83 replies to this topic

[Timinichelsea]

Some nice work going on there. Well done, keep it up.

[v21ash]

Some nice work going on there. Well done, keep it up.

Thanks, she's getting there slowly



I reshaped the tops of the wings as for a genuine pair of wings they looked a rite mess, I sent the first pair of wings back as they were worse, can’t find the pictures at the minute of what they used to look like but the ends of both top sections stuck out so much they were nearly touching the bonnet





I then made a start on removing the off side sill, looked to be worse than the near side but seems to be rotten more at the front and back rather than in patches all the way along like the near side was














Made a plate up and refixed the slinging bracket







Just a bit more trimming and it will be ready to weld in

[v21ash]

Got the front floor welded up, still got to finish dressing the welds though.







Repaired a hole in the door step, don’t know why it rotted through here, maybe water trapped under the stainless covers. I’m going to have to hang the door to check the door step alignment before I fit the sill as it looks like the door step has dropped slightly with the heat









Repaired another section of the inner sill, just need to finishing dressing the welds. I hate welding upside down

Edited by v21ash, 01 June 2011 - 08:00 PM.

[v21ash]

I repaired the last section of floor.























And got the sill on

[v21ash]

The boot was a little worse than expected

[v21ash]

Decided to have a few days away from bodywork so I had a rummage in my shed and found loads of stuff I forgot I even had, including a pair of Metro Turbo 4 pots calipers that I got when I bought my Metro Turbo engine. I’ve found the calipers so far but not the drive flanges, discs or hubs (I know they’re in the somewhere), I was going to refit the standard calipers with my Grooved and X Drilled discs but seeing as I already have these I’m going to clean them up and if they’re any good I’ll fit them with Grooved and X Drilled vented discs instead.

I stripped one down and gave it a quick wire brush to remove the thick of the rust then give it a bath and it’s come up like new. I was toying with the idea of re-zinc plating them but I’ve decided to paint them instead, so I give it a dusting of etch primer, just need to get some caliper paint , seal kits and pistons now.

[grahama]

For f sake, slow down will you !! You are making me look sooooooooooooooooo slow !!! Excelent work on the calipers, look new again. Keep it up, but slower !

Graham

Edited by grahama, 01 June 2011 - 08:20 PM.

[v21ash]

For f sake, slow down will you !! You are making me look sooooooooooooooooo slow !!! Excelent work on the calipers, look new again. Keep it up, but slower !

Graham

LOL i really wish i had got it done this quick, this is the past 3 years worth of work (well only 6 months but spread over 3 years) i'm just getting it up to date, and i'm nearly there Don't worry there will be plenty of time to catch up as i'll probably take another 3 month break at some point, i don't seem to be able to stay away from the pub for long periods

Yeah i was pleased with the results on the calipers, the ammonium chloride also unsiezed the pistons as they were well solid before they were bathed.

[v21ash]

Just for you Graham here’s another installment

I finally found the Metro drive flanges so i took them to work and turned off the locating tabs, they are now ready to be bathed and painted.











And back to the bodywork, on the bumper lip the rust had crept between the hinge panel and boot floor in a couple of places, so i cut them sections out and welded new pieces in. (Still need to take pictures of it finished).





And got the worse part of the boot floor cut out and the new section in place, made a start on welding it in but my welder is starting to play up a bit, i think it's in desperate need of a good service which i can't blame it really as it's had 17 years of abuse and it's only had a new wire feed motor in all that time

Edited by v21ash, 01 June 2011 - 09:52 PM.

[v21ash]

I made a tool to fit the calliper piston seals when i eventually get round to ordering them.





And i’ve made up all the parts i need to make a new frame to sit the shell on as the last frame i made the shell had a habit of sliding off every time i tried to move it.
I would of liked to of made a spit but haven’t got the room to spin the shell in my garage.

Edited by v21ash, 01 June 2011 - 10:10 PM.

[v21ash]

I was hoping to get some caliper paint but seems it's like rocking horse s**t to get hold of at the minute especially in red, nowhere had any in.
So being impatient i sprayed them with red smooth Hammerite, they look good at the minute but don't know if it will be any good, i might stick one half in the oven on full wack and see how it gets on



I put the other caliper and all the bolts etc in the bath hoping to paint it and zinc plate the bolts but it didn't look like the battery was connected properly so that day was a waste left them in over night so they'll be ready the next day.

Edited by v21ash, 01 June 2011 - 10:12 PM.

[v21ash]

Got the cylinder head fitted and the cam timed up, i fitted a fast road Mpi cam years ago and it didn't say in the instructions whether i needed to alter the offset but since fitting it never run quite rite, sometimes it would rev high on idle etc so i've made a note of the advance/retard position for every mark on the vernier on the cam sprocket so i can have a play around with the timing when it's running.







Once that was done i started building the engine up, still need to get a few bits to finish it off like a new uprated crank pulley bolt and i've got a few bolts etc that still need to be zinc plated, then it will be shrink wrapped until it's needed.











When i removed the bumpers all of the bolts snapped but i wasn't bothered as i had intended to buy 2 new one's as at the time genuine one's were readily available and quite cheap, now they are obsolete X Parts can get what they call genuine bumpers but they are very poor overpriced copies made in china.
So i've had a go at cleaning mine up, they had a few scratches here and there due to them being thrown around the garage but they polished up ok, i drilled & tapped out the broken studs and fitted new stainless steel studs, nuts & washers. I locktite'd the studs in and put a nut on the back so they won't be coming loose in a hurry, why couldn't Rover put stainless studs in their stainless bumpers?







I've been getting a few brackets shot blasted and painted aswell just to keep things moving.

Edited by v21ash, 01 June 2011 - 10:31 PM.

[v21ash]

Went to pick up the new boot floor last week, i wasn't expecting it to be the complete floor including the seat pan aswell, but at least i'm not restricted to where i cut the boot floor now. I've just got to fit my 32amp socket in the garage now to run my spot welder, unfortunately there no consumer unit in the garage | so i've got to size the cable up that runs from the house to the garage, hopefully i won't have to pull a new cable in.
I've been cleaning up sections of the bodywork that was starting to go rusty as i hadn't primed them because i was still working on it, and got a few more brackets etc but now it's time to make a start on the boot floor.



I found the CD changer in the boot which i forgot i even had not sure whether to refit it when the cars finished or have a TV screen instead of Kenwood Mask head unit, but i'm a long way off having to decide yet.



I removed the tank bracket a while ago when i was going to patch the N/S corner, so i've made a template so i know where to spot weld it on to the new floor pan, i've also got to make some new cable tabs which will need spot welding on.



I was trying to pluck up the courage to start cutting out the boot floor yesterday but ended up bottling out and just removed the sealant to uncover the spot welds, i'm going to drill out all the spot welds first to try and salvage the closing brackets as they aren't very rusty and will clean up ok when they've been shot blasted, don't really want to pay £30 each side if they can be saved. I think i'm going to cut the floor under where the back of the seat is welded to the floor, which will hide the join on the inside and i'll only have to dress the weld on one side then, well that's the plan anyway.





In the pictures you can just about see where the boot floor is creased from when someone drove into the back of me when Verity was a few months old, the boot floor was jigged but was never perfect, i've tried to straighten it out but will need some filler to get it right so that's the main reason i'm replacing the whole floor because i don't want to use any filler.

Edited by v21ash, 01 June 2011 - 10:28 PM.

[danie garry]

love this build, keep it up!

[R1minimagic]

Hi, looks like an excellent project, surprised to see how bad the shell actually got!! But you are doing a fantastic job of restoring it!

I was thinking about getting a zinc coating kit myself, where did you get yours? Any good? How much?

Cheers