rain & rust

Today and yesterday I set about fitting the slave front shockers to the shell. When I removed the original Armstrong shocks years ago I did it by undoing the top nuts not realising you can also remove them by unscrewing 2 nuts and 2 bolts that hold the strut cap to the body. This cap holds the whole spring/shock assy in place.

 The second hand parts I bought had the top caps in place so I decided to remove my originals and just bolt in the new units. To say my caps were rusty is an understatement but things always look worse when its wet and dark. I could hardly see what I was doing as there are no lights in the lock up and not much daylight coming in from outside but my trusty mobile phone meant I could take pics of hidden areas to asses the situation and also use as a light source.

Amazingly the nuts all came apart without anything shearing so the pronts are now on and the rears I fitted a few months ago. Next step is to fit the steering mechanism up front then tip the whole thing back on to solid ground and get it wheeled on to a trailer.

The rain coming in is truly depressing so it will be nice to get the shell to somewhere dry and get working on it.

Snap-On 1/22 single hex socket good fit on old nut

driver's side front strut bracket

passenger side strut bracket with old cap still in place underneath

underside of driver's side strut with top cap still in place

driver's side strut bracket with cap still in place

old cap after removal

underside of driver's side strut bracket after top cap removed

top of passenger side strut bracket after cap removed

passenger side front strut bracket after top cap removed

second hand 'slave' strut with top cap in place