1958 Series One
What
started as quick of a fettling in order to get USK up and running so I could
teach the kids to drive on some rough land has become more that a quick once
round with the spanners ............strange how this always seems to happen
I started by a few repairs to get it going again after standing on my drive for the last 18 months I cleaned the plugs , new points coil condenser then a quick fuel pump rebuild and finally a strip down of the Webber Carburetor and hey presto 2 days latter she burst into life although the handbrake was stuck on we managed to move her into the workshop in Low box .
As
the doorway is low I had to remove the hardtop and move my other series one
undergoing a
FULL restoration into the side of the workshop , a strip down of
the handbrake drum and mechanism freed of the brake . The we discovered we had
no foot brake due to corroded brake lines . I inspected the wheel cylinders and
of course the Bleed screws were broken on 2 wheels and seized on the others so a
rear brake strip down was called for
I was beginning to wonder have I started one of those jobs and decided to do the job right and started on a rolling restoration removing all the body work from the bulkhead backwards , as always with a vehicle this age getting everything undone and removed is a long process with plenty of WD40 and Brute force
As
the rear body began to come of I noticed that the rear chassis was unlike
anything I have ever seen before a glance through the parts and workshop manual
gave no clues , maybe it was a special ................... maybe it was rare .
Well all was revealed when it was removed at some time the rear chassis rails
must have rotted and someone had cut them off about 2 feet from the rear cross
member and replaced them with a very strong looking square section steel box
section , the repair is no too pretty but extremely strong
After much thought I have decided to leave the chassis as it is just to do any necessary repairs keeping the modified chassis after all I want a everyday usable vehicle and its has been perfectly serviceable in the past although I will tidy the join up ,
I am currently grinding all the rust of the chassis rails
...............which as anyone will know is a GREAT job after this I will treat
it with a rust killer and then give it a couple of coats of Bonda Rust primer
and then a few coats of Smoothrite
I have decided to use the new bulkhead that I bought for the other Series One , and also the gearbox which was a reconditioned one , the rear axle is removed and will undergo a rebuild with new bearings and wheel cylinders
I have started to cut out all the rotten metal and welding in NEW metal which is a quite rewarding if not a time consuming job . Again I am also having to remove some of the previous repairs as good metal has been welded over rust which is false economy as ALL rust needs to be cut out first otherwise it just speeds up the corrosion of the new metal
For a more detailed look at the chassis repairs follow the link at the top of the page
