Rebuilding the front end

I decided to use POR15 on the front end instead of powder coating. I was really impressed with this stuff, a little goes a long way and you only need to brush it on and it sets like porcelain.
It was now the front ends turn to have a full going over. With a few modifications along the way.

Removing the front end made easy with my homemade gearbox jack

It comes out easily with that trusty homemade gearbox jack.

What a mess - all you can say with the amount of oil and grease is that thank god there is no rust.

I cut the front subframe open to inspect the inside. There was rattling which was a lot of rusty gunk. I modified the inside by cutting channels in the ribs to allow water to drain. I also welded in extra bracing across the center so this can now be used a jacking point. A WORD OF WARNING I should have used a jig to weld the new bottom on because the heat slightly distorted the subframe. It was not bad but I had difficulty installing the rack as the mounts were about 2mm closer together.

My homemade Jaguar front spring compressor. This made it easy to align the lower spring pan when it was pulled in.

All finished - I installed the stock springs for now but removed the 2 spacers. Even though the rack was ok I decided to have it rebuilt while it was out. Poly rack mounts as well were installed.

When I removed the front hubs I found the bearings had spun on the stub axle necessitating new axles. To ensure this never happens again I machined these spacers that fit between the inner and outer bearings, they also set the hub end float so it's a matter of just tightening the castle nut and the end float is 1 thou.

My homemade front wheel bearing spacer.

Setting the front wheel end float - the spacer is installed and I had it on and off the car at least a dozen times to fine tune the spacer in my lathe. But now it's a matter of tightening the nut.

All finished. including a larger 25mm sway bar with poly mounts/