Geoff's Exocet build - Basingstoke

[geoff]

A quick update today, both rear upper control arms now ready for powder coat. I will be making the bush extractor tool this week to be able to pull the bushes out from the lower rear control arms next Saturday, and get them ready for powder coat too.

With regards to weight reduction, I am almost sure that mine is very minimal, the surface of the arms is not smooth, it is like heavy orange peel, so this could be rust pitting, if they began life smooth, or are they manufactured like this? The weights are 873g, and 856g for mine, not sure what the new weight is?

[geoff]

Back on it today, trying to remove the bushes from the rear lower control arm. So I couldn't find any tube around and resisted the urge to go and cut off a bit of scaffolding from a local building site, that would be naughty, so order a piece online, less than a tenner for 250mm so not a problem. picked up some m10 bar, washers, and nuts from toolstation and there you have one bush removal tool, so should be easy........blimey....these things are in tight, I used heat, freedom juice, and after 1 hour found the best combination of washers and a breaker bar to free it off and boom, done, only 7 more to go...to be honest I buggered up two attempts with the threaded rod ending up buggered, with be bashing around, but I had a 1m length and now have a method, so should be ok for the next ones. Phew!

I have also had second thoughts about the upper control arms, I am going to try and smooth out the top and sides with a 40 grit flap wheel sander on an angle grinder to see if I cn get them smoother, without going too far to compromise strength.

[geoff]

All rear bushes out!

It was a learning experience...here are my tips:

1. Use M12 bar grade 10.9 min
2. Use lots of freedom juice as you go
3. If it gets tough, stop, before the threads get damaged...then use heat and they will come out easily.

I started with M10, and had lots of issues with threads not standing up to the job, you could possibly get a higher grade m10, but I found that with M12 it is a much snugger fit in the bush and stops it waggling around.

Several of the bushes came out in a very sorry state, not sure as a result of being pulled out or whether they were shot already.

My game plan now is to get the rear arms all cleaned up and as smooth as possible and then off to the powder coat man, and while he has them I will start the disassembly of the front arms....possibly will tackle the rear frame first though....lets see

[emdubya]

These arms always seem to present a major battle that has to be fought eight times. I wonder why MEV doesn't offer a set of fabricated replacements similar to Lotus/Locost. Would save some weight as well as frustration.

[phaeton]

Find a local garage that will allow you to use their hydraulic press, so easy with a 10 ton press

[geoff]

A quick update on progress with cleaning up the arms because I was quite surprised with what 20mins could achieve this morning, that and a 40 grit sanding wheel on an angle grinder. I was very careful because these can grind steel, so carefully attacked all the pitting on the top side to see what I can achieve and what I should be aiming for....trying to do as much prep as possible before powder coating. This is not complete, I will spend many hours on this, mostly hand sanding as that is not so aggressive.

The before and after shot so far:

[phaeton]

From £150-200 you can send them all (including subframes) off to be cleaned & powder coated so much easier than spending hours cleaning them all up,

[geoff]

May 26, 2021 7:16:21 GMT phaeton said:

From £150-200 you can send them all (including subframes) off to be cleaned & powder coated so much easier than spending hours cleaning them all up,

Indeed, but the satisfaction you get in doing it yourself is what I am looking for, I am in no rush and enjoy the challenges.

[geoff]

Managed to get the rear sway bar off with zero issues and have got that cleaned up ready for powder coat.....then the next challenge appeared. Whilst cleaning up the two lower control arms the corners were incredibly weak, and I could push them through with my finger...doh...so first thoughts were...weight reduction, great, can clean up the holes, who would know...then the second wave of thought...but has this damaged the integrity of the part, is there more weakness on it...couldn't see any.

So here is the big question, valid weight reduction, or scrap?.............Joke

If I smooth out the edges and make it look like it should be there, can I get away with it?.....Joke!

I will be doing the right thing....Don't panic!

[wishful4444]

I'm taken aback that you would even be considering using those control arms!
You say yourself "the corners were incredibly weak", no amount of cleaning up will change that plus I doubt very much you would get them past the IVA Examination.

[geoff]

I have 2 replacement arms arriving next week, lets see how good they are....

[geoff]

May 27, 2021 13:33:25 GMT wishful4444 said:

I'm taken aback that you would even be considering using those control arms!
You say yourself "the corners were incredibly weak", no amount of cleaning up will change that plus I doubt very much you would get them past the IVA Examination.

I was not serious....

[emdubya]

May 27, 2021 15:21:47 GMT geoff said:

I have 2 replacement arms arriving next week, lets see how good they are....

It will be interesting to compare the weight of a new one against the weight of an old one. The weight of the paint on the new one will be trivial, so the difference will be the loss due to corrosion (assuming that the design hasn't changed). Perhaps more to the point, would we expect the remaining control arms to be any more or less corroded?

[emdubya]

I'm wondering why you have a pair of such neat rust holes placed so symetrically. From your previous photographs, it looks like this location was a corner tucked behind the shock which created a nice little trap for road dirt. It's possible that this rust failure is very localised (the weight-check might help us), in which case a welded patch would probably suffice. You're buying new arms anyway, but a similar study of the other arms would be reassuring.

[wishful4444]

Given what you had posted previously I was surprised by what you appeared to be considering.
Unfortunately reports about the 'misdemeanors' IVA Examiners have seen would not put it beyond probability.