That's what I did this time....I think the site logs you out after an hour or so of no activity?

More to come, never fear....battling with stripping down subframe as we speak...too traumatise to look at rust today...

 

Your posts made me feel lucky. Living in Arizona, I have never seen rust. I thought I had problems. I would bet I would be a better welder if I lived where rust was a problem.

 

Rich - enjoyed your write up very much. Have you ever read Peter Egan in Road and Track? Very similiar writing style - always amusing.

I could not get my steering rack to disconnect from the steering column and that is where I gave up and changed the V mounts in place. i was lucky in that I did not need to change the rear sub-frame mounts.

Please let me know what brand of tea you drink - I think I will buy some of their stock in anticipation of large increase in their sales in the UK

Good luck with your ongoing project

 

It looks like a 10 bolts job, plus the shocks and steering column.
I am planing to do this to my car also,just to avoid the things advancing badly.

 

Wait until I have finished mine first...that way you can decide whether to do the job, or sell the car...:-)

 

Good luck with that

 

I've scrapped them for less. Yet another reason I bought an endoscope!

 

Aah, but this one is a keeper....keeping it on the road, that is....lol

 

So, to follow on with reports of today's events.....

Awoke with a crippled knee...I blame that Torx bolt I knelt on yesterday (really want to meet the man now....)

However, who dares wins - so back into the garage with a limp. And a cup of tea. (Yorkshire tea bags for those who may care.....strongest I have found to date.....not triangular or round gimmick types neither...Isambard Kingdom Brunel would approve of these babies....)

Thought to self- today's job - more grinding, which might well spoil my New Year as mild depression sets in....or try something that will feel like a success....

So - it's 'dismantle the subframe to component parts' time...can't be that bad - right?

I mentioned already that it's heavy (1), and bolted really tight (2) so in fact it meets criteria for condition (3)....i.e. heavy and tight....

Put the kettle back on in readiness....kettle looks concerned....it thought it was in for an easy day....lucky it's not in a Trades Union....

So...

First thing to remove (i.e. looks easiest to remove) - anti roll bar. 4 bolts (10 mm again, always makes the hair on back of neck stand up....far too wimpy for Jaguar scale components)....in fact, very easy! However the roll bar knows it has pain in store when I try to get those link ball (ache) joints off it later...put it to back of mind.

Next....Brake calipers. Now then, these have tested my resolve before - and convinced me that the brake system needed bleeding anyway (!)....let's get them off.

Incredibly, because I have already cracked the bolts with my biggest Torque wrench (my favourite, I call it the 'BeJesus' tool..), they remain the tightest bolts I have ever encountered. Dammit, I broke the back of these already (I thought)....but no, they fight me to the last half thread...they squeaked slightly less than I did as I blasphemed them out!

Drink tea. Kettle is resigned to overtime (on New year's Eve too...I almost feel for it myself. But it is there to serve.....Tea mainly, with coffee for guests when required). Bring your own Jaffa cakes please....

Cast brake calipers into corner of garage in triumph. Finally stop thumping chest, and realise that I will need them again and retrieve them, placing carefully in safe place. (as an aside, these are heavyish....)

What's next?

Steering rack....4 bolts on the mounting brackets come out suspiciously easy....track rod ends left to disconnect.

First track rod end....back off nut to flush with threads....hit with HUGE hammer...it's free! can't believe my luck, remove nut - track rod end free.

Second track rod end...back off nut to flush with threads...hit with HUGE hammer....it's free! can't believe my luck, remove nut....no chance. Just my luck. It spins the ball (ache) joint instead. Spend the next 20 minutes hammering the balljoint taper home tight and unscrewing the nut 1/8th of a turn before the balljoint spins again...

OK, so what's left? Top and bottom wishbones, and those violent looking 'still under compression' coil springs. Mine are 'sport' springs, as defined by the blue swatch painted on them. I know deep down that this means they are more likely and competent to put up a fight in the competition to remove my front teeth, as I don't have a coil spring compressor...

Top wishbones first. Remove nuts, drive out fulcrum bolts (the Gods are smiling, they are not rusted in). Top wishbones off. Springs do not fly out....confused now....it's me and them in personal conflict and battle of wits.

This is going too well.


Tea time. 2 cups, springs next...

Bottom wishbones....2 bolts each side, these are the ones that are concentric and affect your suspension geometry, so write down which way they are positioned (only applicable if your Jag tracks true and centre - if like me you have haphazard tyre wear that the general laws of physics or common sense cannot explain, you will take the car for a 4 wheel alignment when back on the road). Take a note anyway for the hysterics you will get when it is aligned correctly...

At this point, I considered trying to remove the springs...I can just compress the bottom wishbone by hand against spring pressure, so they can't be more than a couple of thousand PSI? (been watching world's strongest man again, bit revved up...)

Flip subframe over, pull bottom wishbones up as far as my blood pressure will allow me, get the jemmie/crowbar (or 'begorrah' tool) in between bottom spring pan and spring. Close eyes tightly in anticipation of breaking glass/bending body panels/shattering fibia sounds when spring is released at 200mph and...it drops out nicely.

Result!







Cup of tea, a smoke and a biscuit. Still don't smoke habitually, but it was just going that way...a Hamlet moment in reverse....

Kettle resigns itself to a 7 day week shift pattern...I remove the lower wishbone bolts with notes of concentric head positions for future amusement taken.

Subframe stripped. Success.

Kettle walks out, in protest over fair weekly European working time directive. It's fine, I have a blowtorch and a tin pot. Blowtorch looks nervous. So do the matches....

Consider moving onto chassis rust works again as luck is running high at this point. Decide against it, as it is New Year's eve and I want to end on a high note!

Last jobs to do before I retire for New Year's eve jinks (basically sitting drinking beer and typing this old tripe)....I crank up the trusted homemade electrolysis bath, and start dipping suspension parts in for de-rusting prior to painting.

*(For the uninformed/unknowing/too sensible to try it amongst you, this is a system that you can set up at home - it consists of a large plastic bucket/bin type thing, water, soda (to make an alkaline solution that conducts electricity), a battery charger, electricity, the rusty bit, a metal cathode, and black magic. The only results are higher electricity bills, de-rusted parts and highly flammable Hydrogen gas as a by-product...)*

So, connected up, first bottom wishbone in, switch on...bubbles rising (that's a good sign, rust removal in progress)....time for New Year beer....ensuring that garage door is open for ventilation, and all naked flames are extinguished/all electrical equipment in the immediate vicinity is electrically intrinsically safe/turned off.



Drawing 2 amps, 4 amps is optimal for de-rusting....





Bubbles (difficult to see in the pic I know) are good - it means rust is dissolving and highly flammable hydrogen gas is being formed on the water surface - but only in very small quantities....I hope!



Brew tea with blowtorch 50 yards from electrolysis bath, smoke cigarette 1/2 a mile down the road.....might take this smoking up, it's very moreish.....

Tomorrow, more news from the pain cell, assuming it doesn't explode overnight (plenty of fireworks around tonight....that's a worry).

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Rich.

PS, they say start the New Year as you mean to go on....I bloody hope not! :-)

PPS, for further info on making your very own electrolysis de-rusting bath/nuclear device, drop me a private message. The risks/rewards are all yours! Will post pics of de-rusted wishbone tomorrow, this time next week you will all have your own personal nuclear hazard in your garage....

PPPS, pic of 'Ye Olde Trusty Mig Welder'....it's trembling in the corner, if I need to use that red tool on top if it in the process we are in trouble....



Happy New Year all, and to your Jaaaags....!

 

I tell you what Rich, membership on this forum is worth it just to be able to follow this thread - your writing style is both informative and bloody hilarious at the same time!

I very much look forward to the next installment!

Cheers,

Russ

 

Happy New Year Russ, (you being 12 hours into it already....I've just been dancing with the Scottish Piper that was playing in next door neighbours garden :-))

 

Tell your mates (cobbers?)....I need a job! lol

I do children's stories too...

Herbie goes for a new heater channel...no anaesthetic available....tears ensue....not enough welding wire in the world...

Noddie takes car for new coil packs....Big Ears advice about dual mass flywheel was wrong...lessons learnt from listening to a layman...

Teletubbies team bus has radiator hose failure on steep hill...cheap replacement hose clamps to blame!

Iggle Piggle has big end issues due to poor maintenance regime...that'll teach the smug git! Upsy Daisy clueless as usual.....so much for saving money to buy more Chardonnay.....

All the traditional classics.....if you need a bedtime story that will subliminally teach your kids about preventative automotive maintenance at bedtime....give me a shout!

:-)

 

Do you tell spooky tales too? I think of little Nicky hearing the frightening sound of timing chains rattling at a dark moonless Midnight.

 

@ Sandy once you sell a few of your calendars you'll be able to buy an XKR and not worry about Kaput Transmissionators'

 

Brilliant job & write-up there!

I particularly like the DIY Electrolysis bath, as I make BioDiesel for my old BMW Diesel runabout-so have quite a bit of 'alkaline solution' on hand

Have to watch I don't mix the Methanol up with the Ethanol on my beer though, otherwise I'd apparently go blind, mad & then dead-in that order

Probably the same effect can be achieved with the repair bill for a snapped secondary timing chain

Happy New Year to one and all!

 

i made the mistake of buying a northern NY car....

the underside is loaded with rust...

i don't understand why they could not add some rust proofing on these cars, especially being from england....

All my porsches (post 72) are galvanized... mucho rust resistance.

I love the looks and ride of the jag, but issues like this make it a labor of love...

 

Update coming soon, R/H side almost done - I have to pick up a sill from a breaker's yard today....feels good!

 

I think that they added just enough rustproofing so that they wouldn't require any bodywork repairs while still under warranty.

As you say, pretty daft decision considering our 2000 year history of rain here-which even delayed the Roman invasion for a few weeks

My own XJR spent the first 4 years & 100,000 miles of it's life up in Glasgow, which has a pretty fierce climate being exposed to the Atlantic storms that sweep inwards across the West Coast of Scotland.

I've had to keep an eye on the underside & keep on top of any evidence of corrosion, after those 4 years on salted wet Scottish roads...

 

My silver car was a Buffalo, NY, car, and it was
very solid. But any job that had to be done
underneath, you had to combat surface rust
before you could get anything done.

The XJR was in Colorado for 2 years, but luckily
the previous owner was a collector with 25 cars
and never pulled it out during winters.

 

Ok, next installment well overdue....my apologies to all - it's not fair that you should all have to wait this long to feel better than me with a smug smile.

I had to check where I had got up too, remembered it was the part where i raise the garage roof with my hydrogen bomb...luckily for us it is still intact and de-rusting is still underway.

Worst parts are the lower wishbones which are quite heavily encrusted especially in the spring pan. It's not so bad to make the things structurally unsafe though.

Picture of nasty rust dissolving....



Picture of wishbone half 'cooked' you can see the line where the wishbone was dipped in.



Anyway, enough of the painless stuff - on to the ongoing welding saga.

Now at the point where the chassis at the v-mount is re-instated, took a while what with having to build up the layers i.e. Chassis box tube (I believe this is a crush tube for absorbing energy in an impact, so want to get this right), inner wing material and then the chassis strengthener plate.

Pic of the inner wing insert going in over the chassis box section



Not a big fan of grinding welds flat, but it is necessary here due to overlapping skins....and I ain't that good with a Mig welder to produce flush welds...still saving up for a Tig welder!



Picture of homemade chassis strengthening plate before it goes in, plenty of paint to make best effort to prevent future rust - some of it will burn of during welding but the thought is there.



Fast forward 37 cups of tea, and on to the footwell.

First things first, pull back out of harms way all flamable material inside the car. It won't stop the internal sealer catching fire at comically regular intervals, but will help minimise the inferno...

So, some panels made up from sheet steel - sequence of events goes roughly:

Weld. Get up off floor, open door, look inside and blow flames out. Satisfy that fire is suppressed. Drink tea. Weld.

And so on....

After one plate is welded in, I am hyperventilating from blowing out the flames.....however, bring it on....

At this point, I am becoming concerned that I still have no outer sill panel to replace the large amounts of metal I removed confidently a while earlier in this operation.

Not paying Jaguar £220 for a sill...that's 20% of the price of the car I paid in the first place!

Luckily I am advised by a fellow Jaaag owner at work of a place called 'Southport Jaguar', not far away.

A phone call has them cutting a 3 foot section of sill for me from an XJ8 that they are stripping down - Lovely!!

So, we are now fully equipped to finish this job, not even used the fire extinguisher yet....I have remembered to switch off the hydrogen bomb machine in the corner for the time being though!

Pic of footwell metal let in, a coat of underseal (can still see the join slightly, couldn't be bothered to joggle the join - too cold), with sill panel on and aligned as far as I can go without trimming the forward end and fitting the flange - need the wing back on for that...and can't fit that until I have removed the 'engine support tool' (ladder)







But to do that I need to refit the subframe to support the engine - which means repairing the chassis v-mount section on the other side of the car first....bit of a puzzle, this one....

At this point, I should admit a bit of a eureka moment (which basically means I was being a bit thick previously....)

I have drunk a lot of tea (!) trying to work out how to get the fully refurbished and rebuilt subframe/suspension unit back under the car and lifted into place.....and it occurred to me....

I don't need to - I have stripped it down, and can rebuild it all when the subframe is fitted to the car - DOH!!

So, that's the story to date....a bit slower progress than I would have hoped, but I have been trying to fit that 'work' thing in as well - funny how a job can get in the way of important things?

More to come, when my hands thaw out (note to self, next time this type of task breaks out, park the car far enough in the garage to be able shut the doors and keep the wind out...)