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15 March 02 (1.5 hours)

Started to strip down the donor. Removed bonnet, choke cable, steering column, instrument cluster and centre console. Started to remove the wiring harness.

17 March 02 (1 Hour 10 minutes)

Labeled the interior connections on the wiring harness. Under the passenger side of the dash is a large connector that separates the part of the harness that goes to the back lights.  Managed to pull the interior wiring in to the engine bay. (Remove the washer bottle first).

Drained the cooling system, and removed the radiator. The radiator looked almost new. Removed starter solenoid, grill and headlights.

18 March 02 (1 Hour)

Finished off removing the engine part of the wiring loom including the starter motor +ve cable. Removed indicators and ignition coil. Disconnected accelerator bracket and cable. Disconnected exhaust manifold and heater hoses. Slackened off alternator and removed fan belt. Tried to remove fan and pulley, but the diagram in my '75 Haynes manual is different to the one fitted to my '79 donor.....

19 March 02 (1 Hour 10 minutes)

Removed exhaust and propshaft. Removed speedo cable. Disconnected handbrake cable. Removed brake master cylinder. Removed pedal box.

23 March 02 (55 minutes)

Didn't manage to achieve much today. Disconnected the flexible from brake pipes and managed to slacken off 3 of the cross member bolts. The 4th is well and truly stuck. 

Started to drain the petrol tank. The car runs on a 3 tanks of unleaded to 1 tank of leaded petrol. I don't think that you can use leaded in a car fitted with a catalyst so I was going to use the petrol in my lawn mower.  The gauge showed that the car was almost empty but I still managed to fill the lawn mower and my petrol can and to get petrol all other the floor. The smell of petrol managed to waft around the whole house. It also stopped me using the angle grinder on the 4th cross member bolt.

24 March 02 (1 hour 30 minutes).

Another slow day. Managed to finish emptying the petrol tank and sealed the end of the petrol pipe. Cleared up the spillage and left the garage doors open all day to get the fumes out.

Put the front of the car on axle stands and removed the wheels and gearbox mounting bolts.

26 March 02 (1 hour)

Tried to remove the engine cross member bolts. Two bolts loosened easily, the other two were seized. Made sure that the petrol vapours had cleared and got the angle grinder on the two stubborn ones. Removed the bolts holding the McPherson struts and lowered the engine and body to the ground. Just got to get some "willing helpers" round to help lift the bodywork off the engine, gearbox and front suspension.

27 March 02 (30 Minutes)

My "willing helpers", (my pal Derek & my brother in law Scott) came around. With a bit of effort we managed to lift the body clear of the engine & gearbox.

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