Thread: Project Serenity

It's been a few days since I last posted, I've been working long hours trying to get as much work done as possible. It's been fairly successful actually, the chassis is now sitting on the rotisserie and looking quite bare. There's only a few little things to remove before I'm prepared to send it out for sandblasting. A friend from uni has been helping me for the last couple of days, he's a useful kind of guy to have around, thankfully he seems to know one end of a spanner from the other! More than I can say for most of my friends, sadly...

Now I can swing the chassis over, I can take some decent photos of the damage as I find it. A few things I hadn't noticed before have come up, so that's a little disappointing, as there's more work there than I had anticipated. Overall it's OK though, I'm just going to have to polish up my welding skills a bit.

Anyway, here's some photos:

Front left spring hanger has taken a bit of a beating over the years.


As have both the cross members underneath the gearbox. The one just in front of the gearbox cross member is actually very badly damaged, so I imagine that will need to be replaced.






There's a bit of rust in the front cross member which might actually be reasonably serious, but I'm hoping it will come back looking OK after blasting.


One of the outriggers has also taken a beating, but it doesn't appear to be particularly serious.


The rear cross member is where I've been most surprised. Lurking underneath it was actually quite a lot of rust and damage. Arthur believes it has been repaired in the past, but even then it looks like I'll need a new one, as it's bent pretty badly in a number of places, particularly near the tow point mount. The plate was actually hiding a fair bit of rust too, so it looks to be in fairly bad shape.




It's hard to see in this photo, but the corner around the PTO tube has rusted out so there's now a gap.


More damage...






Chassis on rotisserie plus extra help.



It might look a little bad, but it could be so much worse. I'm still a little annoyed with myself for not noticing all of this when I inspected the vehicle, but what can I do now! I'm still happy I bought it, so I guess that's the important bit. I just get to play with the welder a lot more...

Cheers,

Martin

It's approaching 5 months since I last posted on here. Not much Landy related has happened in the mean time either, it's predominantly been uni uni uni. However, exams are over for another year, so it's time to get back into Landies in a big way!

I'm working full time over summer this year, which means I have less time but more money to work on Serenity. The plan is to do the usual 9-5 desk job during the day and come home and get stuck into restoration work during the evenings. To be honest though, I can't really complain about the desk job. For a start, I'm expecting a lot of field work, and that field work includes playing with steam trains, so I'm a happy chappy!

In the last post I mentioned Dad had just purchased another Chev, a 1929 Roadster. Since then we've picked it up, and had to completely reshuffle the shed to get it to fit. Basically everything came out, including my 80" Kaylee, and the Chev was rolled to the back of the shed, with Kaylee being returned to its side. They make a lovely pair!



My apologies to those of you who are here for the Landies, but I've got to post another couple of pics of the Chev...


Note the lever action damper with leaf spring suspension arrangement.


1929 saw the introduction of the very first Chev 6 cylinder motor, the "Stovebolt Six"


Rolling it out of its old home. Dad bought it off his brother (seen here in the hat), who has owned it for many years.


Roadster body - two seats inside plus another two in the dickie seat out the back.


Dad with his new pride and joy all ready for the trip home.

So, any ideas why Dad wants me out of the shed? I just can't work it out!

Anyway, back to the Landies...

During the great shed reshuffle, Serenity got evicted to live on the driveway for a few months. She was all tarped up, and it doesn't seem like anything has rusted too badly in the short trip outdoors.


That helper is back again...

What's most impressive is that even with a 3rd car in the shed, there's actually a lot more room than there was with 2.

I've been concentrating on the axles and chassis in my latest return to the shed. I initially removed the rear diff, but had some issues with the front axle. Pulling apart the rear diff indicated some significant damage in the past. The pin which holds the two smallest planet gears in position has been sheared off in the past, and during the rebuild they didn't even bother to remove the pin. That in turn has taken some nasty chunks out of the outer edge of the crown wheel. I'd show you a photo of the pin I removed, but I left it at Arthur's place on Saturday. I took the rear diff up to see him, and while he didn't have his hands in the bowels of a TD5, he was most helpful in showing me what to look for in a good diff, and what makes a bad diff. We both agree that the rear diff isn't really serviceable, not only because of the chunks taken out, but also as it has quite a lot of backlash (I hope I'm not mixing my terms here), plus side to side slop in the bearings, and the thrust washers have disintegrated and disappeared. However, all hope is not lost, Arthur handed me a set of spanners and pointed me at a paddock, and I removed a diff from an old S/W he's stripping down. Thankfully that diff was in top condition, so we struck a deal.


The old and replacement diffs, bottom and top respectively. It's a bad photo, but you can just make out some of the damage around the edge of the crown wheel on the old diff.

While we were at it, he also 'lent' me a replacement rear cross member, with the promise that I would provide him with a like for like replacement. The reason for that deal is because I have a cousin who is more talented with a welder than I am, who has kindly volunteered to weld bits into my chassis, and I want to have the bits ready for him when he comes to do it! All in all a big thanks to Arthur for his wisdom, generosity and trust!

I've since managed to get the front diff apart too. The issue I had was that the front half shafts wouldn't simply pull out of the swivel hubs, as indicated would happen in my workshop manual. We assume there is a bearing holding them in place, so we simply split them off at the flange rather than disassembling the swivel to go bearing hunting.


Swivel hubs with half shafts still in place.

Given how little oil I found in the front diff, and the colour of that which I did find, I'm quite impressed by its condition. I've done the checks Arthur has told me to do, and I think it might be fine to use, but I might still get his experienced eyes to have a look for me at some point.


Front diff as removed tonight.


Note the delightful colour of the oil.

It's about to the point in the project where I get to start de-rusting, repainting and replacing components, so I'm thoroughly looking forward to that. It will be nice to begin the reassembly phase, after so much stripping and disassembly.

Cheers,

Martin

Best of luck with it. You're at the point I was 4 years ago with our Triumph Spitfire, down to a bare chassis and boxes full of rusty bits all over the garage. I did look at it all a few times and wonder if I'd ever manage to get it all back together again

Patience is a virtue I'm not blessed with and now it's all back together, there's a few things I'll never be happy with so my advice would be that if it's something hard to get at or difficult to redo (chassis painting for example), then be 100% happy before re-assembly, because once it's back together the last thing you ever want to do is faff about getting it right again

Enjoy it though

What have I done, did I pass on a enthusiastic expectation bug to another hopeful?

I hope I have shown Turkey Brain a practical way of drawing a line in the sand, as to when to write something off and then find it's replacement.

Commitment is what it is all about and getting to the end of a well orchestrated restoration is the best feeling of all, when you turn the key to start your cumulation of sweat and tears with a set of shiny new rego plate attached.

But hey! don't forget to stop to smell the roses.

Originally Posted by Mike_S

Best of luck with it. You're at the point I was 4 years ago with our Triumph Spitfire, down to a bare chassis and boxes full of rusty bits all over the garage. I did look at it all a few times and wonder if I'd ever manage to get it all back together again

Patience is a virtue I'm not blessed with and now it's all back together, there's a few things I'll never be happy with so my advice would be that if it's something hard to get at or difficult to redo (chassis painting for example), then be 100% happy before re-assembly, because once it's back together the last thing you ever want to do is faff about getting it right again

Enjoy it though

Triumph Spitfire, nice choice! I have a fairly large soft spot for pretty much anything British, hence the Landies.

Your advice to do it right the first time seems most logical, and probably couldn't come at a better time. I'm on a fairly tight budget and have fairly strict time restrictions, so it's useful to be told to make sure I do it right the first time.

Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

What have I done, did I pass on a enthusiastic expectation bug to another hopeful?

I hope I have shown Turkey Brain a practical way of drawing a line in the sand, as to when to write something off and then find it's replacement.

Commitment is what it is all about and getting to the end of a well orchestrated restoration is the best feeling of all, when you turn the key to start your cumulation of sweat and tears with a set of shiny new rego plate attached.

But hey! don't forget to stop to smell the roses.

I'm not sure this restoration can be called well orchestrated yet! I've tried to do a little planning in regards to what order I'll do everything, but I just ended up getting frightened by how long the to-do list was!

But yes, you've managed to pass on some enthusiasm to me! I'm not too bothered by the length of the list, I just want to make it shorter now.

So much to do...

-Martin

if you still have not finished by januaryish 2014 i can come and give you a hand if you want

I'll never turn down the offer of help! That being said, I'd like to have it done by next year, but that may only be a bit of a dream.

What's bringing you down to Tassie anyway?

the fiance is doing exchange at hobart or launceston(or devenport i cant remember) uni