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How Geoff managed to find so much time to help me with Lucie and do as much as he has on 35 this month is any ones guess. Over to Geoff:
Well to start the month off the right way a lady knocked me off my push bike so I ended up with two sprained wrist and pulled shoulder as well as cut to the knee and ankle. My bike came better off with just a broken light. The daft thing is I never thought to take her details D’oh, still I am getting better now.
35 has had some work done to him though even though I have this horrid thought in the back of my head that he won’t be finished in time.
My drive shaft came back from Ericks repair from having it metal sprayed. The bearing now fits like a glove so there should be no problems there now, so the only damaged now is the torque twist on the one end though this cant be repaired so if it ever breaks then its going to be a £300 bill to have a new one made. The Axle casing and shafts as well as the bearings from Midland Bearing were taken over to Transline and they pressed the bearings into place for me so the only task now is to put the axle back together and have the brakes lined which means the axle is finished.
The two rotten chassis rails have now had there repair sections welded on and as before I have ground the weld on the outside flat and reinforced the joint by welding a plate on the inside over lapping about four inches each side.
The fuel tank was the next thing that I turned my attention to and left the cap on and placed it in my shot blasting cabinet. The tank came up well and showed a massive repair to the bottom of it. All I can think is that fuel was left in for a long time and the just rotted though the same way it had on my motor bike tank when I got it. Still am not to worried about this as I intend to get a tin of Petseal to line the tank and take care of any small holes the repair that had been done may show up. I will wait before putting it in though as I also want to use some of it to line the oil tank when its been made as the corners will be welded and this will seal the tank as well as protect the steel.
One cool thing that I noticed when cleaning the tank is that the fuel cap is made of brass. Digging my polisher out I then polished the cap up so it was nice and shiny. Then when cleaning in side I found a makers name “CEAN DESS Ltd Wolverhampton”. I have e-mailed them as they still make parts today to see if they can do a service kit for the fuel cap as the seal is well passed its sell by date. There is more news on this coming next month.
Lots of other small parts have been cleaned up now and received a coat of Red oxide to protect them until I apply the top coat. All the bolts have been tagged and amounts logged so these will be taken over to the bolt place to be identified as I am hoping to replace all 35’s bolts as some of them are well shot.
Still back to cleaning and painting and all going well 35 will have enough parts ready then so I can start the process of building him back up, and boy am I looking forward to that.
Don’t forget to check out www.35reliant.co.uk and have a look at our wants list and if you can help then please get in touch. As of from this month no company that I buy off now will be mentioned in the rebuild only those that support 35 with there products or time. I feel this is a better way for those companies that want to help to stand out better.
Thanks for reading
Catch you next month
Geoff
Geoff Payne. March 2010
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