313 replies to this topic

[Ben_O]

Hi Ben

 

The hard top looks great even in primer!

 

No idea that a screen rubber could be such a pain, must be made out o f the same stuff they use for shopping trolley wheels as they seem to have a mind of their own as well

The T shaped piece on the new rubber that fits to the bottom of the frame is not quite as broad as the original so although still a tight fit to get in, doesn't seem to want to stay in once you start pushing the rubber back against the scuttle.

 

Still 3rd time is a charm!

[xrocketengineer]

I'm slightly annoyed. My memory card has corrupted so I could only save a couple of today's photos.

 

The first thing I did was finish the prep on the doors and get those into primer

 

 

 

 

And then whilst those were baking off, I fitted the roll cage.

It looks great but the photos have gone so ill re take them in the morning.

 

I also did some more of the trimming.

I have a photo of some of the carpet fitted and some trial fitted

 

 

I did take a photo of the finished fit but that too has gone.

 

I finished fitting up the bonnet installing the pin and rubber buffers as well as the prop bar

 

 

When the car came in, the bonnet could only be released by pulling a cable from under the front of the car but everything needed to make the internal release work was there so I re-installed that and got that all working correctly.

 

And I also removed the spot lights

 

 

The rest of the day was spent on the seats.

They came with universal type runners which needed modifying slightly with spacers as once bolted to the seats, there wasn't enough clearance to lift the slide adjuster high enough to disengage the runner locks.

 

Once fitted to the seat, it was a case of marking out where the runners would need to bolt but this threw up another problem. The position of the new mounting holes in the floor clashed with the reinforcing channel which is spot welded to the underside of the floor.

I wasn't keen to modify that in any way so to make the runners fit the floor and the seat fit in the car without hitting the roll cage, handbrake lever and whilst still being able to move the seat back and forth, I positioned the seat at a very slight angle which not only makes it actually work, it is far more comfortable, fits within the roll cage and sits nice and in line with the inner sill and B post.

 

I did have to modify the runners by making up plates to shift one of the mounting points over by 40mm to avoid the channel underneath but it really worked out well.

 

I did have photos but they have all gone.

Luckily, I haven't refitted the seat yet so ill re-take them all tomorrow.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

Hey Ben, try this to  recover your photos. I managed to recover my granddaughter's first year photos even after several reformattings of the memory card:

 

https://www.transcen...ort/Software-4/

 

As long as the memory card is accessible its possible to recover something. It is slow though.

[Ben_O]

Hey Ben, try this to  recover your photos. I managed to recover my granddaughter's first year photos even after several reformattings of the memory card:

 

 

https://www.transcen...ort/Software-4/

 

As long as the memory card is accessible its possible to recover something. It is slow though.

 

 

 

Thanks for that. Ill bare that in mind in the future.

This time, I was able to just re-take the pics.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Ben_O]

I have now got the doors hung

 

 

 

And then built up

 

 

 

 

 

I then stripped the dashboard for paint and re-fitted several miscellaneous parts.

 

Then I filled the cooling system and finished up some wiring and fired it up

 

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[JDImini]

 

Alive, alive, it's alive!

[Ben_O]

[Carlos W]

Does the hardtop fit with the rollcage in?

[Ben_O]

Does the hardtop fit with the rollcage in?

[Carlos W]

Loads of room

[JDImini]

Sweeeet!

 

 

Does the hardtop fit with the rollcage in?

 

Sweeeeet!

[JDImini]

Hi Ben,

 

Not good timing I know as it's almost finished but would you be able to fit a 12v socket somewhere?

 

sorry

Darren

[Ben_O]

Hi Ben,

 

Not good timing I know as it's almost finished but would you be able to fit a 12v socket somewhere?

 

sorry

Darren

Of course

 

As soon as the dash goes in, ill be able to give you a completion date. I can't test anything until it does so am not sure how much more there will be to sort wiring wise.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[JDImini]

 

Hi Ben,

 

Not good timing I know as it's almost finished but would you be able to fit a 12v socket somewhere?

 

sorry

Darren

Of course

 

As soon as the dash goes in, ill be able to give you a completion date. I can't test anything until it does so am not sure how much more there will be to sort wiring wise.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

 

Cheers!

[Ben_O]

I prepped up the stripped out dash

 

 

And then heated the panel with a heat lamp to get it nice and warm ( the wrinkle paint needs the heat to react and wrinkle)

 

And then I started painting it.I have not used this before and the instructions suggested 3 heavy coats which I did but as it started to wrinkle, it looked patchy and uneven and instead of an even sheen, it had shiny areas and more satin areas.

I ended up ditching the instructions and instead layed on a further 3 drop coats which evened things up nicely and it looks ok now.

 

This is what I meant by the uneven sheen

 

 

But after the drop coat, things evened up nicely

 

 

 

It's now all reassembled but as I did that last thing, I forgot to take photos. Ill get it fitted in the morning and then get some shots.

 

In between painting the dash, I did some more flatting and polishing.

 

Starting off with the passenger side wing

 

 

 

 

And fitted the BL badge

 

 

And then onto the other wing

 

 

 

 

And then fine polished and waxed the front end

 

 

 

As well as this, I have been refitting more various small parts  and waxoiled the doors.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[spraybeater]

Looking good Ben! I remember we used to use a material like that wrinkle finish

back in the 70s to emulate vinyl roofs, did a number of early Opel Asconas with

it when I worked in a big Bodyshop in Holland,