£1000 Challenge
Our Reliant’s new chassis has finally arrived – so it’s time to make sure the Robin’s rot won’t come back
Reliant Robin
1990 RELIANT ROBIN THE STORY SO FAR
Miles driven 0 Total mileage 63,781 What’s gone wrong Nothing, but it’s still in bits – for now
DAVID SIMISTER It might look broken now, but I reckon our Reliant Robin will have acquired Captain Scarlet-esque levels of indestructibility by the time it’s finished.
For one thing, its 848cc four-pot will have been freshly serviced and fettled by the time it’s all put together. And for another – judging by its freshly-delivered chassis – H362 CBA is going to be laughing in the face of the sort of corrosioninducing weather that caused so much grief for the outgoing rotter.
Regular readers might recall from our earlier Reliant (mis)adventures that our 1990 example was built at a time when the manufacturer was encountering some financial difficulties and – let’s be kind – the cars leaving the Tamworth factory weren’t being lavished with quite as much as love as their immediate predecessors. Take a look at photos of the plant at the time and you’ll see freshly-assembled chassis piled up on top of one other and left outdoors in the elements. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that our car’s old base, with its terminally rusty front crossmember, was one of them.
The replacement chassis – taken from another Robin that’s being broken for spares – couldn’t look more different. It’s not brand new, but there’s substantial, unblemished steel where the old underpinnings had the unmistakable brown flakes of rot; and it’s clear that this one left the factory having been rather better prepared, and hasn’t harboured any tin worm as a result.
Not that we’re just going to plonk our three-wheeler’s GRP body back onto it, of course. To make absolutely certain that the replacement chassis won’t rot for many more years to come, we’ve set it up for even more anti-corrosion treatment, with a thick coating of Galvafroid’s anti corrosion paint, followed by a layer of Hammerite’s Stone Chip Shield, just to make doubly sure. Owners’ club guru, James Holland, who has nobly accepted the challenge of nursing CBA back to health, is also paying particular attention to the front crossmember to make sure that it’s no longer the weakest part of the car’s construction; the next job is to spray some rust-preventing wax inside the steel tube.
With a chassis that’s this well protected, mated up to a freshly-fettled engine, rebuilt brakes and GRP bodywork that won’t ever rust, I reckon our Robin could end up being the toughest classic I’ve ever owned once it all goes back together.
But the next job is the big one – reattaching all those fiddly mechanicals back to the underpinnings, and then lifting the body back into place.
I’m going to need a few helping hands to make it happen. Suddenly, though, the CCW office chairs are looking suspiciously empty…