Saturday 29th October - One step forward.......

With all the right parts now in my possession, I set about putting the Green Cortina back together. The first job I tackled was fitting the adjustable shock absorbers that had been repaired by Gaz on Monday. This is an easy enough job, and it didn't take long. I then fitted the new wheels from Retro Ford on the back and took the car down off of the axle stands at the back. Looking good!

I then started on the front end. I fitted the 8inch springs I had bought from Gaz on Monday. With the car lowered on the floor I found it was a bit too low to be honest and also, the springs were coming out of the holders when the car was jacked up. So, I fitted the 'helpers' that Gaz had provided and this raised  the front up one inch, and also took up the slack between the tops of the springs and the upper mounts, so it looked much better

While inspecting my work, I then noticed that it didn't look like the wheel nuts weren't locating in the stud holes on the wheels properly. I jacked the car back up again found that I could rock the wheel even though the nuts were done up tight. Further inspection revealed that extended wheel studs have been fitted on the car and they have longer 'shoulders'. So, therefore the nut was tightening on the shoulders before it was even making contact with the wheel. 

The only answer would be to replace all of the studs with ones with shorter shoulders. So, I started to remove the wheels again. To my dismay and horror one of the front studs was obviously worn on the splines where it fits into the wheel hub and was just spinning round when I was trying to undo the nut. I was stuck with a real dilemma now, because how can I get the wheel off if the stud is not gripping and the wheel nut wont come undone? It was at the point that I called it a day and went indoors. Sometimes when things aren't going right it's best to just walk away and leave it for another day. Plus, I had to have a serious think about how I was going to get this wheel off with the knackered stud. You can't get to it from the back because of the brake disc and back plate, so it's a real problem.    

It was really annoying though, because the car was looking good on its new wheels and sitting at the right height.