This page last up-dated 07 March 2006

This 1200 is our current project, her owners call her Emy, so to keep things simple, so will we. She is undergoing a full restoration over the coming weeks and many of the photo's of the work we are undertaking will be posted here.

Emy had some "restoration work" done about six years ago , unfortunately it was of a poor standard and has not lasted, the usual areas have corroded badly as the pictures below show.

The first repair to this particular car was to the corroded roof area, it actually looked worse than it was, but still needed some metal to be cut out and new set in, the area was then grit-blasted and lead loaded to shape. This was because I was more concerned with this area than I am of cutting away corroded panels and welding in new, e.g. heater channel panels.

The final parts have now been removed, as the photo's below show, now for the good part, cutting away rotten metal and replacing with genuine or high quality panels.

We decided , in the case of this car, to replace the heater channels and genuine floor panels one side at a time whilst the body is still attached to the chassis. Once both sides have been replaced, and the rear cross members, the front and rear quarter panels will be welded in place. Then the  body will be lifted clear of the chassis, to enable us to weld the inaccessible areas and weld in the panel behind the pedal area.

While the body is being welded away from the chassis, the chassis will be totally over-hauled, new gearbox mountings, brakes, cables and pipes etc will be fitted after painting.

At this stage the only original panels are the roof, engine lid, boot floor and dashboard area. These needed the poor quality old paint removing as it was blistering, once sanded off the panels were first etch primed and then 2K primed.

The bodyshell has now been filled where it was required over joints and leaded areas, these areas were then covered with polyester spray filler, which was then sanded smooth and then the whole bodyshell was painted with 2K primer.

The chassis was stripped of everything, prepared and then etch primed, then 2 coats of Standox black 2K paint applied to both sides.

After painting, the chassis was stoved for 35 minutes at 80 degrees centigrade.

Then reassembly could begin, starting with new gearbox mountings and rear axle boots, these were all the original parts but after 33 years were now perished.

A new petrol pipe and brake pipes were fitted, also a new master cylinder, the accelerator, clutch, hand brake and heater cables were all renewed because they were worn or broken.

After sealing the joints and seams stonechip was applied to the wheelarches and the underside of the bodyshell, then two and a half litres of Standox 2K Marina Blue paint was sprayed on the bodyshell then low-baked at 80 degrees centigrade.

Three and a half litres of 2K primer sprayed onto the bodyshell, and one and a half litres of Standox 2K black on the chassis.

              

After dry sanding and wet flatting, the bodyshell was sprayed the original colour of Marina Blue.

After fitting the engine to the chassis, the foam body to chassis seal was attached, then the bodyshell was lifted into place, for the final time.

The next stage is to carefully rebuild using the cleaned and refurbished original parts or new best quality parts.

 Stainless steel blade bumpers add that bit of sparkle.

 

 

Finished.

Body Panels Used To Date: