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Adventures
of a Traveller
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'Moose'
Explicit
Nudity!
10 January 1999
As
expected, Moose didn't make it home for Christmas, but our thoughts
were with him. With the rear wood and body section removed as one
piece and layers of sticky, rubbery underseal scraped off the rest
of the car by hand, the remaining shell was taken away to the local
sandpit and blasted. The lacey metalwork then returned to the workshop
for a light undercoat and a bit more welding. The sandblasting had
revealed more rust around the rear bumpstops and in the cab rain gutters.
With the last of the welding done, Jonathon then turned his attentions
to the new suspension setup. At the front he is fitting a set of adjustable
coil-over gas shocks. This will allow us to alter both the firmness
of the ride and the ride height with just a turn of a screwdriver
or spanner. At the moment it looks like we'll be using 400 pound springs,
but this may have to change by the time the car is up to its full
rolling weight. Also at the front is the vented disc brakes setup
from a Ford Sierra. I could have the discs cross-drilled for even
better braking but I think these should pull the car to a stop fairly
well as it is, don't you think?
At the rear, Jonathon has built the telescopic shock turrets. These
allow the shocks to be mounted vertically, which allows them to work
much better than if they are mounted diagonally. The tops of the turrets
are braced by a square section bar that is welded across the floor
of the car (you can just see the bar welded to the top of the axle
hump in the second photo below). The tops of the turrets only protrude
through the floor by about 2 inches so they will be completely hidden
by the boot floor.
Yet to be added is pair of bars which will act as both axle locators
and anti-tramp bars. These are mounted below and parallel with the
springs which means that they act on the same arc of rotation as the
axle when it rises and falls, again working better than diagonally
mounted anti-tramp bars. The bars prevent the axle from twisting under
hard acceleration. This helps to put the power down on the road instead
of into twisting the axle. It also means that the suspension is kept
upright and able to do its job properly - telescopic shocks work under
compression not shear action.
So,
the jigsaw puzzle that once was our beloved Traveller is starting
to come back together. The engine bay will be sprayed this week (18-22
January, 1999), and will then be sent off to the engine experts to
have the K-Series engine and Ford Sierra 'box fitted up and wired
for noise. That should take 2-3 weeks, then it's back to JLH for final
respray and reassembly. Jonathon will then fit new carpets and a few
other nice little bits and pieces we've picked up along the way. All
going well it looks like we'll have a brand new Moose back in our
hands by mid to late March '99 (yeah, right!).
I can't wait ...
