just got me a new ARB 
Holes should point downwards as the photo
Ive given up on the epoxy mastic. I wasn’t impressed with my brush on finish and I don’t have the facility or equipment to spray so I took the lazy option and sent them to be powder coated. But that’s me being fussy.
Today I’ve learnt that certain plastic bottle caps fit very nicely into the bush hole of the wishbone. I thought this was a neat way of avoiding getting paint in them, so 32 bottles of tescos cheapest bottled water later they were good to go. But I’ve also learnt they would melt in the painters oven… Ah well.
This is how I’ve spent my week as well. I like the Zinc coat and POR clear. Anything but black, as a light colour is easier to clean me thinks. Grime and brake dust on black is hard to see from experience. Gold to match the Ohlins but then I quite like silver too, matches the chassis
Mate I hate to break it to you but your Ohlins or on my car now…
I want some more!
You can have a go of mine on the 21st to remind yourself how good they are and question why you sold them to me…
Great write up. Very detailed and pics good too. I’d have no chance of doing this myself, much as the idea appeals.
Keep up the good work.
And, as for you Mr Fox, we need your words and pics, too, please
Personally I wouldn’t use another finish on wishbones, I’ve got better thing to do than a million different step processes especially when the ball joint will be knackered in a few thousand well driven track miles… The guy I use will blast, undercoat, powder coat and clear lacquer for a few ££ per item. Have a word with the powder coater the will usually give you the tape they use to mask foc. Even if not masked a small diameter lap wheel on a die grinder will clean things up…
I sprayed the epoxy mastic and it’s given a slight hammered finish to the subframe which I do like (I’m no pro but kept the thinning to a minimum to achieve it as the galvanising isn’t perfect).
The next set I do will either be something bright or the anthracite I have the wheels in on both cars. Gold would be good!
If you you’ve a bit of room on the drive/ garage I’ll happinly come over and take you through doing this. Just supply coffee and biscuits!
Day 5
Cheers for the advice and messages of support.
I’ve managed to strip the offside tonight, 3 hours approx compared to 6 hours for the near side 
Nothing much different from my write up on the near side apart from when removing the wheel arch liner some pipes and an electrical box are attached but can easily be taken off.
Here is the anti-roll bar which will be sandblasted and then given the por-15 black treatment.
I’ve new bushes and drop links to go on too.
Excellent write up!
Just FYI, here’s a quick snap I took a couple of months back when replacing a CV joint of my LR suspension. This is what the Zinc passivated/Clear-POR’d wishbones look like after 4 years or so on the road, still like new. Granted mine’s a bit pampered, but other than the odd dry wipedown, it’s not had any cleaning since I did it back in 2008.
Note the rear calipers I also did in clear POR and the uprights in black POR.
Hi George, thank you. I think you’ve heard it before but your thread gave inspiration to many including myself.
Your suspension still looks great even after the years. Is there anything that you would have done different?
Ive a question to anyone, I want to clean the uprights and hubs but want to do it without having to separate them (I’ll be keeping the current bearings in for now) is there a way without damaging the bearings?
They’re not particulally expensive though Dris, why not, if you’re going to do a job and all that… It’ll only bother you later.
Well, you could keep the bearings and hubs together and just wire brush them all up, but doing wheel bearings is a good move if you’re replacing everything else.
My one regret with my car is not replacing the (rear) hubs when I was doing all the suspension. In the above picture, I was trying to track down a scraping/grinding noise I’d had since shortly after I put the car together. I put a new outer CV joint on it because I’d convinced myself it was that. That didn’t fix it and I ended up pulling the hub apart to replace a wheel bearing (the bearing was new only 2 years previous. I found out that the bearing was knackered because the hub had started to fall to bits given track abuse and it had ovaled slightly knackering each new bearing I threw at it in a matter of a few months.
The EP hubs are made of a lot sterner stuff than the stock items and aren’t as prone to do it. I DO give my car absolute death on track though, so for a road car/occasional tracker I wouldn’t bother, but on mine it’d have saved me some time and effort doing them first time around.
I still have to do the RR hub/bearing at some point. They’re still okay, but the left one clapped out in spectacular fashion (could wobble the wheel a LOT), so will do the other side as a precaution.
For me I’ve got no regrets really. All the finishes I chose have proven to remain good looking and durable.
Perhaps the only regrets was timing, in that I did it before the Nitron 46mm shocks came out (mine are 42s) and before the Nirton uniball bushes were available. Having said that, I’ve yet to find fault with the OEM Lotus rubber bushes and in the end they’re probably the better solution for a car that’s used on NZ roads (we have a very coarse chip surface over here that’s noisy enough as it is). And I’ve not been able to fault the Nitron 42s (Randy-valveed), but I know now that the 46s have become the later/better evolution.
Still, It’s easy to upgrade these things in future if I want to, and given the car sees about 90% road use and very little track use at the moment (Because track duty is being filled by my cockroach race car) it’s more than hardcore enough for the road
Day 6
This was done last weekend but just got around to sorting out the pictures.
I looked for a guide on the rear corner but couldn’t find one (the previous link covered the front) so just worked from top down, supporting the bottom wishbone and driveshaft with an axle stand when needed.
First off was to slacken off the wheel hub nut (preferably before putting on axle stands by putting the wheel back on minus the centre cap and releasing using the weight of the car to hold still…that’s what I had to do on the offside anyway)
Then to disconnect the brake hose clip and the handbreak cable clip
…and release the handbreak cable from the caliper
I then removed the small aluminium block containing the speed sensor (I think)
Now I started to remove the rear caliper, first by releasing the retaining pin.
I found a tap on a thin screwdriver to get it moving then pulling out totally with pliers…remembering to catch the spring as it flies off somewhere rather than searching all over for it.
Then the outermost brake pad was removed, slight tap from a small rubber mallet (but not a hammer).
The brake disc can be removed, mine needed a bit of persuading.
Then the inboard pad was removed.
Now I could remove the brake caliper from the hub by undoing the top bolt.
The caliper then could be slid inboard and placed on the floor without strain to the brake line
Next to come off was the shock assembly, top and bottom bolts undone allows it to be removed by a bit of tapping from underneath.
Top joint
Bottom joint
Shock off the car…looks better than the front one.
Undoing the top ball joint
And then the 2 plinth bolts with the 8mm hex socket…I believe these are the 2 that have broken on some cars…I’ll be replacing all the bolts with new ones
Then pop the joint with the ball joint breaker
The top wishbone can be removed by undoing the forward joint nut and bolt (no picture but straight forward)
Then the rear joint.
Then a bit of wiggling and then wishbone comes out.
Drive shaft then needs supporting (I’ll be giving that a clean and paint before reassembly)
Bottom wishbone ball joint nut then removed
And joint split with the ball joint splitter.
Next I removed the nut for the toe link
Then finally was the bottom wishbone, forward joint bolt removed (captive nut in the bracket)
The rear joint was a right pain. As there’s a heat sheild on the nearside (but not the offside) I struggled to get the toe link (and hence the bolt holding the wishbone) out.
I managed to undo the lower bolt holding the heat shield and bend it so that I would be able to remove the toe link.
I will be fitting the elise shop uprated toe link so need to find a way to get at the existing bolts holding on the heat shield
Anyway with a long extension and spanner on the toe link was able to remove it
Day 7
I was able to remove the offside rear suspension/brakes/etc
Day 8
Removing ball joints and wishbone bushes.
Not having a vice in the garage I ordered the Ball joint remover and bush removal tool.
Having a ratchet gun here would have cut down on time but anyway took around 1.25 hours to do the 8 joints
I removed both the circlips and boot
Then used the tool to push out the old ball joint…this tool can be used on the car if needed
And then for the bushes I also used another tool to push out the bushes
The bushes still looked ok and weren’t damaged by the tool
The wishbones, plinths etc are now ready to go off to be sandblasted.
Question has anyone removed the standard heat sheild for the toe link?
Is it an cat removal job first ?
Does anyone sell all the p-clips for the brake lines etc fitted to the wishbones?
Question has anyone removed the standard heat sheild for the toe link?
Is it an cat removal job first ?
I removed my full exhaust and cat, from manifold to get to heat sheild
Does anyone sell all the p-clips for the brake lines etc fitted to the wishbones
Copy of my link from my rebuild SELOC Forums
Hope this helps and goodluck
Hi Lee,
Looks like yours and mine were stored in the same lake.
Was chatting to a ‘sandblaster’ today who said that the zinc coating was a waste of time, well not entirely but paint was better.
Coating it straight after (with say por-15 clear) is what adds the protection.
Yours looks great, certainly gives inspiration whilst doing a job like this.
Thank you for the link to the clips, that’s what I’m after…did you order the 10mm? Have to go and measure the brake line OD.
That’s what I thought about the heat sheild…oh well 
I do prefer paint to powder coating as I’m my experience it tends to flake off and does not look good. Paint you can touch up.
My clips are 4 mm but next time would go for 5mm big one for me is replacing all bolts nut etc, but buy from a local steel stockist as nothing special about them.
Day 9
Whilst the wishbones and other parts have been away for sandblasting i’ve done a bit of cleaning.
The aluminum uprights I used a wire attachment on the drill to clean off most of the brake dust/crap and then cleaned off with magic sponges and finally treated with ACF-50
Here’s before
After
Other parts
Also put some protection on the stainless (although it shouldn’t rust) parts for the uprated Toe link
Got the sandblasted parts back now so that’s the next step
Cheers
Really good job and very clearly explained. Good pictures, too. Still no use to me sadly. I’ll never get around to it even with skilled help.