Parts have been arriving in dribs and drabs and have been stacked in the garage for when I'm allowed a moment to play with them.

So far I've received two diffs, a 3.38 and a 3.14. The 3.14 was supposed to be a 3.62 open and is probably going to be too high a ratio to use. I'm not bothering with the Ford LSD as it's a viscous unit and after 15 odd years on the road I doubt it will still be up to much. When funds allow I'll equip my diff with a Quaife ATB. I'm still waiting on the steering column, rack, and rear calipers.

I've also received the complete Cortina Uprights. This has lead to a shocking discovery. How bl**dy heavy are M16 calipers! I'm probably not going to bother reconditioning them. I'm looking at upgrading them to a set of Raceleda/Outlaw M16 calipers.

The uprights have been seperated and bearings have been removed. I'm going to replace all bearings as it would be stupid not to.

So now I'm in the process of derustifying bits. First ideas were to use household cleaning products. I quickly realised that it would take a while and I'm not patient enough!

The diff has been bathed in a caustic soda solution. Now this stuff is nasty, so if you're going to do the same then wear goggles, gloves and a box. The diff has come out all nice and shiny and been primered and painted silver. My wife kindly pointed out it was already silver, but that's women for you.

The uprights are being cleaned using electrolysis, using the same caustic solution, an old atx power supply from a compaq desktop, a wire coathanger and some jumpleads. The wire coathanger is bent around the inside of the bucket and connected to the positive, the part being cleaned is then connected to the negative. It works in a line of sight, so by using a coat hanger bent around the bottom of the bucket I can attack all angles.

You have to be careful what you use as an anode. Stainless is bad as it will emit nasty stuff that is very dangerous.

For more images of the electrolysis procedure click here