Series 3 109 Station Wagon, full ground up resto and 88 redo careless resto driving project

Wagon Loon said:

We'll work has been getting in the way too much the last few weeks.
Working as a technician in a school is quite challenging with Covid.
But I've ordered a needle de-scaling air powered tool off eBay View attachment 218180The idea is to clean most of the rust and paint off with this tool first, the use the small sandblaster which is good on very small areas, oh and great at laying sand down on my lockblock drive too.
Blasting sand isn't cheap, but the child's play sand is, it's just a bit too damp and I now have it in a big tub drying slowlyView attachment 218186 Just like newView attachment 218187 But quite slow

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I'd be really interested to hear what you think of the needle de-scaling air tool when you get to try it. I've also found that cheap brick acid is very good at soaking/dissolving off rust (if you can get the component into a tank) - but don't do this inside, or anything steel near it will start to corrode!

Hi Rob,
The needle descaler is a great bit of kit. Any loose flaky layered or built up rust just falls away with no fuss and not to much airborne dust. It will not leave a clean shiny surface but I would think one good enough to rust convert and paint.
I finished making a sand blaster today, and it works very nicely. I bought children's play sand - 10 bags cheap from Tesco weeks ago, and have been finding ways to dry it for using since. Today I fitted a barrel tip with brass pipe and flexible hose to a cheap aluminium ceramic tipped gun. A full face mask or respirator bad face shield plus head and body coverings is needed. But it works great and leaves a lovely clean dull printable surface.
I plan to clean the worst of the gearbox and transfer cases then polish them up a little plus all the bits such as airbox and metal retaining casings for fresh paint so they will be like new.
The needle de-scaling air tool may be a bit strong for very thin steel, but ideal for the likes of cleaning up the axles

I sweep the sand up and sieve it back into the blue barrel of which I have two with sealable lids. That's a bit Scottish I know, the rest sits in the cracks between my lockblock drive

Time to get the gearbox and transfer box out
Need to remove the front and rear drive shafts first which I will mark on the assumption they are balancedAlso I hope I remember how it all was
Right,
Time to get those shafts out

It's out, and a bit heavier than I thought

Can I ask how much air you push through your “sand blaster”

J

My 3HP belt driven compressor is rated for 14CFM, ( cubic foot per min). But the sand blaster does not need this much. So probably about 8 or 9 CFM actual in use. The copper pipe goes to the bottom of the barrel and is connected to the £14 gun via a flexible hose. The sand is dry and sieved, and is play sand which took forever to dry. But the sand is swept up and sieved back into the barrel and re-used, and I always wear a full face mask and respirator for the dust which is very dangerous to breathe.
I don't know how I made all those sand castles when young without getting silicosis.
Once you've figured how to not get blasted yourself it's a great piece of kit and a pleasure to use

So much crud on the box, been cleaning with Gunk gun
The jet wash, scrubbing brushes, other type of Gunk Ultra in a sprayWhich is almost as good as the Gunk in a tin.
I think this one is kinder to plastics in the engine bay.
As opposed to this one

Which has more powerful thinners in.
So following on with some sandblasting here is where we're at.

Draining oils and going to split into its parts to take into my shed for a rebuild.

So the strip down begins. Like a new journey of discoveryso far this fell out of the main gearbox

Which may explain why The car stopped getting used 17 years ago.

could this small piece of bronze be a synchromesh gear ??
Guess we'll just have to wait till it's on the bench and separate.

if thats off 3rd 4th synchro or 1st 2nd bush the box must be a mess inside

There had to be a reason they stopped driving her. So this may be it.
I believe I can replace all the parts, so just hope it's not a total tragedy inside. . ·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

Looks well mangled! Would be good to see the internals now. Have a look for sparkly oil too....

There was no oil in the box, just in the transfer case ⊙﹏⊙
But we have separation
and lots of things in bags
Well it is time to fire up the stove, because it's well below freezing on my shop

Living in a world of many plastic zip bags all labelled, and going to need to make a tool to remove this nut

For one moment I thought that was a cot to cradle your precious gearbox in but it’s a dog chair
I’d love to have a go at a gearbox but I doubt my nerves could take it.

Before I can rebuild it, I've had to re fit the 30+ year old transaxle I just recently finished rebuilding. A Peerless 801 which had a destroyed crown gear (ʘ言ʘ╬)
Getting parts for a box which has not been made for nearly 40 years years proved a challenge Now the shed's free for the Landy box, and I can get my car in the garage again ♪┌|∵|┘♪

I know what you mean Bobsticle,
But armed with the Haynes Manual and countless you tube vids also all the amazing info on the web, why not.
A replacement box seems to be over a grand, yet all the bearings and syncro parts are just a few hundred and I just don't trust other garages enough. They seem to be so slap dash.
If you do it yourself you know what kind of a job is done; it's just not about the money or the time. It's about the pleasure of having made something broken and worth saving for us all - like new again, so it can go on doing the best of British for another forty years or more. Also the personal achievement of having restored another big component of the puzzle.
I hope you do Bobsticle, because it's a worthy challenge to make a good job.

Wagon Loon said:

I know what you mean Bobsticle,
But armed with the Haynes Manual and countless you tube vids also all the amazing info on the web, why not.
A replacement box seems to be over a grand, yet all the bearings and syncro parts are just a few hundred and I just don't trust other garages enough. They seem to be so slap dash.
If you do it yourself you know what kind of a job is done; it's just not about the money or the time. It's about the pleasure of having made something broken and worth saving for us all - like new again, so it can go on doing the best of British for another forty years or more. Also the personal achievement of having restored another big component of the puzzle.
I hope you do Bobsticle, because it's a worthy challenge to make a good job.

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Maybe one day when all my other projects are done.

Wagon Loon said:

I know what you mean Bobsticle,
But armed with the Haynes Manual and countless you tube vids also all the amazing info on the web, why not.
A replacement box seems to be over a grand, yet all the bearings and syncro parts are just a few hundred and I just don't trust other garages enough. They seem to be so slap dash.
If you do it yourself you know what kind of a job is done; it's just not about the money or the time. It's about the pleasure of having made something broken and worth saving for us all - like new again, so it can go on doing the best of British for another forty years or more. Also the personal achievement of having restored another big component of the puzzle.
I hope you do Bobsticle, because it's a worthy challenge to make a good job.

Click to expand...

Have you got a genuine workshop manual. Haynes can be a bit lacking. Genuine ones are available to download free. I can't remember the website address but I bet someone on here will know it. Much more detailed.