Most of the parts are now cleaned and prepared although there are sure to be bits I've missed but I'll fill those in as I go.

I decided to rub down and repaint the chassis before assembly as there were various areas where the ravages of time when the part-built kit was left uncovered had damaged the paintwork. This was straightforward but I chose to put on a primer (Hammerite) before top coating with black satin finish Hammerite. This was OK in principle as it gave good coverage but in reality is a pig as the top coat does not cover evenly and it took 4 coats of Hammerite to give an even cover - still it should last a while!



Lovely colour - but it was horrible to cover.

I completed fitting the rear drum/hub and adjusted the eccentrics as best possible - I'll adjust properly when the hydraulics have been completed. The next step was to re-fit the suspension arms again a straightforward job remembering to use plenty of grease. A tip that Dave Parr gave me was invaluable. He told me to buy a 3 pronged oil filter remover/tightener tool which will grip the castellated locking ring and makes fitting quick and easy - he was not wrong. The ring can be tightened well and then it's just a process of tapping the ring with a drift until a split pin can be inserted through the hole in the axle to fix the ring into position



Here the arm has been fitted



Above is the rear arm in place held up to stop the shock-absorber mounting pin on the arm fouling the chassis. Note that the undercoat/primer is still showing through the top coat at this stage - another two coats followed!

The next job was to re-fit the king pins. To be honest I was not looking forward to this job but all went very well. The only awkward part was that the paint on the end of the swing arm had to be removed to allow it to enter between the hub upright to fit the shims. I did this very carefully as having paid to have them blasted and painted I didn't want to ruin the job. As usual careful does it and the parts went together well. It is important to follow the correct sequence of events to fit the bushes and the king pin itself but there are plenty of instructions out there on how to do this - I downloaded a set of instructions from an Aussie 2CV site. After fitting both uprights I fitted the arms to the axle using the same technique as for the rear. The track rod ends were then fitted and the tab washers bent to lock the nuts in position before giving them a coat of paint.



This shows the hubs fitted to the arms with the track rod ends.

As I am using Phil's Guzzi conversion the front shock absorbers will no longer be fitted to the axle covers on the front. I therefore decided that I would convert the covers to remove the shocker bracket and just have a plate to cover the end of the axle. By turning the left side cover by 180 degrees on the right cover a sort of triangular shape could be formed which was scribed on to the plate. I cut this out with a thin disc in the grinder and finished on a bench grinder to give a pleasant shaped cover - IMHO.



I think the above shows what I mean - the finished cover can be used as a template for the other one.

The following picture shows one of the two covers fitted to the end of the front axle. Although I have fitted dome nuts (A2 stainless) I'm not sure that they will pass the dreaded MSVA.



I thought about fitting the track rods and adjusters at this point but the adjusters come as bare metal and although painting would have been OK I decided to push the boat out and have them chrome plated since they are exposed and could add to the overall appeal. I found a small place fairly near Coventry and took them along with the exhaust clamps I had previously cleaned. The reason for adding them was that there is a minimum charge of £20 and the adjusters came to less than that for plating so I decided to throw in the exhaust clamps which elevated the price to £30.

Whilst waiting for the plating to be done (up to 6 weeks by the way) I turned my attention to the process of fitting the spring assisters. Now Phil supplies a number of small plastic spacers that fit between the coils of the spring and depending on the number fitted then the stiffness of the spring is susequently altered. They are a b*****d to fit and after spending a day getting nowhere I turned to the Pembleton Forum for advice. The upshot of the this was to fit Grayston spring assisters which I think were originally intended for cars towing caravans and thus needed a bit of stiffening at the back. The GE13 size are the ones to fit so I ordered a set of three from somewhere near Winchester as they were the cheapest on the net and were approximately half the price I could buy them at my local caravan accessories place. Fitting is a bit of a black art and needs plenty of soapy washing up liquid and a big rubber hammer!! Once the first part is in the spring it is necessary to thump the rubber assister at the point at which it enters the spring slowly forcing it between the coils. At first I was hitting the thing quite gently - this is no good it needs a good thump. After some time of doing this I had all three springs duly fitted with their assisters and prayed I would not have to do it again albeit I was getting better at the process by the end. I now fitted the springs to their housings and attached them to the appropriate bracket on the suspension arms.



This shows the assister fitted to the spring.

Having done this I looked at the rear arm as I was concerned that the tie bar had not picked up much thread and there was little movement at the damper. I contacted the Pembleton Forum and learnt that the rear spring had to be a short one and no more than 170mm long. I checked my spring to find it was 190mm and thus I was losing nearly an inch of thread to the eyebolt. Now I had a number of springs which came with the kit when I bought it and found that the previous owner had not used the shorter springs but luckily hadn't thrown them out. I had one spring of 170mm and one of 165mm although this one had a reverse coil to the spring - a little research showed this to be common but I couldn't find a reason for it. The upshot was removal of the spring and the assister then another session of replacing the assister in the new 165mm spring and putting it all back together again!

The next step was to fit the fuel tank. This was fairly straightforward. I fitted the refurbished sender unit and fitted a length of 6mm fuel pipe plus extending the two wires to the unit.



The tank was then offered up to the lugs welded to the chassis and bolted in place. This must be done from below as the tank would not be accessible for removal once the floor of the car was in position. In my case the floor was already in but it is worth noting. Bolting up the tank was simple enough except one of the holes in one of the lugs needed 'easing' as they say. The next step was to fit the fuel pump. I had bought a low pressure pump at the Stoneleigh kit car show - at least I hope it is low pressure (I was told it was) although there was no information supplied with the pump. As there were no instructions again a bit of a search on the net came up with some words of wisdom which seemed to fit my pump - it looks as if it is a generic Facit type solid state affair. I had to make a bracket to fit the pump to the lower chassis rail and I attached the pump to the plate with a sandwich of two rubber washers to give some vibration damping - at least that's the theory. The picture below shows what I mean.



The bracket was attached to the chassis rail by bolting it to a couple of rivnuts drilled and fixed into the rail. I have always been a bit wary of rivnuts but they were a doddle to use and it does give the option of removal at a later date unlike riviting the thing. Next was fitting the fuel pipe from the pump to the front of the car. I bought a 2m length of plastic covered 6mm copper pipe and attached this at about 220mm centres along the lower chassis rail and brought it up into the engine bay to be attended to at a later date. The pipe was fixed with 8mm P clips with 5mm stainless button head set screws in to rivnuts. The set screws would later be used to attach P clips for the brake pipe utilising the same rivnut.



This picture shows the run of the fuel pipe and the attached brake pipe running above it. I think this gives a neat result and means only one hole has to be made for a pair of clips thus lessening the risk of compromising the strength of the chassis rail.



Although this is not the best picture in the world it shows the pump attached and the fuel pipe hooked up along with the rear brake pipe route.

The next part to tackle was the rear brake pipes. I started by fitting the 'curly' brake pipe through the cut down rear axle that has been welded to the chassis. This is a bit of a fiddle. Firstly the bracket that attaches the curly part to the inside of the axle needs to be removed from the old pipe (you did keep it didn't you?) by drilling out the rivets and then attaching it to the new pipe with the nuts and bolts supplied in the kit if you bought it from Bonapart which is the most sensible approach as the pipes are all made up to the correct length with all the fittings. My set cost £80 with post and packing which seems a lot but at least I know it'll all fit and seems extremely well made, you even get a bottle of LHM. The pipe plus bracket then has to introduced into the axle and slid along until the small locating prong and bolt pop through their respective holes in the axle outer casing. It's just a matter of then attaching the nut to the bolt to fix it in place. Perhaps easier said than done but a bit of patience and it will go OK. The short end of the pipe was allowed to stick out of the end of the axle to be attached to the long pipe via the supplied connector. The other end - ie the bit that attaches to the wheel cylinder was slid under the appropriate metal clips on the rear suspension arm and the pipe fitted to the brake cylinder not forgetting to put a LHM rubber seal on the end of the pipe before inserting it into the cylinder. This was tightened and then came the problem of how to hold the curly bit contained within the axle from rubbing on the inside of the axle. Usually the right angled bit of the exiting pipe is held with a bracket which attaches to a couple of cutouts in the outside end of the suspension arm. This was not possible with my set up for some reason - or maybe everybody's is like that. I thus bent the pipe in a right angle across the end of the upper face of the suspension arm and attached the pipe with a P clip. I intend to place some foam around the curly pipe to prevent it rubbing against the inner surface of the axle casing although it seems to be well held as it is well away from the axle.



This picture shows what I mean. The end of the axle will need to be covered but I think I will be able to fit one of the original plastic caps to the axle sealing it with some Sikaflex and holding it securely in place with a bracket from the small projection on the suspension arm to the plastic cover. I will add a picture of this once I've sorted it out. The long brake was pipe was easy to fit and previous pictures show the pipe route along with the fuel pipe. The two pipes, ie the curly and the front to rear pipe were joined with the supplied union.



At the front of the car the brake pipe needed to be fitted to the master cylinder and having run the pipe along the bottom rail and up into the engine bay I was having doubts as to whether or not the pipe would fit. Assuming all would be OK, well it was supposed to be made to measure, I carefully ran it over to the cylinder - it just fits! I ran it to the end of the cylinder having looked at other builders' sites but I can't see why it shouldn't go to the first attachment on the cylinder. If there was a pressure equaliser in the circuit then getting the fit in the right place is crucial but without one and as all the brake line pipes are the same should it make any difference? Answers on a postcard I suppose.
Anyway the picture below shows the tight fit.



The picture also shows the handbrake fitment which was the next project. I had already fitted the handbrake unit to the frame but because the previous owner for some reason ahd fitted the glove box etc prior to drilling out the welded on plate to accept the ratchet mechanism I was not looking forward to attempting to line it all up with the bulkhead in the way. A couple of measurements indicated that the line of the brake strap into the car interior would mean that the rachet would not fit onto the plate as the plate was too far to the offside of the car by about 2cm or so (see lines marked on bulkhead on the picture. Not only that but the forked part of the actuator was too high in the engine bay which would mean the strap would go through the glove box area. I overcame this by cutting off the top of the actuator and drilled a 6mm hole in the remaining part and attached the strap with a spacer to move it to the right. The rachet was drilled in four corners and corresponding holes drilled in the bracket. Whatever you do make sure this is all done BEFORE you fit any bodywork. It was a pig but eventually I was able to connect all the bits.



This picture and the other above should show you what I mean. It is far, far easier to align all this without any panels being in place. I'm dreading fitting the gear lever as I have the same problem and the glove box has the wrong dimensions enclosing the gear lever. I may run it underneath the dash and adjust the gear lever accordingly.

I had been trying to contact the chrome platers without success only to find they had all gone on their annual holidays for a fortnight. However I now have my track rod end adjusters back (it took eight weeks!!!) which are all nice and shiny. This means I can now refit the track rods to the track rod ends which will need to be done before the engine goes in. As you may have already read I bent the track rods forward by 5 degrees as stated in the instructions supplied with the Guzzi kit. This is not enough. They need to be about 10 degrees - on my car anyway. This I discovered as I tried in vain to fit the new TRE adjusters. However once bent correctly the whole thing went together easily - just remember there are lefthand threads to the TRE which need to be matched to the TRE adjusters. Here are a couple of pictures





It is now time to take the car down off its trestles and insert the engine and gearbox (details of the engine and gearbox travails can be found on another page) and start a new page Assembly 2.