Richie's Mk1 Restoration

[roy206]

in the past it was,someone take it off,he only left the holes

[RichardT10829]

Well rivetting is all but done, i have been cleaning parts up to go back onto the hull so things are moving along at a nice pace now... i made a mollasses bath for some of the larger items which has been excelent, a large portion of my track was rusted solid and seized so i plonked some into the bath a few weeks ago and below is the results.

There is lots of conflicting info on the web about molasses having to be sulphated....this is not the case, i used Lincoln pure cane (animal grade) molasses...the key is that you need to leave the molasses in the water for two weeks to ferment in order for the chillation process to work when the rusty junk is added. i mixed a batch roughly 10:1 using a wheelie bin as my container so 20ltrs of molasses and then fill the rest with water.





this section was a rusted block when it went into the solution two weeks ago, the photo here all i have done is remove the section from the bath and jet wash it...no elbow grease required ! the section is totally free and clean now.

believe it or not the track is clean bare metal however it looks dull in the picture as its still wet

here is a comparrison with an untreated seized section all be it the condition is still better than the first bit was initially


here we have some trunking, another best bit about molasses is its penetrating abilities, anything siezed if you can get a spanner/screw driver on it when it has just been rinsed out of the bath, and is still wet, will come loose with little effort, note all the screws in the trunking are clean and working now



just thought i would post it up....the electrolysis bath was working great but my electricity bills were not clever so opted this route... £30ish quid for the molasses delivered and it lasts up to six months, its non toxic and non invasive for the metal, any rusted bolts are great for this... it free's them up a treat ! the longer you leave it in the better the results.

[RichardT10829]

should also add that i used a ratio of 10parts water to 1part molasses but some folk make is as strong as 4:1 obviously the stronger the mix the faster it works.

[shaun]

Looking good Richie - keep at it mate !

[eddy8men]

thanks for the molasses tip i'll definately try that one myself. cheers

[RichardT10829]

no probs... dragged out the rest of my bits of track (short sections) today so just have two more lengths to do and they are done

[RichardT10829]

well its been five months since i put any updates on this thread.... Marc gave me some gentle grief at W&P about it, so i have cobbled a few images from my FB account to give a glimmer of the progress.

as stated the riveting is all but done however i need to do the centre divider plate (i need measurements for where the rivets go.. i have original armour squares for the ends which are sorted its just the two right angle bars that run the width of the carrier that i need to plot the holes)

I am glad Shaun pursuaded me not to use the coach bolts as the job is much stronger now. I need to rebuild the armour intake boxes and somehow make the radio battery box, but we are getting there slowly... here are some pics



note my fopar in the first attempt at sand guards.... the second attempts will be correct !

the front armour was fun with a few querky angles chucked in to make riveting more tasking..



here the paint on the nearside corner needed rubbing back (which has since been done) the rivets in the armoured steering box are original many thanks to Kevin for the trade.


if you recall my center div plate had been hacked up in all manner of angles, I cut off anything above the track guards that remained and patched in using the original metal for the missing bits below the track guards.... the remains that i had after were kept for the glacis plate...here i have made one bit and tacked it on using an old mig... i ended up pulling it off then re doing it with the new gas mig that i had got. in total the top section has a plethora of patches put back in.. the welds deliberately left proud on the underside so folk can see what has been done.

you can see the two holes i welded up which had been where the upper seat bracket had been.


cutting a patch

by this point i was wondering what i had let myself in for...just for the sake of retaining as much original fabric as i could (inspired by the Bluebird K7 project i guess) i was ready to chop the whole top section off until Shaun gave me yet another pep talk to spur me on assuring me it would be worth it.

and he was right

paint still wet (and a few notches to fill)

the glacis has since been drilled and fitted

whilst all this has been going on, i have been pulling rusty chunks out of the molasses bath and restoring them such as linkages, seat mech's bits of gearstick etc etc

this little widget was totally rusted solid when it went in