June 11th, 2010 
Bodywork, Front suspension, Steering
Although there haven’t been any updates for over a month, a lot of things have been going on. None of them have improved or even changed La Tempesta even the tiniest little bit, but read on …
May 8th, 2010 Front suspension, Parts
The final suspension piece, the front anti-roll bar (ARB), was mounted a couple of days ago, ending a long sub-project of renewing the suspension and to a certain extent the driveline. The suspension is now officially done! The 29 mm polyurethane bushings arrived in the mailbox Wednesday, and later in the evening I was on the garage floor to fit it. Even though the bushings are split and clips around the bar without problems, there was a very large amount of more or less useless fitting grease in the bag. Another artifact for the treasure chest then.
May 2nd, 2010 Engine
I didn’t want to start disassembling anything this close to the NSK spring meet, so I decided to change the oil today instead. It’s been three years since the last oil change, and that’s anything but good, even though mileage on the old oil was just over 5,000 kms (3,100 miles). I used an eight liter can designed for motorcycles to hold the oil as it came gushing out of the oil tank. It has an extra hole to let the air escape and it became completely full. Emptying the oil tank is a mess, so I had cardboard covering the whole area and a oil suction mat on top of that. There was an extra ~2 litres in the sump, and then some decilitres in the oil filter. The new oil is the same as last time; Agip Super Motor Oil 20W/50, but the filter was a Mann W920/80 instead of the Purolator L20081. The look exactly the same, although the Mann filter is painted a cool-looking black instead of white 
Later on the test trip, the oil pressure gauge was actually moving between idle pressure and driving pressure, something it have never done before. The car currently rests in the garage so it can dispense of the oil drops hanging from behind the front spoiler. As I said it’s a mess changing the oil. No wonder there is no rust around the right front side of the car!
Note: the drain plug on the oil tank takes a 14 mm Allen key on my car. This is apparently unusual, but the plug may be changed during the last 40 years.
April 28th, 2010 Front suspension, Steering
Earlier this week I spent almost the entire Monday and Tuesday evening in the garage, slowly mounting the last pieces of the front suspension together. As usual there was a small-ish mistake to correct. Four of the tie rod ends I got this winter had castellated nuts, but the last two had nyloc locking nuts and a rather long bolt. I don’t know how I came to the cinclusion that the nyloc variant should be on the inner side of the outer arms, but it soon became apparent that they touched the rubber dust jackets of its neighbours as the centre rod moved sideways. Since having a working steering is quite practical, the outer steering arms had to be turned 180 degrees. That took me quite a while since the tapered ends were torqued into the arms on the idler and steering box.
