Hi all.
Been a very long time since I have posted on here. Hope all is well with ya'll.
Well unfortunately the Taxi is going to be moving on. She has been bitten by the rot disease and has gone rather bad.
I am gutted I will be stripping this car as I have had it nearly 12 years, putting about 85,000 more miles on her and using her to travel from Devon to Dunbartonshire a lot of times but I have used it as a daily driver and had great fun with it, (When she worked )
This is just one part of it, but the other side is just as bad. the front passenger footwell is crispy as hell, the bulkhead has holes in it and the rear end (legs, spare wheel well) are bad. Plus the front slam panel was just dust to be honest.


She has not been on the road and used since February once the MOT ran out and I sort of lost the love with her and the paint was just getting worse and worse from the lacquer coming away as well.
But at least the engine is still fighting fit.

So with out further ado, here is what I shall be doing.
I have, after a good look around found a very decent shell that just needs a small amount of work (no rust just a few dinks and checks) then it'll be off to the paint shop. It is as you can see Red but it is not it's original colour and will be going back to Mercury Grey. She is a 88 F plate.
I will be keeping the new shell Rwd but will for now until a later date keep the 4x4 cross member/hubs etc with out the front diff and shafts. I will change it to fully 2wd front end at some point. I will be once I have cleaned the underside of the new shell UPOL Rapturing it.

Bringing it down to its temporary home, thanks to a mate from work.


Awaiting its titivating.



So last weekend a few of my mates from my regional RSOC group came and gave me a hand to strip the old shell down, starting by doing the front end.











Got the engine and gearbox apart the next day and got it on the engine stand. Have since found the usual crack on the underside centre of the exhaust manifold.



Was very lucky to get this new bulkhead panel, just surface rust in a couple of areas, so a rub down and once powder coated will look as good as new, and the old one has gone to a mate who is going to use it as a template and repair it.



Also got the wiper scuttle panel and new plastic screw clips very cheaply and is in great condition as my old one snapped in a few places.



This afternoon I went about taking the rear end off the car after having to give up on just removing the main diff bolts to just get the diff off. It was the ones that run through it as they where pretty much seized in place. A good few persuasive smacks and a gallon of plus gas and eventually got them out.













All this stuff will be blasted and powder coated and zinc plated etc etc.

Could tell the rear end had never been off the car as all the bolts still had the blue paint on them, unscathed.

Also made a start of taking the interior out.

Love the mess that is behind the dashboard.