WESTFIELD REBUILD
2002 Home

---

After years of abuse even the emergency botches have emergency botches on them. The handling had become interesting in right handers & after a couple of mishaps including putting it nose first into a ditch, & having the right front wheel rammed by a Ford Orion, the chassis had become a bit crooked. So I decided on a full strip down & rebuild. The old 1600 SOHC engine has been retained for cost reasons, though  rework of the head has been undertaken by myself whilst reading from the SOHC bible by Dave Vizard.
Whilst removing the bolts from the left hand chassis/trailing arm joint half of the mounting bracket came away in my hand. This had a fatigue failure.  This would add to the dubious handling of the mis aligned chassis considerably.
Further pictures will be added as I process them.
 
 

During a mishap where I put it in a ditch the rivets holding this panel failed in one corner.	At this point the seats had been only supported by the floor panel rivets. They fail, you fall out.	Intended modification:  Fit cross straps to help secure seats.	Disconnecting loom from Switches & Instruments.
Dashboard removed.	Radiator ducting in need of attention. This is a simple 5 mm ply duct that channels all the incoming air through the rad. It improved cooling outstandingly.	Cylinder head off to ease engine removal. That coolant expansion tank mount needs tidying.	You can save on a crane by simply jacking the car up & lowering the block out on a trolley jack after unbolting the mounts.
Cylinder head & Twin 40 DCOEs.	Stainless exhaust cracked (again).	Scuttle safely removed after the silicon sealant keeping the rain out put up a good fight.
Footwell aluminium paneling showing the effects of battery acid. Some people use gel batteries to help avoid this.	Body tub & loom removed.
	Cockpit carnage. Not as pretty as ten years previously.	Paint scraper necessary to cut through silicon sealant.	One reason for this deep surgery was that under hard cornering this UJ started knocking the tunnel members.
Note grubby Facet pump under filler neck. This is the third I have had. I find they jam after a while.	The pump appears to jam because the shuttle that moves back and forth pushing the fuel through eventually embeds in the peened over end of it's tube.		It was at this point the damage to the front of the chassis became apparent. Right upper rear wish bone mount pushed in.Front top member bent back on right.