Brooklands August

Its been a long time since the last update, but we're all entitled to a holiday and we've just had ours.
before we went I had to tidy up the garage and mounted the engine on a stand. This was not as easy as it
sounds as the stand is for car engines, which typically have wider flywheel apertures. With a bit of
lateral thinking I got it on there. I also

Got back from holiday two parcels, one with the cylinder heads (with recut exhaust threads and closed
up pure air system inlets) and the other with the panels which has been bead blasted. All of the work
looks to have been done well so I have all the bits I need now to start puttingt eh engine together.

As regards the 2CV strip it is all getting painful now, as every job is either awkward or needs some
special tool - if I added up the prices of all the special tools it come to over Ł250, which is a lot of cash
for something that will be used once or twice only. Anyhow, today I removed all of the arms from the
beams and whilst I managed to remove the rear hub nuts, the bearing locking rings are completely locked
solid. I tried making up a tool to shift them out of 20mm bar I had lying around, but it just bent! In the
end I retired hurt. In additon where patches have been welded to the chassis, the beam retaining bolt
locking tabs have been welded into place. so it was back to Scotties for angle grinder disks.

Tomorrow I intend to get the kingpins off the front arms, try again to remove the locking rings, cut the
spring canisters and then look at starting the refurb. I also need to think about how to dispose of the
chassis.

Another day at the coalface :-)) Today was a milestone in that I finally cleared the chassis aso that it
can be got rid of (not sure how yet though). I removed the three beam retaining bolts that I could, and
then used the angle grinder to cut through the remaining 5 bolts and the tubes on the chassis that they
run in just above the head. The beams then lift off with enough shank left to "coerce" them out.

I tried removing the kingpins from the front hub/arm assembly, but a drift and hammer didn't make any
impression, so in the same way as the rear hubs, I left it until I get advice or somesuch.

Finally for the day I cut the spring canisters and removed the springs. Only issue here was that the pre-
delivery manual said cut 250mm from the front end of the canister, this resulted in cutting through the
spring cup where the friction material was. On the second canister I cut 235mm and that went fine.

Below is a photo showing what parts I have obtained and the remains of the car - compare it with early
July!

A long time since the last update, mainly because I have been abroad working, and some family issues have
taken precedence for a while. However, I have made some progress this weekend. Fiestly, I have cut up
the donor 2CV chassis so that it can be carted away, this also give me much more working room.

The second main problem I was struggling with was removal of the rear drums, removal of front and rear
wheel bearings, removal of the kingpins so that the stub axle can be seperated from the suspension arm,
and disconnection of the steering arms at the rack.

For anyone that is trying this, I only have one word of advice. Don't try and struggle with lashed up tools,
get the proper tools. I spent several hours fruitlessly, and in the end posted a message on the Pembleton
Forum asking for help. I was pointed towards Graeme Seed of 2CVTools. Believe me, if there is a special
tool, he has it. He agreed to hire me some tools as I only need them twice (hopefully), once to strip, second
time to build. As he was at the 2CVGB rally near to where I live, I agreed to pick them up from there on
Friday evening, which I did.

So, on Saturday morning I started. With the right tools, the jobs were quick, but the haynes manual isn't
really descriptive enough, so I have added my observations here. This is how I did it, I can't take any
responsibility for anyone who follows this though, I can only state that it worked for me.

By the end of the day I had finished all of the disassembly and was starting to clean up the resulting items.
After much elbow grease, Jizer, water and a drill mounted wire brushes, I has got the crud and rust off
the hubs, steering arms, hubs and back axle and treated them with anti-rust treatment. The suspension
arrnms were clean, but were covered in a rubber like paint, which was patchy and a sod to remove, so as I
know someone who does bead blasting and coatings, I'll entrust these to him.

On Sunday I cut up the chassis, and primed the items I had treated on Saturday. I also drove up and
returned the tools to Graeme.

I have to say that this part of the build is more of a grind than a pleasure, as you are constantly fighting
against grit, dust and grease. I made a conscious decision to finish all of the strip before starting re-
furbishment to try and limit this, but it is only partially successful. I won't do any topcoat until everything
is primed.

One last point here. However many various sized jars, pots and tubs you have, it won't be enough. There
are lots of screws, bolts and widgets which need to be stored together e.g. offside rear brake shoes and
assembly, and get a couple of those square plastic tubs used by gardeners - they are a couiple of inches
high and 3 foot square (or a metre), I don't know what gardeners do with them, but they are great for
cleaning parts in.

Another weekend arrives. I haven't been able to get anything done this week as I've been working abroad,
and that knocks onto the weekend as I have lots of perosnal admin to do, which would normally be done in
the week.

However, This weekend I have managed to prepare the suspension arms for the bead blasters. We have
agreed that they will be zinc coated and then primed, but I will do the painting as I want it to match all of
the other bits. As well as that, I managed to get the front uprights, driveshafts and brake drums stripped,
degreased, de-rusted and rust treated. It doesn't sound like much, but doing all of this right took most of
Saturday afternoon. Interestingly, I can see progress now as major items are moving from the "pile of
grease" side of the garage to the "cleaned and primed" side of the garage.

I'll put more photo's up next time - hopefully it will include some nicely finished suspension arms.