Since the last posting, the parts from British Pacific for the ROAM disc brake conversion have come in. I still have not been able to order the swivel housings from ROAM because they want to have them onhand before taking peoples money. Should be any day now.
Part of the conversion is to get rid of the single line braking system and go with a servo assisted dual line system found on the Series 3 Rovers. It has been difficult to find inexpensive parts. I needed to replace the Series 2 brake pedal box. Just to find a pedal box was hard. Pangolin 4x4 has them for @$200 used or @$300 for NOS. Then you have to get a servo from somewhere. Trevor at Rovah Farm has them for @$180, plus a master cylinder, again Roveah Farm for @$85. That brings it up to around $480 with shipping.
I managed to find a complete used unit in the UK at CWS: www.4x4cws.co.uk a Rover breaker advertising in LROi, for $380 with shipping. I hope it works!!!
Working to beat the rain I managed to wire brush the axle housings and coat with rust converter and about 4-5 coats of black paint. That took a couple of days.
Well, I did get the chassis flipped over and welded it all up and drilled holes in it for zinc drainage. Then I turned my attention to getting my 1959 88 chassis ready. I had to remove all the bump stops, the chassis spring bushes and a few misc nuts and bolts. The hardest thing to take off was the steering relay. It was stuck bad! Now I know why the previous owner didn't take it out. I first tried to persuade it out with some gentle tapping then got out the BF hammer. In this case an 8lb splitting maul. No help. I then chained it down to a metal beam and put a 3 ton bottle jack between them. I thought I was going to break the chain! Even with all the tension and some tapping with a 2lb hammer nothing moved!
I next chained it right to the beam. Then heated up the frame around the relay and proceded with tapping with the hammer. Still no movement so out came the BF hammer, finally with a few great blows it started to move. Apply more heat hit it again and the whole relay came out the other end! The body was still in the frame but the innards were now hanging out! The top had busted thru from the pounding.
But the relay had moved so I removed the bottom plate and then had access to the sides of the body. By using a big drift and my 2lb hammer I was able to move around the edge in a circular motion and tap the bastard out. It took 20 minutes of this tapping to get it out!
A couple of days later I rented a flatbed truck and Brian and I with the help of my neighbor Bob loaded the 2 chassis and the rest of the bits. The next day saw Brian and I off to drive to Oakland and Pacific Galvanizing. It is an 88 mile one-way trip and we had good traffic both ways. There was a tour of the facilities during lunch time. All the bits were photographed and kept together. Some of it still needed to go to get media blasted. That is where it all is now, Oakland. I am not sure when it will be done.
I have kept busy though. Disassembling the handbrake linkage, wire brushing and painting. Doing the same to the clutch linkage and brackets. Oh and my Rangie has kept me busy too! Seems the fuel level guage wasn't working right so I ran out of fuel. I thought it was the pump again so I had it towed to the shop. Trevor sent me a new pump today(the sender is integral). So now it is in. Last night the fuel guage read 3/4 now it shows almost on the red!
I have the new brake lines from Rovah Farm for the dual brake system. I still need to get a wiring harness. I chose the cupranickel lines for ease of bending and rust resistance.
When I got the parts for the 59 88 from Nevada I obtained 4 wheels, 8x16's. I took those down and had the old tyres removed and found out that one the rims was dented.
After about 3 days of searching I found a place in Santa Clara, Calif. Wheel Techniques www.wheeltechniques.com I sent an email with pics and they said to bring it by and get a free estimate. So on Tuesday I did. They guess for $50 they can get it usable. Then I can get the set media blasted and powder coated.
Ok it has taken me 45min to create the text. Now to add pics,,,another 15 min to upload pics. Total time 1 hour.
