That's good news then. It looked kind of sturdy so I was hoping it was one of yours.



I'll do that (as soon as I've managed to chip off the years and years worth of accumulated crap).

Cheers.

I've mainly spent the last couple of weeks stripping and painting the chassis.



Nothing too taxing and most nuts and bolts came undone without blood or tears.
The bare chassis looked pretty grubby. It was caked in oil towards the front and mud towards the back so I soaked it in Jizer (degreaser) overnight then carried it outside and attacked it with a power washer.



It came up clean enough to paint so on with some primer....



That's 'Special Metals' primer rather than just the plain old red oxide that it looks like. I presume there's a difference. There certainly was in the price.
Now according to Kens link I could have painted straight over the weathered bits but in my typical going over the top / glutton for punishment fashion I painted the complete chassis with this primer rather than just the unweathered bits I was initially intending to do.

It was at this point it occurred to me that it was probably going to take about 150 coats of 'Gris Rose' to cover the deep red colour so I went on to throw a coat of standard grey cellulose primer on...



...followed by a couple of coats of 'Gris Rose' which covered fine.



I've also managed to strip the engine down for cleaning and painting. The tinwear, fan shroud etc have been sent for blasting and powder coating.



I was surprised to find tin cooling shrouds fitted rather than the usual cracked up rubber ones. I've checked the engine number and it's almost certainly the one it left the factory with so it looks like somebody has had the good sense to replace them in the past.

I had a look at the bores, heads, valves etc and, thankfully, everything seems in pretty damn good fettle. So just a clean up and reassembly with new gaskets etc is on the cards.
On the subject of cleaning (and as the engine has already been briefly filled with rainwater) I couldn't see any harm in bunging it in the dishwasher....



...not in the kitchen I hasten to add. I've had one in the garage for a couple of months now waiting to try it out as a parts washer.

Lenny,
hope you'll let us know how successful the dishwasher was?

Btw, did you find a number stamped into the handbrake crossmember?
Just testing how well the oil and muck removal was carried out, got to maintain the high standards you've been setting...

ken

I looked but I couldn't find one. All I could see in that sort of area was this..



...any ideas? Possibly 'Pete & Bev'? As in Pete & Bev Abbott?

Looks to say that for sure. I like the painted chassis. I used that same special metals primer on mine, it's like etch primer I'm told. Building back up is the hardest part as the paint gets marked so easily it can drive you to distraction!

Lenny, how did your experiment with the dishwasher go?
did it work?

Not really to be honest. I put the engine through two full cycles and it was still grubby. A good dousing with Jizer followed by a couple of minutes with a pressure washer gave a much better result.
The dishwasher is now in the trailer ready for my next trip to the local tip.

what about pooring some jizer stuff straight in the dish washer? as well as detergant?

Exactly my thoughts

I mean if the dishwasher exploded so what, what's to loose?

Spot the seven differences in these pics!

Harley