Got My Lightweight!! Stay Tuned for Project Updates and Plenty of Questions!

[jac04]

U-Bolts torqued, OME shocks installed, check straps on, and new brakes installed:


Test-fitting drums before painting them:


Next on the schedule:

[jac04]

Teardown of the front axle assembly is almost complete:


...also picked up a little something for under the hood:

[jac04]

One of the rear hubs all cleaned up & painted (new bearing races installed along with complete inner bearing & seal):

[jac04]

Front axle housing/diff is all cleaned up and ready for paint. I installed a new diff gasket and input oil seal.



Here's what it looked like 'before':

[Tim Smith]

Looking great!

Are you just bead blasting to get the parts cleaned up?

[jac04]

I'm actually blasting with either Black Beauty (fine) for the heavily rusted stuff or Biasil sand for everything else.

[Tim Smith]

Like I said, looks great.

I've got a few parts to clean up and am planing on using black beauty for most of it. The only thing I'd note is that you want to be darned sure you get all of the residue out of your parts before reassembly. It would wreak havoc on the internals if any were left floating around.

I'm sure you knew this. Just thought I'd mention it.

[jac04]

^^Oh yeah, I know what you mean. Even if you try to mask off the internals of a part before blasting, that stuff always seems to gets inside. Luckily, none got in my axle case becasue that really would have been a PITA to clean out.

I just finished blasting & cleaning my second swivel pin housing. I spent almost as much time cleaning afterwards as I did blasting. I'm having sooo much fun.

[jac04]

I re-installed the swivel balls after fitting new Railco bushes & lower bearings. Here it is in the "paint booth":


Brake backing plates are being assembled with new steady posts, wheel cylinders & lines:


The front swivels housings are now ready for re-assembly:

[ktom300]

I'm amazed at your progress. For those of us contemplating ground up restorations, what do you estimate your total $ spend to be when you're finished with this project?

[NickDawson]

to echo ktom300's sentiments, I am also really impressed! whith hopes that you don't mind, I've snipped your pic above from spraying the axel b/c we are day dreaming about what it would take to spray parts ourslevs... great work, looking forward to seeing more!

[jac04]

I'm amazed at your progress. For those of us contemplating ground up restorations, what do you estimate your total $ spend to be when you're finished with this project?

Well, keep in mind that I ended up buying A LOT of parts for this vehicle. Things that I planned on re-using ended up needing replacement (like the engine - that was over $5k alone). Or I decided to replace parts instead of repairing them (like the rear axle case and wheels, for example) . I also bought a rebuilt transmission ($1800) instead of dealing with mine, and I splurged on almost $2k worth of XZL tires.

I have a few more things to buy, but in the end I will have roughly $25k into this vehicle.

[jac04]

Front axle assembly is now installed. U-bolts still need to be torqued & trimmed. It's starting to look more like a vehicle now:

[roverlandpark]

...also picked up a little something for under the hood:

What happened to your engine from Rover's North in November?

(Page 3 of this thread)

Just curious... BTW, this is probably the only thread I've read start to finish more than once; and it's not over yet!

[The one behind the mask]

Hey, I want to say that I'm really impressed with all the effort you're putting into restoring this Lightweight of yours. I've also been busy with a Lightweight for the past six months or so. I can't really afford a chalvanised chassis, so I decided to get the original into shape. It wasn't that bad for its age, the year of built is '69. Also I didn't pay too much attention to the engine, gearbox and axes, aside from the necessary bearrings and gaskets, because it's all running quite nicely. My main concern is that it's going to be a reliable operational vehicle. I'm running towards the end of this project. Waiting for some parts that are being chalvanised at the moment, and it has a charging problem. Other than that it's almost finished.

If I didn't need to drive it within short time and if I had a few more k to invest I would have done pretty much the same as you are doing right now. Maybe in ten years or so I might do it anyway. Hopefully I won't face too many difficulties until then.

Good luck with your project! Greetings from a dutch guy.