The lower portion of the hull interior being painted in the chassis grey/green. I dared not remove the various cables you see all over the insides as it took quite a while to determine the centre of gravity for hoisting it off the chassis.

Before the drive distribution box was sent for sandblasting pictures were taken for reference. The spring loaded mechanism on top is the diff lock actuating handle.

From this end you can see the location of the hand/parking brake callipers. 

Time to re-assemble the suspension, here one of the final drives has been mounted back onto the chassis, it was quite a challenge getting the king pins lined up with the various parts. 

Another view, you can see just how complicated the arrangement actually is.

In this rear view the interior cream white has been painted on. 

And looking from the front.

The following images are of the aluminium spacer plate for the suspension. 

The six suspension mounting bolts. 

Two bolts from the inside of the chassis. You can see the shape of the inner casting. 

Two more mounting bolts on the lower girder of the chassis frame. 

Some more interesting stampings recorded for posterity.  

This is the front view, the spring sits in the recess.

Primed spacer plates. 

Another view. 

And painted in the correct colour. 

Now that the suspension units and various components have been primed and painted the parts are laid out for assembly. 

The engine jack comes in handy for this task, no point in pulling a muscle or causing a hernia. 

One suspension unit in place, you can see how the spacer bracket takes up the space between the girder and the unit. 

Another angled view, the two rotary type shock absorbers can bee seen on either side of the the upper wishbone.

All those nuts and bolts lock the whole suspension bracket and various components in place. 

A lower side view, you can see how the shock absorbers are mounted to the side of the chassis.

Suspension and cross bracing tubes under coated. 

More under coating. 

Here you can see some suspension parts having being painted in the Italian grey/green colour. 

The final drives primed. 

The suspension springs and brackets painted. 

Wheel arches painted. 

One of the suspension mounting plates has been installed. 

Here the plate has been temporarily installed, the mounting holes and opening are for the steering box. 

The other side plate installed. 

The chassis coming together, you can see one of the suspensions aluminium spacers on the floor. 

The wheel hubs mounted on poles ready for undercoating. 

A nice detailed view of the hub interior. 

Two of the suspension units are seen hanging here.

A close up view showing the rough cast texture. 

A sand blasted suspension bracket. 

One of the wheel hub assemblies is seen here, quite a fancy bit of engineering this. 

These are the four drive shafts, they are solidly machined items. 

The age of the vehicle has made certain alloy components brittle such as this access cap. 

A detailed view of the inner workings of the hub, the universal joint is centralised with the steering pivot points. The stub slots into the drive shaft and retained with two nuts and bolts.

And another view, the bronze bushed end locates with one of the spring units. 

Undercoated wheel hubs, undercoating has to take place very soon after sandblasting before surface rust can set in although thanks to the dry heat where the museum is located this is not too critical. 

Undercoated suspension bracket. 

These four cowlings are part of the wheel arches, that brittle cap you saw earlier can be seen on these.  

 

With the hull and chassis out of the way time was taken to take a closer look at the suspension parts. Here is one of the suspension cross struts with one of the steering boxes still attached. 

The same assembly. 

This is one of the suspension mountings. 

Stripping down the suspension springs and associated mountings. 

The reconditioned radiator has returned. Only once it is installed will we be able to see if it has any leaks or not. 

The stripped down suspension strut after having been sand blasted. 

The same unit from a different angle. 

The hubs were also in the same sand blasting batch. 

The suspension spring units hanging up ready for red oxide. 

Some interesting markings found on one of the rotary shock absorbers.