Finding a new use for hair spray
Before I took the Acclaim around Europe late last year on Club Triumph’s Ten Countries Run, I put it in for an early MoT inspection as a precaution. This was quite late in the day because I had been planning to go in the Herald, so I was relieved when it passed the inspection without issue. However, there was one heartstopping moment when the tester started prodding away at the offside rear trailing arm and making worried noises. Fortunately what had looked like large areas of structural metal flaking away as rust turned out to be the original rust-proofing that had dried and lifted way from the arm.
Of course, this was far from ideal because once underseal dries and lifts, it tends to do more harm than good, trapping moisture, salt and road muck against the metal and accelerating the rusting process. I didn’t want to be driving down the Alps with one wheel hanging off, but thankfully we had caught it early enough and the arm itself was still solid. Ideally I would strip both sides of the car and have the arms blasted and powdercoated, and I may yet do that. However, as a holding measure I recently cleaned off all the old underseal, taking the damaged area back to bare metal. This was indeed quite pitted, but still plenty thick enough and certainly not holed, so for now I covered it with Hammerite.
While I was under the Acclaim, I noticed that one of the two rubber hangers by the exhaust tailpipe had come unhooked from the silencer. The second rubber was holding it securely, but this was obviously now under additional strain. Closer inspection showed that the hanging arm on the exhaust was not quite long enough to sit easily below the corresponding locating tang on the body. The result was that the rubber was in tension and always liable to work its way off. My solution was to drill a small hole through the end of the arm on the exhaust and use an R- clip to stop the rubber from being able to slide off.
Oddly enough, there was a similar rust problem underneath the Volvo, which I tackled in a similar way. The De Dion back axle was showing quite heavy surface corrosion, not enough to be a structural concern but enough to ring a few warning bells. Again the long-term plan is to strip the rear suspension and have various parts blasted and powder- coated, and certainly I think the rest of the car is worth it. For now though, an afternoon with wire wheels and Scotchbrite pads had it cleaned for a coat of paint.
However, that left one item which did concern me, as the rear camber control rod (or torque arm) was quite deeply corroded. I didn’t really think it was in imminent danger of
“The bolts should be tightened when the car is on its wheels with 50kg in the boot – I used my daughter”
failure, but wasn’t entirely sure how the MoT tester would react and wanted to replace it for my own peace of mind anyway. So I got a secondhand arm from Classic Swede for £18, and while I was at it I added a pair of polyurethane bushes for a further £19.20.
Getting the old arm off was not a job I was looking forward to, but whilst not everything on this car has been straightforward, I have been impressed with how well it was put together and how, with a bit of care, everything has come apart. The nuts and bolts securing the arm to the car were big M10/17mm items, so access was a bigger problem than the risk of them shearing. In the end, by taking the offside rear wheel off, cleaning all around the bolt with a wire brush, spraying on plenty of penetrating oil and using a six-point socket rather than a 12-point one, they agreed to come out.
Meanwhile I had prepared the replacement arm. The first job was to get the old rubber bushes out. These have a lip at either end to give an H profile, which is harder to get in and out than a split top-hat design as shown in the Morris Minor Project feature this issue. Since I was binning the old bushes, I cut the protruding rubber lip off, then placed a big socket over one side and a solid metal bar on the other and squeezed the lot in a vice. The trick here was to find a socket that was big enough to go around the bush and yet still bear against the metal of the arm, which was not particularly thick. After finding the right socket, the old bush came out.
I then cleaned up the new arm with a wire brush in the angle grinder, before giving it a coat of paint. Pushing the new bush in promised to be tricky because one of the lips had to go through the smaller eye of the arm. However, I added a little silicone grease to ease the process, squeezed the bush firmly into position in the vice and then prodded the lip inwards with a screwdriver – because the bush was under pressure from the vice, this persuaded it into the hole. It was then relatively easy to push through and the compressed lip popped out on the other side. I then refitted the torque arm, remembering that the bolts should only be tightened when the car is on its wheels and with a 50kg weight in the boot – I used my daughter.
And finally, let’s talk hair spray! I also have a classic motorbike, and needed to replace the handlebar grips on this. The problem was that they needed to slide on easily, but then grip tightly to offer a secure hand-hold and to turn the throttle tube. I didn’t want to use glue as they were genuine Honda grips and I wanted to be able to remove them in future without cutting, should the need ever arise. The solution was hair spray
– a squirt of this allowed the rubber to slide on effortlessly, then when the spray dried, it stuck like glue. If I ever need to remove them, squirting in a little water in will loosen the grip. It smelled a bit girly for a few days, but has worked a treat. I mention it here because it could be a useful tip for securing such items as pedal rubbers to your classic.