·
all the parts rubbed down with ‘wet and dry’
abrasive paper;
·
sharp edges chamfered with a file;
·
concealed areas treated with anti –corrosive
“WaxOyl”;
·
and the whole chassis re-assembled.
When I inspected the rear axle assembly, I noticed that the
two halves which will house the half-shafts were noticeably at an angle with
each other (about 6mm over a length of about 700mm). When I asked STW if this was within the
design tolerances, Steve thought that it could be a problem; they promptly provided
a replacement which showed no obvious mis-alignment. I hope the original can be re-worked as I do
not like to think of effort and materials being wasted.
The chassis is now re-assembled (with the new rear axle), needing only hand force and a small mallet to persuade the lengthways tubes and stays to go into their mountings. I have not assembled the vertical steering tube, since I think it might need to be re-adjusted when fitting kit 2, which will be the steering mechanism.The next tasks are to wash and paint all the chassis except for those parts which will have later assembly or mating parts to be attached or fixed or adjusted. Unpainted parts include: screw threads, front stub axle mounting surfaces, leaf spring mounting points, steering tube and its mounting clamps, rear axle half shaft and differential bearing mounting areas, other mountings for later attachments. I shall be wary of painting anything which has been machined and appears to be a mating surface for a later assembly. Bare metal may need to have oil or grease applied to protect it until later. With care, there should be little need of later fiddling around to complete the painting.
I expect to find an electric “blow torch” handy to speed up drying after washing the grease off, which should also raise the temperature of the metalwork up to the paint supplier’s recommended temperature for painting after the metal has been sitting in a cold garage. (Brrr!)
The chassis is now re-assembled (with the new rear axle), needing only hand force and a small mallet to persuade the lengthways tubes and stays to go into their mountings. I have not assembled the vertical steering tube, since I think it might need to be re-adjusted when fitting kit 2, which will be the steering mechanism.The next tasks are to wash and paint all the chassis except for those parts which will have later assembly or mating parts to be attached or fixed or adjusted. Unpainted parts include: screw threads, front stub axle mounting surfaces, leaf spring mounting points, steering tube and its mounting clamps, rear axle half shaft and differential bearing mounting areas, other mountings for later attachments. I shall be wary of painting anything which has been machined and appears to be a mating surface for a later assembly. Bare metal may need to have oil or grease applied to protect it until later. With care, there should be little need of later fiddling around to complete the painting.
I expect to find an electric “blow torch” handy to speed up drying after washing the grease off, which should also raise the temperature of the metalwork up to the paint supplier’s recommended temperature for painting after the metal has been sitting in a cold garage. (Brrr!)
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