Mini Radford De Ville comes back to life

[Dr.Mabo]

Parallel to the challenges of the interior, there are of course also "normal" restoration activities. Since both doors were missing on the Radford, I didn't have any hinges. I managed to find a used set, but this had to be overhauled first.
I started by stripping the paint and rust. The hinge pins were of course worn out.

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Don't be fooled here. Even hinges that appear to have no play in the hand but feel rather smooth-running usually have play when installed. They should therefore be rather stiff without this being caused by rust. Once the hinges have been painted and fitted, it is particularly annoying if you only then notice play in the hinge.
So I knocked out the hinge bolts and pressed out the bush with a suitable bolt. With a slightly smaller bolt, that fits exactly into the bushing, the new bushing can be pulled in.

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[Dr.Mabo]

Now you can drive the new hinge pin back into the assembled hinge. It is important to be sure which side of the hinge will be on top later, so that the toothed or knurled and chamfered end of the pin is not in the visible area later.

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With old hinges, however, it can happen that the holes in the short hinge part are worn out. The hinge pin then rotates in the hinge piece instead in its bushing. This was also the case with my hinges. The unwanted movement can be avoided with a small spot weld that goes from the hinge part to the pin. This should usually be done by the knurling, but if the hole is already too big, you have to take tougher measures. The welding spot can also be filed smooth afterwards so that nothing is visible after painting.

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[Peter Laidler]

I have recently done a technical article about these hinge pins and restoring them Doc. You will have realised that the axis pins and studs/bolts are exactly 90 degrees to each other, but............. The underside, door facing surfaces on the TOP sets are inclined at 107 fdegrees. Making holding them difficult to hold if you have to drill out broken studs or bore oversize axis pin bushes.

[java gt]

Excellent work as always Doc,I saw your Broadspeed at the IMM in Germany and was in awe of your craftsmanship

[Dr.Mabo]

More and more, I have had to switch from my previous approach of reverse restoration to the classic method of primarily dismantling the vehicle and refurbishing the parts in due course. Nevertheless, I am pleased to have already stored numerous parts in an overhauled and completed state.

With the sunroof, it is inevitable that many individual parts can be dismantled together but only refurbished separately. The WHITE sunroof, which is now a good 50 years old, has no significant damage either inside or out. And as it is best cleaned when stretched, I cleaned the outer cover with the help of “Leather Cleaner Stark”, which I had already used successfully.

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Apart from a few small tar stains, which I had to tackle separately, the cover turned out to be very good. There is absolutely no need to replace it.

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Inside, the sunroof and the covers around it are undamaged apart from a few small blemishes. Cleaning overhead is not particularly tempting. Therefore, only the removal and cleaning will be done later.

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The wind deflector was quite easy to clean. I made the chrome fittings shine again directly with Nver Dull.

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[snoopy64]

What a transformation !!!

[richardACS]

That's good fortune that the items have responded to a good clean and there are no rips or stains....

[Fanfaniracing]

Gute Arbeit !

[Dr.Mabo]

Removing the sunroof is a constant game of try and error. There are no really useful instructions. The challenge is to somehow understand how the structure and function relate to each other without damaging the sunroof. In the end, my approach was to remove the side rails so that I could also unhook the roof and then access the screw connections at the rear end.

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The main difference to newer sunroofs is that the old Webasto Sunroof has a wooden frame that is nailed to the bodywork and numerous trim parts are nailed together and not screwed.

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When removed, some handwritten numbers appeared on the components, but these have no recognizable connection. On the inside of the sunroof, RADFORD plus a four-digit number was noted in pencil.

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What surprised me was that the sunroof, which had just been installed by Radford, still had a wine-red mist of the paint that Radford had applied. Consequently, the sunroof was installed first and then the vehicle was painted. For me, this is a procedure that makes me shake my head. With a little effort and careful use of thinner, the paint mist could be removed as far as possible.

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And to give the eye a little pleasure, I quickly polished up the aluminum rails.

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[Dr.Mabo]

I put the sunroof in storage for the time being. Next, I turned my attention to the center console. The more I uncovered it, the worse it looked. It had numerous cracks, was broken at the gearshift cut-out, some corners were even missing and it turned out that the console was very badly laminated at the time. There were several places where only the gelcoat had filled the mold. However, the subsequently laminated fiberglass mats did not reach the gelcoat. There was only air between the gelcoat and the GRP. These areas were of course now broken up and very unsightly.

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In addition, the center console was covered with a layer of paint or other coating, which was also peeling off. All of this had to be removed first for the refurbishment. I scraped everything free with a scraper and knife. I used the Dremel to mill out and expose all the damaged areas. I also widened all the cracks so that I could fill them up again later.

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First, however, the console had to regain its stability. I used a wooden slat to “ brace” the broken area. I then repaired the crack from the back using small GRP strips and epoxy resin. I also stabilized other cracked areas and rebuilt missing areas.

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Then I filled the areas where material was missing with GRP filler. This meant that the center console was at least dimensionally stable again as a basis for further refurbishment.

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[Tim]

Very painstaking, but has to be done to get the details right.

Tim

[Peter Laidler]

The Doc has shown us that with a bit of skill, you can work wonders. Especially with the old wood framed sunroof. It wouldn't take long to re-manufacture the main wooden frame part from new.

Any woodworkers out there suggest what wood they'd use in the future? Brass screws of course

[Dr.Mabo]

Fortunately, the wooden frame is still in very good condition. Only one or two small cracks need to be reglued. But there's someone not far from me who needs exactly these details from the wooden frame for his sunroof.

[Tim]

English ash was traditionally used in vehicle framing (and the wood on the sides of Travellers). As I understand, it was selected for its ease of workability, not its durability. A sunroof frame will inevitably be exposed to water, so you want a close grained, durable timber, and ideally one that is easy to work. I'm not familiar with what is readily available in Europe, but something with at least class 2 durability, preferably class 1. Ash is around class 5 - i.e. will rot as soon as you look at it. What do the boat builders use?

In Australia, I'd use one of our native hardwoods, or if weight was an issue, king billy pine. The ultimate would be huon pine, which would probably still be around after we've forgotten what cars were.

Tim

[Dr.Mabo]

The question of wood selection does not arise for me. The wood frame for the sliding roof is still in good condition and only needs a few minor repairs.

The GRP filler was naturally very coarse, but in addition to stability it also filled in missing areas well.

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Once the GRP filler had been sanded into shape, one or two more coats of fine filler were applied.

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For a smooth surface, I continued with a layer of spray primer, which was also sanded again.

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Finally, I painted the center console with 2K acrylic paint in silk matt.

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The console is now ready for use again. For comparison, it is worth taking a quick look at the starting state of the console above