CHASSIS RESTORATION - before re-anodising black
In addition to a few micro marks previously mentioned the stripped chassis reveals more imperfections
from its original conversion to A&L rear suspension. The mounting holes were spot on accurate. But the
slots cut into the chassis for clearance were not perfect cosmetically. This is not acceptable to me. It has
to be perfect. So I set about fixing these issues before I get the chassis re-anodised black. It will look like
I take a couple of steps backwards in order to get the preparation work done properly, before it will start
to look beautiful again. Fear not, it will turn out lovely in the end... I hope!
First of all I wet and dry sand the areas around the uneven original slots.
The slots are irregular with too much material missing in the centre of one.
The rear section has a deep scratch. I started rubbing this area down too.
Time to fire up the welding torch and use some special alloy repair rod.
The chassis is heated, weld applied, throughly heated until material flows into the chassis. Allowed to
cool, then wet and dry sanded smooth. Now the scratch has totally vanished. Note how the chassis is no
longer black. The anodising is now golden brown after the heat process. Soon to be removed anyway.
Some aluminium has been replaced in the slot areas, plus a lot of filing and sanding has taken place.
Now the slots are perfectly even. Also the original chassis has thick slightly lumpy ridges along the
top edges where it was stamped out at the factory. As this was not perfect I rubbed the whole chassis
down to make it silky smooth on all sides. All shiny bare metal exposed highlights where any thicker
high points once were. It is getting closer to feeling perfect in my hands.
This was the worst slot. It is now close to perfect. Getting somewhere now.
