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« on: June 22, 2008, 11:51:42 PM »
This weekend - plan was to cut track rod ends, beat the living daylights out out the seams in the front wheel arches, remove the existing exhaust and loosely position the new one.
The bolts that held the exhaust to the cat were corroded into their nuts and were not going to shift, no room to get the angle grinder in, so it had to be hacksaw time. Surprisingly, not too much trouble and it came free. Avid readers will remeber that I bought replacement bolts for the front lower arms - the old ones now found a use - they were long enough to take the springs from the exhaust bolts and allow me to clamp the the new exhaust back to the cat. I cut off the ends of the rear bumper and a quick call to DNA later, I had discovered what those odd two bits of metal rattling around on one of the exhaust hanger brackets were for!
I cut off the ends of the track rod, covering the remaining thread with masking tape, then the locking nut. The masking tqpe acted as a cutting guide and also stopped metal filings getting into the thread. I then filed round the end of the cut before removing the tape. Checked that all was well, by undoing the nut, didn't even need to use a spanner to get it off the cut end.
Time now to flatten the seam, not much to say really, just hit it hard - seemed to work for me. Then I repeated all of that on the other side!
Job done - can't believe it. So I did a bonus job - I cut down and dry fitted the petrol filler flap assembly into the fibreglass carrier. I cut a larger diameter hole in the fibreglass where the remote release fits, because it will only clamp onto the thickness of the Mondeo part. Just for fun I then connected up the remote flap release and tested it. It worked!
A good weekend - I guess that keeps mine and Munkyking's builds on about level pegging, although I have cut my doors and removed the mirrors. If you're careful, you can remove the wiring from the mirror motor plug which means you can then pull it back through the connection tube - this means you don't have to join the wires back together. I'm hoping this will mean they're long enough to use in the new mirrors, we'll see.
tenpin