So having introduced myself in the "Introduce Yourself" forum (seemed like a sensible place to start) I thought I should start a thread to track the progress of my project.
So here is the little fella before any work began sat on my drive....
Front.jpg 74.66K 66 downloads Rear.jpg 63.31K 30 downloads
And sat in my newly cleared out garage!
Garaged.jpg 66.23K 28 downloads
I have a reasonable idea of what I want to do but no doubt this will change as time goes on and new idea's pop into my head, but here's a bit of a rundown of where my head is at right now....
Strip it back down to the bare shell (started this, more to follow)
Cut out all the rot replacing panels where appropriate (oh, I probably should learn to weld first before I start on this step! how hard can it possibly be?)
Take it back to bare metal, ensure there's no rust or rot left anywhere and get it professionally painted, it's currently knightfire red but it was originally flame red so am thinking of putting it back to flame red, maybe with a black roof
Ditch the sports pack arches and wheels, these will be replaced with something more modest, I will likely go with 12 inch wheels (style tbd) and maybe group 2 arches
Sub frames to be restored (hopefully not replaced, time will tell) and re-built with new parts where necessary and upgrade the brakes to 4 pot calipers up front
Engine to be re-built and warmed over to a greater or lesser extent, I may get it over bored to 1380 but am currently undecided if I want to go that far or not, and I'll be replacing the ECU with a programmable jobby to get the most out of the upgrades I eventually do decide to make
Gear Box to be refurbished, not sure whether to tackle this job myself or not!
Exterior trim and glass to be refurbished or replaced if refurb isn't worth it
Interior to be completely re-trimmed, not decided exactly where to go with this yet but it's a long way off before I'll need to worry about it
I'm giving some consideration to getting the shell acid dipped, I want to be 100% sure I've removed all the rust and to prolong it's life as I don't really intend on selling it at any point in the short term. There seems to be divided opinion on here about whether or not this is a good idea and I'm also not sure if I should do this before I replace any of the obvious rot or afterwards. I'll certainly be glad to hear any thoughts anybody has on this subject.
So at the end of the day my intention is that this will be better than it was when it left the factory, certainly upgraded but not wholly out of keeping with the year that it was built, I had considered going retro but talked myself out of that.
I shall start a new topic here now with a quick update on the small progress I made this weekend, my updates will be sporadic as I won't be able to work on it every week but will try to keep this thread updated as often as I can, if nothing else so I have a nice record for myself.
Edited by alchall, 03 November 2017 - 06:04 PM.