06 Mar 13
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Collected Ace kit from Gerry Hawkridge in East Sussex. Some ordered
items outstanding (hood sticks and bows, trim kit, fuel tank, pedal box,
radiator grill). It fits neatly into the garage!
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12 Mar 13
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Raised rear of car and supported on axle stands and 4x2” timber under
the main chassis members, forward of the front rear spring hangers. Released
the rear transport bar. Rolled axle into place. Trial fitted nearside leaf
spring – observations: front clip needs to be removed, as this prevents the
forward eye engaging with the chassis mount; the forward chassis mount
accepts a 10mm bolt, whereas the spring eye accepts a 7/16” bolt. Some
ingenuity is required to open up the chassis mounting holes given the limited
access, but needs doing, otherwise it’s sloppy workmanship. Set of step
drills (Imperial) ordered, one of which may help to do this, possibly with a
right-angle drill attachment.
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13 Mar 13
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Bolted in place both rear dampers, 7/16 x 1¼” UNF bolts, grade T,
from stock. Bolted in place nearside front damper, using temporary setscrews;
need to order 8 x 3/8 x 1” UNF. Closer inspection of the forward leaf spring
mounting suggests the inboard holes are close to 7/16” diameter, though
outboard holes may need opening up by 0.025” or so. This may be easier than
thought last night. Measured longest ‘bend’ underbonnet for the aluminium
cladding to be fitted, closer to 24” than 18” so need to order a 24” folder.
Also need to order longer 7/16” UNF bolts for the front spring hanger – check
the length tomorrow!
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14 Mar 13
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Removed front transport bar, and temporarily bolted into place lower
nearside pivot pin, wishbone, springpan and kingpin assembly (pre-assembled
for some time). Pivot pin needs 4 x
3/8” x 1” UNF setscrews, or possibly 1¼” bolts per side. Ordered the
following bolts from Namrick:
2 x 7/16” x 3½” UNF for leaf spring front eye
20 x 3/8” x 1¼” UNF (front dampers and pivot pins)
4 x 3/8” x 2½” UNF steering rack attachment
4 x 3/8” x 3” UNF steering rack if longer bolts needed
4 x 5/16” x 1” antiroll bar attachment
Less than an hour in the garage tonight, roll on the weekend!
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15 Mar 13
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Fitted offside front damper, lower pivot pin, wishbone, springpan and
kingpin assembly. Fittedfront rebound
stop brackets both sides. Fitted steering rack (one bolt per side only –
noted 4 x 5/16” x 2¼” UNF bolts required, not 3/8”. Fitted antiroll bar. Rack
and antiroll bar not yet connected to suspension / steering pending fitting
of springs and connecting top kingpin swivel.
Another order to Namrick for:
steering rack bolts, as above;
4 x 5/16” x ¾” UNF for lower bumpstop bracket fastenings.
Also ordered grommets for the chassis outriggers, and a selection for
other uses.
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16-17 Mar 13
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Reamed bracket for front leaf spring mount – not easy due to
restricted access; ended up passing a 7/16” UNF tap through both sides from
inboard, then reaming inner hole with taper reamer to remove threadform.
Waxoyled springs and applied heat to ensure penetration. Removed front clip
(spring won’t fit into front hanger with it in place), removed centre bolt
and fitted aluminium spacers, together with spring plates and lower brackets.
One spring plate supplied was incorrectly drilled – maybe for a Midget? All
spring plates and bracket plate needed holes opening up from 3/8” to 7/16”
diameter. Fitted springs to front hanger, fitted axle to springs then raised
springs to fix shackles to rear
hanger. Drilled diff web for brake hydraulic T-piece bracket (¼” diameter
hole), ground off existing bracket on offside axle tube, which is in the way
of the Panhard rod location clamp. Connected damper drop arms to spring plate
bracket, connected rubber straps, and located Panhard rod bracket, and
Panhard rod temporarily in position. Rear wheels fitted!
Major struggle compressing spring for front suspension. The springs
are relatively short and partly shrouded, so conventional external
compressors are not suitable. An internal compressor had to be made, or two
had to be made – the first design wasn’t strong enough. The second worked
fine though removing the internal components (which are withdrawn through the
large hole in the spring pan) proved very fiddle and took me ages. I’d hoped
to get all four wheels on this weekend – but failed miserably. At least I’ve
cracked the spring compressions issue and the second one shouldn’t take as
long – maybe a few mods to incorporate. The brakes, hubs and wheels should
then be installed pretty quickly.
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20 Mar 13
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An hour spent on front N/S hub, bolting disc to hub, backplate to
kingpin. Stub axle tab washers need relieving to fit.
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21 Mar 13
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Relieved N/S stub axle washer. Ruined several shims fitting hub –
need to reorder. Hub loosely assembled only, but good for wheel ‘to roll’.
Re-ordered shim kits, rear axle components and steering column bushes from
Sussex Classics.
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23/24 Mar
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Finished both nearside and offside front suspension and hubs, fitted
wheels, and ran out of garage for photo-shoot and to allow the garage to be
tidied up.
Bitter cold has meant weekend working has had to be in the garage
with door closed rather than outside, where light and access would have been
easier. Correct bolts have now been fitted throughout front suspension and
steering, though some plain nuts remain which may be eventually changed for
Nylocs. No split pins fitted yet to castle nuts, and final torques not
applied.
Noted the wheels are a slightly larger diameter than the wheel well
in the boot. Looks like some alloy fabrication will be required to replace
the GRP well.
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27/31 Mar
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Punched and fitted grommets to the chassis outriggers for both fuel
and brake lines. Fitted steering column – this requires drilling the
footwell: from under the bonnet, measured 12 5/8” up from the bottom of the
footwell end panel, and 13 7/8” in from the inside of the wing. A hole saw
was used to enlarge the pilot hole. The outer column needs to just poke
through. Under the scuttle, I milled ¼” x 1” slots in the column support
bracket to give some lateral adjustment (it’s supplied undrilled). I’ve left
the lower clamp attached to the column, I don’t like relying on the hole in
the GRP for support and will fit a lower clamp at some stage.
Problems now – wrecked a new UJ trying to fit it to one of the ‘new’
UJs supplied by Andy Jennings, before realising that these are after all the
wrong UJs (earlier type) despite Andy’s (or Gary’s) assurances. With them
fitted, the intermediate shaft is too long, even the unsplined length won’t
fit between the UJs, so no hope of an easy mod. New ‘rubber bumper’ UJs
(which look quite a bit smaller, and hopefully will be fine) ordered from Sussex
Classics.
Gave up on steering, and started on brakes, but – the front union
needs to be four-way, not five-way, so can’t use the one I’ve got. A four-way
union ordered from CBS. Started to pipe up the front brakes. Drilled the
front crossmember and nearside chassis member and installed Rivnuts to attach
P-clips.
Sophisticated tools aren’t necessary to expand the Rivnuts – I
improvised with a piece of flat bar, a socket head capscrew and a spacer.
The new Moto-Lita ‘Derrington’ steering wheel with Springalex boss at
least fits well, with the dash placed loosely in position.
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Good job Tony. Watching your progress with great interest. Hope you enjoy the build process as much as I am. Dave http://g4fev.atspace.com/hawk2.6.htm
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