So where do I start? Firstly, apologies for the first post being pretty long! I have a lot to catch up on!
A couple of weeks ago I thought it would be a good idea to get a project back on track with the intention of getting it to the Retro Rides Gathering 2018.... yes, which is only about a month and a bit away!
She's been sitting for about 2 1/2 years.... here's how it looked last week:
I'd best try and quickly summarise what has happened up until now...
Throw back to September/October 2014 I found a cool looking car in my price range on eBay while... bored at work, I mean on a coffee break. While watching the auction for a week I started to want it more and more and thinking what I'd do with it. Purely as an impulse buy I stuck a bid on, some say unfortunately I won!!
Googling the car I found it had quite a following by the owner before the guy I bought it off. Who needs service history when you can find 11 years of blogged ownership. Anyone who's interested here is the link to the imp forum thread LPV433G
Little did I know how bad the rust was but this I believe was the main reason why it was being moved on. On first inspection it needed outer sills as you can see they were all blown along both sides.
Cutting these off revealed that there was a serious lack of any structure in the sills. The middle sill structure was missing or plain rotten and up to about a foot of floor along both sides was dodgy. Basically the car was only being held together by the roof and inner sills.
With the grinder in hand it also annoyed me that the wheels would contact the body work. This limits the lock, ruins the tyres and is also an MOT failure. In true Neil Roche style... instead of buying wheels that fit I cut out enough metal to make it go lock to lock with out issue. This included removing the bottom door hinges. The idea being I will relocate them slightly higher up... one day.
Moving onto the rear wheels, the over arches were mainly for show. The main body work inside was still present and didn't allow for wider wheels, it had been clearanced but not fully or as extreme as I wanted. As the suspension moves through its arc it would contact the metal work before completing its full travel. Queue the angle grinder. The green pen is drawn inside the bolted on arch, about 2" of material to remove. Removing this make the limiting factor the bolt on arch which is perfect.
I think I'd created enough work for myself by now so set about correcting and filling all the holes I had made. I left key bits of body work detail to reference back to before cutting them out. A lot of the panels needed a cardboard template making and then making out of steel.
My next post will be more catching up on the first year or so of ownership!
A couple of weeks ago I thought it would be a good idea to get a project back on track with the intention of getting it to the Retro Rides Gathering 2018.... yes, which is only about a month and a bit away!
She's been sitting for about 2 1/2 years.... here's how it looked last week:
I'd best try and quickly summarise what has happened up until now...
Throw back to September/October 2014 I found a cool looking car in my price range on eBay while... bored at work, I mean on a coffee break. While watching the auction for a week I started to want it more and more and thinking what I'd do with it. Purely as an impulse buy I stuck a bid on, some say unfortunately I won!!
Googling the car I found it had quite a following by the owner before the guy I bought it off. Who needs service history when you can find 11 years of blogged ownership. Anyone who's interested here is the link to the imp forum thread LPV433G
Little did I know how bad the rust was but this I believe was the main reason why it was being moved on. On first inspection it needed outer sills as you can see they were all blown along both sides.
Cutting these off revealed that there was a serious lack of any structure in the sills. The middle sill structure was missing or plain rotten and up to about a foot of floor along both sides was dodgy. Basically the car was only being held together by the roof and inner sills.
With the grinder in hand it also annoyed me that the wheels would contact the body work. This limits the lock, ruins the tyres and is also an MOT failure. In true Neil Roche style... instead of buying wheels that fit I cut out enough metal to make it go lock to lock with out issue. This included removing the bottom door hinges. The idea being I will relocate them slightly higher up... one day.
Moving onto the rear wheels, the over arches were mainly for show. The main body work inside was still present and didn't allow for wider wheels, it had been clearanced but not fully or as extreme as I wanted. As the suspension moves through its arc it would contact the metal work before completing its full travel. Queue the angle grinder. The green pen is drawn inside the bolted on arch, about 2" of material to remove. Removing this make the limiting factor the bolt on arch which is perfect.
I think I'd created enough work for myself by now so set about correcting and filling all the holes I had made. I left key bits of body work detail to reference back to before cutting them out. A lot of the panels needed a cardboard template making and then making out of steel.
My next post will be more catching up on the first year or so of ownership!
)
