66 LHD 'Doctors Car' restoration begins

[MT]

Those look like Turnberry red tiles on the roof.

Rosemary Light mixed brindled - only know this because me, a mate and my missus re-roofed part of it last spring. I still have 'white-toe' from crouching on the battens!

Looks like your house is very near me.

.... easily within 300 miles ...

[210bhp]

Similar to your place?



Anyway, didn't mean to digress, back to your resto.....


Regards
Mike

[MT]

Just found and read the thread of your recent find Mike.... somehow I just can't get the phrase 'jammy ba*tard' out of my head ..... but between gritted teeth I have to pass on my best wishes. It is indeed as Mr. Carson says/said ..... "it's the way I tell'em". You have another profession waiting as a suspense writer. Truly great thread.

Anyway back to my resto. Today was headlining day, with the assistance of Garry - and it became clear very early on that this is a two-handed job for sure. My advice is do not try this on your own. With two people in all honesty we both said at the end that it was far easier than either of us anticipated, We had the benefit of a warm day, so we could work outside in natural daylight, so the creases were easier to see. It also meant I could move the car outside allowing plenty of space around the car. I bought the headlining from Lakewell.com in Belgium and was pleased with the quality. It comes with all the seams stitched (I think they all do), but also with the centre line marked. I had refurb'd the tensioners, and made some new 'ends' that fit into the slots in the roof sides. These went into the lining easily. It is worth noting the 4 tensioners are of different lengths - the two of the same length, and the shortest go to the front of the car, with the intermediate next and the longest to the rear.

I fitted the original roof padding back in - having this in place really helps the tensioners fit snugly against the roof, and if you don't have the original I'd say it is important to replace it with something similar.




You can see in the next photo how the tensioner is held nicely in position by the padding



I then decided it would be best to work from front to back, so after ensuring the centreline on the lining was aligned with the centreline on the car, and using some of my Staples clip hoard to trial fit it, we bit the bullet and started to progressively glue from the centre front, then all along the front, then the sides working towards the rear from side to side. We left the A and B post areas until we had both sides above the door tight and crease free, then came back to them. Then along the back edge and down the C pillars.





I have left the base of the C pillar near the rear shelf until tomorrow, along with the interior lights, coat hooks, etc.
Only 'blot on the landscape' was I dropped an aerosol of contact adhesive on one rear quarter leaving a small 'ding' that will need to get sorted in the final paint prep/polish. B*gger.

(I have tried the glue pot on earlier restos, but found using an aerosol much easier to get an even deposit of glue, and so it was less likely to ooze through the holes in the lining)

Now we have the challenge of getting the glass back in .......

[johnM]

Looks fantastic. Great when you finish a job like that.

Kind regards.

[MT]

Great when you finish a job like that.

Too right John - the beer down the pub tasted fantastic. Helped that I had got all those bulldog clips ........ and Garry ......

Still and that I dropped that can though

Mick

[MT]

Well as JohnM has commented in his thread, one of the pleasures of DIY restoration is if you get tired of one type of work you can always switch to something quite different - so since the last update time has been spent by me and some notable assistants on fitting screens, sound deadening, interior panels, carpets, engine lid and a bit of electrics thrown in.

First off taking advantage of the warm weather last week I placed the self-stick soundpads pretty much everywhere they were on the original.

Rear quarters



Parcel shelf and rear seats



Side panels



Front bulkhead



and a few other bits.
Then instead of using the original, but tatty horsehair/tar shhhhhi.. stuff I replaced it with the modern equivalent. Not the high tech stuff I've seen some others use, but a bit closer to the original I think.



The little cup/rest/thingy in between the seats is original and I assume was there to better give shape to the carpets.

Then a bit of gentle persuasion of herself to assist in fitting the rear screen. We have fitted a few screens together over previous restorations, and divorce has loomed before - I am not at my most relaxed, sensitive and understanding in such stressful times, so she wasn't keen...

I had already fitted the metal trim (not well enough as it turns out) and a bit of dum-dum sealer in the lower corners, so in with the string



And after a couple of hours of jiggling, pushing, rubber hammer here, wood wedge there it was in. No damage to the headlining, which was my greatest fear, but I have got about 150mm of metal trim out of the groove near the top joining clip. It is currently defeating all attempts to get it back in .... but I have a cunning plan ...



Then a bit of upholstery. As you know most of the interior was like new .... apart from the rear parcel shelf that was ripped, faded and so degraded it cracked when I took it out. Try as I may I have been unable to get an EXACT match of both colour AND texture - I have found one but not the other. In the end I decided that the correct texture was better than exact colour. As you'll see in the photos some of the original sections are slightly different anyway, but they are all the same smooth, very finely grained texture. You can see the rear shelf is different, but with the rear seat backs up I think it will be tolerable. If anyone knows of a source of an exact match - keep it to yourself please as it's all stuck in place now! Off with the old cover, on with the new, cut, glue and staple per original



So in with the shelf, new carpet from Lakewell, the old rear quarters, tops and the rear quarterlights. The seat squabs are just resting in place and are not fitted yet.



Then the windscreen. Wife opted out on this one as we were still speaking, and Garry's mate Steve stood in. Turns out it was a bit of an anticlimax after the rear - went in in 15min. Had the same trouble with a small section of the metal trim near the join, but this time it went back in after a bit of fiddling with assorted picks and spatulas.



Decided to leave the 1977 NY state DMV stickers in the screen. I would have destroyed them getting them off, and they are a nice feature I think.

[MT]

... and then it was time for a bit of creativity and engineering.

Some time ago I had dismantled my seats and sent various bits away for chroming.



Very nice .... but now the time has come to get it all back together again. As anyone who has gone down this path will know the worst bit of the entire process (apart from remembering where everything goes) is getting those nice gentle pit vipers of coiled springs back into position. I had been struggling for some time for a safer, more controlled way of re-installation than hauling on bits of wire or risking amputation with screwdrivers and other levers. And so after a bit of the old alcohol/toilet combo mentioned before..... I decided what I need is one of these



The business end in more detail



simply made in 20min from an offcut of 1" square steel, a large bolt with a groove cut in it with an angle grinder, and a small (M5 in my case) bolt. As long as the head of bolt 1 will fit into the centre of the spring, and bolt 2 is small enough to go in the slot on the outer prong on the spring it's fine. Bolt 1 must be able to rotate, so don't tighten too much.

Fit the larger seat bracket into a vice using two bolts through the mounting slots with the bolt heads held in the vice ... and a bit of something to protect the new chrome



Rebuild the bracket until you are ready to fit the spring (I am going to put a pdf together for the whole rebuild if anyone wants one- in part to remind me for the 72E)

Not a great photo (bar should be more horizontal), but pad up the spring (I used a bit of carpet) so it can't go all the way down the centre slot in the seat bracket. Fit bolt 1 over the bit sticking up with the slot on the spring. Fit bolt 2 into the outer prong. Again bolt 2 should be long enough to go 2/3 of the way down the slot.



Press down on the pivot and use the bar to compress the spring until it overlaps the post. Get your assistant to tap the outer loop of the spring down off bolt 2 and onto the post. Pull out the carpet, tap spring down to base of both both centre slot and outer post. Et voila!

[visualfx]

I hope the two unassembled seat hinges I supplied for reference helped in the manufacture of the Hans Mezger spring/chain tensioner above

I'll be needing that shortly......

[MT]

... and another thing...

fitted the engine lid and grille.




Note the masking tape until I got the hinge lift and lock alignment sorted. Pleased with the fit - it was a nagging concern given the amount of bashing and heaving necessary to get the old rear slam panel out and the replacement back in.

One thing I noticed that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere - the slats on the engine grille are numbered



I'll be quiet now ....

[johnM]

Looks great, and I am about to put the sound deadening into the rear of the car so that photo was a real help.

Kind Regards

[Northy]

I'll be quiet now ....

No don't do that, keep the updates coming!

I'm really enjoying seeing the updates. It's going to be a cracking car when it's finished.

[murph2309]

Really great updates - please keep the detail coming, this is a great build. Really enjoying it. What did you use for the sound deadening on the inside floor? I have scraped off all the tar-like stuff on mine, but not sure what I'm going to replace it with - nor how it is applied. Any help / hints appreciated.

[MT]

Thanks for the positive comments.

What did you use for the sound deadening on the inside floor? I have scraped off all the tar-like stuff on mine, but not sure what I'm going to replace it with - nor how it is applied. Any help / hints appreciated.

Well as you can see on the vertical sections/seat floor I first use the sticky black plastic soundpad stuff that you can get from a number of auto shops. Then I covered it with the latex backed fibre sheets that I got from East Kent Trim. (see photo), then carpet, both stuck down with contact adhesive - aerosol is my preference for such 'fluffy' materials. I bought a box of 12 cans on ebay - very reasonable at about £3-4 a can as I recall.

For the floor - the metal is coated in my favourite POR-15 rust encapsulator and two coats of POR-15 Chassis Black, then I plan to add the same latex fibre sheeting, and carpet - neither stuck down.
My reasoning is that at some point I or a nameless female person (lots of choice in my family on that front) will leave a window open in the rain and the carpets will get sodden. I want to be able to remove all the coverings down to the metal finish to get it fully dry. I am concerned about trying to stick anything to the floor for this reason. I have seen lots of 'waterproof' coverings (similar to my black sticky plastic soundpads) stuck on the floor, and there is inevitably rust formation under them if they has been water ingress at some point.

I did the same on the TR4A and it has stood me in good stead - more opportunity for a good soaking in a soft-top even w/o oestrogen assistance...

That's it really. Hope that is of some use.

Mick



P.S.
I did like the 'Lizardskin' stuff I saw someone else had used, but it came too late for me to consider it. If you are back to a bare shell it might be worth a look. Google 'Lizardskin' and it crops up ....

[MT]

RH door on, pins in, latch and actuator arms in, handle on, off, on, off, on, until I got the spring and actuator arm in the right place to allow the key to lock and unlock the latch ...... then I found that the striker plate on the B post had lost part of its internals when I had it zinc plated. Mr. Plater assured me the internals would not be damaged by the process, and by the time they came back I had forgotten what the internals looked like. The upper section was undamaged but the bottom bit has gone altogether. Anyway a question on this forum (and 911s) has resolved that a bit is indeed missing and that repair kits are available (£42 from Roger Bray, but $30 from across the water, so once again USPS is the winner. Someone will have to explain in more detail how parts for a German car are 55% cheaper 3500 miles away....)



Anyway it was all going so well, and the door shut looks really good - if I can ever get it to latch...
That grey stuff is the 3M seam sealer that I have used to act as a sound dampener on the door. Seems to work well, looks like the original, and I have had bad experience with the sticky black plastic pads coming off when the door has been in the sun, dropping into the bottom of the door and blocking the drains and/or fouling the window actuator.

[MT]

So while waiting for the striker plate internals to wend their long and complex way across the Atlantic I have been fitting the windows and door tops.

I decided (perhaps wrongly - we shall see) that having handled a couple of the outrageously priced Porsche window runner inserts for the door frame that they were pretty much identical to the hard and soft versions I have used before from East Kent Trim, and so I have used them. Hard on the top and back of the frame, soft on the front. Glued in place with contact adhesive and opened up in place with my favourite blunt screwdriver that is just a bit wider than the window glass. Window moves smoothly up and down within the frame with the seal in place, so in with the window and frame.

Fit the winder mechanism first, then the glass. Fit the glass onto the slider at the bottom, position the winder and bolt in place. Insert the frame slowly while jjjjjjj-jiggling it a bit as Ronnie Barker would have said in 'Open All Hours'. Fit the mounting bolts, refer to drawings and photos as to how all the bits go together inside the door, scratch head why there are bits left over, search vainly for places for them to go, decide to carry on. Window winds up and down fine, if a little stiff with the new runners.

Fitting the outer seal was the most infuriating bit. It is of a more sophisticated shape than the original (which was just a fluffy strip that was attached by 4 clips in the door recess), with a rubber lip that goes under the chrome strip. Found it nigh on impossible to get it to grab on the 4 clips, but I found the chrome strip holds it in place, although it is such a tight fit to the glass it makes winding the glass up and down REALLY hard. Anyone got a good idea for a lubricant .....

EDIT: I later found I had fitted these new complex profile outer 'fuzzy' seals upside down. If you have original 66/67 doors then you need to removed any toothed clips that are visible - they just pop out - and fit the new seal up from the bottom such that the fuzzy strip contacts the glass, and the lip is inside the door and sheds any water ingress outward towards the door skin and away from the glass/winder mechanism. There is a slot in the seal that clips upwards onto the vertical metal edge on the outer edge of the window slot. Once fitted in this way the chrome strip seats much better and the window moves smoothly up and down. Obvious when I looked at the profile of the seal in more detail.

Anyway the good news is that both locks, windows, winders and frames went in without incident and the fit with the body/roof line is excellent. Should be really as they are the original doors and frames and the fit was good to start with ......but after all that welding, bashing and turning on the rotisserie it's still good to find out!





..... and of course it was all going too well ....

In my efforts to try and loosen things up at bit I was winding the glass up and down with a bit of help inside the door pushing and pulling the window glass as I wound, when suddenly the winder gave up on me and fell apart inside the door. I suppose it is by far the best time for this to happen, but I still had a 'sense of humour failure'.
Turns out it really was a blessing, as when I got the winder out - you can do this without taking anything else out - the slotted pin that holds the spring had failed. Looking at it more closely (should have done this before putting it in!) it is clear it is pretty worn. The slot for the spring is enlarged and deformed and the shaft where it goes through the arm is worn so that it is much smaller than the hole in the arm making the whole mechanism loose and wobbly. So into my pile of 924/944 bits to find two old winders - both with good slotted pivot pins, and good springs, so after a bit of dismantling and fettling to fit I think I have a 'better than new' outcome. Only problem is this was on my second door and I suspect the other will be the same, so tomorrow I'll take the other winder out and give it the same treatment if it's in the same state.

The photo below shows the replacement fitted and the old one standing next to it for comparison.......



Out with the patent spring replacer and back in she goes. Works like a charm. Marvellous when that happens ....