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.

The forgotten face of Señor Framehead

Whilst in blast-and-repaint mode (which, in part, is being driven by a race against the encrouching autumnal UK weather), I repositioned the chassis in the garage to get access to to the front of the framehead:

This section was not originally painted with the rest of the chassis due to it being obscured by the mounting point of the rotisseree. However, it did have a protective layer of grey primer slapped on years ago to prevent corrosion (although I now know that primer is awful for this application due to it being pourous).

 

I was initially confused by 3 extra holes that had no discernible fuction and were suspiciously asymetrical. I thought for sure that they had been drilled out sometime in the past and was about to break out the welder to plug them when I figured I should probably do some research to establish if they were factory or not: 

 

 

So, for anyone reading in the future pondering the same thing; I can catagorically confirm that yes, they are vw drilled holes. Here is a picture from my official workshop manual that shows them (ignore the fact that it is butchered by an Oxyacetylene torch):

 

I also found other restoration threads that showed the mystery holes in the same place, so I was reassured that no action was required.  

Masked up the holes and then blasted it all clean using the blasting drape to contain the mess:

 Now to get this into paint before it rapidly rusts over again...

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:

More glorious paint

As predicted, I got all of the recently blased chassis parts into paint. It is worth noting that because these parts were blasted at different times, some flash rusting started to emerge in some of the areas with heavy pitting. It goes to show how fast atmospheric humidity gets to work on bare steel; 'rust never sleeps' is a truism of classic car ownership! I swiftly remedied this by throwing the parts back in the cabinet for a quick once over with the blast gun, so that everything was equally immaculate before paint. Followed up with a careful bit of re-masking on some key parts and I was good to go:

Pretty happy with the results this time round (plus, I got this portable spray booth for a bargain):

Yes, I do believe that I have found the sweet spot in terms of gun settings and paint viscosity:  

A close up detail of one of the axle tubes with the masking removed. The transition lines were as sharp as I could have hoped for: 

Whilst I am in the flow of praising my own craftsmanship, I will also highlight that the crisp factory stampings are still perfectly legible after a couple of liberal coats: