I'm finding this most interesting.

I'm having the 343 professionally restored...the financial pain is my punishment for not doing what you're doing sooner! Anyway, the 343 has a few 'messy' bits on the arches, but is generally solid, and he's going to do exactly what you've done - repair the rusty bits, rather than replace the whole arch if most of it is solid. As long as you get all the grot out, there's no need to make work for yourself...

cheers

James

foggyjames wrote:I'm finding this most interesting.

I'm having the 343 professionally restored...the financial pain is my punishment for not doing what you're doing sooner!

You know as well as I do that until I get a job, that's just not an option. Thing is, it's getting closer and closer to being not an option when I have a job, after seeing the fail they made of Steve's wheel arches and the amount he threw at those guys I'm not convinced I trust others to take the time and care required.

The only thing is Fake's been off the road since... beggining of Feb, with one reassmbly and drive late Feb. I havn't driven her much at all for ages and worked out I've driven 6 or 7 different cars since, friends down here have been really generous lending me cars so I can go places. If I didn't have work and had less busy weekends it would have been fine, but without the proper student lifestyle or a second car I'm not convinced this is an option, so far it's had 3 days of work so thats a week of walking to work at least

The last paragraph you wrote there Chris sums up why I don't have a 300 anymore Before I'd decided to part out my 360 saloon I hadn't driven it properly for nearly a year and it was causing more hassle than it was fun, that's not what it's about!

I'd be very weary of bodyshops - it helps if you know someone in the trade alot! Would never do it again either unless the car was very special! My welder did an ace job but it was screwed over when the bodyshop took over. What do you plan on doing with the painting Chris?

Finding someone who will do a decent job is the tricky part...SO many cowboys in the bodywork game...

Yeah, I guess if your only car is rusty...you better be a welding ninja, or getting to work is going to be difficult.

cheers

James

Ground the welds back today, and coat of primer on. It needs some filling, but not too much. Put the exhaust back on, and went to start her when I noticed she's dropped her entire lot of coolant. All of it. There is a leak (big ish) in top of rad, and steam seems to be coming out around HG level. So, have bought a bottle of radweld...

Adam...

F7P / F7R That is all...

cheers

James

My car dumped all its coolant on saturday, seems ok now but im gonna sort out a new rad and hoses asap.

Dan

Bazboy wrote:My car dumped all its coolant on saturday, seems ok now but im gonna sort out a new rad and hoses asap.

Dan

Theres been a couple of cheap nos rads on the bay recently dan. Dunno of theyve ended yet like.

foggyjames wrote:F7P / F7R That is all...

S'ok.. there is a plan. Amusingly this plan is almost as far complete as my turbo so HGF isn't really a huge annoyance.

I proved my point that a renault block could do over 200k (mines now on 205/206) but she does need a fair bit of attention to continue

Am about to ring up MOT station and see if they have a slot for later... I like working to deadlines.

MOT man says other side isn't borderline as I thought... it's a fail.

So, here we go again Still, guess when it's done it's done. In the time it's been laid up, the steering gone funny, and the brakes have become useless. F*ck. Will strip brakes, no idea what could have gone on the steering though. Feels like tracking is about a million degrees out, and from memory I didn't hit anything lumpy in the road since I had that done.

Ah, no, I've just been told by my nav I did. Opps, ok, it could be that then.

Chris_C wrote:MOT man says other side isn't borderline as I thought... it's a fail.

So, here we go again Still, guess when it's done it's done. In the time it's been laid up, the steering gone funny, and the brakes have become useless. F*ck. Will strip brakes, no idea what could have gone on the steering though. Feels like tracking is about a million degrees out, and from memory I didn't hit anything lumpy in the road since I had that done.

Ah, no, I've just been told by my nav I did. Opps, ok, it could be that then.

oh dear.

Chris_C wrote:Compared to my inner wings on Kar, this is looking quite simple. All flat metal, and the one part I though wouldn't be there (the bellows) is.

Next time I EVER say something like this, full permission is granted for someone to drive down and hit me.

Have got bored on cycling everywhere, so see....

http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... f=2&t=7750

If you ever get round to fitting a cage make sure the pick up points are strong enough.

See here.Fair to say they were properly done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdJuypBAC-Y

Cage is going in with current welding mate, I have the SD plates so just need to make sure they are welded in properly! That crash scares me more each time I see it

WRC rollcages have advanced quite far, they have ton of data from accidents and can calculate stress to cage with computers, so it is light and very strong structure.

There are few cases where I know cage been holding up just fine, but it had gone trough chassis of car because of missing plates, also seat mounting should be made enough strong, even in WRC there has been seat mounting failures in crashes, but not probably anymore as they have learned from those incidents.

One JM class race driver had made rollcage thinking metal bar is strong, so he had put one metal pipe bent like U-shape to front of his car's chassis (it was some rear engined fiat or something like that) there was no other support to that U-shaped pipe just it welded to 'firewall' then normal cage in cockpit. Crash was typical to that track, race was near Oulu, there was one light pole at main straight and it was quite normal for car to hit that pole as JM is kind of contact sports, so he rams to that pole dead center and finds pole where gear stick should been (Well, actually people that came to help found that). That U-shaped bar did nothing except for bending, normally there is few pipes more to make it rigid.

Some are also making cage from pipe that is used for water pipes, not too sure if that is best possible material.