This is my first progress report in almost 3 years, mainly because up until now I haven’t felt as if I’ve made much!
I got the Pop (a 1955 103e) off ebay early December 2005, she was un-rodded but with no engine or box and most of the interior was missing. I had all the glass even though the front screen was broken, no bakerlite but both door cards and all the seats. The good news was she came with a green Log Book and 2 sixties tax disks!
Adrian Smith of Buckland Automotive fame trailered her home for me one frosty mid December night and this is how she looked in the cold light of the next day – My first real look at her!
I was determined to get a V5C first, so decided to do nothing to her until I had it, I contacted the DVLA and was told to send the Log book in and they would send me a V5C! And I believed them! I sent it, they sent it me back, 3 weeks later I got an appointment to have it inspected, as the date was 2 days from the date I received I phoned to cancel/move it, only to be told I was going about it all wrong! This time the very helpful and knowledgeable lady explained that I needed to send my Green Log Book and Tax Disks to her to get certified copies which I could use to apply for my V5C via the SVOC. That said I received all the forms and my copies by return. After contacting the SVOC and paying my dues someone came out to inspect my chassis, confirming the number was as shown on the Log book and not tampered with.
The forms were countersigned and all sent off then approximately 8 months after my purchase I received a V5C.
So now she’s all legal I need to get some space on the drive to work on her, I couldn’t afford a garage so I looked into building a car port, I’m less than 20 metres from a trunk road so I need to apply for Planning Permission. But I’m only 4 foot from the road so I probably won’t get it!! Save your money and just pave a working area – Job done – It’s September 2007 and this is where I’m at.
So it’s off with the old axle.
And start messing about with the Volvo 244 GLT axle I scored from Newark.
And my swap meet Revo’s from Brayfield.
Measurements taken I’m away to the shed to make the four bar setup.
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Now it’s time to make some room for it.
I decided to section the chassis by about 4 inches to get the old gal down in the weeds.
I made up a couple of 60 x 40 box section pieces to fillet into the chassis.
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And the ride height should look something like this – If I got it right!
Happy with that it’s back to the shed to get the bars painted.
Trial fit and axle bracket positioning.
Had a bit of trouble this week-end!
Now I need a cross member.
Then it’s brackets to axle proper.
Need to get some coil-overs on now, to stop the body falling over the wheels! I wanted to get them a close to the end of the axle as possible to try and limit the body roll.
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Just need a panhard rod and I’m sorted.
I’ve always had the Idea of having the rear tyres poking out of the arches like the old gassers so rather than cut my good steel ones I sold them to make way for some second hand glass ones, which I felt happy to cut.
And the result is…
Next was boxing the rear part of the chassis and the coil-over tops.
Because it’s outside I didn’t want to suffer with surface rust so I have finish painted it all ready to assemble.
And assemble it I did.
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The finished ride height.
It’s on to the front end now.
I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I did !!