1987 3.2 Carrera Backdate project - Sladeys hotrod

[sladey]

Thanks JT, should hopefully get more progress soon - there was a surprising amount of fannying about with the floor - only this morning I found a gap at the rear that I hadn't been aware of so had to make and weld that in - which involved me lying under the engine with the welding helmet jammed between the gearbox and the floor. Very claustrophobic.

[sladey]

Sorry about the lack of updates - I have been working on the car but not found time to post. I took this last week off work specifically to move it forward. Other stuff robbed me of Tuesday and Friday, and by Wednesday I was getting frustrated - I was expecting it to leap forward. I eventually had a stiff word with myself and reminded me that I'm doing this stuff for fun, so I should stop imposing unrealistic deadlines that bring pressure. Once I'd adjusted to that, the next day flew by.

Anyway, here's a roundup of the last few weeks

Put the heater pipe back in


And trial fitted the inner sill


You may recall that the door had dropped a fair bit once a load of floor/sill had been cut out. Welding the floor back in helped to move it back up but it still had a few more mm to go. I was hopefully that the inner sill would bring me this last bit of adjustment.

Jon Miller as ever has been fantastically helpful. I screwed the inner sill on first - it's amazing how solidly you can fit these parts with just screws! I jacked the door up before screwing it in place.

I lowered the jack, and the door came down with it. Not happy.

A phone call to Jon and we discussed applying pressure to the opposite diagonal of the door frame - he uses hydraulic rams to do this.

I made something up to do the same job


(At least that's cubists Christmas present sorted then)

I strapped it in place but when I started jacking it just started to distorted the rear of the door frame itself so I stopped.

[sladey]

I ummed and ahh'd about this. Jacking the door up earlier had had some effect - it moved it up a couple of mm. I only needed a couple more. Eventually I wen for it. I jacked the door up about an inch/inch and a quarter. When I lowered it I was greeted with this


Very chuffed. The only downside was that now the top of the frame was rubbing the top of the door, but not by much.

The next day I had a good session with the door frame. Eventually I moved it in at the top by moving it out at the bottom. This gave me the 1ish mm I was looking for. As my car is a later one it has a felt 'rubbing strip' stuck to the inside of the door frame- if this doesn't work I can always remove that.

[sladey]

Started to move forward now - next the kidney bowl went on - my later one is a bit more substantial thwn the ones on the early cars

[sladey]

Finally came the outer sill. I got a bit of a shock when I popped this on - it doesn't even fit where it touches!







It was a genuine part but the fit was rubbish. A quick message to Jon confirmed that "they're all like that sir", so I just had to focus on getting the line along the bottom of the door spot on

[sladey]

Jon also gave me fantastic advice which was not to weld anything more until I'd screwed the outer sill and door jamb into exactly the right place to get the door closing and the gaps right.

After a while I got to this


To get to this stage I had to expand the lower corner of the door jamb - sort of splay it out a bit.

I was wondering if I needed to get it closer all round. So. Did a bit of research and the looked at the gaps on the other side of the car - my new gaps are way better. I've generally got about 3-4mm.

[sladey]

Had to do a bit of a repair at the front end - the outer sill slots into here

[sladey]

For a bit of light relief I took the front wing off


I was pleasantly surprised - the corrosion wasn't nearly as bad as the other side

[sladey]

Today I've welded the outer sill and door jamb in place and I'm left with this which I'm very pleased with.


Basically all the parts of the job I was scared of have now been done and I'm happy with the results. There's still a fair amount of patching and fabrication to do but nothing I haven't done before

[sladey]

Finally a question

I've got these two tubes sticking into the front inner wing


I think the larger one is a breather pipe for the petrol tank. What should that go into? (Previously it's just been exiting into the air)

What does the other smaller pipe do?

Cheers

Mark

[DustyM]

Jon also gave me fantastic advice which was not to weld anything more until I'd screwed the outer sill and door jamb into exactly the right place to get the door closing and the gaps right.

After a while I got to this

To get to this stage I had to expand the lower corner of the door jamb - sort of splay it out a bit.

I was wondering if I needed to get it closer all round. So. Did a bit of research and the looked at the gaps on the other side of the car - my new gaps are way better. I've generally got about 3-4mm.

Good stuff Mark, great progress. The second side will be easier.

[johnM]

Looking splendid Mark, a big hi 5 to you bro.

[Lightweight_911]

Excellent results Mark - must have been a satisfying week.

Good to have access to Jon at the other end of a phone too.

Have a well-earned beer ...

[Bootsy]

Well done that man. You can get yours back on the road and then buy another project given these new found skills!

[jtparr]

Mark

great to see the further progress...am doing this remotely being abroad again.... but from memory those pipes also had something to do with the headlamp washer tank reservoir unit...?...

jp