Today's Progress

[TJ 450]

I removed the engine oel reservoir and the RHF sphere today, but the most putrid and time consuming part of the job was cleaning under the wheel arch. The grime was really caked on, quite a few millimetres thick in a lot of places. Now it's back to the body colour in most places, although there is some black overspray in certain areas that I need to deal with.
I also tidied up the auxiliary transmission pump and attached its new hoses.

Here are some pics:
Aux Trans Pump
Oel Reservoir removed
Struts cleaned
Under Wheel Arch, Oel Reservoir location
RHF Sphere position

Tim

[oscar]

Keep it up TJ, looks fantastic.

[WGB]

It will end up better than new.

Bill

[s class]

Boy, that's some serious cleaning you have done.  Great job. 

[nathan]

Tim,
i can just imagine, you lying on your back at 4am in the carport cleaning that stuff off!!
nice effort, only one Australian on this forum is up to such cleaning tasks (although certain African colleagues come damn close!!)

[WGB]

Drove past today after the MBCCWA photoshoot but the bonnet was shut and you were obviously observing the Sabbath so kept going.

Hope all is well.

Bill

[TJ 450]

Thanks guys.

As Nathan would attest, I'm just slightly obsessed with the act of cleaning things.

I still have three wheel arches and the whole underbody of the car to go, though. There's lots of mess ahead.

Thanks for driving by, Bill. I was observing the Sabbath for a short while, then I promptly returned to the planned task.

I removed the rear struts and cleaned them up before bringing them inside for a thorough inspection. I need to replace both bellows and balljoints on these. The bellows were good until I jacked up the car with the suspension setting in the normal position, they promptly split.
The balljoints were an amusing sight, here. There was some sort of sedimentary rock forming in the recess in the trailing arm, meaning that the balljoints were buried somewhat.

I now have the full compliment of struts ready for refurbishment.

When the car has been reassembled, it will be almost ready for registration.

Here are some pics of the rear struts...
Rear Struts, one with split Bellows removed
Intact Bellows
Upper Rubber Mount

Tim

[koan]

Did you re-use the original "rubber bands" on top and bottom of thr rear bellows or purchase new ones?

koan

[TJ 450]

Hi Koan,

I haven't got that far yet, as the boots are on order from Germany, so will take a while to ship. The problem is that I broke one during removal.
As for the other struts, I'm still considering.

Tim