Nivlek2525 Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Just saying hello. I was a member many years ago with a white exclusive coupé. Unfortunately I think that car has gone for good. I bought my new project car last week. A 1981 SR without an engine, gearbox or interior. It's pretty solid with only localised rust. The only major issues I can see are the swan necks and the vinyl roof is 'soft' in a few places which leads me to believe there's rust under there too. The plan, 1) remove all rust, 2) fit a larger engine tbc 3) sort interior out 4) paint. Work started today so I'll start uploading some pictures of the work as I progress. Thanks. K. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumster Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 Sounds like many a weekend & evening hour in the garage, good luck with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
®evo03 Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 Looks like a real good shell, good original stucture left, dont worry about the wan neck, front suspension drop out, but the outer repair sections as it looks like the outers have swelled and hopefully inners are ok. 1 full day should sort this. Roof could be worrying, are you going to refit vinyl? Roof may need welded, if you can feel holes, soft spots? Look at lead filling, as welding patches will distort. Sying you have no running gear, have you considered fitting 2.3 turbo volvo, look at turbobricks, 500 bhp, Standard 2.0 cih, 4 speeds are cheap as chips, literally! Keep em pics coming, and keep the project thread going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nivlek2525 Posted October 28, 2018 Author Share Posted October 28, 2018 38 minutes ago, ®evo03 said: Looks like a real good shell, good original stucture left, dont worry about the wan neck, front suspension drop out, but the outer repair sections as it looks like the outers have swelled and hopefully inners are ok. 1 full day should sort this. Roof could be worrying, are you going to refit vinyl? Roof may need welded, if you can feel holes, soft spots? Look at lead filling, as welding patches will distort. Sying you have no running gear, have you considered fitting 2.3 turbo volvo, look at turbobricks, 500 bhp, Standard 2.0 cih, 4 speeds are cheap as chips, literally! Keep em pics coming, and keep the project thread going. Thanks It's the start of half term so the kids are demanding my time so not much progress today. Regards the roof. No, the vinyl is coming off and staying off. Theres to little left of the original car to worry about originality. I've not done anything to it yet as I don't what to open up too many fronts at once. I'm trying to be really strict with myself. There are two spots which have swollen up and feel soft but it's hard to tell how bad. One at the front and one at the back both where the stitching is. Only about an inch in from the glass and a couple of inches wide. I thought I might be able to get a couple of repair patches out of a scrap roof which has a factory sunroof as the bits I need will be away from the usual rust. I'm not confident about welding it in tho for the reason you mentioned. I'll cross that bridge when I get there... I'll get the A post done and then it's on the the passenger swan neck. I've had a dig around today and the inner structure has gone as well so there's a bit more work there. The engine I have in mind is the V6 out of the jaguar S-Type. I've had MX-5 for years and it's a common conversion for them. There are lots of lotus 7 kit cars using them now and they are cheap. Less than a £1000 for and engine and manual gearbox and you get a free car to take it home in! I also like the idea of a 2.4 CIH but I'm guessing these are getting rare. I've got plenty to do before I get to engines so I'll continue with the research. I'm off work tomorrow so I'll try to escape to the garage and make a bit more progress. I'll take a few more pictures as a minute to show the general condition of the car. Any thoughts on coatings, primers (zinc?), underseal, etc etc appreciated. I'm really not sure which way to go. Thanks for the encouragement. K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
®evo03 Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 (edited) Roof, sounds like a plan, stitching could have let water in lifting glue and collecting rust it in this area, if you are lucky, or a hole is present, would you consider getting a scrap door or wing and treating it as a learning curve, for practice. Keep heat to a minimum, watch a youtube vid, its not rocket science? My Local welder guy is £500 a day! Wtf! I had an idea of getting a solid roof moulded and creating a fibreglass skin, kevlar or carbonfibre, and the bonding that is available, cant see why not! With internal strength left intact! Anyway, engine sounds interesting, good stuff, 2.4 has been done, and must be getting thin on the ground, think they where only available from the frontera, thats ancient As for primer, weld through zinc for patching. I use a dusting of red oxide, and leave plenty of time, weeks between coats. then another good coat, then when everything is done 2pac primer, it can be tinted! Ie silver, then 2 pac top coat. Then stonechip if necessary. Might try stonechip after primer and top coat the stonechip, this time! Edited October 29, 2018 by ®evo03 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nivlek2525 Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 On 29/10/2018 at 19:38, ®evo03 said: Roof, sounds like a plan, stitching could have let water in lifting glue and collecting rust it in this area, if you are lucky, or a hole is present, would you consider getting a scrap door or wing and treating it as a learning curve, for practice. Keep heat to a minimum, watch a youtube vid, its not rocket science? My Local welder guy is £500 a day! Wtf! I had an idea of getting a solid roof moulded and creating a fibreglass skin, kevlar or carbonfibre, and the bonding that is available, cant see why not! With internal strength left intact! Anyway, engine sounds interesting, good stuff, 2.4 has been done, and must be getting thin on the ground, think they where only available from the frontera, thats ancient As for primer, weld through zinc for patching. I use a dusting of red oxide, and leave plenty of time, weeks between coats. then another good coat, then when everything is done 2pac primer, it can be tinted! Ie silver, then 2 pac top coat. Then stonechip if necessary. Might try stonechip after primer and top coat the stonechip, this time! Hi, temptation got the better of me and I had a dig around under the vinyl...not great news but about what I was expecting. Just as you said, water pooling under the vinyl at the top of the screen. It's not great but looks worse than it is in the pictures I've added to my build thread. Link to build thread if anyone wants to take a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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