblacked, opted for this finish as it has similar characteristics to powdercoat but you don't need to worry about masking off the spine or bearing faces as the finish does not add nay thickness to the surface material.

Very OEM looking-



And lastly I had the final part I needed to rebuild the driveshafts, the intermediate drive shaft bearing. Genuine Ford, found one on eBay brand new for a 'reasonable' price

 

[Fatttty]

Rebuild my hubs and steering knuckles. Really pleased with them, they look as good as new

 

[Fatttty]

I picked up my drive shafts from the powder coaters yesterday. Really pleased with them they did a great job as expected.

For those that don't know the FRP had one blue drive shaft (for the drivers / off side) and one black (for the passenger / near side) not sure why but that's how they came so wanting to keep things original I did the same.

Drive shafts; one blue, one satin black-



Intermediate shaft in satin black-



And a few power steering pipework brackets I had done-





Alex

 

[Fatttty]

Today I rebuilt my drive shafts, really pleased with how they came out. Fitted new CV joints, boots and clips all round.





Also fitted the big bearing to the intermediate drive shaft and got it fitted back to the short shaft ready to go back on the car

 

[Fatttty]

Finished the steering rack, got all the pipework refitted, fitted new rubber sleeves and clips and got it mounted back on to the front subframe.



Also fitted the ARB to the subframe, fitted with new powerflex bushes and new brackets and bolts.



So everything is fitted to the subframe and basically it is ready to lift back into place, a job for the weekend hopefully.



Before I piece it all back together again I couldn't leave the back of the engine filthy so I gave it a good degreasing and clean with a variety of small brushes, and a quick coat of enamel engine paint, it needs a second coat but you get the idea



Alex

 

[Fatttty]

Put my gear linkage back together, one less job to do tomorrow. Linkages were painted gold and fitted with new bolts, also got a new sponge insulator thing too.

 

[Fatttty]

So I managed to put the majority of the car back together today. Didn't take too many photos during but got a fair few once it was done.

Started by fitting the new ABS sensors to the hubs-





Got the last parts from out of my old room (car part storage room!) and checked what bolts they need.

Torque link bracket for the back of the gearbox-



Bracket that holds the manifold heat shield to the back of the engine-



Fitted those-



Then fitted drivesahfts, knuckle joints and hubs-



Fitted the wishbones back on the subframe so it was basically ready to lift into place-



Forgot to bolt the steering column so had to take it off again to do this grrrrr!

Subframe fitted-



Drop links done-





And finally calipers and discs back on-



Later in the week I'll torque up the hub bolts, double check everything and get the car lifted higher to make fitting the manifold easier.

That's all for now

Alex

 

[Fatttty]

Had a few hours on the Puma over the weekend and got a couple of little jobs out the way.

Fitted my new track rod ends, had these electroplated in silver zinc-



Fitted the brake pads, had the brake retaining plates mirror polished as well as the retaining bolts-



Got the manifold fitted, thought it would be a good time to take one last photo of the back of the engine before it gets hidden by the manifold forever. Like this photo as you can see the steering rack in place which is something I never even noticed before as it was so dirty-



And finally a bit more photo whoring with my new camera-





Alex

 

[Seg]

Bloody Hell. I am so jealous right now.

 

[red]

:twisted: That's immense. Nice work.

 

[RICHARD MANSFIELD2]

Hi,
I must say a fantastic rebuild, I am impressed.
Regards
Richard

 

[Fatttty]

Cheers guys, I got the car running last weekend and everything looks to be working as it should. Slight weep of oil from the gearbox but it did that before so I am not too worried, will torque up the bolts slightly and see if that resolves it.

Will hopefully get some better photos when it is out in natural light.

Still got a list of little jobs to go through and need to give everything a once over to check bolts are torqued up correct before she goes back on the road next month.

Can't wait!

Alex