Outa the shed, in the shed and on the bench.

[lo203404]

On the bench: All the bits cleaned up so it's time to put the rear end all back together. First up, repack the wheel bearings with grease, brake backplates (L&R) in the correct position, gaskets and gasket goo to go and slide the axles down the tubes, being careful not to damage the oil throwers as they go in. little bit of oil around the rim of the bearing, move the axles back out a little and warm the bearing end of the tube up a fracko immediately before using the press to push the cold axle bearing home into the tube. With the axle assemblies up on the bench, tighten up the backplate nuts. Almost need a hoist to lift the diff housing up onto the bench, comes in at almost 25 kilos. Shout the diff a new worm seal while at it. Certainly won't break an axle in a commercial when you compare the worm spline to the axle spline,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

On the bench: All the bits cleaned up so it's time to put the rear end all back together. First up, repack the wheel bearings with grease, brake backplates (L&R) in the correct position, gaskets and gasket goo to go and slide the axles down the tubes, being careful not to damage the oil throwers as they go in. little bit of oil around the rim of the bearing, move the axles back out a little and warm the bearing end of the tube up a fracko immediately before using the press to push the cold axle bearing home into the tube. With the axle assemblies up on the bench, tighten up the backplate nuts. Almost need a hoist to lift the diff housing up onto the bench, comes in at almost 25 kilos. Shout the diff a new wormView attachment 230767View attachment 230768View attachment 230769View attachment 230770View attachment 230771View attachment 230772 seal while at it. Certainly won't break an axle in a commercial when you compare the worm spline to the axle spline,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

On the bench: Next up is the connection of the axles / tubes to the diff housing. New gaskets with gasket goo at the ready with a slight smear on the shims to hold them in position as the tubes are slipped on and the 6 nuts on each are nipped up. Feel check on spin resistance of the axles. Gasket goo on the worm seal bearing plate to the housing. All being well with the crown taper roller bearings and also the worm thrust bearings after the pull down and total clean, everything should be good to go. Throw the assembly back into the wheelbarrow and back to the car. Off the wheelbarrow to the ground and prior to hooking up the torque, a big dob of sticky grease up the spline slot of the prop shaft and don't forget it's tension spring! Re connect the torque tube, then its tie rods and leaf springs. Then the big push back under the car to re connect the leaf springs to the body and shockys to the axle tubes. Chain under the tube back through the mid jacking points to keep the torque tube up off the deck,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

In the shed and on the bench: While the biceps were still in the mood for lugging around diffs, and the bench was clear, time to tackle 1135478's rear end. Pretty well same routine as per 1601811, in terms of disconnecting from the body and torque tube. Then, up onto the sawhorses and axles out and put to one side for a bearing flushout. The complete housing with trumpets goes onto the bench with tray under to catch any lumpy bits that might decide to drop out. Grab the wintertime 'Vulcan' feet warmer and put it to work under the flared end of the trumpet and hang about with a water filled eyedropper and the persuader. Go by the book on the temperature and sure enough off she pops,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

Same heat treatment with the opposite trumpet to free the crown wheel. Retrieve the shims, tag and bag them so there's no bugger ups on reassembly. As with the wheel on 1601811, this one shows plenty of pitting from most likely who knows what types of oils had been thrown in, in her previous life. The wheel casing bearings still in good nick after thorough flushing, no sign of abnormal wear. This particular wheel, being an early type has the bronze type thrust washers for the planetary gears and have lost very little of their original thickness, so the planetaries are still meshing well. Next item to be pulled out is the worm. Back plate off the casing and retrieve the shims. Remove the front seal plate, then the seal and worm depth plate. Same heat treatment trick on the casing to help on the release of the bearings from the casing,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

Same heat treatment with the opposite trumpet to free the crown wheel. Retrieve the shims, tag and bag them so there's no bugger ups on reassembly. As with the wheel on 1601811, this one shows plenty of pitting from most likely who knows what types of oils had been thrown in, in her previous life. The wheel casing bearings still in good nick after thorough flushing, no sign of abnormal wear. This particular wheel, being an early type has the bronze type thrust washers for the planetary gearsView attachment 232238View attachment 232239View attachment 232240View attachment 232241View attachment 232242View attachment 232243View attachment 232244View attachment 232245 and have lost very little of their original thickness, so the planetaries are still meshing well. Next item to be pulled out is the worm. Back plate off the casing and retrieve the shims. Remove the front seal plate, then the seal and worm depth plate. Same heat treatment trick on the casing to help on the release of the bearings from the casing,,,,,,,,

Outa the shed: With the casing now very well warmed up, it's a quick run out to the press to ease the worm out of the casing. Not much effort to nudge it out as there must be a shrink difference in heat transfer between the 2 metals, (don't understand any of this technical stuff), just follow what it says in the book. After cooling down it's back on the bench for the worm and a thorough flushing of the bearings to see how well they 'sing'. Horizontal and vertical spins still silky smooth so all good to go back in. Reverse procedure on the assembly, warming up the casing, then using the depth plate and worm seal plate to push the worm into it's position. Check the 'new' worm seal and push it back home. Gasket goo on the seal plate and tighten the 2 screws. Rear casing plate back on with it's shims. From this point it's re assembling the diff casing with the crown wheel in, back onto the trumpets. Apologies here, lost 4 or 5 images of that assembly, somewhere not to be found. When it's 1122625's turn for the diff tear down I'll be more diligent with where I put the images,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

Outa the shed: With the casing now very well warmed up, it's a quick run out to the press to ease the worm out of the casing. Not much effort to nudge it out as there must be a shrink difference in heat transfer between the 2 metals, (don't understand any of this technical stuff), just follow what it says in the book. After cooling down it's back on the bench for the worm and a thorough flushing of the bearings to see how well they 'sing'. Horizontal and vertical spins still silky smooth so all good to go back in. Reverse procedure on the assembly, warming up the casing, then using the depth plate and worm seal plate to push the worm into it's position. Check the 'new' worm seal and push it back home. Gasket goo on the seal plate and tighten the 2 screws.View attachment 232720View attachment 232721View attachment 232722View attachment 232723View attachment 232724View attachment 232725View attachment 232726View attachment 232727 Rear casing plate back on with it's shims. From this point it's re assembling the diff casing with the crown wheel in, back onto the trumpets. Apologies here, lost 4 or 5 images of that assembly, somewhere not to be found. When it's 1122625's turn for the diff tear down I'll be more diligent with where I put the images,,,,,,,,,

In the shed: All quiet at the coal face on this day, just waiting, (in my dreams) for some 'brand new' good bits to appear ! Have a good one Aussie froggers,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

In the shed: All quiet at the coal face on this day, just waiting, (in my dreams) for some 'brand new' good bits to appear ! Have a good one Aussie froggers,,,,,,,,,,,,View attachment 233045

In the shed and outa the shed: Rain hail or shine, time waits for no one so best get stuck into some more bits, these being body panels. After the blasting to remove all traces of rust and bog on the body panels of 1135478 and 1601811 it certainly unveiled a myriad of bogged up small dings around the perimeter and rust pitting on the horizontal surfaces of guards, turrets and bonnets. Not surprising, as these 2 cars had been open to the elements for who knows how long before being picked up and stored under cover. Many, many hours of filling then sanding back and the same again to get a smooth dent free surface for the next hit of undercoat prior to the finish coat,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

On the bench: Getting away from the spray gun for a little while, the interior of both 1135478 and 1601811 are the next interim day / night jobs to be done and looks like it's gonna be a bit of a challenge here and there. Main aim is to preserve/save parts of what's left to keep the look of originality and improvise on what's missing or too far gone and has to be made up from things that come to hand. First group of images is from 1135478. Front door trims have the usual saggy door pockets and water damage syndrome at their bottoms from the original Ormoniod impregnated paper 'raincoats', which had given up the ghost many moons ago. Gazillion mini shoe tacks that need to come out. Interesting to see the French trimmers of the day always left their 'moniker' on the parts that they put together; the numbers written in Crayon. Moths and Silverfish have had many good days and nights feasting on the hood lining. Front seats look like they have had a huge work out with plenty of big butt splash downs doing them no favours, as well as the usual dose of good old Aussie sun over the years to speed them up into their present condition,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

On the bench: Here's images of the trim belonging to 1601811. Similar / same scenario on all the pieces as per 1135478, water and sun damage. The front and rear seats luckily are still mostly intact barring X amount of stitching that has given up the ghost due to big bums and sun degradation, with the front bottom springs ready to poke one up the clacker. Hood lining will be a challenge as there was not a skerik left in the car to give a pattern to follow,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

On the bench: The vinyl door trims on early 203's were glued directly to the plywood door panels with some sought of contact adhesive of the day. Musta been a 'Sellys' product cause the vinyl certainly wasn't keen to peel off, even after 74 years, had to tease the worst one off very gently, only that one was removed to re sew and glue on some material where the 'rib' inserts pass through. Didn't want to risk any further damage to the vinyl on the other 3, so they were left attached to the plywood. Patching up the stitching on the lower parts of the other 3 to be done by hand. Put my trusty 1940 Singer to work on the rest of the sewing that needed to be done on that door trim. Then a case of cutting out all the dead plywood from the door trim boards and replace with healthy bits of stuff that came to hand (MDF off cuts). Good old 'Vulcan' feet warmer used to keep the vinyl supple enough to stretch the peeled off one back into its correct position over the plywood with a fresh lot of contact adhesive. Clamp up around the perimeter and also clamp to the bench while the adhesive is going off. For the Map pockets, tried this method (see image) before with much better results to hold them in nice and taught compared to the very ordinary original elastic bands. Possibly, a previous custodian might have been using the map pockets to store their Tinny's in, they were that stretched/flogged out. Anyway, still a stack of fiddly work to do and hopefully get these door trims looking reasonable enough to throw them back into 1135478,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

On the bench: Putting the Singer back to work on the Map pockets to re align them back into shape to fit neatly back into the cut outs in the door panels. Then the task of re glueing the vinyl after much teasing around the perimeters. Determined to keep the original trims, I trialed some 'magic' goo to fill in the torn and shrunken areas along the bottom sections, hoping this will give a reasonable result. Will find out once the goo goes off and the trims get a coat of their original colour back on. Amazing how good old aussie sun destroys the original colour of vinyl's and leather after X amount of years ,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Greenpeace]

Yes, and red colours are one of the worst.
The orangey/tan vinyl door trims in my DS had faded to pale gold by the time I got it.

 

[lo203404]

On the bench: Putting the Singer back to work on the Map pockets to re align them back into shape to fit neatly back into the cut outs in the door panels. Then the task of re glueing the vinyl after much teasing around the perimeters. Determined to keep the original trims,View attachment 238502View attachment 238503View attachment 238504View attachment 238505View attachment 238510View attachment 238507View attachment 238509 I trialed some 'magic' goo to fill in the torn and shrunken areas along the bottom sections, hoping this will give a reasonable result. Will find out once the goo goes off and the trims get a coat of their original colour back on. Amazing how good old aussie sun destroys the original colour of vinyl's and leather after X amount of years ,,,,,,,,,,,,

On the bench: Time to get 1135478's trims finished off after much buggerising around. They're back to their their original colour after re attaching the Map pockets with new 'elastic bands' to hold them nice and taught. Last trick for these is a decent set of raincoats on the back to hopefully stop any moisture from creeping in. Next job is a repeat session on the daggy trims off 1601811,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

On the bench: Here's images of the trim belonging to 1601811. Similar / same scenario on all the pieces as per 1135478, water and sun damage. The front and rear seats luckily are still mostly intact barring X amount of stitching that has given up the ghost due to big bums and sun degradation, with the front bottom springs ready to poke one up the clacker. Hood lining will be a challenge as there was not a skerik left in the car View attachment 235941View attachment 235942View attachment 235943View attachment 235944View attachment 235945View attachment 235946View attachment 235947to give a pattern to follow,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

On the Bench: All 4 original door trim backing panels were totally stuffed from top to bottom so forced to make up some new ones. 1601811's vinyl door trims have also been well tanned and beaten up by good old aussie sun and water damage along the bottoms, but same as 1135478's trims, determined to save them. A fair amount of sewing to do for the dress ribs under the vinyl, a repeat of 1135478, and also some new 'elastic bands' for the map pockets. Same trick with the feet warmer to help tease the trims that extra few millimeters around the perimeter. Give the contact adhesive a day to settle, then time to slide the Map pockets through the cut outs, glue on some holding cleats for the threaded mini curtain rod attaching rings, 1 more day for that glue to go off then screw in the attaching rings and hook the pocket into position. Another tricky little job to do, making up the arm rests, using a sedan one as a pattern,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[lo203404]

On the Bench: All 4 original door trim backing panels were totally stuffed from top to bottom so forced to make up some new ones. 1601811's vinyl door trims have also been well tanned and beaten up by good old aussie sun and water damage along the bottoms, but same as 1135478's trims, determined to save them. A fair amount of sewing to do for the dress ribs under the vinyl, a repeat of 1135478, and also some new 'elastic bands' for the map pockets. Same trick with the feet warmer to help tease the trims that extra few millimeters around the perimeter. Give the contact adhesive a day to settle, then time to slide the Map pockets through the cut outs, glue on some holding cleats for the threaded mini curtain rod attaching rings, 1 more day for that glue to go off then screw in the attaching rings and hook the pocket into position. Another tricky little job to do, making up the arm rests, using a sedan one as a pattern,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,View attachment 238946View attachment 238947View attachment 238948View attachment 238949View attachment 238950View attachment 238951View attachment 238952View attachment 238953View attachment 238954View attachment 238955

On the Bench: Little ol' Singer is getting no let up, having to make up front door pull straps using one off 1224108 as a pattern. Looks like someone is still a 'Weetbix' kid. These bits of supple cardboard certainly come in handy for making patterns. The tailgate is getting a slight facelift in terms of some trim, normally there is bugger all there. Both rear side glasses placed on the MDF board to be marked for cut out. After all the cut outs are done the 2 rear side sections need a little teasing for the sweep around the rear end. Once the 3 sections are checked for a good fit it's time for the trim fabric to be glued on,,,,,,,,,