Stories & Photos: Restoration of my 68, Part 6

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When I thought I was almost done I found this under an old patch. At first the patch look solid enough but the original beam was weak around the patch so I just had to cut it away.
This is what I found!
So what are you looking at? Well this is/was the inner beam where the torsion bar is fixed. On the top right you can see the rubber mount for the center silencer. The picture is taken from the rear so to the bottom the floor pan under the rear seat is visible with the transversal handbrake cable.
This is the same beam seen from the side, over the left rear brake drum.
Here it is also obvious why this beam should be in good condition, it is the inner fixation of the right torsion bar with the excentric ride height adjuster.
All rust has be cut away.
The piece on the left side of the beam that look lose is the torsion bar fixation, and it is supposed to be bolted to the beam. I could weld it to the beam, but then I will not be able to remove the rear axle in case I need it in the future.
Almost done, just needs closing up.
With the torsion bar fixation still in place it was a bit tight and tricky...
Done, though I had some doubts for a while.
The small triangular piece provides extra support for the torsion bar fixation. Original Renault design.
The bolt for ride height adjustment was badly rusted and snapped when I tried to undo it so I had to replace it. The excenter is simply pressed on so I just welded it to a regular bolt.
The front piece of the the rear wing was put back in place with some minor repairs.
The rear door lock back plate was rotten as usual...
A slightly less usual place for rust is this high on the front door, especially since there is NO rust at the bottom of the door. A look inside the door revealed the reason, good rust protection at the bottom of the door but nothing this high up. Never trust gravity, spray rust protection all over...
A common place for rust on the other hand is the outer fixation of the front seat belt. I almost missed this because the sound deadener covered it from the inside and it looked solid from beneath.

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Magnus Bjelk (magnus@r16site.com)

Last revision 2004-09-24