Fred wrote:Fail for not washing first. Lye eats carbon a lot better than oil. n00b
I always wash with petrol or degreaser and water first.
Not a fail, a "learning".
I've used petrol or degreaser (thinner or something) in the past, but lately (3-4 years) went to petroleum. That was after I cleaned some stuff with diesel, which stinks but cleans well. Pure petroleum, like for lamps or so, has relatively little and a more pleasant odor and is colorless, which makes it great for cleaning. I have also flushed gearboxes of fabrication machinery and crank cases of lawn mower engines with it. Works great for removing that black oil residue.
Depending on the part of course, sometimes degreaser is necessary for further steps like painting or so.
To be honest, this time I was just lazy and thought the lye could eat everything. It almost did, eventually, so there wasn't soo much manual cleaning involved this time. Which was pleasant for a change. But yeah, a quick wash with petroleum first will even more speed things up...
Fred wrote:Even when you're aware of it and thinking about it, it's not always that easy to judge correctly.
True! I knew it would happen, but I didn't know how to prevent it. Tacking at the center of the flat bars did the trick. I expected the bar to rise up then, but it didn't. Anyways, all is under control.
Now a few days worth of updates, before I go on holiday for a week:
- Painted and re-installed the panel for the large hole in the engine compartment. If anyone wants the DXF or SVG or PDF file of this panel, send me a message.
- Cleaned, fixed and oiled the K&N filter. The part that mounts the air filter to the carb had a rough backside, that didn't get the filter housing to seal properly. I put it on the lathe to make it flat at the back and, while at it, polished the air entry. Forgot to take an after-picture and now it's already in... The part itself might be too thin or too bad of material that it bends instead of putting pressure on the stainless plate.
- Finished the crank case breather, painted and installed.
- Flattened the floor in the foot space area a bit more. Came to the conclusion that in a couple of years, I'll have to replace the floor panels anyways. That made it easier to be satisfied with what I've fixed so far.
- Filled a rusty seam with linseed oil. Then saw the oil seeping through to the other side a day later. Poked a little and found holes exactly where I put the car on stands, haha. That verified where I'll put the lift points though...
- Cleaned and sanded the radiator grille. I've gotten this grille used and it had been painted several colors before. Also, someone tried to clean it with a steel wire brush, which left scratches in the aluminium. It was also bend out of shape a lot, so all in all that grille cost me plenty of hours. It's not available in new, but I'm now happy with what I have. Forgot to take pics, need 3 mm rivets to finish.
- Finished welding up the seat rails. Drilled the corresponding holes in the body and finished the backing plates. Now I need to vacuum the car again, but I'm confident it all fits.
- I was looking at the gear gaiter (odd translation? I'd say "shift sack"
) the other day. Noticed the mounting plate is all out of shape. Hammered the tunnel back into shape and flattened the mounting plate with the press. Decided I would not use the leather gear gaiter but instead cut away some stuff of the inner rubber. I think that will look pretty cool, except for the anodized blue. May paint it black or make a cover (that would also fixate the rubber).
- Filled all the tiny holes in the firewall (mostly from sheet metal screws) with black silicone. Hopefully that will let less fumes inside.
- Measured and taped the positions where to cut my front number plate holder. When the front was crashed, insurance paid for a new stainless steel one, but it's for standard 52 cm wide number plates, which looks ridiculous on that car. By making it 42 cm wide, I get the permission to smaller plates.
- Received notifications that the steering tie rods should come next week, finally.