CSL Restoration

[Marc-M]

I always knew that the door bottoms were shot at, so I ordered up the door bottom repair section from Walloth& Nesch.

I have to say they are a fantastic reproduction and needed no modification to get a good fit.

So, chopped the bottom out and welded it in – simples!

Next is to repair the Ally door skin - then ensure it fits .

 

[Aussiecsi]

HO HO HO...a very Wally Christmas !

 

[Marc-M]

After carefully taking off the aluminium door skins, I have decided after inspection I will have to put new ones on, it’s a same as I would have liked to re instate the old ones.

The reason is the folds around the edges all have deep cracks in them, and when putting back on would just crack off, so new ones have been ordered.

Welding the crack up is not an option as the weld build up on the back face would be impossible to grinding down right in the fold to give a good fit…

So, while I wait for them to arrive I decided the first thing to sort out on the car was the main chassis leg that was patched up.

The legs are made out of 2mm steel and my bender will only handle 1.2mm at a push so the only way to make the sections was in bits and weld up with tig.

What I have to put up with -

All rot cut out and back to good - I had to use my plasma cutter as I ran out of disks - ...

New 2mm steel cut to fit -

Section welded in - a bit better that what was before - and stronger

 

[Bmachine]

Damn. Talk about bringing one back from the depth of hopelessness... Amazing work!

 

[Marc-M]

Now the chassis rail is sorted, it’s on with the bulkhead – lots off chopping, thank god for the Plasma cutter, so many patches over patches – the repair sections are good reproductions and nearly fit– The pictures are a first early fix as it was 11 last night so a few more hours of tweaking before they sit in nice and snug.

I will be putting all the bulkhead sections in and Clekoing them in place to ensure all is lined up before welding them in, as I have little of the original car to use a ref… so a good few nights left on this corner of the car.
Wow this car is rotten........ Not for long.......

 

[afeustel]

Wow, that is ambitious. Nice work! Love the updates.

 

[Markos]

I didn't realize they made the firewall piece. That brings my CSI into the realm of saveable! The guy that will be doing my paintwork expressed interest.

 

[Sam Lever]

Bloody Hell Marc! Do you have any idea when all of the "work" was done to your car? It would be interesting to know when they put that amount of effort into it. It looks as if it was a while ago, when even CSL values would hardly have justified it. However, thank goodness they did, otherwise yours would be another dead one. Keep up the amazing work and all strength to you.

 

[Marc-M]

Bloody Hell Marc! Do you have any idea when all of the "work" was done to your car? It would be interesting to know when they put that amount of effort into it. It looks as if it was a while ago, when even CSL values would hardly have justified it. However, thank goodness they did, otherwise yours would be another dead one. Keep up the amazing work and all strength to you.

Hi Sam
All the bad workmanship ( and boy they must have spent a long long time on it) was done in the mid 80s as the car has been off the road since then.
I guess because of that the car was saved by the crap work, otherwise it would have most def been scraped years ago.
Its a good job car restoration is my hobby and enjoy it....

 

[Marc-M]

So, it’s time to start taking the car to bits.

I will be taking all the front end off eventually but just took off the inner wing so I could get better access to repairing the bulkhead.

This also give me the opportunity to take off and fabricate a new section that goes on top of the chassis rail as it was rotten.

The bulkhead has a little more rot in it than the new repair section goes, so I have put in an extra section – the bulk head is made from 1.2mm steel.

I normally take spot welds out using the air drill or cordless drill.

But the cordless ran out of power and l forgot to put the spare battery on charge, so I decided to get my big electric drill out.

It was a revelation in spot weld drilling.

TOP TIP

When drilling out spot welds (it must be the most boring (get it) task) if you want to speed it up by a huge margin and start enjoying it, use a big heavy drill, mine is a Milwaukee PY27x, as it cuts through in seconds, it must be the weight of the drill that helps.

I will never use a light drill again.

A new bit made ready to go in

In and welded

Due to more rot that the repair section will cover - a extra bit going in....

 

[NONO88]

Nice Job!!!

 

[Marc-M]

After hacking all the rusty steel out of the A post and sill, I was left with very little.

I was hoping that I could keep the inner sill sections and do some remedial work to the bottoms

However, the bottoms of the inner sill were a total patch up and far too gone to make good.

So, a new pair was ordered and I hope to get them this week.

I trial fitted the new intermediate sill and was surprised that the section is not fully welded top and bottom and that the bottom seems to be floating with the two jacking tabs, I guess welded to something – but as I said I need to get the inner sections to see.

 

[eriknetherlands]

Marc, the bottom flange of the inner sill is actually welded to the outer sill. In the status as in your pic above, indeed they are "floating". I reinforced the jack points with some ribs.

see attached pic, the inner sill has been cleaned and painted epoxy grey. the intermediate sill is still rusty. In green are the spotweld locations, showing they are only connected top and front, not bottom. In red are two triangles that I welded in, used to strengthen the jacking points.
Jacking point have been known to fail, where likely also rust was involved...

 

[Marc-M]

Marc, the bottom flange of the inner sill is actually welded to the outer sill. In the status as in your pic above, indeed they are "floating". I reinforced the jack points with some ribs.

Thanks for that

So I guess I will have to drill holes in the outer sill and plug weld it up along its length..

And I think you are right - I will to put in a bit more reinforcement to the jacking points while it in bits
Thanks for you help

Marc

 

[Marc-M]

So, as I unpick the rotten steel work, it becomes apparent that I could take the whole car to bits.

The floors need replacing and it would be a lot easier to take them out at the same time as doing the sills and rear wheel arch, but I worry about the integrity of the car when half of it has gone!

It is sitting on a heavy-duty jig, but to do the floors I will have to unbolt the rear suspension mounting point and this I have concern with, due to if it moves, getting it back to the original position could be hard work.

So, I will keep what I have left of the floors (this also gives me points of reference for the inner sill) and put the inner, intermediate sills, A post and B post on and then do the floors as a separate job next.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Don't get me wrong Mark, your work is of a very superior caliber however the previous "restorer" should be hunted down and worshiped, possibly a mig-welded pyramid erected in his (or her) honor for what must have been 2 lifetimes of work; imagine seeing the results of the patch work and having the stamina to keep going and going and going. Once again I am in awe and bow my shameful head to those who have accomplished feats such as this! I can't even muster the word "hack" in fear of offending Rob, our resident "hack mechanic".

 

[Marc-M]

Don't get me wrong Mark, your work is of a very superior caliber however the previous "restorer" should be hunted down and worshiped, possibly a mig-welded pyramid erected in his (or her) honor for what must have been 2 lifetimes of work; imagine seeing the results of the patch work and having the stamina to keep going and going and going. Once again I am in awe and bow my shameful head to those who have accomplished feats such as this! I can't even muster the word "hack" in fear of offending Rob, our resident "hack mechanic".

Well you are not wrong

The amount of work that the previous so called car body man did was huge, the massive array of patches were designed and fitted by a village idiot…. But it must have taken an age


It was all gas welded on, I think in the early 80s and these cars must have been rotting from day one.

It’s a shame scrap metal has no worth as I have a pile by my garage door I would have liked to put the bloke under it sometime…

I can see why some car restores don’t like restoring cars that have been meddled with before, as it takes 30% longer to take all the old repairs off and then you have to take off the old original panels.

Thank god for the Plasma Cutter, it saved a huge amount of time.

In this cars defence, the last so called restorer only patched up the car, and did not take off any major panels so I have the exact reference points to ensure the car goes back correctly and even though the amazingly bad work that they did, saved the car, and now it will be put back with lots of care and attention.

But as I have said, for me this is the best bit of restoration so I really enjoy it.

 

[frogisland]

Really have to take my hat off to you Marc. Fantastic to see the deconstruction and rebuild. I think you will make my pile of metal look paltry - there was more in the containers (maybe a topic for a new thread!). Mine, although not near as bad as yours, had many old repairs. My restorer just did metalwork and sadly it put them off doing anymore - and they haven't! I was also fortunate that mine is a race car so had some leeway. The end result makes its worth it.

Incredibly, my e12 that was just 5 years newer needed marginal and very minor repair!

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

the massive array of patches were designed and fitted by a village idiot….

I'm sure there are plenty of villages looking for a perfectly good idiot

 

[Marc-M]

Been away on holiday for 10 days, so got back into my garage to do a bit more work on the car last night…

Fabricated a few patches to in set in into the rear inner wheel arch that was not worth replacing due to only 3 holes and the crazy price for a new inner wheel arch!

Matched in the lines with my bead roller, fitted them- and then ran out of Argon! Doh… so no welding …

Out with the old.....

In with the new...