Well I've been in the workshop again on the Fug after a bit of a project crisis. I'd stripped it back down again to just the frame while I was trying to decide what to do with the whole thing. After a bit of umming and ahhing I decided to just try and crack on with it all so I have managed to cut the front beam and put the adjusters in. Got the new balljoints pressed into the arms and assembled the whole front end back onto the frame complete with new brake assemblies. Managed to get the driveshaft nuts off (a right pain when it's not on wheels on the ground) and finally get round to sorting out the rear brake drums, so that has got new bits in too. While the engine was off I had the flywheel machined as there was a clash between the flywheel bolts and the clutch plate face and that is now back on and together too, allowing the wheels to go back on all round so it is actually wheeling around for the first time in ages. The odd thing is that the Pinto has not actually dropped the back and as much as I imagined. I know that there is bugger all on the frame at the moment but there also isn't that much to actually go back on either so I might look at how to lower the back end. Is it a case of moving the spline positions??
The other thing is I have put the steering assembly back on. The steering box is a nightmare as I just seem to get clashes with the frame and beam when it is in it's 'proper' position. I had to cut the front clamps back to try and give a bit more clearance but it is still not enough. I am thinking of doing a rack conversion to tidy it all up which will help with the steering column angle too - at the moment the steering box shaft angle wants to bring the column up above the windscreen base tube! I've left the beam bare of paint at the moment as I need to attach the headlight and indicator mounts and do some general faffing around. You'll notice the dampers are all off too at this stage - I don't want to fit the new ones while I'm grinding, welding and painting.
As an aside I used some discs in the grinder that are for rust removal. They are a sort of grit filled epoxy coated nylon wire thing - they are superb! Got cheap ones on ebay (about £4 ea.) and would recommend them to anyone, they remove paint and surface rust so quickly without the harshness of a flap wheel.
The next step is that I really need to change the tyres for the ones I want, then I can sort out the mudguard mounts (I put longer high tensile bolts in when I assembled the drum backplate onto the front hubs) and start looking at the 'interior' parts. It's been really slow progress but I am hoping to make a bit more headway over the next couple of weeks....