Is the quick & easy way.

You'll probably see some conical "nuts" on the top of the U-bolt. They used to have heads on them, designed to shear off when they're done up to the right torque, for theft-proofing. You could file edges on 'em, or weld nuts onto 'em, or do any number of other things to undo 'em.

Or you could just cut it.

thanks chaps, that particular detail is not one of my favourites!, mine still has the aluminium shroud to break through before getting to the little cones!, and all upside down with a left hand!..anyway luckily the courier arrived with the roof from cassis..love it, that roof system is great, very simple and effective. and I like the jade, gives more of a 60´s feel to the car.

apart from that, some easy bodywork at the back of the front wings, and fixing the jigsaw of eaten cables in behind the speedo...how do the vermin get in there anyway. they left just enough to figure out what goes where I think with one exception which is 50/50 correct or not.

oh and the new exhaust is here, the second silencer is loads thinner than the thing I took off so I should be able to fit it nicely with a bit of notching on the floor cross members

nearly the end of the month..my deadline...I hope the other package from cassis arrives tomorrow(gaskets brakes etc)

hi sig, its a shame to remove the u clamp and ignition key/lock on such an old car i would restore it

regarding the wiring
each connector has a colour so connect coulor to coulor

I like it very much without the big lump of cast iron.... well 2 people 2 opinions....

the lock is troublesome! thats a fact, mine is bypassed

Thats why I chop it out.........

with my patience level boosted today I´ll try again on the cylindrical bolts, its all basically to avoid using 2 universal joints, and to raise the wheel a tad. if not then smaller diametre steering wheel but I don´t want to go that route.

new exhaust on and cross member notched, heres the new clearance underneath , you can just see the torpedo sticking out from underneath. ken I turned it into the mehari type side pipe end

ok I gave up trying to get those nuts off, and I could feel myself being drawn to getting the grinder out "mad axeman style" so breath deeply and rethink....dug out an old astrali steering wheel that I had bought 10 years ago for the cortina, much smaller diametre but still from the 70´s ( I think)

built an adapter and raised it about 35mm higher also, now it works well in driving position and I can get my lanky legs in easily

the engine stuff arrived so the engine went back together, all well except I made a mistake somewhere with the push rod plugs on one side and it leaks oil, so I´ll have to do that again...does it make a difference the position of the crank when putting the heads back on, one side was far easiler than the other, maybe I should have turned the crank 180 degrees??

anyway it looks nice now at lease, Oh and now sucks from the fuel tank and breaths to the back of the car and relatively quietly

still weird stuff going on with the electrics. I had the engine running from the key once when I mistakenly plugged it into the indicators!, I noticed when the engine revved in time with the indicator switch!

alsoo the first time I fired her up again the choke was stuck wide open , which gave me a shock as the car literally was breathing fire from the headers!!

so we´re getting there. assuming the leaks get sorted and the UJ´s arrive soon I´ll be able to see if clutch and gearbox work. oh by the way the old gearbox, I noticed another spanish car from 1975 had the same gearbox s mine, must be a spanish thing. when did the new style french ones start getting used anyway??

here s the pix

At a guess, the easy side had the cam lobes so that both valves were closed, whilst the difficult one you were compressing a valve spring.