I’ve been meaning to do this for ages but never got round to it. I’ve owned the car since May ‘97 and it had a minor rebuild with respray in 2007 but for the last 4 years was on the drive under a cover. I fitted factory ac in 2003 and leather recaro around the same time. But in October 2020 it was time to strip it down to see what needed to be done. It wasn’t nice what followed:
The dreaded rust was everywhere! I could inspect the condition of the off-side fron tyre through the wheelwell from the inside!. The passender side was not much better. As usual around the "drain plugs" aka rust traps the tinworm had been very busy. I had always known of a leak from inside up near the A pillar but could never find it as it was elusive and needed a full strip down. The offside turret was proper screwed and I knew that this mean that the tank mount would be virtually non-existent. Turned out I was right Both trailing arms mounts were shagged, the rear arches both sides full of rot, the rear quarters and valance dead and toeing eye pulled off in my brothers hand
Lucky for me my brother is a genius when it comes to everything and although the bloody weather did it’s best to stop us we did get some welding done
Over winter 2020 decided that the engine bay needed a tidy, replaced radiator. Powder coated slam panel.
Then got the rear beam off and got it powder coated with new bushes (fun), discs, pads and backing plates. Replaced rigid and flexi pipes. Constructed new Bilstein struts. Used some 3m brand of underseal put on with compressor. And then coated all corners and exposed areas/box sections with Bilt Hamber products.
Polished up all heat shields, cleaned all fuel lines and used new clips (do these ever release a pipe without breaking). Resprayed space saver.Reinstalled the fuel pump housing. Replaced the in tank pump for genuine and replaced that filter. Got myself a period stereo for my 50th! Also replaced the in tank bellows bit which was jelly. Proper immersion proof hose. Whilst fuel tank off cleaned that up and got new straps and stainless bolts. Hate anything that rusts! Avoid Mk2’s then….
Off to the paint shop and pictures from them. It was agony as it was gone for 4 months (that was the deal they would work on it as and when). Saw a great low miles type 19 when it was away which made things much worse!
Using the double membrane method where one sheet drains into the door and the other is an outer one. Had to do this four times and was very boring!!
Started tidying up the wiring using new Tessa tape. Amazing how looms suddenly become half their size and can be tucked away into appropriate runs when taped up. Redone a lot of wiring bodges committed by current owner over the last 1/4 century! Dynamatted entire cabin and roof followed by various grades of closed cell foam. Most boring job in the universe.
So here we are. August 2022 and still not finished. Won’t be long now. Big thanks to my wife and great big shout out to my brother for his support and hard labour doing the nasty jobs I didn’t fancy!
Inner membrane is fixed to outside of door frame at top and sides but draps inside door at the bottom to catch and drain away most of the water. The second layer is fixed to outside entirely and has the proper butyl stuff to form a waterproof seal. Double sealing in this way really helps . I tend to check each is working by putting water down the window at each stage
