Practically Classics Forum

The front torsion bars were next - with the offside one giving up easy to the puller and few well placed blows However the nearside torsion bar was very different story - it took nearly a day to release this - the nuts on the puller kept stripping despite heat being applied to each end of the bar locating socket it would not budge - I built a new tool to hold a long drift in place even with a decent sized sledge hammer the bar was going nowhere I was just about to call it day and had some thoughts on obtaining a hydraulic jaw that I could place between the the terminus of the main chassis rail at the front bulkhead and apply force to the suspension arm but with the remaining front suspension and steering now removed I could turn the suspension arm through to a point that I could just get a couple of dead blows with the sledge hammer on the arm without causing damage - would you guess it but third blow in and out it came.

Well a few more bits and we will have a bare shell - still some offside suspension once I rotate the tilter back (still the rear torsion bars to remove but I am not in rush to tackle these) Nearly bare shell status -That will be the easy bit done then - well any idiot can take things to bits - it is the repairs to the shell, mechanical rebuilding & paintwork where the hard work lays so here goes

The shell was rotated back to level The front of the shell was supported on a timber bearer and axle stands to enable the front tilter to be removed

The last few mechanical bits could now be removed - the front tilter was preventing the nearside lower suspension arm being withdrawn The torsion bar still requires removal from the arm but I have left it to soak in diesel for a few days Last few mechanicals from the front - steering box & upper suspension set up Stub axle & drum

The chassis tilter was also preventing access to a rust effected area on the offside inner wing as the bumper mounting (to which the tilter bracket was bolted to) required removal Difficult to veiw in the image but some very dubious welding had taken place previously - four skins of metal meet at this point and the tin worm always finds a suitable home at this location The box tube for the fresh air supply to the cabin was removed for ease of access In turn revealing several layers of rust trapped by poorly welded over plates

The area was templated (retriving pattens that I had retained from a previous Javelin project) Prior to the area being cut out

New sections were fabricated & trial fitted Then welded in to place The additional section is the bumper mounting reinforcing plate Which is spot welded, new holes were drilled for the bumper iron which was trial fitted - the larger hole is for the transfer of fresh air from the cowel to the air tube

Other minor areas of the inner wing were made good as required with some small areas of welding Along with this previous accident damage that can be seen on the swaging line of the diagonal panel of the inner wing The air tube required quite a lot of work and was quite thin - not supprising as this gets all the spray and debris from the front road wheel Nothing for it then I opted to fabricate a new one

Patterns taken and some time later A trial fitting - I fabricated the tube in 3 sections - the front fluted taper, the main straight section and the rear return - the latter section being sound on the old tube so I cleaned it up and reused it on the new one - once I was happy with the fit I welded the sections up together and cleaned them up - I still have to fabricate a back plate for the tube and spot weld it together - once complete it can all go back together

Very impressive stuff.

Nice welding/fabrication.