Me and my bro Jaki took the week off of work to start cutting and welding the shell
Me and my bro Jaki took the week off of work to start cutting and welding the shell
Good work, going to be a nice one, this
Last edited by avtospotter; 24-06-2020 at 19:41.
Back at work and the mailman brought these...a very plesant surprise the day after I went on the track for the first time and my car didnt make it home as I blew the bottom end of the motor,.... well now I have two cars to work on
Gave them a quick wash
Then I decided to tackle the wings I got. Started with the wire brush to see what work they need.
So, I thought that the wings were original colour and that they had some rusted bits on the lower section, but after working them for a little while I realized they were painted before and repaired quite a bit; and only with filler. So now Im looking at two pretty rusty wings with no attaching lips, hammered and one cut in half (from before though)...not the best of news
Didnt expect this, but they came up for sale. Not locally but they were so damn cheap it was worth an 8 hour drive (honestly) - Saved me days of work with those old wings and they are fiberglass mexico wings, one is brand new, the other was once on a car...the seller gave me the other steel one from the car as a gift which will be a fancy wall decoration great deal really
The used one however was set up poorly before, which resulted in it having only one of the 4 attaching lips present, so I had to make them up. Its my first time working with fiberglass.
I'm really happy with the result. Some cardboard was enough to shape the flat bits and for the long lip a thrash piece of alloy angle was easy enough to shape the curve, Almost done, just needs the last layer for strenght and a nice cut into the correct shape.
Last edited by avtospotter; 15-07-2020 at 09:44.
Final layer, a bit of sandpaper and they are ready to be trial fitted with the wing rails so those can be welded on to the shell. The bodywork can now continue.
Later, when it comes to prepping everything to be painted I will filler the upper lip a little bit so its smooth and doesnt catch the eye too fast all in all im really happy with it.
She’s coming on fine and keep at it as you are doing a great job of bringing her back to life
Thanks Donnie gives me courage
Little update here, the lower front radiator panel I've made a few months ago didn't fit as perfect as I wanted it. I've also found some ways to improve it even more and that theres room to put the radiator even lover, so I treat this as a experimental proces. You can see it in the left corner of the picture, theres the old one, cut up and modified, now I'm making up a fresh one. It looks pretty much the same for now but its not...will see how it turns out A week to go and I'm on vacation, cant wait to spend it in the shed
Last edited by avtospotter; 22-07-2020 at 16:02.
Had to make up a bigger dimple dye for the radiator vents
Now that’s tidy, enjoy the holiday in the shed
Finished it and test fitted; looks good. Got some more to do around here before I can weld it in place
Very nice indeed. Keep up the good work.
Next on the list I did the flitch panels, both sides same story
Then I tackeled the replacement strut top; very happy with the gap. It was worth the hassle
Last edited by avtospotter; 07-08-2020 at 22:46.
See it kept you busy during the holidays. Coming on strong and good job
http://media2.turbosport.co.uk/2013/...80643496_n.jpg
Hope you didn't pay top dollar for them 'non RS' wheels believing them to be RS ones?
Nice to see someone else working some fibreglass. Very impressive work over all. Was that roof you went to collect from the field ok, and when will you be fitting it ?
Great work still, as to the wheels i heard (how true) the capri laser alloys are stronger as they have thicker spokes.
Thank you The roof was mint, I had a lot of luck with that one; it was sourced in a very dry and windy part of croatia where its desert like most year round. If everything goes as I hope it should be on the car by the time spring comes.
Cheers Thats great, I didn't even realise that. Its one of the reasons I like the look of them more aswell. Good to know.
Took on this cars final rust-boss and with this the last big piece (minus the roof) that needs cutting off.
Cut out what was useless, cleaned the good bits and covered them with zinc. Test fitting the panel was good. Now I need to wait for the Sill to arrive.
Tidy work!! Nice Project!!
So finally after waiting for good over a month for the replacement sill to arrive Im back at it again. Test fitted the new metal and cut the old one out. Then my dad came and helped me lift the car up. I the time of waiting I decided to make a rollover jig for the shell; mostly for my back though.
And the this happened. Very pleased with it
Got a long weekend behind me and some big progress on the shell. Started doing some patches to the inner sill after test fitting the new outer. Came pretty far but ended up slicing my finger open when I reached for a piece of sheet to form the last patch. Went right through the glove...; so I painted the floor red and took care of the cut. That was enough for the evening.
The next day I finished the patches.
And the gave the soon to be closed and not recheable aprt of the car a very strong protection. Used some heavy duty 2k machine primer paint I got from my dads friend. Very good stuff.
Meanwhile I also tackeled the door hinge panel that attaches to the outter sill and decided to make them into a one piece part before putting them on the car. My reason was this way I can paint the part where the bond after they are welded together, which isnt possible otherwise. Came out great.
Took some time playing with them but nothing too hard. Just had to straighten the wrinkles on the sill. Job done.
And finished on the bench
The next morning I warmed myself up with a very lttle rust hole in the rear arch
And after that 5min job this happened
This took me the whole morning and afternoon,..had to go slow since it's a pretty decent patch and to rush it would mean heating it up and distorting the metal. Checked the gaps everytime and glad I did. Came out straight
It got late and I left the little grinder for tight spaces at work, so I didnt finish the last edge of the arch because I have to grind down some welds that are in the way. Went ahead and sprayed a coat of zinc over the fresh patches. Was a really good weekend overall.
Another Good weekend is over. Started by getting the last edge of the pocket done which I didn't last week
Then seam welds for strenght. Got the rails-to-floor connections done. Plenty enough for this time and I'm very pleased with it
Bought myself a torch to burn and scrape off the remains of sealer on the shell. So I did that and my dad wanted to help so he decided to strip the doors. The one that is badly bent will be used for the opening quarter window and door handle. Meanwhile I put two repair pieces in the inner wing where it was bodged in the past. Also you can see some weak attempts on seam welding the shoch towers. This is on the to-do list for next time.
The two pieces have some strenghtening shapes pressed in them, this is not really neccesary or any improvement proboably, I just happen to have these laying around from the past when I was trying out these pressing tools and randomly they were the perfect size for the patch so I decided to use them.
Last edited by avtospotter; 12-11-2020 at 18:08.
Since its gonna get colder (hopefully not though...) I'm trying to get as much done as possible before its not bearable anymore. Thanfully dad is there to help. We did this much from friday after we got off work to sunday night.
Put the door up to check how the new sill fits. Naturaly we had to put the wing on there aswell to get us pumped up.
Sill is now finally up and finished. You can also see that i tacked in the lower radiator panel.I will finish it when doing the front panel.
At work I made these strenghtening plates and welded them in after I finished the stiching
We decided it was time to hammer out the big dent in the drivers side quarter. Tried to make it obvious how big it was with the ruler but it doesn't really do justice. The dent was realy streched from the Panel's upper line down to the bottom and wide as a big watermellon.
It took us about an hour of heating it up and gently hammering it from outside in. The accsess down where the sill is is horrible, but im more than happy with how it is now. I would have to finnsih it with filler anyway, wont be nearly as much as I thought though
Before
After
Somewhere in between I noticed the left strut top that was okay wasnt actually welded on the bottom.... oh well, good thing I saw it
Hit a big milestone; The temperature is dropping pretty low now but I managed to finish what I planned in time to prime the car before it started freezing during the nights.
The motivation was high. My dad wire brushed all the pannels that were more or less finished (which at this point is most of them except the part of the floor where I need to figure out how I'm going to mount the seats and the gearbox tunnel where I need to undo the 5speed hole modification)
While he was at it I fixed the last piece of rot this car had (yes, I did say that once before, but it happens to the best of us righ ), tried my best to get the shape of the bottom arch bits right. I think it came out okay. Needs a bit of smooth hammering for the final finish. Also the inside lip is rolled; this is why on the rear bit it looks way out of shape from some angles. I didnt bother re-shaping it since I'll proboably need them rolled anyways, the reason I didnt finnish mine completely was so that I can reach the back of the lip with paint.
Clean metal
And the Knoppers bar looking inside of an "arch"
Cut out all the dead bits, cleaned the surface and made some inner patch-panels
And then the visually most noticable transformation
Last edited by avtospotter; 25-11-2020 at 16:09.
Finnaly a little update. Been on the search for parts that are keeping me from working (bits like the pedal box, front mask, panhard tower, which needs the axle present to be welded on etc.)
Meanwhile Im trying to revive this tired scuttle. I like that it came from the same donor car that he gave me the door, boot, bonnet, filler hole etc. from, so I really wanna keep it. Its rusty only one one corner though so lets see what can be done
Then I went to the guys house as he collected some more bits for me. Most parts were pretty much done, but I did get a really nice condition original dash cover/panel, pedal box, propshaft, washer bottle and heater matrix. Got some Lights too but the more I looked at them the more they fell apart. I will give them a go anyways and see if I can refresh them enough to be worth putting on the car
The panhard tower arrived and I made this little piece to fit to the tower. Went and ordered a threaded rose joint bearing for the axle end, now I need to find a piece of pipe.
Looking at the scuttle it really doesnt need to be replaced as it has no structural part to the car, but its so weak in the top corner that i could crunch it with my finger tips. Im thinking of putting the fiberglass on it that I have leftover from repairing the wings, that would give it some strenght back as welding it doesnt really seem a good option
Some sweets for the eye from today
A motivation booster
The axle finally meets the car today.
Way back at the start when I got the rear axle I took it sandblasting and stripped it of its bits, which were saddles etc. for the Capri suspension.
With the help of my dad and his cnc milling machine we made up some nicely fitting spring saddles from a box section that was laying around at work...how convenient
Fast forward manny months later, I finnaly get around welding them on. I made a copy-jig using the escort 1.1 rear axle and it was pretty a pretty easy job. It does take time to get it righ and you cant rush it. Messure again and again, check its all still square and dont forget the 4 deg pinion angle, then you get something like this
For now its only welded at four corners as it needs being fitted to the car with all the other bits (panhard, anti tramp bars) ,so in case I need to change something during that its easy to remove them. Ill also close it up at the front and back to give it some more strenght.
Last edited by avtospotter; 06-01-2021 at 16:56.
Next fight begins
Last edited by avtospotter; 25-01-2021 at 17:40.
Finished the door skin and welded up the lock hole because this door was of a later mk1
Of course the skin repair section wraped the doors a bit when I welded them so I put a plank over to see the deep spots. I massaged them slowly so its now pretty straight, but I will try to get it as good as I can once they are on the car (I wil see the line easier)
After that I took a hot air fan and scraped the remaining paint off. Whaats left Il finish of with a wire wheel.
She’s coming on fine so well done boys,. When you going to sort out the roof
Thanks Donnie, I've been on my own since last summer though
The roof is very close on the list now, I want it to be the final repair before I paint the shell, you know Need to weld the panhard tower in place, seat brackets, lower radiator panel, wing rails and gussets, then its roof time babehh
Bushings arrived
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