What did you do to your Rover today?

[mrdoiron]

Few more pics :

Got the trans cleaned up, reseals almost done, and ready to go back in...

[SafeAirOne]

You should have painted the bulkhead while it was easy to get at too. Also...no interest in converting to LHD?

I'm more of a function-over-form type guy. The center bulkhead is pretty well protected paint-wise, though I will rust convert and paint the footwells before I put the wings back on.

There is absolutely no interest in converting it to RHD.

[Terrys]

Stuffed engine. A real pain to do solo.

Mark, Not to be critical (and I'm no one to be critical anyway) but seeing the brown rust staining at the bend in your footwells, makes me think this would be the ideal time to put in those nice half-footwells that RN sells. They are much easier to install than the whole one (having done the whole ones on my '65 last fall, and the halfs on my buddy's '72 S3) It's amazing how fast the rust stain goes to swiss on them.

[mongoswede]

There is absolutely no interest in converting it to RHD.

Wait....you mean converting it from RHD? Unless the picture is backwards it looks rather RHD now?

[mongoswede]

I picked up an excellent used bulkhead today. A few hours of driving...a very reasonable pile of cash and now its stored away in my living room I need to get it sand blasted and galvanized. Then paint...and decide if it goes into the 88 series or 88 hybrid.

[SafeAirOne]

Wait....you mean converting it from RHD? Unless the picture is backwards it looks rather RHD now?

Er...Yeah. That's what I meant. See---All that right-hand driving has got me confused. I'll be back to turning on the windshield wipers every time I change lanes in my wife's Toyota in no time!

[SafeAirOne]

Mark, Not to be critical (and I'm no one to be critical anyway) but seeing the brown rust staining at the bend in your footwells...

Yeah--That's actually corrosion in the weld area where I patched in a new panel several years ago when I lived in the desert. I thought I'd live there a lot longer, so I admittedly skimped on the paint prep and just gave it the old rustoleum almond treatment. Since moving back to New England my 109 usually takes the winter off, but one year I drove it on our salt-water winter roads and am now paying for it.

I'm going to strip it and rust-convert it, then paint it before I put the wings back on.

[NickDawson]

Today (so far) I just drove it...knock on wood...its running so well right now.
Took the dog to the farmers market for the first time. She loved having the door tops off. Athough, we went to visit some friends and she decided to jump out, not realizing her leash was tied to the overdrive shifter, did a back flip and her claws did a number on the driver's side paint job. Oh well, funny story to tell.

[bkreutz]

Polished up the turn and stop light lenses. I used Mothers restoration kit but instead of using the "power ball" in a hand drill, I put in the drill press at 500 rpm. The picture shows before and after, the lower line is the "after" (as if one couldn't tell)

[mongoswede]

After a long weekend or work on the 71 SIII I have the chassis rolling on all 4 again. I had taken apart, sanded, painted, and reassembled the leaf spring packs on all 4 corners...WOW the suspension actually moves. I can get a good 6 to 8 inches of deflection out of the rear suspension. When I first got the truck the suspension was so stiff you didn't need shocks and the wheels practically bounced off the ground when you hit a bump. When I get the motor mounts the drive train goes back in.

I will have some photos up in a day or two.

[SafeAirOne]

I had taken apart, sanded, painted, and reassembled the leaf spring packs on all 4 corners...WOW the suspension actually moves. I can get a good 6 to 8 inches of deflection out of the rear suspension.

Out of curiosity, did you happen to install the low-friction tape between the leafs during reassembly? When it comes time to re-spring, I definitely want to do this.

Copied from Teri Ann's page on optimizing your leaf spring suspension:

"Once you have the springs that provide the best dampening for the weight of your vehicle, the next step is to minimize the friction between the individual leaves. I like UHMW (ultra-high molecular weight) Polyethylene plastic.
This plastic provides a low friction surface, similar to Teflon tape, but with a much higher abrasion and puncture resistance. It was designed specifically for commercial use on chutes, packaging lines, slides, and anywhere high pressure metal to metal sliding contact occurs. It also provides sound dampening, eliminating squeaks and rattles caused by adjacent parts movement. The plastic's temperature range is -40 to +225 degrees F.
The plastic tape I like is 0.005" thick, comes on a 3 inch wide roll and has 1.5 mils of acrylic adhesive. It can be purchased from McMaster Carr and is part number 76445A24.
You disassemble the spring pack and stick the tape to the top side of each individual leaf, except for the top leaf of course. This tape virtually eliminates the friction between adjacent leaves in the leaf pack and dramatically increases the spring's ability to react to bumps in the road."

[mongoswede]

Out of curiosity, did you happen to install the low-friction tape between the leafs during reassembly? When it comes time to re-spring, I definitely want to do this.

Copied from Teri Ann's page on optomizing your leaf spring suspension:

No, but I painted each and every leaf completely with black POR 15 which is both flexible enough to bend with the leaves and and quite slippery. My original plan was to put a thin bead of high pressure assembly lube down the middle of each one prior to assembly....but I didn't have that stuff handy when they went back together.

[martindktm]

Tonight I tryed to weld some standard aluminum sheet together with an oxygen/acetylen torch. I did try to fill the gap with a third strip of the same material. The 3 aluminum strip did melted but they did not want to fuse together...End up with 3 chunk of molted aluminum that did not welded together. I try on regular aluminum scrap I had before to throw myself on my rear tub.


Someone know the trick to make this work??

[badvibes]

I'm not a welder but I thought you needed TIG or MIG to weld aluminum. I'm not familiar with oxy/acetylene working on aluminum. I could be wrong.

Jeff

[SafeAirOne]

I'm not a welder but I thought you needed TIG or MIG to weld aluminum. I'm not familiar with oxy/acetylene working on aluminum. I could be wrong.

Jeff

Sure--I remember using ox/acet it in high school metal shop class to do Aluminum. It kind of went like this: Heat up the aluminum. It's shiny now... Hey, where'd it go?

You really need to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice...

Incidentally Martin, what are you welding on the tub? I'd think that either riveting or bonding would be easier. Lots of folks just bond it.