soda electrolysis start

With many of the engine components rusty from the years of being outside and the small issue of the fire I decided that I wanted to paint everything and make it as new. There are several ways to do this and sand blasting may be used on some of the components being powder coated but I wanted to try electrolysis to remove the rust from more delicate parts.

So here we have the first part subjected to soda electrolysis.

soda electrolysis uses water, tub, sacrificial metal, soda (Not baking soda but washing soda), 12v DC battery charger, any automotive unit can be used. With the positive connected to the sacrificial metal the negative on the part I wish to de-rust the rust will be drawn towards the positive.

Quite soon after connecting and switching on I could see the rust floating in the water which I will try an capture on the camera for later photos. Small bubbles are produced during the process, this is hydrogen being produced so performing this in an open space is a must.

Should take about 24 hours and then I will take another look

roof skin P2

Over the last few weeks the project had a little struggle mostly being with the roof skin, the part I was most concerned about, while cutting with the angle grinder the skin warped due to the heat, this has made me decide that I will tack the roof skin together and smooth it out. Once smooth the plan is to have a full carbon fibre roof skin made which will be as strong but will be lighter weight than the steel part.

Knowing the plan is now not to use a steel roof I am a little relieved but there is still lots of work needed.

The front section of one roof was cut and mated with the two sides, this helped to give me the shape and strength in the front of the roof

With the front section in I then looked at the side, as it stood there was 2 joins in the side, well 4 in total so I decided to remove the middle part and add a full length piece taken from a spare roof, this went in quite easily and helped with the shape.

Next I just tacked in some pieces to bridge the gap, this will be sorted later, as the roof skin will be smoothed, filled and a mould will be taken from it so strength is not important though the form will be

Well I hope to be able to get the other gaps filled quickly so I can start to filler and shape the roof.

LSD

With the evenings starting again to be longer, I was able to spend some time out in the shed working on the gearbox. The plan is a full over haul of all the seals, bearings, and cleaning of the internal ring magnet.

Once the gearbox was open I took the stock differential out, this is always a job I hate doing as holding everything still and achieving the torque level is difficult without an impact gun. In a short period the quaife limited slip differential (LSD) was installed into the final drive, however I could not do the bolts tights as I need to fetch my loctite 270 from the unit.

Skinning the roof P1

With the sun starting to appear and shine down on us and all my friends driving around in some very nice minis it really makes me want to finish this car and get it on the road. With that in mind I took the decision to work on my own in the unit so I have no distractions.

My aim was to pin the roof skin in place and also finish most of the grinding on the welds. however I could only grind them so far back because I had ran out of flap disks to achieve a good finish, never mind, something to do later.

Sat in the car with my angle grinder I started to smooth the welds back and tidy them up, I had been leaving this because I am not overly keen with the way the sparks seam to attack me within the car bouncing off the metal work back to me. After a short time I had the pillars ground back as far as I was willing to go with the coarse grinding disc, then to protect the metal work I gave it a quick coat of primer, this will be removed when I go over the metal work again to smooth it out with a flap disc.

With the majority of the grinding finished within the car and the majority of the body work finished I decided to go ahead and start placing the segments of the roof skin on the car. Using what I though was my large collection of mole grips I held the skin in place. As it happens I actually need many more grips...

With the roof skin held in place I then moved over to the spare roof skin. I have been advised on several ways to make the new roof, from filling the sections to building a glass fibre roof. The chosen method I have decided to go with is taking the main section of another roof and placing it in the centre and then filling the small areas, its still hours and hours of work but I think the roof skin will indeed keep its shape better this way.
With the plan firmly in my head I marked out the spare roof in the least curved section to keep the job simple or at least as simple as it can be.

I then proceeded to cut the panel out and then offer it on to the car, with it on the car I then marked out the sections and cut them to the same size and the panel.

 Once cut I used some nifty little holding devices call inter grips, I was advised to try them from an ex collogue and they are wonderful, I just underestimated how many I actually needed so in some of the photos the roof is still sagging. Not a huge issue because I still have a lot of moving about to get it perfect and I will order lots more of the grips to keep the skin in place. The strap is in the pictures because I ran out of inter grips...

Next I will be placing the skin on the roof for a perfect fit and will start to spot weld the skin together.
Until then take it easy.