1970 RS - A British Resto - Page 4

Done Yet? · 03-25-2011, 05:31:07 AM

Looking good, Thats one panel done and crossed off the to do-list

chevy-stu · 03-25-2011, 06:02:14 AM

Wow... That's a huge project... BE great to see when it's up and going.

When it's all done get in touch as I'm always doing loads of car stuff between London and the South Coast. I'm a Goodwood breakfast Club regular and organise and attend lots of London drives too...

Twilight Cruiser · 03-25-2011, 09:40:34 AM

Really great job, looks better every day.
You say you bolted the new rear rails, isn't that supposed to be welded?

Cowman · 03-26-2011, 09:50:28 AM

Thanks for the comments guys.

Twilight Cruiser - Well spotted! I bolted the frame rails up and clamped them in place. I wanted to check alignments before I committed to welding them up. I'll cover this over the next few posts.

chevy-stu - I'll be sure to keep in touch, once she's back on the road I'll be looking forward to cruising and attending meets! I want to try and take in a few shows this year, any you'd recommend?

I'll try and get some more updates on tomorrow.

Twilight Cruiser · 03-26-2011, 02:58:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowman

Thanks for the comments guys.

Twilight Cruiser - Well spotted! I bolted the frame rails up and clamped them in place. I wanted to check alignments before I committed to welding them up. I'll cover this over the next few posts.

Ok clear!

Cowman · 03-27-2011, 02:17:23 PM

Next was the suspension brackets, I shot blasted all these to remove the loose stuff and then primed them up, pretty happy with the end result.

There was a couple of repairs to do under the arches and I managed to get the other new arch welded up, ground flat and primed.

The garage is starting to feel like home now!

With the frame rails I bolted them in place first and checked the alignment. After lots of measuring, tweaking and checking I decided to take the plunge and weld them up.

Again I ground flat the welds and slapped on some primer to protect the steel as a temporary measure.

The fit of the Goodmark rails was near as dammit perfect. One was slightly worse than the other and needed a little more persuasion, however I'm pleased with the end product. I was surprised how few and far between the original factory welds were. If anything the new rails are more secure than the old ones!

Twilight Cruiser · 03-27-2011, 03:05:29 PM

Looks great man, you cannot even see it was welded. Good job!

Rich Schmidt · 03-27-2011, 03:25:55 PM

Massive reconstuctions like ours are always fun to follow. They start out like autopsy photos but the body gets to come back to life.

Cowman · 03-27-2011, 04:08:22 PM

Thanks guys, your right about the autopsy, tearing mine apart revealed a whole host of things I hadn't accounted for. At least once you've stripped it to this extent then you know exactly what you're dealing with.

My motto has always been that anything can repaired given time and patience, steel is a great material to work with. My thread so far is retrospective but I'm getting it up to date slowly.

Rich Schmidt · 03-27-2011, 06:47:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowman

Thanks guys, your right about the autopsy, tearing mine apart revealed a whole host of things I hadn't accounted for. At least once you've stripped it to this extent then you know exactly what you're dealing with.

My motto has always been that anything can repaired given time and patience, steel is a great material to work with. My thread so far is retrospective but I'm getting it up to date slowly.

Yup,what looks like a little rust on the outside can be a train wreck underneath. I was shocked when I cut open the sides of my dashboard where the A pllars meet up. There wasnt much left there. Same goes for the inner brace in the doorjam that the 1/4 welds to . You wouldnt know by what is typically left on most cars but that brace is supposed to meet the top of the rocker panel. I have found that it is best when you can see for yourself what is holding your car together. There are a lot of mudded up bondo buggies out there.

Done Yet? · 03-28-2011, 04:26:01 AM

Great job on the frame rail... you have that project moving in the right direction. Keep up the good work.

Cowman · 03-28-2011, 12:14:56 PM

Firstly thanks for the support guys, a lot of what I'm doing at the minute was researched on this very forum! So with the frame rails on next on the job list was the suspension. In the end I went with Hotchkis sport leafs on the rear with HPS1000 shocks. I was concious that I wanted to drop the rear end a touch and stiffen it up and these seemed to fit the bill. Is anyone running a similar setup and if so what are your thoughts? Regardless it should be a significant improvement over my 'non matching' original ones!

Pretty shiny new bits! Gotta love that feeling of putting new parts on a car!

I wasn't very happy with the factory finish (plus there was some shipping damage) so I rubbed the leafs down and gave them a coat of KBS Blacktop, this way they have a decent weatherproof finish and match the axle.

I assembled the parts and then fitted the wheels to help install the assembly, it was certainly easier to wheel the assembly under than try and jack/lift it in place.

I got the front buckets bolted up and then lifted the axle up with a jack to meet the rear shackles.

Once this was all installed I lowered the body back down onto pallets and blocked the rear wheels up. At the minute the whole car and rear end is supported to keep the weight of the axle and suspension off the frame rails.

I'm thinking of installing the matching Hotchis suspension on the front end, so that would be the sport coil springs with a 2" drop and another pair of HPS1000 shocks. I figure these components should work well with each other whilst lowering the stance enough to make me happy!

JohnL71RS · 03-28-2011, 12:26:25 PM

Cowman,

Make sure you have the weight of the car on the wheels or have your jacks under the rear end before you put on your rear qrts. It loads the frame and if you don't, you might have alignment issues after.

Cowman · 03-28-2011, 12:43:07 PM

Thanks John, I've got the whole car bellyed out on pallets so all four corners are off load. The rear axle and wheels are packed up with chocks to keep any load off the frame rails. Everything on the rear is only finger tight and the shackles are loose fit only to keep everything sqare.

I too was worried about things moving, I'm confident that all the weight is accounted for. I wont be removing any of the supports until I have the roof and rear panels on and welded up. Only then will I drop her back onto her wheels.

Looks like your making some great progress on your project, looks like your nailing out those panel gaps!

Rickdef17 · 03-28-2011, 12:50:45 PM

Love it. Great thread. You do some nice work.