Wot, not another '79 Targa resto thread

[Gary71]

Brilliant write up as ever, and it drives!

Hope you can grab a full tank soon and really get the shakedown completed

[PeterK]

Bit stuck for a while - had to use the fuel from the strimmer in SWMBO's car.

Did try squeezing some juice from the lawnmower, but it's battery-powered, so I wasn't too successful

[The Garage Bitch]

SWMBO likes the sound of the engine.
Somewhat surprisingly, she came and listened appreciatively, rather than with her annoyed face on, when I ran the engine at 2K for 20 minutes.

She looked like a proud mum admiring a new baby in the family

[PeterK]

So, in the absence of fuel, I colour sanded & compounded the front end and then and washed the car. Finally, the froot emblem could then be added.



I was waiting on a car lift, but a pending holiday has delayed things while I confirm dates I will be here to help offload.

Planning a holiday should not be much of an issue, especially for someone who spent about 50% of his working life travelling overseas. However ….. SWMBO’s passport had expired, so a new one was organised online. So far, so good. TNT notified us of its delivery, so we stayed in expectantly. They still do not offer collection from the depot due to Covid. Anyway, having waited in expectantly for 9 days, spending over 8 hours listening to ‘on hold’ music, being assured by 6 different people that the delivery was ‘definitely today’ and the customer support help desk supervisor having been advised by the depot manager that the package had now been found and was definitely on the truck today and out for delivery twice (wrongly), it finally arrived yesterday, so flights and PLFs arranged last night, travel insurance and parking arranged today. Phew. You cannot begin to imagine the grief I have had from SWMBO. Strangely, TNT do not accept any liability for me having to wait in for 9 days, and therefore not being available for work (I’m freelance). ‘Speak with the Home Office’ was the best they could offer.

Anyway, the uncertainty has meant no order for a lift has yet been placed, so in a moment of boredom, I trudged out to the garage to play with ride height. Had to re-index one front adjuster, but then merely turning the ride height adjuster screws got me to just over 25” at the rear and 25.5 at the front. Looking much better.


I’ve not been too OCD at this time, as I’m sure the suspension will settle a bit when I finally can get some petrol (most garages around here are closed, and the one that seems open has queue’s longer than I am prepared to wait for) and drive it.



Oh, and in other news, I was trimming our hedge. Despite the Garage Bitch being absent without leave, I tackled the inside and top. When we do the outside, I use a sturdy road sign warning drivers of hedge cutting and a barrier to indicate where my ladder is (although I'm not naive enough to think that the barrier will offer any physical protection). As there was a chance of branches falling into the road, I was a good citizen and displayed the warning road sign. As I said, it was sturdy and just a little obvious. Clearly not obvious enough for one Ute driver, who hit it about three metres up the road and drove off. We stood it up again, but when we went to bring it in, some b4$t4rd had only gone and nicked the sign. I can only assume the blind tw4t who hit it earlier.

[PeterK]

Been reading up on refurbishing targa tops……… it’s got to be done sometime, and as I have no petrol and it’s raining anyway ………

Step 1 – remove targa top from car (going well so far)
Step 2 – remove fittings and stuff (still going well)
Remove little cover plates from ends of side seals


Remove 4 screws (plus 1 on the end) from side seals


Remove 5 screws from rain gutters


….and remove to a place of safety


While removing, I checked them out. The side seals are a little worse for wear but only where the rear edge of the side window meets them. Rain gutters are fine - shame that I’ve (as usual) assumed the worse and bought some replacements. Nevermind, I can add them to my growing ‘For Sale’ lists.


Remove clips




Step 4 – remove old materials (starts going less easily)
Remove headlining

Someone has been in here before – there’s “Brooklands’ written on the underside of the vinyl, a date written under the headlining and one of the clips was under, not on top of, the headlining.

The headlining came out easily and looks in champion condition – something else for the sale list

Remove front locator pins


Remove these cover pieces. They have surely got a name, but a) I don’t know it and b) I can’t be bothered to make one up.
Both sides secured with 2 small screws and popper. This side had flat head screws, whereas the other side had Phillips style, the same as the side seals, etc.


I took this photo next, but have no idea why


Record shots of the way the outer cover is folded over at and near to the corners. They’re here so that I know where to find them !







Start to peel off the outer cover (vinyl)


What a nightmare that was. I found that gently warming the glued areas with the heat gun helped a lot. The out vinyl was a bu$$er to get off the hessian, which was just disintegrating in front of my eyes.

Finally, the vinyl cover was off, and then off came the insulation and hessian


Record shot of foam above the (not really) captive nuts for the rows of clips



Methinks that I may have to do some remedial work on the ends of the floating cross bars



Likewise, some new strapping needed. This runs along the front and rear sides of the roof


Luckily I had noticed the torn webbing and the poor state of the floating cross bars, so I measured the diagonals of the roof before it was too late. Well hopefully, we’ll see if/when it all goes back together again.

So, while waiting for webbing to arrive, I have now broken out the TIG machine and had a play a sticking metal together. I have some quite thin steel, which hopefully will do for repairs to the cross bars. Strangely, it is only the floating ones that have suffered.



In other news, I was about to remove the speedo (the odometer wasn’t working when I test drove the car). Before I did, I had a eureka moment – I had zero’ed the odometer before the test drive. I wonder …… Yes, the reset button was stuck in. So, if we’re lucky, then no repairs needed. If we’re unluckly, then we bu$$ered the odometer up getting the reset button stuck. Time will tell.

[deano]

Nice write-up Peter. Here is what I discovered (on my 73 roof), in case there is something useful you can take from it:

You can get all of the materials from Southbound, and many other places of course, but Southbound have 'everything' and even the special rivets that go through the webbing (carefully squish them with a hammer with other side against a block). They are also happy to give fitting advice. The webbing that I received from them was actually just Mohair, so you might be able to find some elsewhere - about 6 inches wide. The tin of impact adhesive that they supplied lasted me years and was really excellent stuff (no brand label) compared to stuff bought more recently from elsewhere, so a good bet I think if you want long-lasting performance.

The webbing needs to be applied (stretched tight) with the bare roof panels and all seals perfectly positioned 'on the car'. You can fine tune the front and rear lip tilt before or after fitting the webbing but be careful at the four corners - the folding bars material is very brittle so do not be tempted to use a hammer to bend the corners of the roof panels or you will break the frame tabs that the rivets go through. Ask me how I know

[PeterK]

Thanks Dean - useful


Next step - try to repair the floating bars

[Darren65]

Hi Peter, I need to find some time and catch up with your thread but wonderful to see the car with the engine in and looking complete.

Congratulations on getting to this stage, hope to see you and the car out and about at some point in the future

Cheers,

[PeterK]

Thanks Darren - how’ ‘the flares’ progressing.

[jb]

Re the roof
I have spent ages looking for what I did on my roof and I am not sure how helpful it is however it does fit well.
I got the kit from Lakewell
And more glue from woolies (259 Heat Resistant Adhesive 1)
If I did it again I might not glue the foam to the hessian but let it float.
The cover needs to be stretched down at the front and back as much as possible.

Jan 29th 2018





I stripped my Targa top.
Not sure it was such a good idea.
Maybe just renewing the vinyl won't be possible!


And the result:-






If I was to do it again I would probably do some things differently and I would maybe get Garry to do it instead however it is done and it fits and it is much more structurally sound and quieter at speed than before.

[PeterK]

Thx
All tips gratefully received

[PeterK]

Back from holiday, been sail racing and instructing, back home done chores, SWMBO is out, so off into the garage again …..

More targa top fun

My purchases have arrived – more glue, webbing (mohair) and rivets.


Layout reinforcing plates onto frame


Look at reference photos and realise that the tiny view I needed wasn’t included. Scour the interweb and find a photo of reinforcing plates from a manufacturer (not Dansk), spend ages fettling and realise that their photo is wrongly showing the thinner plates upside down !.


Make frame square(ish)


Add reinforcement plates



Fit old outer cover as a check



Realise that something is wrong, so remove everything, start again and put it all back together so it fits more reasonably.



The mice have been busy, mainly with the ends of the thinner plates

I’ve got some thin aluminium sheets and Plan B is to make cardboard templates of the ends of the reinforcement plates, cut out in the aluminium and take to a local fabrication shop for welding. My TIG is nowhere near good enough for sheet this thin.

Plan A or C, depending on cost and delivery …..is to either buy a replacement set of reinforcement plates (worried most about delivery lead time, although cost is not cheap) or get a second-hand set (unlikely).


I’ll probably continue with Plan B in the meantime, if only for the fun !


STOP PRESS – thx to Deano’s lead, pretty decent set purchased via fleabay from Luxemburg, so we have a Plan A (with a 2 week pause for delivery).

[PeterK]

…. So, replacement reinforcement plates arrived. In great condition, although needed a wire brushing to clean them up.


They are a little better than the originals !



Repairing the originals would have been challenging, both in terms of welding the thin aluminium and also in determining just how long they needed to be.
Thanks again for the link Deano



While waiting on their arrival, I looked at the frame elements. They were not bad, but ……. If I’m spending all this time and money, why not go just a little further and restore the lot. I decided not to remove the outer reinforcing plates as a) mine were not too bad and b) the risk of damaging the fragile and unavailable frame elements was too high.

So, disconnect the side frames from the front and rear ones. Then off came the vinyl from the front frame, followed by the latch mechanisms.


On the SC there is a locator pin in the middle of the rear frame.
[

So, a little gentle persuasion was needed to remove the various hinge pins, trying not to damage the pin and especially not the frame


That got me to a pile of bits




There are a series of tabs that the front and rear frame rails clip into, to ensure that the upper roof is held down tightly. These screw into some threaded plates and mine were manky. A quick introduction to the wire wheel, a splash of primer and black and we had




A quick trip to a mate with a sand blaster and we are currently here


If SWMBO didn’t keep finding painting and gardening chores, plus I suppose I didn’t keep running off sailing, I’m sure that things would move more rapidly. However, we are where we are, and next steps are to paint the frames and start the rebuild process. Wish me luck !

In other news, I have ordered the floor tiles – same as Graham, Hillclimber911, from PlasFloor. Once they are down (easily said), then I’ll have space to order the lift (finally).

[PeterK]

Went for another little drive, put some fuel in the car and did some stopping for coffee (aka showing off the car to friends). There's a bit of surging shortly after starting, so fueling needs another tweak. Also, bad news on the odometer front - despite me pulling out the reset button fully, it still doesn't work, so a new cog is most likely in my immediate future. Also, the speedo sometimes decides not to register when pulling away from a stop, although a quick tap on the glass sees it behaving. Maybe a bit of my errant cog is causing a restriction somewhere. Time will tell.


Back to the targa roof and more cleaning, trying to remove the old glue that the sand blasting doesn’t touch, and then the residual paint underneath. This was followed with a complete go-over with some scotchbrite, followed by a wire brushing to make the surfaces uniform.


As it is too cold to spray normally at the moment, I sat the frame pieces on the Aga for a few hours, along with the tins of paint in front. Then time to move the 911 out of the garage (the Garage Bitch was coming to help me move $h!t around and start laying my spangly new floor tiles in the morning, so I’d boxed some of the loose stuff up, rendering most of the normal side of the garage too full to utilise), suspend the frames from the rafters and apply a couple of good coats of black epoxy primer. The second coat was thinned a little more, to give a smoother finish.



A new day and as predicted, the Garage Bitch arrived on his new motorcycle. Very nice.

Car out to create space for the cr@p to be moved. Found the old car cover from my Lotus to keep the rain out (remember that there’s no targa roof right now).


Move cr@p around to create space to remove the lathe, bench and shelving


…. And start laying the floor tiles. The Garage Bitch hard at work, on his knees again !


… and in a shake of a lamb's tail, it was time for lunch. Progress had been swifter than anticipated, and the tiles were down ( except for a few around the posts, etc. and the weather seal in front of the doors)


Although, as you can see above, there was a lot of my $h1te still to move back. By the time my back was calling enough, we were here


Why does the floor get so dirty, so quickly ?

House painting to do next, before a final (for this calendar year ?, nothing else booked until February yet) sail - a 2 day course immediately followed by a 5 day one - hope the students are fun. So unlikely to get any updates on the targa top for a while, as once I get back, it's booster time, daily MOT time and more painting before friends come to stay.

[Gary71]

That Targa top really is a labour of love! No doubt even more fun to come actually making it fit the car…