My Beta Spyder finally has a home!

[lanciamad]

Your best bet is jacking the rear up via the rear anti-roll bar, all the weight is transfered via the suspension and not the fragile sills.

[Duncan23]

That sounds like it might work for the brakes (as might the rear jacking point). I doubt I can get a stand under there though, so it  won't be useful for spending time under the car.

I reckon I can get the backbox off without jacking, so hopefully I can do the petrol tank too, and then I don't have any obstacles to stripping the interior and practising my welding... 

I might get some wheel skates before I start on the sills proper - that way I can move it around the garage to get access to both sides.

Cheers
Duncan

[Duncan23]

No work done due to weather, but I did get some jacking wheel skates and just tried them out. They lift the wheels by 1 to 2 inches, which will hopefully be enough...

[peteracs]

Hi Duncan

They look mighty handy, can I ask where you bought them and what cost?

Thanks

Peter

[Duncan23]

They came from ebay @ 90 quid for a pair. Search for 'wheel skates' or 'wheel dolly'.
If your car is solid enough to jack up you can get solid ones (jack the corner up, stick it under the wheel, lower it) for about 50 for 4. They raise it a little, keep the weight on the wheels/suspension, and should allow easy movement around in the garage, so I figured they were worth a punt.

Cheers
Duncan

[Duncan23]

No progress on the Beta to report (except for removing the back seats and putting them in the loft). 
I've been busy with house DIY and with my new daily - a Dedra Turbo. 
I've tidied the garage a little, and it seems to be getting warmer again, so hopefully I can get on with the Beta again soon...
Cheers
Duncan

[peteracs]

Hi Duncan

Glad you gave us an update (even with no progress) as has reminded me I have not done so for ooh so long. Yes I too hope the weather will improve, this damp weather is as bad as the really cold and it is difficult to get up enthusiasm to stand in a cold garage for hours....

Peter

[Duncan23]

I bought some new tools yesterday, so I had to have a go with them this morning. 
I used my breaker bar and a 1/2" socket to try to undo the mounting bracket at the join of the back and mid exhaust sections. The nuts seemed to turn a little, and then the U shape bolt sheared off completely!  So tomorrow I can try to get the backbox off (with a hammer), and then it will be the fuel tank.

Not sure what to do with it then - what's the best way to clean up (inside and out) and safely store a fuel tank dry?

[HFStuart]

Good luck with the backbox - my bet is on an angle grider or hacksaw comming out to play !

On the tank provided it's not shot to bits you can either use something like the POR 15 tank sealer ( available from Frost http://www.frost.co.uk/result_search.asp ) or have it chemically cleaned and plated by someone like Surface Processing.

[Duncan23]

I can't get under it enough to use a grinder. A hacksaw or a Dremel with a cutting disk are probably the favorites but a hammer and some brute force will be the first go. 
I also realised that the floor under the crossmember is rotten.  I guess I'll have to take the cross member off, weld new metal in and then put the cross member back on. I think Hongkongphoey had to do something similar to his Spyder. He's a bit more skilled with the welder than I am ATM tho.

[HFStuart]

At least the good news is that with the crossmember off the exhaust is 100x easier to get off.

[Duncan23]

The problem with that is the order! I want to get the fuel tank off before I start welding practise. I'm not going to cut the floor out until I am happy with my welding. And I need to get the exhaust off so I can get at the fuel tank!
I decided I needed a new tool to cut the exhaust off, so I bought this :

It's awsome!
Sadly, the suspension is in the way so access isn't really possible without lifting the car up further! Will have to think some more about how to get at it...
In the meantime, the garage is getting a lot tidier!

[HFStuart]

Perhaps it's different on yours but the tank drops off mine with the exhaust in place.

Worth a look

Stuart

[Duncan23]

It will come off with the exhaust there, but I can't jack it up 'cos the sills are dodgy. As a result, I can't get at the bolts on the exhaust side without removing the exhaust.
The back (and middle) sections are rusted to buggery, so I can chop it wherever - I'll give up trying to cut it at the join and pick somewhere I can reach!

The bonus is that having tidied the garage, I have space to store the seats etc. and I can find all my tools easily!

[Duncan23]

I crawled under it yesterday and discovered that the most awkward bolt (the one behind the silencer) is missing anyway! So hopefully I can shift the tank without doing anything else to the exhaust.  I cleared out the boot (to see the tank attachment), and discovered a huge fuel breather line. Eh?


Someone has obviously done some significant welding on the turrets.


Shame they didn't quite finish it (see the hole on the outer edge).


So hopefully next time I get in the garage I can pull the tank. I assume I shuld undo the attachment where it shows in the boot floor before I drop the tank? And how heavy is it (wouldn't want to litereally drop it)?

Cheers
Duncan

PS It's obviously been painted since it was last on the road. Where is the hole for the radio ariel? (I had to punch the holes in the paint for the front indicator repeaters as well!)

[rossocorsa]

Someone has obviously done some significant welding on the turrets.

better than my VX coupé its turrets are like a patchwork quilt!! when you have the suspension off it will be wise to check out the turret condition and particularly the double skinned area at the bottom of the inner wheel arch

[lanciamad]

The tank is surprisingly quite lumpy even when empty, so i've always put a small plank of wood underneath and slowly lowered it down on a hydraulic jack; from there it can quite easily be pulled from the rear of the car.

[Duncan23]

The good news is that I successfully undid the bolts for the tanks sender/fuel line thing at the top of the tank, and that it came off with a bit of persuasion.
The bad news is that I couldn't get the tank off in the time I had, and then the sender thing wouldn't go back over its bolts!

The first of the tank bolts I tried to undo sheared off.  The second one went round and round without coming undone! I didn't have time to see what calamity would happen if I tried the 3rd bolt!  So I guess I need to see what will happen with that one and get it out, support the tank and cut off the 2nd one.

In my recent attempts to work on this car I have tried to undo 7 nuts underneath the car and 3 inside it.  The ones inside all came off - the ones outside have either sheared or seized and turned so I needed to cut them off!  I hope this record doesn't continue or the rear suspension will be a complete nightmare!

I also discovered some rust in the rear panel under the bumper.  So I need to take the bumper off and repair/replace that panel too at some point.  I sometimes wonder whether I should just park this one outside and start with some clean fresh steel and make a new shell!  It feels a bit like I'll end up doing that anyway!

[MattNoVAT]

Duncan,

Re: Rusty nuts & bolts on your rear suspension/hubs.

First thing I do is wire brush the worst of the surface rust off the exposed threads.  Then I spray motorcycle chain grease (coz its sticky) over the threads.  That will at least make things easier when the nut starts to turn.

Do the bottom two 17mm bolts that hold the strut to the hub first, remove the 4 x 13mm top mount nuts till last.

Rear suspension on a Beta, if rusty, is going to be a pig, theres no two ways about this. The two 17mm bolts that hold the bottom of the leg to to hub are seriously hard work unless you have a compressor and an air gun.  You may get the nut off easily but this is just lulling you into a false sense of triumph.  The bolts themselves rust and hence become roughened on the shaft that is hidden from view at the rear of the hub, this rustiness fouls them from sliding back through the holes in the hub body - get a drift and a big hammer and don't be surprised if the bolt suffers severe damage.

I put grease on it all and the air gun spins the bolt, while I use an old screwdriver as a kind of crude lathe on the shaft of the bolt to remove surface rust - more grease and then a friend to drift the bolt out while spinning with the air gun.  I did this very recently and it still took me a fair amount of time to get the rear struts off!

You will also find that the design of the strut body has a lip that fouls a socket going on so your going to need a good ring spanner.

I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom - but if things are rusty down there then be prepared for a couple of hours fight.  

I will dig out some spare bolts just in case you decide to chop the heads off and drift out the remnants. At least you'll know that there are spare ones available if need be.  I'll PM you with how many I find in my boxes of bits.

Stick with it - we've all been there and lived to tell the tale  

[Duncan23]

Thanks for the encouragement and tips Matt. 
I don't have a compressor or air tools but I've been considering getting a decent electric drill/driver for a while, so maybe that will suffice (my tools needed list just keeps growing!). I've got a fair way to go before that though - the plan is to weld up the floor and sills first (so I need an auto mask, a regulator, and some gas - see what I meant about tools? ). 

I'm assuming there is some way of replacing the bolts that hold the fuel tank on? The heads seem to be hidden under the floor?

Cheers
Duncan