Had a poke around the car, assesing the damage. The good news is that the intercooler is salvageable, it just needs the brackets bending back out. Removed the front wheels, it looks like the anti-roll bar might be ok as well.
The ARB is ok! I had to hack at some of the bodywork to get it out but its done now. Removed the good suspension upright and cycle-wing. Started removing the rear wings, after 9 years though the bolts are well and truly rusted in place. Mr Angle Grinder may have to come out to play. Removed the seats and interior panelling.
Finished removing one arch with the help of the grinder. Removed the radiator, fan and ducting, draining the raidiator along the way. There are a couple of spots I've spotted now in non-visable bits of fibreglass which have suffered over the years. One piece in particular is the locating holes for the ducting which have split, I'll re-glass that before I put it back on and re-drill the holes.
Took a few more photos, removed the remainder of the air hoses and some of the coolant hoses, to open up the front of the engine bay somewhat. It looks like the alternator mount might be a little bent, with luck it should just be a matter of putting it in the vice and flattening it.
Removed the front uprights, wishbones and shocks, cleared out some of the panelling from the intercooler area, removed the other wing. Cleared out the wiring from the front and the headlights. They're in a bit of a state and at the very least the bodies will need to be added to the pile of things to powder coat. All the cooling interfaces have now been seperated so the engine and scuttle are now totally seperate.
Removed the pedal box and master cylinder, at one point the M/C looked like it may be the cause of the lack of braking but closer inspection of the damaged caliper has shown that the linking pipe has pulled out, letting air into the piston. Willwood may be able to repair it, but I won't hold my breath. The pedal box is in a bit of a stats so will definately require cleaning up and re-coating. It's also very heavy, I'm guessing that the box and pedals are probably about 3kg. An obvious canditate for making from Ali is the pedal box, the pedals might be more complicated and with Ali being softer would need to be 3 dimensional.
Removed the remainder of the heat-shielding around the turbo, some more stray cooling hose, the expansion tank and washer bottle. I'm beginning to get a reasonable amount of room around the engine to work in now.
Removed the boot box and rollbar, I can see why they don't hold up in a roll - single bolt fixing! I'm now extremely glad I've got the welded in RAC one on order. Removed the fuel tank, after draining it and then the swirl pot. Took out the central part of the steering column.
Dropped the rear suspension, only to have one of the lobro joints fall apart on me, I'll have to have a play with that to get it all back together properly, might need replacing altogther. Removed part of the GRP at the front to give better access to the alternator only to find that the bracket has broken in two, a job for Mr Welder I suspect. Cleaned up and repainted the fuel filler pipe and the swirl pot. Removed the panelling from the top of the tunnel, those will be one of the few bits of ali that I reuse, as they're complicated shapes that need lots of fettling to get right.
Gripe of the day: Westfield insisting on using a mixture of metric and imperial bolts. I suspect I'll be replacing the imperials with metric equivalents wherever possible.
Finished off painting the filler pipe, removed and cleaned up the handbrake. Tried to remove the fog and reversing lights, only to discover that the bolts are spinning and are are secured on the inside by being melted into plastic. Grrrr. I think the answer is going to be to hacksaw the bolts off and wurth them in place at the other end.
Welded the alternator bracket back together, the welding isn't nearly as good as the ones from when it was made but it should certainly be up to the job required.
Cleaned up and refurbished a lot of the detritus that had come off the car, ready to be refitted, and thus clearing some space in the "e;stuff-in"e; box. All the heatshields have now been cleaned and repainted, new brackets have been made up on the intercooler ducting, where the old ones had snapped off. The one thing removed from the car today was the inertial fuel cutout.
Welded the alternator bracket back together, the welding isn't nearly as good as the ones from when it was made but it should certainly be up to the job required.
Finished disconnecting the engine from the rest of the car electrically. Apart from the connections under the dash the loom is entirely floating now. Looked at the headlights and have decided that the shells are passed it. Stole the lighting units out of them and swapped them into the tiger to re-instate the lost sidelight capability. I now have 2 spare sets of lights! The old supports are re-usable so I suspect I'll get new bodies and lights from wherever is cheapest and mount them on the westfield supports.
Dropped the differential and prop, removed the spare wheel supports. Unbolted the windscreen and supports, the supports have suffered badly from corrosion and the powder coat has come off in some places. They should be ok once bea blasted and re-coated though. Tried to take the scuttle off but it's been thoroughly stuck on with sealant. The only way to get it off without damaging it looks like it's going to be to hack the bodywork with an angle grinder, then pick the bits of GRP off bit by bit. Finally managed to remove the handbrake cable without cutting it, after realising that he collars that it goes through have a gap in them, just big enough for the wire to fit through. D'Oh!
With the majority of the loom now unpicked and the rest of the mechanicals out ready for clean-up the next step looks to be to get the engine and gearbox out so I can make some space.
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