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CHANGES

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Everything posted by CHANGES

  1. Basically yes... 1&4 TDC the dots should align .. one cylinder will be valve closed the others on the rock (overlap) .. But no one has mentioned the auxiliary pulley .. on the 912 this with have a dizzy and this must remain in time with the TDC and cam timing . This may sound picky but the dizzy's don't like re-orientation .. they will rotate a bit but too much and you wont be able to get the clips undone easily .. This is where all the skin comes of the back of your hands .. But of course the pulley dots may not line up at TDC because of previous head skim etc .. you also need to establish the accuracy of TDC with DTI.. if this is the case to insure you find the best timing option without fitting adjustable pulley's .. This is where it gets technical .. Like @Sparky i have thrown a few spanners at these donkeys and what he was trying to point out is they can be fiddly little shits.. We hear so many sob stories of simple but very expensive mistakes ,, please don't be one.. This forum site will give you the best advise you will get anywhere on these engines .. There are threads on here that will cover details that you should be aware of with regard to cam trimming set up and belt change .. hope that helps
  2. Hi Grahame @Gjk I am sorry if i missed your pm. I checked back and could not find it .. i do try to answer all pm's and help out where i can .. Anyway, I think the area you refer to is the inside of the switch recess. You are correct the veneer wont take such a tight fold even with steam .. To the best of my memory when I glued the new veneer over the the switch hole i trimmed it out leaving it slightly proud. This was then sanded to a mitre . Small pieces were then cut to go inside the return of the hole where the switches go with matching mitres . These needed steaming to get a partial curve for those tight corners .. But four sections were needed . To memory it was fiddle with all sorts of wedges and jigs to hold firmly in place while curing . When all covered it was sanded as one before applying the gloss finish.. Make sure there is enough clearance for the veneer and clear coat gloss to allow the switches not to catch when re-fitted. I can not find the pic's of the process , probably stuck in old computer files. but tried to blow up area from general internal pic.. not the greatest quality , but you can just make out how that method finishes up .. hope that helps ..
  3. Hi Patrick I would start by measuring the set up height from the Chassis to the floor at the designated points.. This will give you the accurate data to start from .. If you have used all the correct parts and procedure it should be close to spec. . If not at least you have a data point to work from .. Unlike a steel integral chassis car the bodies on the Esprit do vary. So expect some differences to the arch height .. The important height is floor to the chassis . Torqueing up the bushes at the correct ride height is imperative to get the best results.. This being done at assembly height or other, is the most common reason for height and handling issues.. There are ways of shimming the body to get the desired level arch appearance once the correct chassis ride height is established .. Hope this helps ,
  4. Uhmm ,, If you think a manual is expensive, just wait and see how much your first f**k up is going to cost you for not having one.. Especially as you just shot yourself in the foot with your remarks.. This forum is in my experience the best out there , especially for Esprit owners.. technical help and advise is readily given.. This is priceless when it come to things that are not in the manual .. ie fault finding and failure reasons, etc the list is endless... I think a big apology to the CEO and readership would be a good start .. COURTESY COST NOTHING .
  5. @PrecisionMike The reason I have used these recommended products is purely because they have worked without issue in the particular application.. It is very rare for the 4 pot to fail or leak at the liner.. Not so with the V8 but that is another story .. This is even with the expansion/ contractions you refer to. .. Ensuring the land area /liner seat is fully matching the liner is an important aspect as i said earlier, so the nip pressure creates a zero thickness seal surface at that point.. By ensuring you use plenty of sealer around the sides , you will help stabilise the liner at the same time as helping seal quality ... Your choice of sealer is free to you to experiment with.. I as one are no stranger to trying other applications/products on the Esprit.. But , Its only when you test over time you can gauge the quality and suitability of changes and products made and used.. On my own Esprit I have tried certain things that have not worked to my satisfaction, then needed to redo that area reverting to original or something else.. In the case of the liner sealants used, They are still available, work as needed, so I have not seen any reason to risk trying others... I suppose the main reason is if a different sealer was used and failed , its a hell of a lot of work to put right when no gains were being made by changing in the first place .. Sometimes it is easy to overthink certain aspects, but I do agree new and more advanced products that are available now, could work just as well as the originals.. All it needs is someone like yourself to try them and report back at 100,000 miles how they have worked out ..
  6. @PrecisionMikeOn early iron liner engines I think a PL32 hylomar was used . I believe 572 came in later .. You can use either without issue if you follow the instructions .. The expansion of the iron and Nikasil liners are at different rates , hence the nip height difference. I think this is why people use the Hylomar instead of the 572 on iron liners . However the 3400 hylomar is anaerobic like the 572 . The PL32 is more like the instant gasket stuff you find in factor shops .. These were the recommended items to use , i never had issue with them ,so never tried others ..
  7. @PrecisionMikeI always used Loctite 572 on the 4 cylinder engines including my own . Some people have used Hylomar 3400 which became the alternative for the V8's ..
  8. As my involvement in this restoration comes to an end , I have time to reflect on what was required to get #44 back as is should be, body wise .. As always these are hard work but so rewarding to do. As we left it with the bonnet I will start with a pic of it finished, But its only when I look back that a proper comparison can be made .. Front panel/headlamp pod, before /after.... Remembering that out of shape poorly repaired , gel cracked quarter. After...... the rear transom area After...... And who could forget that roof...... After..... Getting the gaps smaller and consistent , is always rewarding , especially the t/gate and door gaps, along with panel alignment So that is it , onto the trailer and back to Derek. I would like to thank Derek for the opportunity to work on #44 and look forward to seeing it all completed ... For those who may not be aware, This was my last customer job, I am now retiring from restoration professionally... My own Esprit has been neglected too long, so after a short break that will be my next task.. thankyou, Dave Lisle ( CHANGES )
  9. Next stage is to shadow coat the black primer with white... Then you guessed it more flatting... This was much the same as previous except with much finer grade flatting paper.. The main consideration here was quality of flatted finish as the colour coat will be next.. The colour was applied in 4 coats , a light gripper coat followed straight after with two full weight .. after 20 minutes flash off a final drop coat was applied .. Another 30 minutes flash off, then a tack rag to remove any residue .. Then clear coat is put on .. one gripper coat followed by 2 full coats , 20 minute flash off then two more full weight coats .. Not bad out of the gun. But will still need some finessing .. The next step will make some cringe , but yes its back to flatting .. This is what is referred to as colour flatting . Many will just do what is called a nip and polish to remove any dust spots etc.. I prefer to remove any orange peel effect no matter how slight, especially on black .. As a result this requires being way more aggressive . The above is stage one , below is the second stage on the side section , with the centre still at stage one flatting.. The first stage was done with 1200 grit , second with 1500 grit.. This was followed by 2500 Then 3000 then 5000 A quick check with the line board for any little Wobblies that are harder to see in the semi matt finish . When happy, its on to the final flat with 7000 grit paper . As you can see we are now getting an acceptable flatness. So next stage is to work though the layers of polish grades with the mop, but i wont bore you with those just show a finished section .. Now all i have to do is the rest of the panels and the shell to the same standard .. Even more flatting.. but the result is worth all the effort.. Next post will be the culmination of all the hours of work ..
  10. After all that flatting and shaping, the wrists and finger are starting to feel the strain.. Time to take a break and shoot some paint,(well the polly coat) Three full coats were applied and this stuff goes on thick and heavy .. The polly coat leaves a very orange peal finish, while at the same time isolating all the substrates from any solvent ingress during paint application. Once applied we leave for several days to fully cure and get on with all the panels . The front spoiler off this Esprit was well damaged with previous repairs, so needed complete re-laminating like the rest of the body. Maintaining the shape was important so most of the work was done while fixed to the body .. This along with the rest of the panels were finished and polly coated . Everything then went into shadow coat of black...... Then back to MORE FLATTING , Its a good job i enjoy doing this. The above pic shows the orange peal clearly .. By using a large semi flexible sanding plane you can expose any low spots that did not show up in previous stages.. These will tend to be micro dips and easily missed.. Any of those little spots can be fatted out while carrying the flatness through to the tailgate and cap rails in one plane or curve angle. When the outer body is done its on to the panels and inner sections You may have also noticed that the panels have been fitted and removed and re-fitted several times during the processes. This is to insure alignment is maintained and provide access to normally closed off areas. A real pain but necessary Now another break from flatting..... Time to shoot some black primer at it ..... When you get to this stage , without the photo history no one would know how much effort has gone into each section .. And what was actually under that coat of paint ?... It can cover a multitude of sins , short cuts and cock ups !! Next stage More flatting ....
  11. Time to finish this thread. A lot has gone on in the last year, some hold ups and a lot of storage time . However the work did continue , I just never found time to update. So back to it ..... THE BONNET, This was going to be fun , a lot of work went into matching to the adjacent panels , but it still needed lots of levelling.. On the above pic , all the dark areas are low spots. On a good black paint job this would look all lumpy and crap .. This was the same all over with some major low spot areas.. So the only answer was to give this new panel the same treatment the rest of the body has had ( did not anticipate that) A quick check with the flexible steel ruler confirms the consistent profile is achieved . There was a big belly droop in the centre section, This took quite a bit of building to retain the profile in all 3 section of the bonnet .. Failure to do this would create a break in a smooth transition between the front panel and the bonnet angle .. This can be seen in the gap under the steel ruler, the dark area was actually 4mm at the worse point .. The next post will see the prepped shell going into polly coat then primer.. I will do this in the next few days , I think a year between posts is to long
  12. Above is a link to the original post on the induction development that @MrDangerUS is making reference to , for those curious ( page 12).. It does make a massive difference , but only as part of a package .. There will be some gains as an isolated area as Mr.D illustrates due to reduction in turbo scavenging that causes higher MAT. However In the second pic, of Mr D's post you can make out the intake grill on the body near the fuel cap .. Very early on this was identified as a choke point due to the restrictive nature of the grill by size .. We found fitting a circa 10mm or 1/2'' fine wire grill gave 30% more flow capability .. We also increase the intake aperture to 4'' .. This is a fiddly but very doable mod.. The next point is the air filter element .. This should be change to the highest flow unit available , especially when retaining the original position and housing .. We also found that gains were made by reducing the number of bends and making the run as short as possible.. All small points but they add up .. The only other point is the crank case breather pipe funnelling back to the intake .. This can increase MAT and reduce air quality .. Fitting a catch tank instead is a better option ..
  13. I have been asked if there are only the two wheels, the answer is no . It is a set of four as originally fitted to my own Esprit..
  14. I have a set of these wheels surpluss to my needs . These are the V8 wheels which are the same size as the S4s ... They are 17 inch front and 18 inch rear .. They can be supplied with center caps.. I would like £2000.oo GBP .. but open to sensible offers . You can contact me on the forum message , on my mobile 07889 647406, or e-mail ... espritchanges@yahoo.com
  15. You can see the two countersunk screw holes either side of the earth strap lug in the photo .. When Esprit have been repainted these can get disguised by paint and need cleaning out before removal . There is very little bonding to the GRP body and releases quite easy .. As part of the crash structure its strength come from the cross beam and sill anchor plate, along with the alloy door bar when closed.. In the case of this Esprit in pic, the sill anchor plate had rotted out . A rear quarter impact pushed on the door bar and the 'A' post bottom was not secure. As a result the whole structure moved forward damaging all the front arch and floor section along with the front wing .. I doubt if any of that damage will have happened if the sill anchor point was as per design spec. See Pic's
  16. @Escape Don't forget there is two small screws holding it in place through the 'A' post GRP .. i also covered this and how to do in the Oops crash bang repair thread .. on page 3. hope that is of help
  17. So moving on to the tailgate, we first start by putting a skin of filler to level out the low spots on the roof section This was flatted using the roof as an extended profile guide, flatting across the two panels .. At this stages we also fitted the capping rails with a shim under them to allow for the trim that will be fitted on completion . Whist waiting for the fillers to fully cure out , the top of the rear quarter panels were built up with GRP and then fillers to the same stage, but now all in lining up properly . Once a rough gapping had been set the next stage was to apply the glaze coat. At the same time the rear transom was re-formed to match how the tailgate sat in that area. Then a glaze coat applied . Once the glaze coat was on all the back section, it was time to move back to the front and address the bonnet . The original bonnet was long gone and a new replacement had been supplied. I thought this would be straight forward and had not paid much attention to it .. Big mistake ! . You have all heard the saying ' it fits where it touches ' . well that was just the start of it .. I fitted the new seal and put in place.. Uhmmm .. This was going to take a bit of adjusting and custom fitting same as the tailgate .. But that was just the start.. On careful inspection, It soon came apparent the mold this came from, was itself taken from a less than perfect example .. It was deformed on the outside , pushing up where the hinges mount , along with the usual dips and hollows normally found in really old panels, Not really what you expect from a new panel .. I will move onto this in the next post ..
  18. Quite a bit of work was needed to get the doors to run true and fit at all the corners without any gap height dip. As you can see from the next two pic's they were just ugly.. The door height and overall position is determined by the waste line profile . The rest has to be formed from that point . So with it now in the correct position we can finish the filling section and close those gaps up .. This is followed by the glaze coat which will refine the finish further. This is then block flatted across the gaps to make sure the gap height dip is eliminated and a true flat body line can be seen front to rear. After refining the few low spots you can see marked , the gaps can start to take shape.. We now have to leave that side and repeat on the other side, letting the fillers fully cure before finishing. Moving back to the roof and tailgate. Once the the tailgate was positioned in the best possible match, we were left with a bit of a dilemma.. In the pic;s above you can make out that the center of the t/gate roof section has sunk, signified by the shadow under the profile guide.(steel ruler), but that was not the main issue . (above)The bottom edge was fairly true along 2/3rds then ran high on the one corner .. This can be addressed at the same time as tidying up that gap. However the side height match with the top 1/4 panel were another thing altogether . We don't need a straight edge to see that.. I will get into how we overcame this in the next post.. and yes in involves more flatting...
  19. The standard fly weighs 7.2 kg with high peripheral loading. The standard 4 pot clutch assembly weighs in at 7.5 kg.
  20. Well i have been busy and this has been a lot more involved restoration than i first thought .. But here is an update with all the fiddly bits that needed doing along with a few surprises .. So lets get back to to roof where we had established a near profile with all the GRP layers . The next step was to refine profile buy sanding then applying filler , so i coated the whole panel. This is then flatted using a large plane sander until the high/low spots show. This is then recoated with another layer of filler flatted and so on, until a uniform finish with the correct profile is achieved. Once achieved I move on to the next section and allow the fillers to fully harden before progressing further .. The same process is followed on all panels , Here are two pics of the rear quarter undergoing same, First is GRP flattened then second filler stage. When the rear quarters and front wings reach the above stage I refit the doors .. They were previously fitted and shimmed , but now will need setting before then filler layers can be applied to get the flat alignments we are looking for . The straight edge shows up all the miss matches . It lets you see how the panels roll in at the gaps.. The gaps are not good.. HUGE in spots and very inconsistent.. something just had to be done to correct that .. In above pic, the first fillers were applied on the door to correct the worse sections . This was followed by the second layers which were planed in one with wing and quarter to give that flat alignment we are looking for The same job was done on the other side , getting these section to the same as the roof.. next post will show how we finished these off and matched the tailgate to the roof, quarters and transom..
  21. I think you will find Barry is referring to the alloy front pipe connection .. the Tank on the SE is steel ( if still original ) But the connection can be brazed welded or soldered back or a ne alloy replacement obtained .. The hose is there to remove any air from the system during use .. The top of the alloy pipe being the highest point in the cooling system , the bleed point . The air will go to the header tank which should always be full . By means of expansion and contraction of the fluid in the system the air will go to the expansion tank in the boot space over time . this tank should always have coolant in it which will increase and decrease with temp .. what it does is keep the header tank full at all times . se level marks on tank . This is different to the later models .. Note the CC tank is only ever to be half full.. Hope that helps .
  22. JPS #044 continuation Moving on from the GRP lay up on main damaged areas, we need to flat back to establish uniform thickness and shape.. Because the GRP is a tough substrate it take quite a bit of sanding and shaping to get right .. As i said previous we can not just attack it with a grinding disc , it needs progressive flatting.. During this process we also make sure there is no air pockets trapped between the layers .. So far i have none but they can happen and if not addressed can give you problems later .. This is the point where my processes start to differ from what was done on giorgio67 in previous post .. At this point instead of applying filler then sealers and primers , I coat the whole repaired area in a GRP tissue bridging coat .. In the case of #044 that will involve doing virtually the whole of the shell. This will provide a completely sealed and very stable layer as a foundation for the next stage. As i have said before this is not an easy substrate to flat out which is why most will avoid this stage . As you can see i am putting a grey tint in the resin . This is so i can see where has been coated while at the same time providing a guide to over flatting the finish .. Although it would not be an issue flatting through i try not to , thus maintaining a fully sealed coat ... With the grey tint you can see when its getting a bit thin in spots so time to stop. The last two pics show show that stage complete on those sections. Because of the curing time of the GRP we have to jump from section to section to keep the flow of work .. So we now move back to the roof.. This was flatted in the same way as the other repairs establishing shape and required thickness.. Then the tissue layers were applied .. Once this had cured for a few days i checked how close the profile was. This was surprisingly close . For those who have followed my previous threads , you will have seen me use this method on an original roof of similar age 'G' Esprit. On that one like most originals it had sunk over time to a worse situation than this repaired version .. The up side is the next stages should be a bit easier that the last one, requiring less shape building to get final profile .. So till next update back to more flatting .. Oh so much dust .. !!!
  23. @giorgio67 You certainly seem to have a lot of fillers to deal with .. It seems the previous repairer chose not to use GRP .. The problem with those sort of repairs is routing out the extent of the gel crack .. It will only be possible by removing all the layers in the effected area's and associated stress points then applying a stain to expose it .. This is why on jobs like 044 i just remove all gel coat on damaged panels , it minimises any risk of crack appearing in finished repair .. You will note i always grind back the badly effected areas, then replace with as close to the original thickness of panel as possible. I do this to prevent sinkage or distortion that can appear later as the composites fully dry out ... This can take months and be effected by temperatures . Are you going to apply a GRP tissue bridging coat to seal in your repair Or just prime .. ? They all have their challenges , maybe this is more what you had in mind.
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