Chris Williams' Journal

Quite a lot has been achieved of late but I've been a bit slack in the journal entry department.
Hopefully this entry will rectify that.
The back end of the underside has been finished and painted with the chassis paint. I prepared with a rust convertor/primer and I'm happy that the demon rust has been held at bay. (fingers crossed)
Removed the front guards and I'm reasonably happy with what we found.
There seemed little evidence of rust and the paint under the guards appeared good. I simply wiped over with some wax and grease remover and painted with chassis paint.
The guards had been joined to the body, along the bonnet flanges with a soft seam sealer and I scraped and cleaned this off with some wax and grease remover. There was some evidence of surface rust, so I cleaned thoroughly with the wire-cup brush. This left bare metal and and I had used all my rust convertor/primer. This had left a rough surface on the underside which wasn't a concern under, but I didn't want this on visible surfaces. What was needed was the etching properties without the plastic finish. I thought of 'Metal Ready'. So off we went to price the rust convertor/primer against Metal Ready. Pleasant surprise, Metal Ready is quite cheap. So I bought a litre of it.
When we came home I decided to investigate some surface cracking on the shroud just in front of where the windscreen would sit. Filler - lots of it covering a welded section that had obviously been done to remove rust. Ground it all out to see the bare metal and how well the fix had been done. Similar situation to that of the doglegs. Messy join - filled back up with lots of filler. Quite solid and no rust, so I had to treat the bare metal, prime, fill, sand and paint. Used the metal ready and some body filler. Some spray putty, primer and one coat of Hermitage.
Concurrently to all this is the attack on the Front suspension.
David has shown a lot more interest and I gave him the job of cleaning, dismantelling and checking the steering rack. He worked well on that, although I have to monitor him closely because he is prone to jump in and not plan what he is going to do. We need to keep a record of how things came apart and make sure that each part is cataloged. Understandably, he gets a little impatient and just wants to rip in and 'do-stuff'. Watching 'Monster Garage' is NOT the ideal role model here.
He did well and it appears that the rack - although allowed to run dry, split boot, the pinion gears and the rack seem to be in good condition.
Meanwhile, I attacked the suspension - scraping, degreasing and power washing almost all the crud off. All the bushes need replacing and it appears that at least one side king pin bushes will need replacing. Bummer!
I'm now in the process of determining where I'm going to buy all the new bits.
I took off the brake calipers and discovered that the pads were way past their 'use-by' date, one of them just down to metal and just touching the disk. Thankfully it appears no disk damage.