Well its been a busy couple of weeks getting the car back together, which was not as straight forward as first thought.
First to get fitted was the front scuttle panel, as this was original to the car it went straight back on.
Next was the rear deck panel which came from a doner car via eBay, no problems with the panel but despite hours of playing i could not get the new window rubber to sit properly at the 2 ends which just keeps distorting upwards leaving a rippled effect and gaps against the glass. Not sure what the answer is to correct this?
Next was the rear wings and boot, the wings were not original to the car. Fixing new rubber seals is a pretty straight forward job but many hours were spent shimming and reaming out bolt holes to try and get the joint lines against the boot nice. I don't like the vertical gaps between the valance and the wings but from what i have seen they are all like that?
Next task was the doors, the rear near side door like the wings had to be replaced as it was too far gone, hanging and aligning the doors was fairly straight forward apart from no amount of slamming them would crush the new door rubbers sufficiently to allow them to catch the keeps. I decided to bite the bullet and buy a second set of door rubbers from Wadhams as reading posts on the forum suggested they were softer than others. The original set came from Wins, when comparing the 2 sets together the rubbers from Wins were a lot stiffer and stood 2mm higher and i had to cut 1mm off each side of the tongue to get them to fit the track, the Wadhams rubbers were a doddle to fit in comparison and the doors shut nicely.
Next was the window frames, the trickiest thing is cutting the window rubbers along the quarter lights. I bought these from Wadhams, they are not quite the same thickness as the originals and do not have the rounded front edge, but they are nice and soft and easy to cut. However, to get the frames to line nicely with the door pillars and roof line i am getting a gap between the rubber and the glass for a few inches before it meets the quarter lights on the rear and the same above the door handles to the front doors. Not sure what the answer is to correct this?
The door cards again from a later car as is the rest of the interior went on OK, although i would like to renew the hard board at a latter date as they are a little ripples along the edges.
Front wings next, again not original to the car actually bolted on first time without any problems, as did the front valance, again i don't like the vertical gaps between the wings.
The dreaded bonnet was next, not an easy thing to line up. As thought the gaps to the wings are horrible as is the line along the under side to the front grill.
Finally the 2 cills, i bought these separately on eBay, the near side is great the drivers side is not pressed properly, its does not come out to line with the door faces and has no indentations where the underside fixings are and ended up with a 6mm gap along the whole length, a definite candidate for replacement at a later date.
A small dilemma with which wheels?
I thought it safer to let the wife decide.
Getting ready to venture outside
Nearly out.
The front
Rear view
The boot, new carpet and millboard
Back in garage, the drive was as far as it got.
You can see the bonnet joint and gaps between the grill.
There was one other job, as the service history is 32 years old and bears no resemblance to where the car is now i decided to try and re-set the mileage. Alarmingly this is very easy to do. You cannot see the foam gap seal when in the driving position.
The first venture outside was basically a disaster, despite trying to slip the clutch to try and stop the judder there clearly is something wrong so its out with the engine to investigate. Also the power steering box is leaking quite badly from the bottom despite replacing all the rubber seals etc.
At least as of this morning medically things are in remission so i will be able to push on with the clutch and power steering work. and hopefully get on the road again soon.