Another day, another door!

Both nearside doors and both wings now with the paint blokes. 

Started stripping another door back (yawn), then thought it a good idea to make sure the new door fits the shell before they both get painted.

Seen here while I was looking for the hinge pins! ^^^

It seemed to fit well, but I'd not know for sure until the other door and wing were in position. The only adjustment there is involves biffing the hinge parts of the shell forwards or backwards. The plan was to fit the rear door first,as that was fitted at the factory and is therefore gonna be right. The drivers door would then go on, and if the gap between both doors was right, the wing could be fitted. If it wasn't right, the hinge flaps would be "manipulated" before the wing was bolted down.

Last two doors stripped

Only one wheel blasted so far for one reason or another - I'd do the rest myself later on.

All the parts with date stamps I've seen so far have all been October/November 1976 - seems fair enough given the date of registration. 

The outside of the boot lid was stripped next - here you can see the paint revert back to the colour it should be, when liquefied by paint stripper.

After that, I went to work and sandblasted the wheels. I get why no one wanted to do these for me - each one took about 45 minutes to do in their entirety. Packed in bags awaiting painting or powder coating - hadn't decided which at this point.

Edited 18 October, 20169 yr by sleag40

Inside of boot lid finished -

Made a start on the bonnet - this had been resprayed at some point, and was a pig to strip! 

Several hours later - the easy side was done!

Finished the other side of the bonnet another day - just needed to remove the catch, then take the paint off its bracket. The end of paint removal was in sight!

Some nice new parts arrived from a bloke called Peter. New indicator units, badges, badge grommets, washer bottle, door pull surrounds and a fuel flap.

There was nothing wrong with the fuel flap that came with the car, but now I could keep hold of the original one to remind me how ruined the paint was. :)

Got some painted pieces back, so I plonked the wings on for a look -

They had to go back for rectification though, there were a couple of places where the paint has been polished right through on the top edge that faces the bonnet.

The doors weren't too bad, just needed to finish off the polishing when they're back on the car.

Made a start on the roof - used paint stripper to take the blue paint off, then hit it with the poly abrasive disc to remove the primer and rust.  

Edited 19 October, 20169 yr by sleag40

This was the reason all the exterior paint had to come off -

Most of the roof, boot lid and the top half of the door skins had blistered. The roof was definitely the worst affected panel - the doors and boot lid didn't show much blistering,  but there was lots of little rust spots under the paint that hadn't yet made it to the surface. If the doors, boot lid etc. had been painted without stripping right back first, it would  have blistered through the new paint soon enough.

Wednesday May 13th saw everything covered in plastic sheeting to prepare for the shitstorm ahead -

Thursday I stripped the scuttle panel back -

Friday was mostly about getting half of the roof back to the metal - stripping the top coat off with paint stripper first meant that I didn't put as much heat into it, so there was a lot less chance of warpage -

The rest of the roof, as well as the nearside door apertures were stripped the day after. It's a properly unpleasant job, but I didn't care - the end of paint removal was not far off now! :)

Finishing the job off -

Would be done by the weekend, then it was to get a good sanding with 80 grit paper and be ready for paint. :) (I was at the mercy of the paint blokes for the last bit!)

 

Went at it with the 80 grit today -

Comparison of the new paint colour with the original non oxidised paint from under the rear window seal.

It looks pretty close, but it's very different to that which has just been removed!

Got some more sanding done - just the roof left to do.

Fingers were crossed so hopefully the paint blokes would be ready for it before it all went rusty. Didn't really want to sand it again!

Edited 19 October, 20169 yr by sleag40

I was hoping the shell would be with the painter blokes that weekend,  but they took this weekend off. I had a feeling that this would occur, so I made preparations to paint my wheels. 
After bead blasting, they received a couple of coats of etch primer. This was left to harden for 24 hours, rubbed down, then hit with a few coats of silver -

Then some clear lacquer -

Then after going off in the sunshine, they went back into my unit until I could put the tyres back on -

Fortunately there were a few jobs I could be getting on with whilst I waited for the shell to be painted!

I got the front doors built back up next - pretty fiddly stuff like locks, handles, catches and window regulators. It had been a while since they came apart, so one front door took a fair while to work out the order of assembly. The corresponding door for the other side was then really easy as I knew what I was doing. This process was obviously repeated for the rear doors.

I thought that the front door window regulators were gonna be a nightmare, but my trusty yellow book made it easy - here's a cutaway pic of the torturous route the cable takes - 

I was about to fit the glass to the rear doors, then realised that I'd not painted the bars that separate the quarter lights from the main windows. 

I bare metalled and primed them, then left them for a day before finishing the job off.

Kicked off the next day by making some kunifer brake lines up, to replace the ones that were damaged when the car was stripped.

The gearbox received a new output shaft seal, then the new clutch release bearing was fitted. Finished off the session by fitting the glass to both front doors.

 

It was properly unpleasant in the unit next time I was there - unfeasibly sweaty! (June 5th) As a result, I didn't stick it for long, just fitted the door frame trims.

You can't see it in the pics, but they have some pitting in them, which lets the look down somewhat. They're aluminium though, so I should be able to polish them up at some point - probably when the weather turns later in the year.
The remaining trims for the bottoms of the windows and the side trims would go on when the paint had its final polish.

No paint bloke action that weekend either - I suppose it was fair enough given the heat, but it looked like my plan to have it all together in July wouldn't happen. :(

Something that could be done outdoors was required while it was so warm in the unit - tidying up the front part of the exhaust system fitted the bill nicely. It was stripped of old paint and rust with a wire wheel, then hit with the same high temperature paint used on the manifold.

I bought some ethanol resistant braided rubber fuel hose off eBay. It looks just like the original stuff which kind of disintegrated when I stripped the car.

It's used between the metal fuel line and the fuel pump + carburettor. Its also used between the plastic fuel line from the tank, and the fuel pump. The thinner stuff is for the breather between the inlet manifold and rocker cover.

^^I had to modify the metal fuel pipe slightly, as the fuel inlet of the Weber is in a different place to the one on the original Solex. 

Was close to getting the engine off the stand so it could be reunited with the gearbox now.

The next day, the tyres went back on the wheels - closely followed by the centre caps and trim rings. 

Balancing wights went on the backs.

Would look reet smart once I'd cleaned the tyres and used a bit of tyre shine on them.

A new clutch cover plate arrived that day - just in time for reassembly of the engine and box!

The rear crankshaft seal and clutch spigot bearing were changed next. The seal had a hole drilled into it so that a self tapping screw could be wound into it, then the seal could be prised out with a pair of pliers. The spigot bearing wasn't so easy though - after failing with the hydraulic action method with grease and a punch, a die grinder was borrowed, and duly used to terrorise it into submission. :)

The seal and spigot bearing were then replaced, followed by the flywheel.

The flywheel was torqued down, then the clutch went in.

Finally the gearbox went back on, so the whole lot was ready to go back where it came from. (at some point in time, as yet unknown!)

I started to clean the underside in preparation for waxing. It was difficult to do without splashing water everywhere, so decided it was best left until the bare metal of the body has been painted.

The list of things to clean and paint was short now, the master cylinder was on that list, so I started by cleaning the reservoir bottle.

I should have pictured it beforehand - it was almost all black with dirt!

The master cylinder itself was stripped, wire wheeled, and given a good clean before being painted. The complete assembly was then put back on the servo ready to go on the car.

On June 19th, the main paint bloke made a start on the shell! :) He got the filler work done where the arches had been repaired, a small dent on the roof was sorted, and a couple of spots of pitting on the upper sills were addressed. It was intended to be in primer some time that week.

I was hoping it would be going back together in a couple of weeks. (I was wrong!)

I was running out of stuff to do now, just a few odds and ends needed sorting out ready to be fitted. I was going to buy a new coil, but the one I had seemed to work fine. When I started cleaning it up, I realised that it was probably the one fitted at the factory.

Blasted a few parts clean at work, at least I had something to paint now!

Coil bracket  would be painted silver, the battery bracket, pad retainers, drop link parts and calliper hose brackets would be painted black.

Another day of paint bloke absence next.  After my odds and ends were primed, I mocked up the braking system to make sure the new lines were the right shape before they get painted.

 

Edited 19 October, 20169 yr by sleag40

June 29th - Well, it still didn't happen yet. Good news came on this day though, it was to be painted the next day!
In the mean time, I was doing odd jobs here and there. The pieces that were blasted had been painted.

The rubbery sound deadening stuff from the bulkhead and heating/ventilation system was in the process of being spruced up.

And I found some proper windscreen sealant for when the front and rear glass went back in. This stuff was pretty much the same as that which was removed from the car when the glass came out a few months prior. It doesn't set hard, so the glass can be removed again easily if needed.

This appeared in my unit on June 30th.

To enable this to happen -

Finally the time had come!

The shell was rubbed down, and had a coat of epoxy primer splashed on. I had the epoxy made a similar colour to the top coat for a daft laugh. Here it is just before being hit with some regular grey primer.

It would then be getting a good rub, then some top coat action over the next day or so.

The shell received its top coat on the morning of July 2nd

First, I unwrapped it -

And put the door seals back on -

I needed to finish cleaning the underside, before painting then waxing it, and then the rebuild could begin in earnest. :)

I couldn't resist fitting a load of stuff to the engine bay before cleaning the underside commenced.

Bulkhead sound deadening stuff, servo and brake lines, heating and ventilation stuff as well as the wiper mechanism all went in without stress.

The horrible job of cleaning the underside was done in sections, and I found it impossible to photograph too!

After scrupulously cleaning, and the application of stone chip paint, this was how it looked.

It took a fair few hours to do, and was now ready for a coating of this - 

 

Finished up the painting.

After painting, but before waxing, I decided to have a go at putting the glass back in.

I didn't know if I could do it alone, but it wasn't too difficult. I'd seal them up with the Arbomast stuff, then fit the trims another day.

 

From July 10th. The wax was on, the masking removed - it was all ready for me to get the engine and transmission back in. 

My "working underneath cars" light makes it look very brown under there. It looks just as black as the shot of the passenger compartment floor with less harsh lighting. 

Sundry small jobs were then attended to, such as fitting the bonnet release mechanism and cable, front flexy hoses and the coil. By far the most time consuming job was fitting the window rubber chrome trim. Helpful people lent me tools for the job, but none of them were any use. I ended up giving up with the proper tools, and did it with a small blunt screwdriver and a cash card! Not a job I want to do again any time soon! 

Slowly but surely, the pile of junk in my dining room was getting whittled down. The latest pieces to leave the house were the heating/ventilation stuff that goes under the dashboard.

After going to get an engine crane, I finally made a start on getting the engine and gearbox back in. There was nobody around to help, which was strange for a Monday, but I got stuck in anyway. 
The hardest part was getting the engine from next to the car, to underneath the car. The engine and gearbox were sat on their cross member, on carpet underlay. The car was on stands with its nose in the air - I just needed to slide the lot underneath. Definitely easier said than done! It took a fair old time to drag/man handle it in position to get the crane attached to then lift it into position. Later on, the height of the front end caused an issue of running out of jack lift on the gearbox. It was sorted by putting the jack on some wooden blocks to give me the amount of lift required to do up the gearbox mount. It all worked out in the end, and no harm came to paint or person. :)

Went back for a short stint in the evening for some light fettling - all the wiring for the engine was now connected, the earth strap was on, vacuum hose plugged in, and throttle cable fitted and adjusted.

 

Apologies for the poor pics, the flash on my phone wasn't working on this day!

Refurbished callipers came back from Bigg Red. Excellent service! :)

The front to rear brake line went in first, closely followed by the prop shaft. Next up, the speedo and clutch cables were fitted, then the choke cable that came with the Weber carburettor conversion.

The steering rack and cross member braces were next up, and after struggling for a while trying to fit the universal joint to the end of the steering column, my mate who lent me the engine crane appeared. With me pulling the column upwards + my mate wiggling the joint, it was done immediately. Some jobs just can't be done alone!

Next day started off by fitting the gearstick - what a faff! To get the e clip onto the pin would have been easy with three hands, but in the end a bit of contortionism got the job done.
The exhaust was next on the list, I've ditched the standard downpipe bolts and used Allen headed bolts instead. I have some super long Allen bits which make this job a lot easier.

The middle section was awkward to fit  with the car being on the deck at the back, but I didn't want to risk jacking it up while the engine laden front end was so high on axle stands.

The back box was incredibly easy though!

A mate from work showed up for a look - and was instantly roped in to give me a hand holding the doors up while I knocked the hinge pins in.

Both passenger side doors, and the drivers side rear one were pretty easy. I'd bought some new hinge pins for the drivers door as the original ones were worn, they're like big roll pins to look at. This caused a bit of a problem as the new ones didn't fit in the holes - they needed their splits closing up before they'd go in. This involved a bit of hammer and vice action as they're made from a very hard steel! By the time I'd driven the new pins in, then removed them again to ensure they would work as they should, my mate had escaped. Fortunately, a short time later, someone else came for a look - the last door would go on today after all.

The lower part of the new door fitted reall y well, but the window frame seemed to sit a little too far forward. I'd have a go at fettling it another day though. :)

Edited 19 October, 20169 yr by sleag40