mk1-forum.net

Third time's a charm... I've lost the link to the old forum post (edit: found it - http://www.atfreeforum.com/phpbb/viewto ... um=mk1mark) that I had documenting the resto, so I'll attempt to recreate the timeline in a somewhat shorter format in this thread! It's been a year and a half since I started the teardown, and fortunately a fair bit of business came my way in 2010 so I had some money to put into the car. On the flipside, the work also kept me out of town a fair bit and away from making much progress for the past 6 months or so!

The day I brought her home... November 3, 2008. After a brief interlude on the side of the road while my friend and I went and found new brushes for the dynamo, she did finally make the 1.5 hour drive back to my place.


She had a few blemishes and mechanical things to sort out, but it was very original (I bought it from the second owner, who was the grand-daughter of the original owner).



For the first year, I just fixed the essentails (brake master cyl, two ball joints...) and drove the snot out of it...including on our maiden "Spring Thaw" tour that my friend and I organize each year.


Fast-forwarding to the fun bits... In October 2009 I started the teardown, and I had the shell ready for stripping in January 2010. I decided to take it for a chemical bath and get it right down to bare metal with no rust. This was going to be the big test of how bad (or good) the shell really was! Turns out it was a pretty tidy little car, with only the usual areas around the a-panels, scuttle, and sills that needed attention (and a few other spots that would turn up later!)

A week later....


First order of business was getting a coat of primer on the car to prevent the bare shell from rusting. I decided to build a make-shift paint booth in my garage. I won't be doing this again any time soon! As you can see though, with some fans and furnace filters, we were able to get some serious airflow and positive pressure built up in the "booth"! The plastic walls inflated into a bubble!


More to come...

Onwards...

With the shell primered, and my schedule getting busy, I decided to have some experts help out with the body work and paint.


Wrapped up for the rainy ride down to the city on March 7th, 2010.


A gift for my body guy


It didn't take long for the repairs to begin...Lanny is a metal magician! He discovered a few more dings and dents that needed work... Some creative repair work after a rear ender at some point:

Finally fixed properly...


A bit more poking and the sills prove to need a bit more work that initially expected...


One of my goals for the project was to keep as much of the original metal as possible. Not just to be "original" but to avoid problems with ill-fitting and non-mk1 panels too. Lanny was able to patch in a lot of the repairs...






Ended up going for new footwells too.


And there we go...April 9th (almost one month exactly) and the body is done and ready to head to the paint guy!

At this point, the project is getting pretty exciting and I'm itching to see the shell finished. I naively think that once the paint is on, I'll be on the "home stretch" and nearly done. HA!

Pre-paint prep work - a light skim of all the body panels, and masking for the interior spray.




Seam sealer...


The bootlid needed quite a bit of tweaking and finishing to get it to fit properly (a result of that rear end hit noted previously).


Paint!!! Happy Days!


Lanny and Barry did an absolutely stunning job on the paint...I couldn't believe it! The shell was back home on May 25th, about 2.5 months away getting restored!



And then I got super busy and this is where the car sits as of Feb 22, 2011 - nearly 9 months later and not a whole lot to show. A lot of time has been spent sourcing parts, and working on a new motor, however, so I haven't been entirely negligent I caved and have decided to put a mildly tweaked 1275 motor into the car. I do intend to do a lot of driving and some navigational rallies in it, so a bit more power will be useful, especially in the mountains where I live.



I'm hoping to have it all back together by the end of April for our annual Spring Thaw tour and the All-British Field Meet in May.

Loving the updates, cheers for sharing and the car looks great.

Look forward to the pics as it gets put back together

looking good warwick

that big clean workshop must help with your motivation!

One of the few shells I have seen with the square mounting holes for the headlights.

How have you refitted the headlights, using the original plastic grommets?

my 1968 uses them as well

The grommets are hard to get a hold of, besides that the heritage wings all have round mounting holes. I guess I'll have to convert them for mine to square! Or would M-Machine do them with square holes?

masnarda wrote:The grommets are hard to get a hold of

not as hard as you think!

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1973

How good does that look!

Thats given me some inspiration of what to aim for.

I hope my projects paint finish turns out as good as that.
That is one very tidy resto.

nice job looks very nice

Yeah, my headlamp rings and wings are original, so I just saved the original plastic grommets/clips. One broke when I removed it, so I grabbed one from the generator control box and will have to find a replacement.

W

That paint finish is terrific & I take my hat off to your metal mans patching skills, I love to see patches put in like they should be!

Finally got all the brake, fuel, and hydro lines back in place, and have been working on getting the rear subframe bolted up. I managed to get the front bolts in, but the rear ones are proving to be more difficult. I've got some helping hands coming over tomorrow so hopefully we can get it all shuffled around and bolted up!

warwick

your brake pipe is in the wrong place, it goes through the larger hole above where you have it now and locates in the little hole with the flat edge

rich

guru_1071 wrote:warwick

your brake pipe is in the wrong place, it goes through the larger hole above where you have it now and locates in the little hole with the flat edge

rich

Rich........ If it's " hydro elastic " boiiiing boiiiing ............ Which I think it is that's ok.

IAIN wrote:

guru_1071 wrote:warwick

your brake pipe is in the wrong place, it goes through the larger hole above where you have it now and locates in the little hole with the flat edge

rich

Rich........ If it's " hydro elastic " boiiiing boiiiing ............ Which I think it is that's ok.

gah! of course!

will fall on my sword!

I got great satisfaction pionting that out.

IAIN wrote:I got great satisfaction pionting that out.

iain

i'm man enough not to edit my posts when i make a mistake!