The Safrane.Info Forum!

Silly me...

With all the photos of other bits i've forgotten to take any of what i've done under the car Sorry about the pic quality, again the mobile is in a zip seal plastic bag so it doesn't get scratched and painted etc. I'll get better pics once its all done

So here we are.. it's only really one bit but it's taken me a fair bit of time to get it done - two coats of red oxide, other jobs then 3 coats of hammerite... then grinding it all off on one part where it peeled back off.. then starting again....




Spare wheel well also got a patch of treatment..



The "hollow box" that houses the fuel filter on the other side... was completely rusted up... next to it you can see the jacking point that still needs doing:




The beam that is above the petrol tank (which has also got to come down but thats another story for another reply):




Between the chassis beam and petrol tank:




Still a lot of work to do... I've started dismantling the second shock today and am still doing anti-rust work on the exhaust shields that re-rusted. Hammerites rust killer is strange stuff.. works great on break disks where the bolt holes are but on other surfaces it seems to just sit there and do nothing

Hi gang,

Disaster struck while grinding rust off the spare wheel well:



Yup... at the bottom of the red oxide is a lovely little hole. Neighbour tried to weld it up for me today but his welder decided not to work so he glued in a bit of metal... not quite decided on what to do with that yet but if its stuck i'll just red oxide it and get it fixed properly another time.

Moving on..

Fuel tank strap broke ages ago... but i had one from a breaker so used that. At the time i could feel it bubbling up and when i took it back off a couple of days ago it was very bad. Peeled the rubber back off and despite all the flaky rust falling out, it was still solid and good enough to grind and repaint... so here it is with red oxide:




Finished rear track rod and that other bar that holds the hub from moving too much:



Shock and spring:



Petrol tank came off today (don't laugh at the granny bag - my nan is gone now):



and yes.. that includes the filling neck!:



Turns out to be held in by just two very stubborn bolts (on two very flimsy brackets):



Filler neck was actually easy to remove after the bolts - it's just held to the filler flap by a rubber seal:





Incidentally those are the two nuts for the flap itself if anyone ever needs to replace one.

With the tank now cleanly out (but fuel pipes still connected) this is the rust situation:



Better than i had hoped for!





Tank strap bracket:




This is the drivers side rear wheel arch - the worse of the two but better than the previous safrane which i broke up. It's actually intact.. though rusty! I've already done the passenger side (sorry forgot photos) so I'll keep you updated on this one instead:




And thats yer lot! Now the tank is off i've got the rust removal process under way. Once that is done it's red oxide, hammerite, underseal and finally refitting of everything. Then it's brakes... the new pipes aren't a problem but i'm not looking forward to undoing those bleed valves - i snapped it on the previous safranes caliper

Oh and i still have the sills to grind down too .. and the jacking points

But on a positive note I checked the drivers footwell yesterday... still dry and so after short delay (probably a year) the front seats are also now bolted back in

Nothing new posted here for a while as we've had a sudden house move... and a severe shortage of time to get the car done! It got so bad it nearly went to scrap as it was nowhere near movable by the time we vacated the property and the owner wanted the drive clear!

Anyway despite a broken bleed valve on a caliper (and subsequently the spare) I've bodged it together enough to move it onto a neighbours drive. Brakes are empty of fluid so i literally had to crawl round the place using the handbrake.. but it's now safe on a mates drive where i can finish it!

No real photos since the last lot but i'll try to get some that show off the finished bits..

Replaced front passenger side door card today with one that had an intact arm rest / hinges. Hopefully I will get the drivers side done this week too.

Thanks to SAFRANEV6RXE for both of those door cards

lucky you. I wonder if there is a way to modify the hinges so they do not fall apart?

Hi all,

Well after having an ignition coil implode and then bugger up the part of the ECU thats responsible for cooling, the car suffered a head gasket failure. On a car this age that would normally be it - terminal. You know me though... despite filling a skip with old parts the spare engine got kept.

I managed to get my hands on a crane and so last week (despite the missus repeatedly trying to put a spanner in the works) I managed to make a start on the engine swap.

This is the original engine - that has given me many headaches despite only 90k on the clock hanging on a DIY extended load leveller (and even then I ended up making one chain longer than the other):



The blue trolley is for hauling it away... along with bringing out the replacement. I'm undecided what to do about the actual engine. I'd like to make use of it but the head gasket would be quite a big job for me to do and expensive.

Emtpy engine bay.. with a can of WD40 on the ground that has since mysteriously gone missing along with an 11mm flexible ratchet spanner and adjustable grips (and the big plastic tray is a cement mixing tray from screwfix - brilliant for minimalising spills):



Spare engine sat there waiting to go in after having various newer bits swapped over from the original engine (aux belt, pas pump plus other silly bits):



I've got the spare engine fitted in but still incomplete engine bay - no radiators, air filter etc. I'm still fighting with the missus to be allowed the time to do it but will post more photos when I can.

Wow that is impressive,great work and I hope it all goes back fine before the weather turns,keep up the good work and update us with pics as its all very interesting and worrying at the same time!!!!!