Report on (slow) S2 Coupe rebuild progress

[chriswgawne]

Amazon sell Nural 21 and 23 in the Uk. Both are excellent products.

[nthomas1]

I saw that Chris, but it's shipped from out of the country at a cost of £20, so ends up at £40 for one packet. I opted for regular two-pack Araldite instead, at  £5.50 and free shipping!

[nthomas1]

I feel like I reached a milestone today by installing the rear screen.

I was keen to get the screen installed as I didn’t want to fit the rear quarter lights before doing so, as I feared it would make the screen implementation harder.  And the main upper door seals could not be fitted before the rear quarter lights were installed, and then the vertical B pillar retention strip.   So I was held up on a number of tasks.

I decided against removing the seal and stainless steel trim from the glass as I was worried I wouldn’t get the trim back in afterwards.  I thoroughly cleaned the seal, scraping old hardened sealant out of the grooves. I also scraped around the gaps where the seal meets the glass on both sides to get out the residual hardened sealant - see Picture 1.  I used a plastic trim removal tool with a thin edge. You can see some of the powdered sealant in the picture.  After scraping out the loose stuff, I wrapped a thin cloth around the tool and ran it along the gap to clear any residue.

As I had no suitable string, I bought some venetian blind cord and used that to tie around the groove where the seal overlaps the edge of the window aperture, overlapping the cord at the bottom and taping it to the inside of the screen.  I then applied a fairly copious amount of P80 Rubber Emulsion with a brush to the aperture edges, and inside the groove where I’d fitted the string. Picture 2.  The solution acts as lubricant, but I understand that a soap solution works almost as well - hence this method of fitting often being called the “soapy string method”, according to Google and YouTube.

From the outside of the car I then placed the screen in the aperture and centralised it, checking that the rubber lip on the exterior was overlapping the aperture and not tucked in anywhere.

I then got inside the car and started to pull the first of the string ends.  Not much happened, so I used the trim tool (the same one as mentioned above) to lever the rubber lip over the aperture for a couple of inches.  Once that was done I was able to pull the string very slowly across watching the rubber lip rise up and fall into place.  I worked from left to right, with my diminutive 4’11” wife (social distancing stand-in for beefy assistant) putting some pressure on the glass behind where the string had reached, but mainly just applying enough pressure to stop me inadvertently pushing the screen out of the aperture while I worked inside the car.

When I got to the bottom right corner I stopped and repeated the exercise with the other string easing the lip over until reaching the bottom left corner.  My intention was to then  work my way up the two sides one at a time and eventually meet in the middle at the top.   But the string wouldn’t budge at the left corner for some reason, so I did the rest of the job from the bottom right corner, working my way anticlockwise, up, across and down.  Picture 3 shows the string being pulled up the right side. You can see where the upper section of lip is still behind the aperture edge.

There were a couple of times when the string felt stuck.  It may be that it was caught on the cuts or overlaps in the headliner material overlapping the aperture edge.  Rather than force it, I used the trim tool to lever an inch or two of the seal over and then found it had freed up again.  I probably had to do that 3 or 4 times, and I had to use the tool to lever in the last 8 or so inches coming down the left side - as the whole screen assembly was fairly snugly in place by then.   The optimum method is probably the one that finishes with both strings at the top centre.

I was working with my head close to the inside of the screen, and I found that quite a few times pushing my head against the glass to relieve a little bit of the pressure that my wife was manfully (womanfully?) trying to apply helped with the pulling of the string.

One other hint is to keep an eye on the end of the string that is not being pulled.  A couple of times I tied that end to the rear seat cross brace to stop me pulling it out of the groove completely from the other end!

After the screen was fully in place I cleaned off the excess lubricant, though much had by then evaporated.  Inspecting the outside of the screen revealed that the rubber lip overlapping the edge of the inserted stainless steel trim had come away at each of the top corners for about 6 or 7 inches.  Again, using the trim tool I carefully levered it into position.  See Picture 4.

One last task over the next few days is to apply some non-setting sealant in between the seal and the exterior metal of the car (not interior).  I bought  small 75ml size tubes of sealant with a thin nozzle end.  I think a full size 300ml tube with a conventional caulk gun would be just too unwieldy for such a precise task.

I know I’ve included a lot of detail, but I thought that would make the post more useful to anybody else trying this job themselves.  I searched high and low for information but the blogs and videos leave a lot to the imagination.

Now, armed with that job under my belt  should I have a go at the front windscreen?

[chriswgawne]

Funnily enough Norman I get my Nural  products from a 'shed' when I visit Portugal. Some varietidzare available in Italy and I thought B&Q in the UK sold one of two varieties.
Your car is really looking good by the way. Keep up the good work.
Chris

[Jaydub]

Well done on the screen fit Norm, Great Job! Car is looking really good.

[nthomas1]

I cut the new rear quarter light seals and fitted the glass on the passenger side today.  Measure twice, cut once!  The new heater valve arrived so I fitted it and connected up the hoses.  Just need to find a barrel nipple for the operating lever and I can tick that job as done.

The two-pack regular Araldite arrived so I've cleaned, glued and clamped the magnet back in the radiator fan motor housing.  Fun trying to line up two surfaces lined with adhesive when one is a powerful magnet!  I'll reassemble the fan and bench test it tomorrow.

[DavidLaver]

Lovely to see the glass in.  Getting there !!!

[Neil]

Good stuff Norm, you are well on your way now!

[nthomas1]

I reattached the magnet in the Radiator Fan Motor yesterday and left it clamped over night.  I used the regular two-pack epoxy Araldite, not the rapid setting variety.  It felt quite secure today and I reassembled the motor.  It spins freely and there's no sound of anything touching inside so the clearance seems ok.  I bench tested it and it runs smoothly but I will check it periodically once the car is back on the road so that I can detect if the magnet becomes detached again.

[lancialulu]

Great. If your car has not got a fan override switch it is handy to have in case the thermo relay does not cut in when in traffic... switch closes across the thermo relay terminals is the simplest implementation...

[Neil]

Tim, a good addition, only one wire to ground is required on the relay to override the thermostat

[fay66]

I cut the new rear quarter light seals and fitted the glass on the passenger side today.  Measure twice, cut once!  The new heater valve arrived so I fitted it and connected up the hoses.  Just need to find a barrel nipple for the operating lever and I can tick that job as done.

The two-pack regular Araldite arrived so I've cleaned, glued and clamped the magnet back in the radiator fan motor housing.  Fun trying to line up two surfaces lined with adhesive when one is a powerful magnet!  I'll reassemble the fan and bench test it tomorrow.

Norman,
The head lining is looking good👍
Brian
8227 

[nthomas1]

I'm not one hundred percent happy with it Brian, but I think I can live with it.

Neil and Tim, that bypass sounds like a good idea.  Although you describe it in language from chapter seven of the “Teach Yourself Auto Electrics Guide” and I’m still on chapter two :-).  

However, now that I understand where the relay is, and broadly how it works, and am getting familiar with the wiring diagram, I’ll try to figure out tonight how to implement what you’re suggesting.  I have a spare switch on the dashboard that I can use.

[DavidLaver]

The other question to consider is if you can hear well enough (you) over the engine (depends) in the sort of traffic you're in (depends) to tell if its on or off.  If not perhaps a warning light somewhere? 

[Scott]

I have an override switch as in hot weather in stop-start traffic it was disconcerting to see the temp gauge climb and hope the fan would compensate. Knowing a going-to-get-hot situation was arising I could get in early.

Last year, doing a tour across the Alps; down into Italy etc. I did a thorough service including coolant change ... and where I also added Millers Extra Cool. This stuff has proved to be great. Even in stop-start-traffic on the Amalfi Coast on a blazing hot day the temp gauge would barely climb and hence the fan rarely came into use anyway ... override or not.