Why did they not galvanize these parts?

[Jon Weywadt]

Are u able to make anymore? I am sure some of us here would be interested.

I thought I had answered this. Sorry.
My friend Jan is the one who have the cut. I don't know if he can have more made, but I will ask him and also get him to post the drawing. That way you can have them cut at a metal shop.

They are nasty to bend due to the flap that sort of sticks out in front. That prevents them from being bent in a normal sheet metal bending rig. You have to use some appropriately sized steel blocks and a large bench vice, a rubber mallet and parience. 

Speaking of posting drawings. I made drawings of the Gastank straps and the air filter straps and am posting it here, if you want to make your own. Jan and I will try to make them in stainless steel. Jan has already done that with the gas tank.

[Jon Weywadt]

The effort to replace rusting parts on mine and my friend Jan's Murenas continue. The latest addition is the stay that holds up the bonnet. It is now made from an 8mm stainless steel rod. Not an easy task that material is hard to bend.

Also the grove that locks it into place in the nylon bushing at the bottom, is best made by turning it on a lathe. Not having a lathe, I used a cordless drill to turn it, stuck the other end through a ball bearing, with a bit of rubber hose and plastic tape. fastened the ballbearing in the bench vice and clamped the drill switch on. Presto, a poor mans lathe. (photo) With a file i got the grove just right.

Next, I made a jig consisting of two 3/8" socket extenders in a vice, with a deep socket over the ends, to keep them from spreading out under the strain.

Then I heated the steel to a bright pink, put it in the jig and bent the bottom end first. The top end is a bit more challenging, partly because the bend at the tip was tighteer than the jig would allow. I therefore placed in a grove on hte vice and beat it into submission with a hammer.

The last steps were removal of any marks with a fine file, sanding with a 220 grain cloth, followed by a 400 grain cloth and last polishing it with a buffing wheel on the bench grinder with polishing wax.

Sweet.  

PS. The last photo is from under the bonnet before the stainless work started and before the brake servo and other parts were wire brushed and painted.

[Jon Weywadt]

In the continuing process of elliminating parts that rust, I replaced the tank straps last weekend.

Jan provided some strips of stainless steel, stainles tubing and stainless angle brackets. Bracket edges were milled on Jan's new toy (surplus from his company ) a grove was cut in the tubing and silver soldered onto one end of the strap. At the other end 4 holes were punched and the strap was spot welded onto the angle bracket. Everything was polished and it was mounted on the car with new 8mm stainles bolts. (forgot to take a picture of that   but will add later)

As you can see the old straps were a bit rusty and a previous owner had repaired the long strap with a strip of galvanized iron sheet, and it was about 2" too short, requiring a 4" bolt holding the straps together.

This weekend we will make new straps for the air filter. The parts have been cut, but need to be assembled.

[davidewanprice]

Very Nice!

[Jon Weywadt]

With the holiday we had Friday, I spent 3 days in Jan's garrage working on parts for my Murena.

Last weekend I decided to adjust the fit of the left side frog-eye. The cover was not lining up properly with the fender and the hood. When I tried to unscrew the bolts, holding the hinge to the inner fender, the very first one snapped. I had even wire brushed it and soaked it in penetrating oil, but it still snapped.

So this weenend the lights had to come off and new bolts fitted. Well, that is not so easy. Snapping all the bolts was no problem  , but the bolts in the hinge are carriage bolts that are spotwelded to the hinge. They cannot just be removed.  

Fortunately Jan has that new toy, an industrial metal router. So I fixed each hinge in the vice and milled the head off the bolts, flush with the surface of the hinge. Then it was simply knocking the remains of the bolt out with a punch. I next drilled the hole a bit larger to 8 mm and filed it to a square, that fit new 8 mm stainless carriage bolts.

But in worse shape were all the shims under the hinge. It turned out that the reason the light was not aligned, was that rust had swelled their combined thickness by 1/4". That had pulled the plate inside the wheel well completely out of shape and lifted the hinge.

I therefore had to make new shims. This new batch are of course in 1 mm stainless steel. I have posted some pictures of the fabrication. Now that it is assembled again, the lights are lined up correctly with the hood and the fenders.

After that success Jan asked if it was not time to replace the rusty handbrake cable. Picking up that challenge   I unscrewed the handbrake cable assembly and all the brackets holding the outer cable guides.

After measuring the length I cut a corresponding length of 4 mm stainless steel aircraft quality cable. Jan had turned a couple of stainless steel end-plugs to be silver soldered onto the ends. While I re-assembled the cable harness, the brackets were soaking in phosphoric acid to remove the rust. After cleaning and repainting with Hammerite, they were mounted back onto the car, but this time with stainless bolts.

The handbrake cable is working again, but I sure wish I had had new outer cable guides. The coil inside the old ones are prerry rusty too.

Do any of you know if they can be bought seperately?