1981 Vauxhall Royale 2.8 auto (prices going up?)

So. I made some progress and some errors the other day. One minute raining and next minute dry, messed with the blasting/welding/painting schedule but I really had to get the wing back on the car so I could use it again.

Although I would like to fully blast all the rusty parts of it and the sill I was running out of time and grit so figured best to focus on the parts which will be hard to reach one the two wing parts are back together...ie the bit not rustproofed at the factory behind the vertical strut.

I got this cleaned up and some epoxy on it and then realised it was an easy way to check the door rubbing against wing problem I've had since the dent appeared. Basically you can screw the vertical part on the car and open/shut the door with a perfect view of the interface. I then realised I could actually stick the wing back on without the two being welded together allowing me to finish the job properly soon.

Downside of all this is it's making me realise that I could easily spend a month or more attending to the body and it's hoovering up money. I bought some black TPA topcoat which is best part of £35 after delivery for 500ml and I would need another 2 or 3 bags of J Blast at £18 per bag including P&P.

Worst of all I have made lots of little chips on the windscreen when the blasting media was airbourne even tho I was working on the sills and did the wing indoors


with vertical support separated from wing was good access to take out dent and clean up part that factory rustproofing missed



strut in good condition overall with much of its underseal intact


bottom edge a little rusty


wing vertical strut in situ with door closed. front edge of door was dented and has been rubbing against bent wing for some time


wing strut in situ with door open to point where it passes. no more rubbing or noise




passenger side bumper bracket bolt sheared before I owned car and woodscrew used in place. cleaned up with blaster to try to pick out remains of old bolt


blaster is great for cleaning up corroded fasteners. middle screw here is a rogue one screwed in from outside by someone to hold rubber trim on

bstardchild It took me a long time to enjoy using mine but, as the results are good, I persevered with it.

The drawbacks are, mess, noise, damage to glass, cost of shipping on the media, visors getting frosted and previously - blockages and no grit coming out.

However the last two problems no longer exist for me as I use the pot differently now:

I used to leave the compressor switched on and after about a minute's blasting, at under 100psi on the outlet guage, (compressor pumps to 150psi) it would kick back in and my grit was constantly blocking so I'd need to turn the pot upside down to loosen it all up or take the hoses off and look for blockages

Now once the compressor has pumped up I switch it off and blast away till the pressure on the compressor guage (not the outlet) drops to about 60psi. It works great and I never have any blockages now. Once it drops to that level I stop blasting, switch the compressor back on and go through it again. Its great and while the unit is pumping up you can maybe sweep up the stuff you just used.

Evidently, the problem all along was that the compressor being on was over pressurising the pot and compacting the media so much that it wouldn't flow. Strange but apparently true.

Another strange thing was that my compressor bought new had the wrong V belt fitted and on top of all the blockages and compressor running constantly I was having to listen to a horrendous screeching noise. The belt eventully sheared the pulley in two!

I got a new pulley and belt and no untoward noises at all. What a difference.

Even if you never used the system for blasting the car body it is the best thing ever for cleaning rusted nuts & bolts up to unfasten them.

Anyway. Back to the Royale.....

Strange thing happened tonight: a guy moved into a caravan next to my barn a few months ago and he likes a drink & a puff and often pops in to give me advice etc. Well, tonight, he held me up for an hour or so wanting a lift to top-up the electricity key (we share the same meter) and get some Buckfast tonic wine. After that he showed me round two scrap lawnmowers he has plans for and just as we finished our examination of them I looked on the ground and found my passenger-side chrome headlamp 'eyelash' trim. I lost it about a year ago and somehow it was there about 40' from where I work on my car. Weird


back from exile....lower headlamp trim


examining it tonight I see it has been stuck on with some sort of sealer before


As I'm currently working on the driver's wing and some time ago got a new electric aerial I decided it was time to compare it with the 'original' one.

When the replacement one arrived I could see it was more modern the the old one so it might not be a simple swap.

In the picture so can see the new one is slightly shorter which isn' t a huge problem but the wiring is different. The old unit only had two wire (blue/red & blue/white). The new one has 3 which means I might need to find a third connector on the loom.

I also noticed looking through the folder of receipts/MoTs etc that I got with the car that the aerial was replaced on my car in 1995 so the broken one isn't actually the original at all.

The part no is 91138804 according to the old invoice in my folder but the no. in the Parts List is 91072623.


old aerial at top. new one at bottom. with wing mount areas side by side body of new one is higher up therefore bracket will need to be adjusted



or, put another way, if bottom of unit mounted at same place under wing as old one, mast fixing point would not reach top face of wing



fixings which hold mast to top face of wing differ slightly but same basic set up


old unit has 2 wires which lead to switch inside motor casing



new one has a different set up

Well. No excuses now.... The 0.8mm steel finally arrived, after just over a month. I was a bit dismayed to feel the thickness of the package, when I picked it up from an unfortunate neighbour who took it in from the courier, as it felt very thick but when I unwrapped it tonight was rather surprised to find it was 3 large thin sheets - for less than £10 (plus P&P of course).

Looking at the original Ebay transaction tho...it was what I ordered. The last order was 4 pieces amounting to a sheet of A4 roughly, now I have enough to re-skin a set of doors almost.

Am off work Wednesday & Thursday so should get the door finished and possibly the wing.


large sheet of worrying thickness arrives after a month wait



turns out to be 3 sheets of correct 0.8 thickness



as it says on label...

Supprising lack of rust proofing there, l'd have replaced the whole door bottom and joined it under the moulding.

"Might" have a back box for one of them that is almost new? shipping to scotland might be a oain by pony express

That would be do-able I think BC. From time to time I'm finding ones, that look suitable, online (often in German) at around Euros 100 but was a bit unsure about taking chance on one and it not fitting.

My back box seems to be about 95cm long and the ones listed are 105cm long which is a significant difference but I might have measured incorrectly. There are also some listed for the later models which have a tailpipe which curls to the side. Might foul the rear valance

GSi2000 Yep. Still using it daily, and only doing repairs when I have to sorta thing as The VDP is soaking up all my time, but it kills me to see it looking so scruffy.

It's quite tempremental with weather differences. Some days it smooth and idles nice and slow. Other days the idle roars up to about 1200rpm when I stick it in park.

BC No way. That's nuts especially having the same magic marker writing on it . I guess I should snap it up as it they won't come along often. I'll PM you.

I'm actually not long back from the garage after spending half an hour or so doing a bit of a sleeve on the second pipe and inspecting the manifold studs to order new ones. The backbox is actually very solid apart from the front pipes so things were looking ok but.......

With the first pipe I didn't want to hammer or shake things, to separate the sections, before the lacy pipe was re-enforced and I think the heat from the welding helped loosen things up as they came apart fine.

So, tonight I expected the same from the second pipe but they just won't separate and I'm thinking the weld from the new metal might have penetrated through to the other pipe inside. Unlikely but you never know. If so I'll need to waste valuable hours separating them tomorrow somehow. I don't think it's rust as the pipe which came out the first side was was pretty clean. I assembled them with Gun Gum the last time they were apart but I doubt that would bond them so tight.

As for the exhaust studs and nuts. I noticed they seemed to be of different lengths but didn't pay much attention to it and was about to order some M10 x 1.50 ones from Ebay but looking at the parts list tonight it shows they are supposed to be different lengths and they are 8mm, and screws not studs

I measured again tonight and they are definitely M10 so the parts book description is apparently wrong or they changed to M10 later in production. Who knows...

Also had a look at my file and it shows

• 25/11/98....a whole new exhaust system and one exhaust stud was replaced by Fox Garage Ltd Bisley. The part no's for the exhaust bits are shown as NSI and the stud is 11082162 (M10 x 35)
  
• 15/12/09.... A. Graham Harper of Glasgow 'cut old silencer out and weld made up exhaust piping'. Yours for £132.18 sir
  
• 18/06/10.... the same garage replaced N/S mid silencer with a Walker 6607908. I wondered tonight why the part I was trying to get out was in such good nick. It's only 2 years old.
  

So it looks like the whole system was replaced 14 years ago then then the front silencer rotted then one of the mid ones so the back box has actually lasted pretty well! I did patch up the other mid silencer to get it through the last MOT. I wondered why they were different makes. It's not a Walker. Manufacturer seems to be 'K'




parts list show old 8mm exhaust to manifold fittings of different lengths




picture shows shorter ones go on front manifold

That's very kind of you BC

Ok. Its been a long day and I'm just home but I got the silencer done. Started off with a hour and a half walk to the barn via Halfords for gasless welding wire, 2 exhaust clamps and a wire brush....£23 nearly the same price as carriage on BC's back box

Spent the best part of the afternoon separating the silencer from the mid pipe (am convinced the Holts Gun Gum sealed it solid as it wasn't weld penetration) and then finished sleeving both pipes plus fitted/unfitted the system to the car to make sure it sat properly as I was worried the angle of the pipes might have been messed up with all the shaking hammering and welding.

Everything looks ok and new manifold studs are ordered so tomorrow's job will be getting the old one(s) out.

Having a closer look at the old pipes I noticed the the supposed 'Walker' N/S mid silencer a couple of years ago has no Walker markings on it. It is this one that is 'K' brand but more interestingly it has VL375M stamped on it which is remarkably similar to the type of number felt tipped onto mine & BC's back boxes.




not a great pic or pretty welds but 14yr old backbox now ready for more service




K might be the maker. VL375M similar to VL246 felt-tipped on backbox

www.retroridesgathering.com/

I've already asked on your behalf in pony express

If we don't have any takers - I'll courier it if you cover the cost