Aston’s for Eskimos
Classic car restoration is most definitely not a winter sport - epecially on the frozen steppes of Befordshire!
Thermal underwear, heavy pullover, woolie hat - and that was just for inside the workshop.
Once again I over-estimated what I would be able to get done in three days. I did achieve quite a bit- but there are still no wheels on ROJ.
My first job was emptying the sludgy old oil from the rear dampers and refilling with EP90 - a very tedious procedure that involved using a syringe to inject the oil while pumping the lever arm back and forth.
Once filled I put them on the car - but the left hand side damper proved problematic as one of the mounting bracket retaining nuts needed cleaning out and retapping - of course it had to be the most inaccesible - sitting on the cold garage floor has probably given me piles.
Malcolm pointed out on the Oscar India that the Watts linkage bolt is obscured by the diff mounting bar metalastic bush - and this shows in this photo of ROJ’s mounting too.
The second job was to fill the diff with LS oil, and I would have fitted the brake calipers - but decided that the mounting bolts were too badly corroded - will order new ones after Christmas.
Instead I fitted the windscreen wiper motor and attached the mechanism.
 
Next trip up i shall be trying a different approach to fitting the rear running gear. Malcolm attached the axles to the differential then lifted and attached the whole mechanism in one - I shall try to fit the differential first and then attach the axle , Dedion tube and Watts Linkages as a second operation.
The brake pipe I bought via ebay has disappeard into the ether - the seller has a very strange idea of customer service - after having packed the pipe so badly that the accompanying tools bent it, he said - ‘we’ve never had any problems before’. I don’t care, I have a problem, sort it. So last time I buy from them. Annoying because i now need to order more pipe from elsewhere.
My son Angus came home from Glasgow School of Art this weekend, which has brightened the house up considerably -Â we had been enjoying the extra space and absence of loud music at all hours, but missed his charming smile and very quick wit. Sadly he is still not interested in helping me rebuild ROJ.