Rust Removal (the kind 'eye' despise)

As you may have gathered from the tabloid-worthy pun, I have once again found myself with a small piece of shrapnel embedded in my eye! 

I am pretty down on myself for not following my own advice and allowing this to happen once again. Readers, please, always wear eye protection when doing metal work. Those minuscule metal filings will find a way to target in on your ballseye if you risk even the smallest task it without adequate PPE.

So, off to the eye hospital I went. The assessment swiftly concluded that I had a flake of metal just on the outside of my iris on my left eye. Anesthetic eyedrops administered, the doctor set about scrapping it out with a needle. It wasn't the vibrating one this time around, but still unpleasant nonetheless as you literally see everything:

Still have a follow up appointment tomorrow to pick out the remaining rust once the ointment helps move it all towards the surface. I appreciated the irony in the reason the doctor wrote on the appointment card 'rust removal':

Back on topic, and I shall give a little update on the endeavour that led to my unexpected trip to the emergency department... 

Mounted the spring clips into the brake backing plates by lightly filing away one edge to allow them to slip under the crimped points:

Added some 'weld through' zinc primer in between the surfaces to help mitigate against rust developing in between:

I was then able to plug weld them into position:

Using the Dremmel I dressed the welds flat (hello stupid metal filing!) and then ran them back through the shot blast cabinet to clean and key ready for paint:

Grease caps and front brake parts cleaned

Dug out the crusty front brake parts and split out into individual components ready for cleaning: 

Excavated the bits embedded within the compacted gunk inside the grease caps:  

Gave everything a thorough clean with the ultrasonic cleaner: 

Bearing thrust washers (top) and lock washers (bottom) were not in the best state:

These will be replaced along with the brake shoe retaining pins. However, everything else was in serviceable condition.

Ultrasonic cleaning and blasting brake parts

Ran the internal components of the rear brake drums through my ultrasonic cleaner (with the exception of the wheel cylinders and shoes, which will be replaced with new items). Used a dilution of UltraFX degreaser to help things along:

This was effective at getting the worst of the loose crud off and allowed me to to assess the serviceability of the individual parts. My conclusion was that most of the components could be reused; the pull-off springs, star adjusters and fasterners were in good order. I remember renewing some parts in yesteryear, so although they may be reasonably old I know that they haven't had that much road use. Other bits with light surface rust could be blasted and repainted as per standard:

Further dismantled the rear axle bearing covers by tapping out the oil seals and washers:

I could then mask the bearing covers in a uniquely 'creative' way; using recycled jar lids and felt-tip pen lids for the perfect fit:

...and gave them a blast along with a few other parts that were looking forlorn:

Fabricating spring clips (for rear drums)

Stripped down the rear drums, then bagged and tagged the components:

As I began to blast the scabby backing plates I noticed that something was amiss - the spring clips for the star adjusters were damaged and on one of them pretty much absent: 

I was able to drive out the damage remnants out of the slot using a flat-head screwdriver:

Aftermarket replacement spring clips are available, but I feel they are expensive for what they are (effectively a thin slip of steel with simple dimple pressings). Although perfectly functional, the repros are not an accurate copy of the original clips (not that this matters in the slightest, especially as the clips are hidden from view). So, more than saving a few pennies or obsessing over insignificant details, I saw this as an opportunity to do something I particularly enjoy; metal fabrication. As a fun excerise I wanted to create something with basic hand tools, but with the aim of having it look identical to the original item.

Trimmed and marked up some 22 gauge (0.75mm) steel:

Used a wide bolster chisel to form a step, using scrap bits of angle iron clamped in a vice to form around (an idea I must credit to Tony BMW over on the Retrorides forum);  

Turned the piece around and repeated the process to complete the desired indentation:

I then cut the piece into strips 10mm wide: 

To add the crucial pressings on the ends I needed to make a press tool. The simplest way I could think of was to round off the tip of an old nail that had the right diameter:

Matching it up against the remnant of the original showed that it was pretty much dead on:

I then opened the jaws of my bench mounted vice to the corresponding width of the nail, plus a small amount extra. I held the 'blank' steel piece in place using a welding magnet over the gap for the first initial taps:

After a few firm (yet gentle) blows with the hammer on top of the nail, I was able to work the indentation until it was at the required depth and then carefully planished over the curling ends to flatten them back out:

The finished spring clips as per factory spec: 

Comparison with the intact original one in situ within the front drum backing plate:

Transmission clean-up

This week I decided to partially dismantle the transmission, although only as far as removing external components. I wanted to clean the thing up and replace any perished gaskets and renew the CV boots etc. I never had any issues with this gearbox and therefore I was not too keen on fiddling around with the internal mechanisms. As my old man always says: “if it aint broke, don’t fix it!”. Pretty sound advice I reckon! 

I thought this task was going to be fairly straight forward, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! I made a fundamental mistake when I first started taking the car apart by not loosening up the rear drum brake nuts whilst is was all still together. The weight of the car combined with the use of the handbrake would have held the outer drum case firmly in place whilst the substantial torque required to loosen the 36mm nut was applied. It would have been a breeze! What I was dealing with here, however, were a couple of resilient old nuts that would not budge and drum brake casings that were seemingly impossible to fully lock off. I tried a lot of different approaches such as; coating the nuts in penetrating oil. Nothing. 5ft Pipe cheat. Nothing. Heating the hub nut with a blowtorch until it glowed red. Nothing. I then called on the assistance of my garage neigbour and good friend, Tony, in the hope that our combined weight and brawn would break the tight bound. NOTHING! So, after a lot of tea and head-scratching, Tony suggested that a small cutting disc attached to the Dremel could provide the solution.  Basically, this sacrificial approach involved making a careful cut down the edge of the nut(s). I tried to make it as deep as possible whilst avoiding damaging the thread underneath:

 

I then repeatedly impacted the incision with a heavy duty chisel until it cracked open enough to come free:

Success! Obviously I now need to order a couple of replacement hub nuts, but I was just glad to get these old things off:

The other noteworthy challenge that I encountered after removing the drum brake components was how to remove the snug fitting rear wheel bearing. I didn't have a bearing puller, so tried to make my own improvised version based on the instructions in John Muir's book 'How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive'. I soon got frustrated with that approach and opted for the big hammer technique instead:

After a few confident taps on the back of the outer axle tube the bearing slowly worked its way loose:

I was then able to remove the big inner circlip (that was another fiddly job took a while!) and draw out the axle rod(s):

To begin the clean-up of the casing I scraped away most of the greasy dirt with a large flat-headed screwdriver. Then I moved on to degreasing it with petrol, an old toothbrush and a lot of elbow grease. I then went over the whole thing with an assortment of wire brushes. Here is the before shot: 

  

....and many hours of scrubbing later, here is my glorious after shot: 

 

Dismantling the front beam

I decided to dismantle the front beam this past weekend in preparation for cleaning, painting and possibly narrowing: 

First up was the removal of the grease caps, which popped out easily enough with some gentle coxing of a flat-headed screwdriver: 

Once the nuts and washers had been taken off of the greasy spindle the outer casing of the drum brake came away without too much fuss: 

After undoing the three inner bolts the drum brake backing plate came free. Both sides came apart without any drama: 

I then removed both shocks, which were simply secured by bolts at the top and bottom:

Another two bolts later I had the steering damper detached:

The tie rods required a bit more persistence and preparation. I found that wire brushing the nut and exposed thread followed by a liberal drenching of WD40 (penetrating fluid) was the best method:

The above approach worked for all but one tie rod end (why is there always one little stubborn bugger?!). Frustratingly the thread started spinning freely before I had got the nut off. I found that no amount of clamping with the vice grips would hold the thread tightly enough to that damn nut to turn again. After some time and perseverance I decided that I would sacrifice the track rod end as I was considering replacing them all anyway. So, out came the angle grinder:

I then cleaned up the treads of the steering box and removed the unit with ease:

After loosening the clamping bolts I was able to tap out the link pins, which allowed for the removal of the spindles:

After removing the outer nuts and cleaning out the accumulated crap inside the allen key cavities, I loosed the threaded pin which holds the torsion leaves in place:

The torsion arms were then free to be removed:

Just for fun I set up an exploded view of the individual components that make up the front beam: