Liesl phase 2: Suspension and Underbody

[Tommy]

Good work, but I think most of us are already waiting for part 3, re-ceylon-ification! ?  Such a great color.

[NYNick]

20 hours ago, mvliotta said:

Been spending a couple of hours here and there tearing down suspension, sending out parts for sand-blasting and considering scope. 
 

Let’s start with the underside...

A mix of shutz, dirt, grime and surface rust. Luckily nothing serious. Not sure to what extent I’m going to clean up underside. Some here have gone with the approach of going down to metal and brushing underside with body color, which is both appealing and daunting at the same time. If i’d take that route, I would take the plunge and do it in Ceylon. Would do this in anticipation of going back to the original color (hopefully next year) even though the car is currently silver. Regardless, not looking forward to this part of the project. 
 

Also, with a long winter ahead and not much planned, I’ve decided to increase scope to address fuel pump, pedal box, master/slave brake components, etc., etc.. Might even think about brushing part of hard-to-reach engine bay and replace insulation....we’ll see.

 

The good news is that the suspension parts I sent out for blasting and epoxy priming came back looking great! Plan to paint these up with Eastwood chassis paint and slosh some POR15 around in the boxed trailing arms

More on suspension considerations later...

 

Vince

 

 

 

 

Vince,

I'll address the pedal box, fuel pump, slave cylinders and insulation. As an aside: see all those brake and fuel lines in your picture? I replaced everything, even that hard fuel line in the left corner of your picture. I have extra lines if you want/need.

 

Ah, the pedal box! Take a bunch of pictures before from all angles and order the bushing replacement kit from Blunt. Clean her up, paint and reassemble. A little fiddly, but no problems. I also installed the foam insulation afterwards. There's controversy on whether to do so, and it was difficult to do after the box was back on, but I got it on. I also taped up the access holes with aluminum tape beforehand.

 

Replace the slave cylinder. Might as well.

 

I removed the old grungy fuel pump and went with an in-tank pump. There's some pros and cons to doing so, and some cover plate mods for the gas tank, but I like having it not exposed to the elements.

 

I insulated the engine bay before reinstalling the engine. I used EZCool since I had a bunch left over. Came out fine.

 

I'll be home his week and quarantining for 2 weeks, but after that maybe I'll take a trip down to see you.

 

Nick

[mvliotta]

Well, I took the plunge and started taking off the rubber undercoating everywhere. A schutzy job. 
 

I found that a heat gun and a variety of plastic and metal scrapers are your friends.
 

In some cases, the undercoating came off easily in sheets once heated, leaving behind a rubbery residue. This was especially true where the surface underneath was smooth and the Schutz was thick enough. 

Goo Gone spray cut right through the residue. Where protected by the rubber, the underbody was in great shape. You could see the cream colored primer, with just a touch of original overspray here:
 

 

The wheel wells were harder because of the textured surface underneath from the factory. Where it did come off in sheets revealed pristine Ceylon over original Schutz!

 

This paint hasn’t seen the light of day in almost 50 years. 
 

About 80% of the way through. From the multiple bins of rubber I peeled off, I would say the car is 15lbs lighter already. ?

Once I get it all off and sand and treat surface rust, will make a plan to paint the underbody.

 

Oh yeah... also decided to drop the engine and trans and prep/paint the engine bay, while I’m at it....What else is there to do in winter during lockdown??

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by mvliotta

[NYNick]

Nice job! I'd bet that undercoating weighs more than 15lbs! Just the soundproofing I took off the floor of the inside of the car weighed 19!

Leisl's getting the full spa treatment!

[pjp90]

Brings back memories of going at the interior soundproofing with a heat gun on a hot summer day 30+ years ago on my first race car.  
 

keep at it Vince.  Winter is still a month away so you have plenty of time!

 

[mvliotta]

Well, I’m officially down the rabbit hole. 
 

Baby is in the corner

 

With the engine out and brake lines out of the way, is there an *easier* way to remove pedal box and brake booster?

 

Both will be coming out 

 

Vince

Edited December 19, 2020 by mvliotta

[NYNick]

No. I just took lots of pictures and dug in not knowing what the hell I was doing. 

And all those brakes lines must go as well. 

[mvliotta]

Ok, easier than I thought...slide accelerator lever through box, undo two clips and unbolt stuff...

 

[mvliotta]

Seems like I’ve been removing, scraping, sanding, prepping for weeks and still have a ways to go. 

 

Including engine bay and related areas has added lots of scope and some questions...
 

There are 5 clips holding the main wiring harness in the bay. Four are pictured here. Should these be plated or are they body colored?

What do the headlight assemblies and buckets originally  look like? Were they plated?

I have lots of overspray in the spaces surrounding heater fan. What did these look like originally?

And finally, the bottom of the nose is somewhat....tortured. Any good refs of what this profile should be?

 

 

[PaulTWinterton]

4 minutes ago, mvliotta said:

There are 5 clips holding the main wiring harness in the bay. Four are pictured here. Should these be plated or are they body colored?

 

Silver plated.

 

8 minutes ago, mvliotta said:

I have lots of overspray in the spaces surrounding heater fan. What did these look like originally?

 

Metal is body color.  Deadening material on angled surface and backside of firewall is black.

[NYNick]

Help him Lassie! He's fallen down the well!

[Conserv]

Hey, Vince,

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

 

[mvliotta]

11 hours ago, Conserv said:

 

Hey, Vince,

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Exactly what I was looking for, Steve! 
 

Also, found a pic of the nose bottom to guide in straightening that out. 

[mvliotta]

The snow and cold of the last month has zapped my motivation to go out to the garage, so had to bring my operation down to the basement....albeit at a slower pace. 
 

Set up a well-ventilated painting nook and with my respirator got to work using a variety of paints depending on the job..mostly 2k primer, Eastwood chassis black, and in some case good ‘ol rattle can. Included a couple of spares while I was at it...

 

Warming up next week, so back to the garage to finish the sanding, grinding and prepping of the engine bay and surrounding areas. 

[NYNick]

Looking good Vince, and very familiar!

Keep going, Spring is coming soon!

Nick