Not much activity this week, due to other commitments.  Attempted to fit the repaired front damper link, only to find the pin fitted by the previous owner had the wrong diameter and was loose in the damper lever arm, which had caused the hole in the arm to elongate slightly.  Material ordered to make a sleeve, which will be the next job.

A slow start to the week, with some doubts about the usability of the exhaust system, however I proceeded to make and fit a strap and hanger for the silencer.  Next, I gave the chassis over the rear axle a good scrape then a coat of primer in preparation for silvering.  Whilst that cured, turned my attention to the O/S front shock absorber link, where the bush and pin eye had been crudely welded to the lock nut.  I separated the nut from the eye and found the link thread undamaged, but the thread in the eye was totally worn out.  To fix it,  I cut down the eye threaded section so I could weld on two nuts with the correct thread for the link bar (5/8″ BSF).  I turned one nut down to approximately 2/3 its full depth and left a stub that was a fairly tight fit in the threaded portion of the cast steel bush eye.   This was to ensure the eye remained in the correct position during and after welding.  On the both face of the nut I machined a chamfer to take the weld.  I chamfered one face of another full nut in order to give a reasonable depth of thread in the repaired eye then welded the whole lot together whilst it was screwed on to the link, so as to keep all the threads aligned.  After grinding the welds it doesn’t look too bad and is a proper repair, not like the half-assed version that was done before.

First job of the week was to store safely the new seats that had been languishing in the MW since getting them done by Ifor.  I then started on the job of installing the tail pipe and found that the first elbow would no longer fit in the silencer receptacle, so some adjustment was required.  This was achieved by cutting a small slit in the end and tapping all round the circumference of the pipe with a panel hammer.  It now slides in easily.  With that done, I was able to mark up, cut and weld the two sections of tailpipe.  Next, I  ground the welds flat.  A trial fit on the bus showed that I need an additional bend to give the correct exit angle, so a 20 deg elbow was obtained and this enabled me to complete and hang the exhaust at the end of the week.  All that needs to be done is to provide some additional support for the silencer and pipework.