Stripping the Donor !!

November 15th

All the loom is now in the middle of the car, next thing is to pull the whole lot up through the fuse box hole. Finally got all the loom out and into a cardboard box, I did notice a couple of my labels have fallen of,,oh dear...

Now I went round the car, picking up any nuts, bolts and cable clips I could find, removed the seat belts in case I could sell them and pulled all the rubber trim off the doors. The Sierra was looking very bare now, time to call the scrappy and get the shell towed away.

After phoning around all the scrap dealers, only one would agree to collect the car. The cost was £40 and they could come whenever I wanted. Right time to get the Sierra shell out to the bottom of the drive ready for pickup.

I thought I would have a go at moving the shell on my own, (stupid when you think about it !), anyway I took the engine hoist around to the back of the car and lifted it off the axel stands. Then around to the front and put the trolly jack under the front of the car, (using a 4"x4" beam across the underside of the body).

Jacked up the front and pushed... hey presto the shell moved, the engine hoist was quite happy to be 'pushed' along with the shell. All was going well until I cam to the slight slope in my drive, the whole lot started to run away from me!, luckily the trolly jack slipped from under the front, dropping the front down and acting as a brake. The shell ended up stopping in just the right place.

November 17th

Mr scrappy arrived on time but could not maneuver around enough to get the back of the lorry facing up my drive. We then came up with the idea of hooking one of the chains from the lifting arms around the back of the shell and dragging it out onto the road. All went well until the shell slid to one side and hooked itself around my fence !. Mr scrappy heard me shouting just in time to stop my fence and gate ending up in the road.

Once the shell was in the middle of the road, (much to the annoyance of the traffic), it was no problem loading onto the lorry. I took my eye off the operation just long enough to miss the shell tilting just enough to empty the contents of the washer bottle down my back.

Right next job is to clean up the donor parts now I have my garage space back. I decided to start on the rear subframe assembly first so I used paint thinners to clean the oil and gunk off , removed both half shafts and cleaned up the diff. The parts actually cleaned up well, I also decided to replace the half shaft rubber boots and diff oil seals.The rubber boots can be replaced without removing the 'metal' can and cv joint. I used 'stretchy' rubber boots from partco which just stretch over the can with the aid of special lubricant and a plastic cone. (like the ones they use in hospital to stretch your anus after a piles operation, or so I have been told).

Well it's the end of the day now, I'm off to the Exeter Kit Car Show tomorrow, so painting will have to wait until next week.

24/11/01

Great day last week at the Kit Car Show, the Robin Hood Stand was quite good with the demonstrator on show, and the kit laid out beside the demonstrator. Seeing the kit made me realise how big the chassis is, and how many bits there are in the kit!.

Got down to painting all the bits today. I have not used Hamerite as in my opinion it chips to easily, so instead I have opted for Tractoll synthetic enamel from Hinckley Valtones. I covers very well and dries to a very glossy finish just like Hamerite but is slightly softer and more flexible. However it does need a primer, but the primer only take 30 mins or so to dry.

I have been painting the parts on the garage floor, funny how the dog never wants to pay you any attention until you have a lot of wet bits all over the floor. He very carefully steps over the wet painted parts, but forgot about his big bushy tail dragging behind all over my bits !!. He is now a Border Collie with more black than he used to have.

25/11/01

Still painting the bits.. I have removed all ancillary components from the engine and painted those red, i.e. water pump, thermostat housing, cam cover. The rocker box is blue, the block/head painted with high temp black enamel. Painted the gearbox black, the diff black half shafts red and the rear brake drums red. The front calipers are also red and the bottom strut black.

Off to Partco now to pick up gaskets set, clutch kit, and cam belt. Next weekend is the last weekend before I pick the kit up so I hope to reassemble the rear suspension, clean the garage up a bit and make room for the kit. Before I assemble the rear end I intend to replace the oils seals in the diff and the 4 rubber boots at each end of the drive shafts. To save stripping down the CV joint I have purchased some special 'stretchy' rubbers which with the aid of a cone and some grease can be slid over the 'can' .

01/12/01

Everything painted up and ready for delivery of the kit next Saturday. In the picture below the engine has had the old manifold re-fitted just to keep any crap out until the RHE 4 into 1 is fitted. The EFI Plenum chamber has yet to be fitted as I am in the process of 'lowering' the plenum chamber as per D Wilsons instructions. The engine also still has the original sump, I have modified a spare as per the instructions on the ROHCAR web page, build tips.

The picture below shows the rear sub-frame assembly just before the second trailing arm is re-assembled into the diff. Notice the modified Robinson's squash bottle used as a 'cone' to slide the new rubber boot over for the drive shaft end. You can get a proper cone for the job but it costs £10 plus VAT, so being a bit of a skinflint I used a 95p squash bottle.

In an effort to make as much room as possible for the kit, I have built a platform above the up-and-over door of my garage, it's quit full already!.

This is the last update for the donor area, the story now continues in the Collection Day area. Then on to the build diary for December.