It's been 2 weeks since I took ownership of the 88 110 FFR, as I said it has a few issues which I'm working through, when I first started looking at things, the first cab off the rank was the wheel nuts/studs, run the tap through the nuts to clean the threads etc
I still have to get the die nut to run over the wheel studs, it should be available later in the week, I wanted to check the integrity of the window door frames, as we all know series vehicle suffer from terminal rust in there, anyway I was thinking along the same lines when I attempted to unscrew the nuts, all I could hear was rust crunching, and I thought I was in need of new door tops, but I was wrong as these are made from alloy and what was crunching was the studs that hold them in place
as you can see they look very ordinary, so I asked ? where was I going to get these from I had a few responses as to where and the cost was up there @ $80.00 for 4 damn it so I hatched a plan to make my own, but that wasn't going to happen just yet.
The window glass rattled like a 4lb hammer being rolled around in a 44 gallon drum, LOL I'm deaf and it was loud enough for me to hear, anyway I also checked the price of the repair kits from the UK and thought there has to be something else available and sure enough I found the answer, a company in Penrith NSW make a 'flocked bailey channel' pt number 350.360 it fits the bill and at 1/4 of the cost ($59.00 8 mtrs inc postage 1 day later it arrived) I have now fixed the LHS door top, it slides firmly and smoothly no rattles, also fixed the window lock to boot, I lubed the bottom guides with Lanox
all re-assembled now and refitted
Now it was time to really think about making the new studs, I had some input on metric threads etc from Mick Gleeson as I'm not that familiar with them, but I managed to bumble my way through, so I made a rough sketch of the dimensions of the rusty ones, I had guestimated LOL the length at 135mm, that was without removing the stud, bad move but I was able to juggle the numbers and still come out in front. I should have got bolts 145mm in length, but I juggled it LOL.
So this morning I took a drive to the Hi-tensile bolt shop in Carrington NSW and purchased 4 10 x 1.5 x 135mm long, these are going to be the new studs, set one up the lathe machine the hex head down first to the shank size then down to 8mm or .314" over 43mm then cut the 8 x 1.25 thread
and after about 15 minutes of machine time I had 2 new studs
I refitted them to the door top and the nuts are full on the studs (flush) so they have enough grip with washer n spring washers in place, and a little while later I had the other 2 made, ready for the window strip down tomorrow morning
anyway that's been part of my day, cheers Dennis