How very apt, it's even the same colour scheme!

Yeh de-dollyfy it. D*lly's are gay
Excellent work so far!

Little update, made a start on restoring the body tub today.

Got it on it's side


Mmm crusty


Started stripping old underseal, mud, stonechip, and paint. With the assistance of FIRE


Bare metalled the rear section of the underside



Found a couple of bits needing a tickle from the metal fairy.



Put a bit of etch over it to protect it before I do the welding.


Modified the track rod ends to make greasing a bit easier


Cleaned up the engine

Before


Loads of Gunk, and alloy cleaner later..


Also painted up the heat exchangers and other bits n bobs, I'm yet to build it all up.



That's all for a bit..

How did you drill the suspension tie rod end?

patience probably!!
ive wanted to do that too, ive considered rigging up the pillar drill at work with a sharp drill bit and coming back half hour later and hoping its been done!

ps its looking amazing so far!!!!!!!

A few thoughts on this.
If you are going to fit grease nipples to the knife edge shackles, I'd advise drilling on the face of the hexagon which faces towards the rear and also using the smallest possible diameter of drill bit.
A 2mm or 3mm hole is enough to allow the grease through, then you can counterbore to just enough depth to tap the counterbore and install a grease nipple.
The tensile/bursting stress at that position on the shackle will be lower than it is closer to the point where the knife edge bears on it, so there's less chance of the 'business end' of the shackle tearing out, which I have seen happen...

HSS drill bits have no problem with the steel used in those hexagonal shackles, but you'd probably need cobalt drill bits for the 'old school' forged eyes.

ken.

Thanks folks, I friend of mine has a machine shop, so took advantage of his skills. He used a carbide drill bit, and says it took "fecking ages". Also snapped a tap threading them.

Ken, in hindsight I agree with you there.. Do you think they will be dangerous to use? The hole through looks like a 3/16.

further thoughts

can of chain lube from the motorbike shop /lidl or aerosol grease saves drilling the already snap prone hex and TBH the grease doesn't do much at the business end due to the pressures involved.

Sean

Why bother? Isn't the end loop designed to be metal on metal against the knife edge anyway? After 117,000 miles mine are only slightly worn, and they're only £15 brand new, so if they really wear I'll stick some new ones on. Nope, scratch that I'll use some of the second hand ones I have in box.

Doesn't grease there only attract grit effectively creating grinding paste?

Back on topic - nice work with with the body tup, it looks ok once its back to bare metal with all the shite removed.