The 'E' Type Forum

Went along to help a local guy with an SIII, engine already out, the aim was to take the front suspension off. tbh I didn't even notice that it was an SIII when we were emailing back and forth, so I arrived expecting to see an SI with which I am quite familiar with.

We got right to the bit where JD43 comes in and stopped as I have no experience of how much tension is wound into the TB when the uprights are off and the lower arm is hanging free. The steering B/J were bugger me difficult to get off with a clamp style joint popper, and the bottom B/Js are still in as we decided to give it a week for the penetrating oil to work after about 2 hours of clamping, swearing, hammering, heating with propane didn't impress them in the least. We tried two variations of German, Italian, Slovenian, Bosnian as well as English, but they just weren't listening.

So...

Just how much tension is left in the TB when the lower arm and cam are hung out of the way? Do I need to replace the inboard bolts with a tapered punch before I remove the outboard ones and let the bracket down with a jack? Is the outboard end of the bracket going to be 1" below the floor when the tension is off and the bracket is unbolted, more, less?

Have I understood the shop manual incorrectly, as I read it they seem to be describing the JD43 use as increasing the moment of preload rather than compensating for it. I read it as adding a splined drop arm to the back of the splines, then move the lower end to the middle of the car, that would make it worse, not better!

The body seems to be pretty sound, bitumen and undercoating are still on, but the floors and sills look ok from the outside. One of the questions was if the floors need patching, or whole replacement - I said it looked like a couple of locations with flat areas smaller than a dollar bill, which would mean patching for me, but that we'd need to have a good look inside the sills with a usb camera and get the undercoating and bitumen off before being able to say with any certainty. For the moment it looks like we can leave the frames on, and won't need a rotisserie.

The RHS frame has been replaced (red undercoat, matt grey paint, LHS is in original Silver) and the picture frame has also been replaced, Picture frame is a bit bashed up at the bottom and seems to have been welded on the left lower corner while still attached to the left frame. I had a cursory look at the frames, they seem undamaged, I would prefer to be able to say "Leave them on, have them blasted and we can look at them from the front with a camera, and use crack detection spray on the outside." Am I being wildly optimistic? There is no sign of repairs or fretting at the firewall which makes me wonder why the RHS needed replacing.

The car sat in a covered barn for about 15 years, so it was only exposed to atmospheric moisture. So far I've had the luxury of working on either completely rust free, or Fred Flintstone cars, so I'm having trouble figuring out what is "enough" to do the job sufficiently.

Andrew

If this was me 'helping' a friend not knowing the answers to these questions (which I don't), I'd be walking away right now with the simple advice, get someone who knows what they are doing to advise or make the repairs. Too many cars get restored by well intentioned amateurs, and too few get restored well. A recent experience. A S3 was handed to its owner after being 'restored'. The bodywork looked pretty, but the car didn't run well. It had (a) a blocked filler cap drain hole, which allowed water to get into the fuel tank when driven in the rain (on its first trip); (b) parts missing from the radiator fan mounts, which meant fans were moving air around the radiator instead of through it, resulting in serious overheating. There were bolts missing, or incorrect size. This didn't inspire confidence that any of the restoration was of suitable quality.

Ok,
Not going to get too far into advice about what to do regarding the frames, condition and the like. I will say that the E-type is too valuable and also old (hence possibly affected by age) to take short cuts with. My Series 3 frames were in good condition after a similar storage story and I have heard that Serious 3 frames are less prone to corrosion. However you have a enormous amount of stress going through the frames. The V12 has loads of torque and the S3 cars are the heaviest of them all with performance equal to most variants. I think you should inspect everything now while you have the option.

I put my car on a rotisserie and replaced both sills but only replaced sections of the floor with home made sections and that worked very well.

With respect to the torsion bars they aren't under much tension when everything is disconnected, including dampers, but caveat emptor applies because someone may have over tensioned them and I don't know how skilled/experienced you and your friend are - no offence I hope as I have not met you. I set my suspension up myself originally and reset it recently when I thought it was too low. I asked questions and answered some myself along with help from others here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9429&p=73751#p73751

See if it helps, good luck but take care with the work and don't tackle anything that you are not confident with.

Regards,

Simon.

Oops, posted twice!

Now edited, also re-read and noticed the bit about crack testing. If you're going to the trouble of blasting then why not remove them and check the bulkhead as this can corrode behind and around the mounts? Also with them off it is much easier to inspect clean, paint and finally fill thoroughly with wax!

Regards (again),

Simon.