Olympic Blue / Silver metallic 1972 US Import 1.7L

[LMR]

sorry, forgot to explain, photo shows the tap cleaning the threads to make sure they are intact.

[Mr Pharmacist]

the underside looks amazing! Very clean. When i stripped my car i was tempted to just clear coat it and leave the bare metal on show, but chickened out - really wish i had now seeing that its a ratty tatty (road legal) track car!

[Canarydelia]

Phil, I've sent you a PM - please check and reply as a matter of urgency. Sorry to mess up your resto thread with this message! Cheers,

[LMR]

I would love to show you progress this weekend, but camera is still at workshop

Nearly finished off the remainder of stripping / sanding of the inner wheel arches, and applied some rust converter to the few small areas where I cannot get the clean and strip wheel in.

Also had an impromptu meeting of the 914 owners, West Midlands branch, with Canarydelia popping over to look at progress and Three Two popping in.

I am allowing one more evening of stripping underneath, then some paint will be going on

[LMR]

Paint is getting closer

The photo below shows a couple of things. The yellow tinge is a two pack corrosion inhibitor, which is applied to the surface to stop rust in future. The orange / rust colour around the pedal support is not rust, it is weld through primer! The black is seam sealer. I would love to take the credit for this transformation, but all the hard work has been done this week by Mark the magic bodywork man.



Masking has started for the primer coat, and I have spent a tidy sum today on a corrosion inhibiting two pack stone chip and other products for the underside. I will update progress as it happens

[Mr Pharmacist]

On the road in time for spring?

[LMR]

Stuart

Spring seems a fairly reasonable target. By profession, I am a project manager, so am very used to preparing programmes, managing risks and allowing contingencies. But, when it comes to cars, I rarely apply my profession - like most people, I try not to take my work home!

I did have a partial plan in place with getting the underside sprayed before Christmas. I am immensely lucky that Mark works to a standard rather than a deadline but has caught me out be being ahead of my programme, and we haven't hit any snags over the last few weeks, and I really have put the hours in to getting the underside to this point.

I need to ensure I do not spend the next two weeks admiring the underside and being too scared to bolt bits to it! Another 4 or 5 months of weekends should see the car completed, but as the quality I am aiming for increases by the month, maybe it will take a bit longer. I have a lot of parts to complete the car, but it is sourcing the minor items which can cause a delay.

Hopefully I am being sufficiently non committal about a completion date?!!

[sladey]

I think "spring" without naming the year is about as non-committal as you can get

[LMR]

Ahh, you spotted my deliberate omission!!

[LMR]

Primered

[glovebox]

Looking good [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

[LMR]

Today has been addressing the fuel tank area. To do a complete job I wanted the bonnet hinges out of the way. I wasn't sure what the correct technique was for this, or whether a special tool was required, so I have improvised.

I think I picked this technique up from youtube, I am definitely not smart enough to figure it out myself

The bonnet springs are pretty tough. The coils are also tightly spaced



With the bonnet in the lowered position, the space between coils increase



The length of the spring and therefore the tension on it can be decreased if the spaces can be filled. But that is fairly pointless information as the spring is not visible when the bonnet is closed. So instead I came up with a high tech substitute to simulate the bonnet in operation



So with the spring under tension I filled the gaps with penny washers and steel off cuts, and lifting the bonnet hinge back up allows the spring to come free



The infill parts are pretty easy to extract by holding the spring in a vice and flexing it sideways. I am not sure if I will be refitting the springs or fitting gas struts. Does anyone have experience with the latter?

[Mr Pharmacist]

Haha! Love your spring solution!

I have thought about converting to gas struts front and back but haven't done anything about it

Edit: camp 914 do kits for front and back http://camp914.com/products.html

[LMR]

Stuart, thank you!

Import charges, postal costs and poor exchange rate have been putting me off ordering from the USA, but I think I might have to swallow hard and spend the cash. I was wondering whether to fly out to LA and load up a case with a load of goodies!

[Mr Pharmacist]

If you do let me know! I might be off to Boston next year so if I do I'll let you know!