Robin Hood Series 3a week 6

I am starting to see some real progress on the build now that I have taken the donor off the road and started to strip out the bits I need. I took the car out on Thursday Friday and Saturday for runs for the last time, and to keep me going till I get back on the road. Stripped the front suspension  out on Sunday and got it stripped , cleaned and painted  ready to be fitted on Monday. I still have some strengthening to do on the front mountings  but I am waiting for some stainless plate  to do this so I have fitted the front suspension but left parts loose that I need to remove to fit the plates, I have four plates to make with five holes in each all exactly the same to bolt the mounts together, a job for a wet day.

Last week I got the two sheets of plate to make the rear suspension mounting plates, the original plates had rusted away due to the shell being left outside for many years but there was enough left to allow me to mark out on the plates the position of the holes and where to cut and bend the 3mm plate, how well I have done I will find out when I come to put the rear axle in.I am finding that some of the bolts on the old car have been converted to metric so i am having to re-drill mounting points which were in imperial sizes, just to add to the fun.

Tuesday I removed the rear beam from the old car in one piece everything was working fine on it so it was just a case of giving it a good wire brush and a coat of new paint, did the top of the beams while it was off the car thinking it will be easier to do the bottom when it is on the car. Removed the old Sierra rear springs and the nylon strap that stopped them falling out on full suspension travel, and got the axle lined up ready to fit once the paint dried on Wednesday. On Wednesday I had to move the supports on the car to give room to get the axle into place, then I had a few attempts to get it into place with the axle balanced on my trolley jack. The axle mounts through two holes in the floor,r and has to be the correct angle horizontally and vertically on both sides for it to fit through  the holes, so it required a bit of time to get it into position, and then it started to rain !. I managed to get it after a while, and got the shockers bolted up, and loosely put two bolts into the diff mount,I still need some longer bolts for the diff mounting as i am adding strengthening to the boot floor.. so after that I was soaked through so that was it for the day