TOOLMAN'S  RELIANT   SCIMITAR SE5a SITE

Chassis

 

May 2003

I discovered that the front chassis leg on the passenger side was rotten (due I think to the poor fitting of a mud flap to it) and the first 6 inches of the sill rail. Les a friend of mine bent some steel (in his friends metal fabrication workshop) to the correct shape. I welded the outrigger and the chassis rail together off the car and after much cutting and grinding I was able to weld it into place as 1 unit. All the chassis that I could get to from the wheel arch was then given a generous coat of hammerite and left to dry.

The front chassis outrigger on the drivers side already has a patch welded onto it which seemed solid. I decided to leave this alone and treated the chassis on this side to a good coat of hammerite.

 

September 2003

Removed the rear axle (see 'Rear Suspension')  and the fuel tank. I have managed to obtain a second hand replacement in stainless steel that is in excellent condition (see the picture).

Once the rear axle and petrol tank was removed I was able to inspect the rear of the chassis. This is in remarkably good condition with no holes just lots of surface rust. Gave it all a severe beating with a good sized ball pein hammer and still no holes! Started scraping the loose rust off and wire brushing it all. The process of hammeriting begins. The previous owner had the chassis sprayed with some strange white powdery substance and this has helped to preserve it. The picture below shows the same area of chassis after cleaning and hammeriting.

 

This view looking towards the front of the car along the transmission tunnel clearly shows the white 'stuff' applied to the chassis.

 

27 September 2003

Welded in a patch to the rear seat support strap on the passenger side and gave the chassis visible from the wheel arch on this side a coat of hammerite.

 

4 October 2003

When poking around on the end of the chassis lots of rusty metal dropped to the floor. Turns out this was the bumper support bracket that fits on the end of the chassis. I ordered a new one from Nigel at Queensbury road garage and he advised that the best way to fit it is to cut the mounting brackets off it, cut a small hole in the side of the square section of bodywork behind the bumper and then feed it in sideways. Then weld the brackets back on in situ before bolting it to the chassis. Sounds a nightmare but I have to replace the remains of the one on my car. I will post here how I get on !

 

11 October 2003

Work continues on the rear of the chassis. Started to hammerite the cleaned down chassis and repaired the small amount of rust in the rear passenger side diagonal brace by welding in a piece of new metal.

 

16 November 2003

Finished hammeriting the rest of the rear chassis and then gave the whole thing a second coat.

 

30 November 2003

Tried fitting the new petrol tank. I cannot get it to fit by the strap mounts on the chassis. Seems like I may have the wrong tank for the car!!

 

2 December 2003

Posted a question on the Yahoo Scimitar site with regard to my tank problems. Received lots of good suggestions. Also spoke to Nigel at QRG who was his usual very helpful self. It seems that I have an early (1970s) Don Pither stainless tank. Nigel really knows his stuff. I have eventually managed to fit the tank in place by grinding off half of the tank strap mounting brackets. I now need to line up the filler neck then weld in new brackets.

 

6 December 2003

Removed the tank to fit the stainless steel straps and the rubber pipe from the filler cap. Fitted the neoprene insulation and then pushed the tank into place. I propped it there with my trolley jack and a block of wood whilst I fabricated replacement strap mounts (see Diagram). Welded them in and fitted the straps. Fitted a new length of rubber fuel pipe between the tank and the main front to back fuel line. Secured this with jubilee clips (there were no fixings on the previous tank!

 

8 January 2004

Had to jack up one side of the car to repair the wiring loom (See 'Electrics') so took the opportunity to clean down and hammerite the centre section of the chassis on the passenger side of the car including the centre outrigger and sill section. The front and back of the chassis were done when I rebuilt the front and back suspension.

 

22 March 2004

Finally cleaned down and painted the rest of the chassis.

 

27 Feb 2005

Finally got round to repairing the middle exhaust mounting bracket on the passenger side of the car. It used to rattle when the engine was switched off. I removed the old rusted section with an angle grinder and made up a new one in stainless steel. Fitted it to the exhaust with a new u bolt. Job done all now quiet again.

 

10 April 2005

I noticed that the petrol tank on the car was looking strange from the rear. It had slipped of one of the stainless straps and had dropped by about an inch on one side. I lifted it back up with my trolley jack and re fitted the strap. They are quite near the edge of the tank so I will keep an eye on it in case they slip again. I may have to find a way of fastening them together to prevent this happening again.