With so many events being on lately it has been a while since we have made an update on mercules’ progress. Alot has been done over the last few weeks, with most bits and pieces being those small annoying jobs that justseen to absorb so much time.
The next thing that we tackled was the suspension. Let me tell you this car has some very advanced gear for its age. Not many car in the 70’s had IRS so as you could imagine with 32 year old bushes it was time for a freshen up….
Out came front cross member / suspension for a nice new coat of gloss black and installation of a new bushes. The IRS got the same treatment every rubber and bush replaced. Whilst the rear suspension was out we also gave the under side of the body a nice thick coast of GMH matt black. At the same time we thought we would give the inside of the boot the same treatment, its amazing how much difference was made with just a simple coast of GMH black. We were also very lucky as the boot only needed a quick tidy up before painting, none of that nasty rust stuff in there!
With the engine now sitting on a nice and very shinny front crossmember it was time to sort out some extractors. To dispose of those unwanted gases we constucted a plan to make a custom set of 4 in 1 pipe’s. As Mercules cam with a straight 6 originally we didn’t have much room to play with .
As you can see we brought the front or first pipe up and over all of the others with the 4 inch and a half pipe collecting next to the fire wall. We ended up using 7 x 90 deg bends, 1 x 45 deg angles and 1 metre of straight pipe on the passenger side pipes. Both Adam and myself where supprised and impressed how well the pipes cam out. Now all we have to do is tackle the drivers side. We left the drivers side for now as we need to navigate around the steering rack and brake booster and both of which aren’t in the car at present..
With all the shinny suspension back in it give’s the engine bay a nice contrast !
With all the shinny suspension back in it give’s the engine bay a nice contrast !
We are finishing off the sump at present and it has been a tricky bugger to get sorted out. It has to wrap around the incredably close front cross member, fit the oil pump in without touching on the steering rack. We used a sump from a HQ (rear bowl type) and moved the bowl from the back to the front and added an extra 50mm of depth so we could keep the volume similar if not slightly larger.
As the oil pump is in the back of a CHEV we needed to create a second bowl in the rear keeping it as close as possible to the pump to allow for the VN/P/R Commodore steering rack.
With the sump all welded up and fitting perfectly all be it lookiing rather strange the only thing to do is to braze weld pin holes that the mig did not seal.
Next stage is to put the interior in and get started on putting the doors back on. After that it will be time to start ordering a whole heap of parts to finish off the engine and driveline.
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