Report on (slow) S2 Coupe rebuild progress

[nthomas1]

***An index to this thread is provided on page 51***
Travel and family commitments have kept me from spending much time on my S2 Coupe rebuild this year.  Over the last couple of weeks I've got back to the job of removing paint and old filler from the rear end of the car.  I also revisited the bonnet.  I'd cleaned and de-rusted it last year and finished it with a coat of black Hammerite.  I didn't take it back to bare metal except where there was rust, and I didn't remove all of the thick underseal-like coating on the spars.  Having worked on-and-off for two years now I've learned a lot and I've set my standards higher, so I completely stripped the bonnet back to bare metal last weekend, and have now etch-primed it - see pictures below.  I've bought timber and heavy duty castors so my next job is to build the dolly that will support the front end of the car when I remove the rolling subframe.  My welder (for the back end of the car - valance and rear panel replacement) - has let me down, so I now have to search again for somebody local (Ormskirk, west Lancashire) who doesn't charge Aston/Ferrari prices!  

[DavidLaver]

Looks lovely just in that primer.

[simonandjuliet]

Lovely ! I know how long these things take to get them looking as good as that

Bon Courage

[stanley sweet]

Looks very good. I take it that you can bring parts like this back to the house and can use use mains-powered tools to speed things up?

[nthomas1]

Looks very good. I take it that you can bring parts like this back to the house and can use use mains-powered tools to speed things up?

I'm afraid not Stanley.  We live on the first floor of a Victorian villa and it's not practical to take parts up there.  Even if I could, I think it would lead rapidly to divorce proceedings!  So I continue to work in the garage with Ryobi grinders, scraper and drill, and take the five 18v rechargeable batteries up to the apartment every evening for charging.

[peteracs]

Could you use a small generator to save on using battery items if you have no electricity on site?

Peter

[nthomas1]

Could you use a small generator to save on using battery items if you have no electricity on site?

Peter

I did consider that Peter but I'm limited on storage space and was worried about the noise impact on the other people that live in apartments in the building.  I had a generator when I lived in the USA and it was quite noisy and I assumed the same would be true of ones over here.

[andyps]

Some of the Honda generators are very compact and quiet, not cheap to buy however.

[nthomas1]

The car is now at the welding shop for rear-end restoration, new rear panel. new rear valance, new driver-side floor pan, new outer sills, and new front subframe mounting boxes.  So far the focus has been on rebuilding the tops of the rear wings - which were full of holes and badly rusted.   As the back end of the car is in much worse condition than the front I think the car must have been parked for a long time with the back end open to the elements.

I'm very impressed with the work that my welder is doing.  He understands the car, and is carefully and rigorously rebuilding, continually checking shut lines for the boot lid, and ensuring left and right sides are symmetrical.  There had been some previous rework to the right side that resulted in an excessive gap on that side which is now being rectified.  The shape of the rear end of the Fulvia presents quite a challenge to the welder.   It was also good today to see the new rear panel and valance held in position with vice grips. I'm looking forward to seeing them welded in place. Below are some before and in-progress pictures.  Onwards and upwards! 

[DavidLaver]

Inspiring stuff.

[nthomas1]

A few more pictures of new metal being welded in.

[Jaydub]

Looking good Norm, your body man knows his stuff. I need to start my restoration this year hopefully.

[SanRemo78]

He's a magician! He did some very major surgery on my Stratos replica a few years ago replacing a couple of chassis rails in the engine bay that carried the top mounts for the rear suspension after moisture got in through a gap I hadn't spotted. Oops.
He's also build a Stratos replica (that he regrets selling, it's how our paths crossed 30 years ago), had an Evo 2 new back in the day and has another pampered one now. His work on rally cars includes work for RED in Widnes on works cars plus many privateer cars and recently quite a lot of Porsche 911's. They rot something awful but values justify restoration.
If you remember the Peugeot 306 Maxi it was Geoff that made ALL the wings for the entire production run after Peugeot themselves failed to work out how to press them! Also in his portfolio is some pretty radical work grafting Ford Sierra Cosworth running gear into Mk1/2 Escorts and Capris plus Peugeot 405 Mi16 running gear into 205's and 309s.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/575194183642757391/

And he's got one of those as well, sold it, regretted it and managed to buy it back...

Highly recommended for his skills!

Guy

[nthomas1]

Yes Guy, he certainly knows what he's doing.  He showed me the Stratos door handles that he made. Even my wife (shown holding the handle here) was impressed.  Very impressive!

[nthomas1]

Some more progress.  The rear corners of the boot floor have been cut away to allow access to the wing area underneath, where corrosion needs to be sorted out..  The right side floor section is quite ropey so a new section has been fabricated and is ready to be welded in place.