DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Just caught up on this, fantastic work, looking great!

Back from my hols, the Garage Bitch came a-callin', and we fitted the windscreen.


Having remade the bottom corners of the windscreen aperture, it was always a risk that the screen would no longer fit. So before we get close to paint, it was time for a test fit. I managed to crack the windscreen getting it out from underneath all the cr4p in the loft, but luckily it stayed in one piece. The screen has signs of delamination and I intend to fit a heated screen, so this luckily one wasn't needed anyway. Thanks to Andrew (Fat Fuchs), I had a usable (well for test purposes anyway) screen rubber. Took us quite a while working out how to get the screen to start, but suddenly all fell into place (both figuratively and literally), and the screen was in. Having taken a while to fit, I took the picture then removed it.

Didn't take a separate photo, but just visible in the one above - we also put a layer of masking tape around the rear edge of the front wings and scribed a line 20mm from the front edge of the doors. Why 20mm, well that was the width of the paint stirrer / tongue depresser I used ). A quick look-see and I know that I need to build the wing edges up to 15mm from the line on the tape. Saves having to try to build them up in situ, or to keep having to fit and check. My master plan is still to fill and prep the rear wings and spray the tub before the winter gets here (too much sailing ). The wings will follow that.

Put another coat of filler over the welds on the rear wings and that was all I manage today, but at least some progress.

Cracked it getting it out of the loft my arse. I know it was tough to get in but I told you a BFH was a really bad idea

Well many apologies for almost a month without an update. That is in part due to being away sailing most of the time, and also that when I occasionally get time on the car, the changes are not humongously visible.

In better news, ordered last December, I finally received these ….


First there was a delay in getting the pistons to the UK, then more delay waiting for the rings. I believe that Wossner finally liberated rings from another set. One of them is now with Lee at Octane while ‘his man’ bores my barrels to 98mm. Happy times. Could have been worse, Lee waited 12 months for his pistons, which finally arrived when mine did.


Back in the man cave, the rear wings have gone from grey to grey. That’s what I mean by little visible progress, although there have been quite a few hours burned to get between grey & grey.

In the deep mid-winter, after stripping, I painted the wings (and the rest of the car) with epoxy to protect them, but the temperatures were so low that I almost had to spoon the paint out of the spray gun. There was some orange peel ! So, to more recent times. Firstly the rear wings were rubbed down smooth and recoated with epoxy primer in June. Now they were lightly sanded and coated with a few coats of primer filler.

Similarly, after lightly skimming a few areas with filler, the drivers door.


All areas now look presentable, except I could feel an undulation on the NSR wing, so more work needed. Start by a liberal coat of guide coat, and follow with rubbing down


filling


and while I had filler mixed up, apply some to the base of the NS door. It looks like the lower door had been a shade too close to a kerb or similar. Unfortunately the dent/depression/crease is nicely placed where I can't access behind to beat out, so filler needed.


Some guide coat on the door, then notice a couple of slight dents elsewhere in the door, so yet more filling, rubbing down, then more filler,


Took a few goes around to be happy with the rear wing – not sure whether I had a high spot or a low spot, but where I had re-welded the rear wing, I could definitely feel something I wasn’t happy with. Anyway, happier now


So finally for now, as our ‘enry would say, splash it all over – a couple of good coats of epoxy and that brings us up to date.


I emptied the spray gun by putting a light extra coat on the rear wing, so a little 'textured', but the panel looks smooth now

Well doesn't time fly !. Lots of sailing, a bit of work (sailing is paid for as well, but SWMBO says that's not work, I'm just dicking about having fun, so that must be right then) and a week’s holiday and suddenly its 10 weeks later !

I’ve ventured into the garage a couple of times, but life has conspired against me. First elder daughter decided to quit her job and go travelling. This apparently includes leaving her house and bringing all her crap home for me to store. Well the garage loft was full of my deconstructed car but apparently that is no excuse. So all my ‘stuff’ had to come down into the garage, shelving was constructed in the loft, darling daughter’s important stuff was placed on the shelving and only some of my porky bits managed to fit back in the loft.

Never mind, back onto the car and continue running the pipes and cables down the tunnel. Here life had another laugh, as I realised that when I ran the main loom down the tunnel (my good night, what an effort that had been), I had passed it through the wrong hole in the rear bulkhead. By the Law of Sod, the wring of course needs to be fitted from the back to the front, so first I had to pull it all out of the car, pass it through the correct hole and run it down the tunnel again. Only took me 2 days of brief pass outs.
Never mind, ‘tis done now.





So onto the fuel lines. I had cut the flexible ends off the lines and bought flexible pipe and new end fittings. Unfortunately the Mikalor clamps were too large, so a slight delay while the correct sized items arrived. However, all now assembled and pipes run through the tunnel, c/w new grommets. It is amazing how despite a squillion photos, you never managed to take the reference photo that would make reassembly simple.

In a moment of excitement today, I made a new brake pipe to run from the rear to the front and installed that (although either I haven't bought, or I've temporarily misplaced the new grommets), along with the clutch and throttle cables. I haven’t got my pedal box nor flapper valves refurbished yet, so there’s not a lot to connect them to, but at least they’re no longer on the floor. Surely the speed cable must be in one of the boxes.

Fuel pipes hanging out of the front bulkhead (forgot to take a photo after I added the brake line)


Rear bulkhead adorned with fuel & brake lines plus clutch and accelerator cables (must complete running the main power cable into the car).

Looking good Peter. Must feel good to be getting it somewhere near the right shape!

Still have to finesse the front wing to door gaps and probably to pull the inner wing tops in to fix the wing to bonnet gaps. I’d love to find a Celette with time & space to confirm (or otherwise) that the tub is true.

That said, yes it is great to be finally moving forwards.

Love this thread

Come on Peter! Where's the tumbleweed emoji? Boating season must be over surely!!

Still sailing, although not as much Phill - but am off this afternoon for another week away.

I have tried plating the rear swing arms - bit patchy yellow but not bad for a first effort. Plan is to get the rear suspension back together next.

I’ve run the looms, rebuild fuel pipes, freshly made brake lines, handbrake cables, throttle, etc through the car. In less good news, when trying to insert the flapper valve control cables, I found both tubes blocked solid (detritus from the rinse after paint stripping). I bought some long 4 & 5mm drills and have eventually cleared the rhs. Still working on the lhs - made more awkward by breaking the drill bit in the tube .

... and 'cos I know we all like piccies ....

Did you set up your own plating tank then?

Yes siree

Big plastic storage boxes from IKEA for the main plating & two passivating tanks plus a few large builders type rubber(ish) buckets from a cheapo shop for rinsing. Acid & alkaline prep / cleaning baths are 10 litre buckets.
Does take quite a while for each batch and batch size isn't huge - each swing arm plate was separate, as was each torsion tube end plate.


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Well ………finally the lhs flapper valve control cable tube is sorted. No more sailing until the last weekend of the month / first few days of December, so back into the garage when possible. That sounds better than it is in reality, as SWMBO has been made redundant and decided that rather than getting another job straight away, she will go to New Zealand and join our eldest daughter for 3 weeks on the final leg of her travelling. That unfortunately means that there has been lots of rushing about, getting ‘stuff’ for her trip – all this time of course comes off my ‘play time’, not my ‘chores time’. Still, should get plenty of ‘play time’ while she’s away.

Anyway, having previously a broken a drill bit in the flapper valve control cable tube trying to clear the detritus out, I have tried loads of things. Welding rod, brake pipe with a ‘cutting end’ fab’ed up, swearing (lots of that), etc, but nothing worked. I’ve tried filling the tube with water, WD40, alkaline solution and an acid solution (not all at the same time). Having spent faaaar too long on this, I resorted to cutting out a small section. That allowed me to finally get the broken drill bit out. Quick to say but it was so stuck that it still took about 45 minutes !. The crud blockage remained resolute though, so I ended up cutting out pretty much the entire tube, just leaving a couple of inches at each end. Even placing the removed tube in a vice and belting a screwdriver down the end, I still couldn’t shift the blockage. I had some metal tube, so I made a replacement section, and being quick of mind but low in skill, I simply joined the new bit of tube in using shrink wrap at each end. Worked a treat, and the flapper cable runs just fine and dandy now.

Plating has slowed, as I don’t seem to be able to get much (if any) coverage anymore. I guess my anodes are all used up – they are very thin and extremely black now. I’ve ordered some more, but also enquired about getting the swing arm bits, the front strut top cups and the fan clamp plated locally. £60 all in and upto 2 weeks. Result. I will get the plating kit working again though, as I’ve loads of small items that need doing.

I then had a rush of blood to the head, and decided it was time to strip some assemblies ready for painting. So in quick order, the flapper valves came apart, followed by the handbrake lever assembly and finally the pedal box assembly. Actually, the handbrake lever was not so quick – the main bolt that everything pivots on was rust welded inside the handbrake lever tube, which has come loose from the lever itself. Looks as though it was probably brazed before, but certainly isn’t now. Lots of rust eating solution and a big hammer, followed by an even bigger hammer sorted it. The M6 thread on the end of the bolt suffered and it looked like the lathe would be called into action, but a little patience and effort with an M5 die got it back to operational condition.

Now have a small pile of bits ready for painting

Pending the sand blasting of the flapper valves and pedal box components and following Phill’s visit with his ’new engine’, I decided to crack on with some suspension rebuilding.

I collected the various parts from the multiple boxes, unhelpfully distributed in the far flung corners of the garage, shed, loft, etc and laid them out. The nuts and bolts, etc, got a good degreasing and even though I’m not quite ready for them yet, the handbrake parts got a wash in brake cleaner.

Moved the press to a more convenient location


Before long the bearings were in (so much easier with trailing arms removed and placed in a press than while still fitted to the car)

And shortly after the hubs were back together. I’ll add the brake parts and finally tighten the hub nut when the training arms are back on the car.



Then in a moment off further excitement, I decided to tackle the front Bilstein struts. Not very helpfully, the manuals all show Boge type struts, but the Bilsteins are fairly obvious.

Getting the roll pins out was not a whole lot of fun, but they eventually agreed to depart the struts and the damper assembly fell out. I looked at removing the sleeve bearing / bushes but conceded defeat, so simply drifted them further down the casing and installed the new bearings above the. Having extra sleeve bushes can’t be anything other than beneficial. New inserts in and new roll pins thumped home (open ends away from the stub axle). New wiper seals added to the caps and refitted, then Golf rear shock dust boots added (my original metal dust caps are none too clever).


All in all, quite a useful and productive play in the garage, and next time I’ll assemble the front wheel bearings.

Quite excited about getting the suspension back on - it will seem a huge step forward