Beauty is More than Skin Deep

:LOL: Neva met the fella but sounds like he deserved a wedgie, though l like his factory Cortina vents.
I think my factory Escort vents will look slightly better though & they will line up with the 68/69 factory flappy vents too so actually be functional
Not many visual mods being applied apart from the vents, the already fitted side running lights & a 3500 front valance that may be interfered with slightly.
Chassis stiffeners are now taking a back seat in order to get both cars back on their wheels & mobile ASAP. They can go on later in the build.
 
If you want rear quarter vents (and in this i agree with you for a '69 - '70 car), you can have a look at the vents of the pre-production P6s. They don't look so much difficult to recreate, and they are IMHO far better looking than the 'orible plastic Ford items, especially on a P6.
 
Plastic? No fear, they're good old 70's monkey metal. I'll have a look at those Talago-type vents but will fit these anyway as the D-trim panels are easy to change.
 
A pair could replace two of the headlights & by my completely meaningless calculations should be good for an extra 5mph if they are set to suck & not blow. Of course if set to blow then a net loss of 5mph would result.
 
Front suspension coming together. Bruiser 2's original springs & I had these standard rate Spax shocks on the shelf so elected to use them even though Bruiser 1's are serviceable. I also have a pair of NOS Load Leveller shocks which l'm going to try out on the rear end to see how they perform with the thicker ARB:

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Original Bruiser looking low & mean with the broken spring substituted by a length of wood so Richard can move her around. :)

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Talking of front suspension, my Morris Oxford is also coming along though yesterday l had a message from the guy doing the work, Steve. It turns out the bottom of both the front springs & pans are rotten which is the first time he's seen rotten springs on a Farina & he's worked on a few in his time. Also both ARB links were corroded & one snapped while being removed plus the upper fulcrum pins (shocks to kingpins) were seized solid & had to be destroyed in order to remove them. The fixed N/S trackrod has a seized ball joint too & to cap it all both bump stops have come away from their mounts. It never rains...... :LOL:
 
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Richard has fitted the new ARB & there is obviously a gap between the retaining blocks now which l imagine isn't ideal. I'm assuming spacers of some sort should be fitted, washers being the most convenient way to do it unless spacers of the correct thickness are to hand?
What have other users of these bigger ARB's done?


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Make certain the bolts aren't bottoming out. I drove for eight years (!) and would hear occasional 'twanging' noises from my uprated ARB, before Graham Ransley noticed the bolts were bottomed out and thus the bar wasn't properly clamped. Doh!
With the bolts shortened sufficiently, the noises are banished. The end result looks like your photo. Enough of the flanks are clamped that I don't see this as being a problem.
 
Ok thanks, Alisdair. It turns out Richard & me were at cross-purposes though. He was asking if the wider flats not fully locating in the clamp recesses was normal or did the clamps have to be modified to suit?
As to the bolts however, l was thinking that being exposed as they are, that would mean rather than simply clamping the clamps together they're actually now taking the twisting forces instead of the clamps themselves. I saw a programme on The Tay Bridge disaster which found that certain bolts used being too small for the holes they were put in meant they were subject to forces that they weren't meant to take & this contributed to the incident.
A rather larger comparison maybe but you get the point & spacers/washers would connect the clamp surfaces again.
Colin Gould sent the bolts with the bar, BTW.
 
ISTR fitting poly to the Panhard rod. Haven't had any troubles in a decade with that part of my car. I probably just hexed myself saying that, didn't I!
 
Work on the rear suspension is underway. Removed from Original Bruiser:

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It scrubbed up pretty well. The diff carrier/Panhard bushes are being replaced with poly, not the mounts though, approx £150 a pair is enough to keep the serviceable originals in service for the present. It transpires that the rest of the rear end is indeed poly'ed up as Dr Postlethwaite, the previous owner told me it was. It's the first time l've had it confirmed though:

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The elbows looked pretty good:

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Richard ran a bead of weld around the washers for extra strength. He postulated that moisture could maybe build up behind the spot-welded washers causing them to rust & fracture away:

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it's great to see the P6 surviving. This looks like the one in a scrapyard in Newport which I had the interior out of it, also I have the missing number plate up in my garage! I made one good interior out of the 2 I had in the end, came out pretty nice in t20220101_152316.jpghe end..20210312_172751.jpg20210314_130416.jpg
 
lebaldyman said:
This looks like the one in a scrapyard in Newport which I had the interior out of it, also I have the missing number plate up in my garage!
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I think you'll find it is that one, and I'm sure TRM will be along sometime soon to confirm or deny that. (And probably try to claim his number plate!)
 
harveyp6 said:
I think you'll find it is that one, and I'm sure TRM will be along sometime soon to confirm or deny that. (And probably try to claim his number plate!)
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It is of course & as the finished car will have the PKG registration l will have to replace that plate, though if you do feel like reuniting it with the car then l'd be happy to pay the postage.

Those seats came out very well indeed. My black interior will be going in but l'm retaining the red carpet.
 
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