Thread: Tiny bit excited

While increasing tyre diameter to change gearing, ground clearance etc is reasonable, you need to be aware of the downsides of increasing width of tyres. There are two issues - the first one is that Series 1 do not have power steering!

The second one is that significant bits of the steering linkage were upgraded in Series 2/3 production, made necessary in part by the increasing use of wider tyres. I became aware of this many years ago when the bottom steering relay arm broke on my early 2a near Pimba. The replacement arm (which was in stock!) I got in Alice Springs was a lot heavier. And I have noticed the difference with Series 2a/3 from 1/2 at various gatherings. This was probably also a reason for dropping the bored shaft in the relay during Series 2 production - at least one person on this forum has reported having one break. Most Series 1 would still have the original relay shaft.

1 went to clark rubber locally and found a 25mm wide rubber strip in approx 40mm thickness 2m for under $10 for the seal between the door top and door bottom. will fit later there was another strip but seemed far too thin. they also come in 50mm width which was too wide. just need to find some tools to punch some holes in it neatly. due to our move all my tools are everywhere but no where to be found.

just to set the record straight this car was not stolen but purchased!

1 - did some welding to the rear crossmember which had some small and one larger hole which was bugging me so took time out to do some tidy up welding, of course this has now created more work as it will need grinding, sanding, some putty to make good and then paint to finish off, slow progess...

1 finally did some more prepping to the front panel of driver side guard, sanded and ready for paint

2 painted, d/side guard done for now

3 d/side outer guard panel, needs more work but while i had the paint out decided to paint some of the guard, needs more sanding yet prior to finishing off

4 applied some bog or putty to the welded then grinded area of the rear crossmember, will require more work to finish off including sanding yet

1-3 got in the mood of painting and did some more in the rear tub p/side, i do have some holes to fill in but will get to that at another time, but for now it was more painting to bring the rear end closer to finishing off

is there a product other then putty to use on the top of this panel to even out those bumps other then fitting a new piece of alum on top?

1 fitted d/side blinker on to finish of the front end panel. job done

2 driver side rear tube upper side wall needing some sanding and cleaning up before paint

3 and after paint, more paint is needed at lower levels of the rear tube and floor whenever i get around to it

1-2 before and after pic of driver side guard sanded, painted and fitted for now

off to buy some leather for my seats

1 - went to local spotlight and got some vinyl and covered my already made seat bases x3. not perfect but happy with the end result, spotlight no longer sell leather so had to settle for vinyl. the hunt is now on for the seat tops as i had nothing to start with, with regard to seating.