Pieces of 88.

I think that today marks the end of the strip down and the start of the restoration proper. Yes parts will need to be stripped and rebuilt but that is all part of bringing them back to life. The next phase will be about cleaning and restoring.

On the subject of cleaning I did try to remove most of the accumulated oil and general detritus from the engine before going any further with that particular part of the project.

By no means was this a deep clean but it did make a big difference.

As the chassis was fully detached from the axles all that remained was to remove the loom. This was going well until it stopped going well. The loom stuck solid about half way out. Oh well time to chop the chassis and see if that helps.

The cable tie was clear evidence of the previous work to the chassis. I knew it had new outriggers but once I cut into it I found the extent of the repairs. This was not the only surprise found in the rails.

I can only imagine the foil was a makeshift heat shield during chassis repairs.

A substantial amount of rust left the chassis as I chopped it into three manageable sections. I did finally get the loom out too. Which revealed more horrors.

The section above was rigid from having melted. It may explain some of the odd behaviour of the towing electrics. It could have been due to some welding or it was arcing amongst itself. Either way the loom is toast.

Chassis chopped and moved I turned to removing the springs from the axles. Rears had been off about 10 years ago to be regreased so they weren’t to hard to release. One issue to note though; one U-bolt is short and so nuts only just fully on.

The fronts put up more of a fight. I needed to repeatedly tighten and loosen the nuts with the impact wrench to get them off. They were hot nuts after that!

Rebuilding leaf springs is actually quite therapeutic and I will have plenty of time with these. With the springs off the main strip down is complete. 05 KD 28 now has a wheel base of 8.8 inches and a long way to go until back on the road.

I may need to drain the oil from the axles before they drain themselves.