31 July 2009 - The chassis has arrived !!

After the best part of 3 months waiting for the large and the most important part of the project to arrive from Richards - it is now here. I did have a bit of a panic the day before when Kathyrn at Richard's called to say the delivery had been delayed...from a sparrow's f**t time of 6am to a more sociable 3-4pm - in the end it was here at 1430 ;)

So here it is as Terry dropped it off along with his oppo...and boy is it heavy. Original estimates put a 109 chassis at 100kg but a military 1 tonne style lump with the associated additional rail depth and material thickness it weighs just a bit more than that. It now needs to be moved from here and into the courtyard so I need to rope in a team to do that!

Only small problem is the lack of a steering damper bracket. It was on the order but hasn't appeared. A quick call to Richards and they admitted it was their oversight. It is a bolt on component so they are sticking one in the post next week. I also noticed the the rear front spring outriggers are different. The new ones have two holes compared to the old ones one. Someone had fitted std rear outriggers at some point on the old chassis? So now with new parabolics and 2" lift with the new mounting position this will make it tall at the back end!



Bren the JRT checks it out!



Later in the afternoon Rob (Minivin) rolled over with the engine hoist so we quickly put that to good use and lifted out the old gearbox and 2 1/4 petrol lump and managed to stick them on a pallet by the garage. The whole task was not helped by the fact that 99% of the drive is gravel. The only concrete patch is in front of the garage so we had the position the hoist over both that and a few lumps of chipboard under the outriggers.









It wasn't helped by the hoist seal leaking so much we got through at least 1/2 litre of ATF just lifting the block out.



Now the chassis is almost empty of the necessaries I need to remove the last remaining bits before we can pull the axles and chop it up for weighing in.



Evening came around and before sundown I couldn't wait - so out came a rag with a bit of cellulose thinners and a gallon of 'T-wash'. 1 hour later the whole chassis was prepped with the etch acid solution and hosed down. Also rain was due that night to neutralise and de-activate any remaining acid etch.

Here it is as I found it this morning and at least no-one ran off with it?