S4s rolling restoration project

[jonwat]

FWIW I swapped the boost gauge & clock positions, putting the boost gauge directly in front of the driver seemed a far more sensible position for it than the clock. 

[tomcattom]

I did consider that, but the VDO oil temperature gauge is a subtlely different design from the rest of the CAI gauges and the OCD in me wouldn't like seeing two different style gauges that close together if I'd put it where the boost gauge is. By doing a straight swap with the clock it's less obvious on first glance that the temperature gauge differs from the rest.

To be honest, I have fitted boost gauges in some of my other cars and having used it to check it was boosting correctly I found myself seldom looking at it after that. My personal preference is to be able to see the engine oil temperature more clearly.

When I looked at it I wasn't sure the wiring would reach to be able to swap those gauages over on mine without extending it, so it's interesting to know that it can/has been done 👍

[Chillidoggy]

I very rarely look at the boost gauge, too busy hanging on for that!

For me, the oil temp gauge/clock swop is the best compromise.

[jonwat]

2 hours ago, tomcattom said:

When I looked at it I wasn't sure the wiring would reach to be able to swap those gauages over on mine without extending it, so it's interesting to know that it can/has been done 👍

No they're not, I had to extend the wires to enable me to move them. 

[tomcattom]

Garden remodelling has been getting in the way of Esprit progress since I got it mobile in the last update but I've resumed work on it again now.

While starting to check the car in readiness for its MOT I noticed one of my main beam bulbs was out so I set about replacing it and prompty opened a massive tin of worms 🤦‍♂️ The adjusment mechanism in the offending pod was bascially dust and the lamp practically fell out when I removed the mask from the pod. Having removed that I then found the carrier plates were pretty rusty, all but one of the lamps had more rust than reflector and the pod pivots had far too much lateral movement, so I've ended up embarking on a complete overhaul of the pods and lamps.

I quickly discovered that the OE lamps appear to be nigh on impossible to replace and where I can get the bits, having done the maths, the overhaul is going to prove costly. I've ended up opting for PNM's LED upgrade kit since it comes with all the parts I need to fit them. I'm not a huge fan of the style of the lamps (no criticism of the quality of their kit, just my style preferences) but given I'll seldom actually see them because the pods will be down when I'm outside and they should improve the forward lighting they seem like the best solution.

Bonnet removed and pods extracted

I think someone has had them out before because the loom has been badly butchered on both sides in the pod wells, so I'll have to address that later.

They aren't supposed to be square holes - seems to be a pretty common issue from what I've read researching on here.

The ball joint fixings on the other side don't look too healthy either.

 

So over the past few evenings I've broken out my fibreglassing skill to effect repairs on the pods ready to refit them to the car. Here they are during the prep stage.

 

And this is them today following sanding. My fibre glassing is definitely getting better as I'm doing more of it.

Rear view of same repair

And the damage around the pod balljoint fitting on the other side are sorted.

 

Next task will be to temporarily offer the pods back up to the body so I can get the correct placement of the hole in the outboard side of each pod and then I can crack on with my least favourite job, painting.

Once they're all painted I just need to modify the pods to accept the PNM carrier plates and lamps.

[Barrykearley]

Looks fantastic chap 👍👍

[Chillidoggy]

Have you already bought the LED’s? I think I have a set of original back plates and headlamps in the garage, condition unknown, though.

Good work on the GRP, looks nice.

[tomcattom]

Thanks for offer of the backplates etc @Chillidoggy but I've already got the kit from PNM sat here ready to go when I'm done making a mess of the paint job on the pods 😆

[tomcattom]

Bit more progress on the headlights over the past few days completing a trial fit of the pods.

New ball joints installed on either side of both pods recesses in the body.

 

I temporarily bolted the sole ball joint into each pod with some small M3 bolts so I can remove them again easily when I paint the pods.

 

I then offered each pod up to its respective recess and bolted the inboard side of each into the bonnet hinge bar. I then rested the bonnet back in place so I could set the fore/aft alignment of each pod relative to the bonnet to get a consisten panel gap. I then marked each wing with some tape to record the position and then removed the bonnet again so I could gain access to re-drill a fresh fixing hole in the outboard side of each pod.

I used an assortement of glazing packers to wedge the pod into the correct place using the tape on the wings for an alignment aid and marked the position of the outboard holes through the outboard balljoint from behind the wing. There is just enough play in the pods to be able to lift them above the wing and drill the holes without having to fully remove the pods again at this stage.

 

Next I bolted the outboard side in place and checked free movement and alignment for the final time. I'm pretty happy with the result.

 

Interestingly the manual shows washers fitted either side of each ball joint. There was enough room for this on the nearside pod, but the offside pod was so tight there is no hope of me getting the prescribed washers in there so I think it will have to go without. My only worry is on the outboard side it will mean the balljoint is directly in contact with the pod which I don't like, but I have no room to do anything about it, so I'll just have to suck it and see. There is evidence of prior fibreglass repairs from its early life crash on that side, so I'm presuming those repairs have robbed me of the precious few millimeters of space for those washers...

 

The pods have now been removed again and I've begun to reinforce the outboard mounting holes in the pods to prevent them from going square again in the future. I've glued a 3mm thick M6 washer to the inside of the pod and once the glue has set tomorrow I'll encase it in fibreglass to ensure its can't move and then I'll crack on with filling and painting the repairs before the final fit.

[jonwat]

Worth grinding flats on the washer sides to ensure they'll never spin? 

[tomcattom]

Its an interesting thought @jonwat. I only really need the washer to stay centred on its current poisition to prevent it from allowing the 6mm hole in the outboard side of the pod opening up again so if it does end up rotating that shouldn't be an issue I wouldn't have thought, its lateral movement I'm trying to prevent by doing this.

[sailorbob]

12 hours ago, tomcattom said:

Interestingly the manual shows washers fitted either side of each ball joint. There was enough room for this on the nearside pod, but the offside pod was so tight there is no hope of me getting the prescribed washers in there so I think it will have to go without. My only worry is on the outboard side it will mean the balljoint is directly in contact with the pod which I don't like, but I have no room to do anything about it,

Could you shim the ball joint so it sits away from its usual mounting face to allow enough room to fit the washer? e.g. move the pod ball joints towards to outside of the car.

[tomcattom]

I might be able to do that @sailorbob . I can't easily adjust the ball joints I've already installed in the pod recesses because that would require me rebating it into the shell to widen the gap between them and that sounds like a tin of worms I don't want to get into now. The sole ball joint in the pod is fitted on the inside so I could pack it out with a washer there, but I'll have to be mindful of that causing the inboard side to foul against its mating ball joint fixing plate. It's certain something I can try on that pod when I reassemble it again after painting 👍

[tomcattom]

In between preparing the pods for painting I've completed a couple of other tasks on the car in the past few days.

First up, the bonnet hinge bar was showing signs of surface corrosion and paint was flaking off quite badly in various places, so while it's off the car because the headlamp pods are out I decided to spruce it up.

I ground all the old paint and corrosion off

 

Then while applying the primer I noticed that one of the arms that the bonnet bolts to didn't looks straight, a quick check with a square confirmed my suspicions. Probably more evidence of former crash damage 🙄

After measuring the hole centres on the bonnet to confirm they are meant to be parallel I chucked it in the vice and tweaked it back into shape.

Finally three liberal coats of satin black paint were applied and its come up a treat. Its one of my better rattle can jobs too Shame no one will ever see it once it's back on the car!

 

Next task was to deal with the butchered front loom in the pod wells. I had planned to removed the exposed crimped on spade connector and resolder the loom. But upon inspection the copper was in a poor state due to exposure from the way its been repaired previously. To do the repair properly I was going to need to remove more of the loom from the car to gain better access to cut back to good copper that I could solder onto reliably. After a quick search on ebay I lucked in a found a whole good front end loom for not very much and decided that was the easier/more reliable option, so today I battled the car and replaced it.

Removing it from the frunk area was the easy bit.

The loom then disappears up over the front nearside wheel arch and into the cabin through here:

After some probing with my borescope I eventually found its entry point into the cabin tucked away at the base of the A-pillar just in front of the door. To gain access I had to remove the front left speaker and interior A-pillar trim. You can see here where it disappear off down into the wheel arch area alongside the washer tube and one of the A/C hoses.

Having disconnected the earth and multi-way loom connectors at the base of the A-pillar I then tied the loose end of a ratchet strap to the loom and pulled it all through into the frunk. I then liberally taped the new loom up to the loose end of the strap and after a bit of heaving and swearing I managed to pull the new loom back through into the cabin again and reconnect the two plugs and bolt down the earth.

Then it was just a straightforward task of routing the loom back round the frunk and plugging it into the right places.

One replacement undamaged loom reinstated in the pod well and I've cleaned up the pod wells as best as I can. Its not really worth the effort of trying to get it any better because the car is about fifty shades of yellow 🤣

[Chillidoggy]

Nice work Tom, but I’m afraid the moniker “50 Shades of Yellow” was taken long ago by Alan Jarrett’s jalopy.

[tomcattom]

If that's taken maybe "Fifty sheds of yellow" is more appropriate given that state my car was/is in 🤣

[tomcattom]

Bodywork on the pods is pretty much done now.

Got the reinforcing washers suitably secured in fibreglass - I don't think I'll be getting any lateral movement in the pods now!

 

Pods all masked up ready for primer after some minor application of filler.

 

I decided to paint the whole of each side of both pods and blended the paint in around the corners. The paint finish has come out so much better than it did on the bumper; no idea what I did differently this time though 😕 They will need a very light wet sand and polish to get them looking their best, but I couldn't be happier with the finish I've got straight out of the tin.

 

I also gave the insides of the pods a light tickle with sand paper and gave them a quick coat of satin black to make them look a bit more presentable too.

Before

After

 

Tomorrow I'll be rebuilding the motors, for ~£20 for the parts it seemed stupid to skrimp on that given all the other work I've done and then its onto reassembly at last.

[tomcattom]

It took a day longer than planned but the lights are once again functioning.

I cleaned up the pod lift arms and fitted a quartet of new ball joints since the original set were shot. These are slightly different to the OE fitment and are a slightly tighter fit in the bottom of the pod, but they function perfectly and I'm hoping their slightly larger size will mean they'll outlast me.

 

I also whipped out the pod lift motors and refubished them too. They were actually fine internally, but since I had new parts I cleaned them up and fitted the new torque pins and regreased them anyway. Reassembling the motors wasn't as bad a job as I'd expected from reading about it in advance.

 

Here is the PNM LED kit all ready to go on.

 

I decided to fit the backing plates to the pods before refitting them to the car because I could do it from the comfort of the bench. In this photo you can see a before an after showing how much you have to open up the holes in the pods to accommodate the large heatsinks on the back of the LED lamps.

 

Before I could fit the pods for the last time I had to address the previously identified issue of the tight fitting drivers side pod and the lack of room for the washer against the newly repaired hole on the outboard side of the pod. I initially looked at spacing the balljoint on the inboard side of the pod inwards to give me more clearance on the outboard, but when I tried that I found the inboard side of the pod fouled on the body when they lift, so that didn't work. After staring at the car for a bit I noticed that there was a noticeable inward bulge of the bodywork around the area of the outboard mount which isn't present on the other side. I think what has happened is that when the front bodywork has been repaired around that pod well the fibreglass repair and a thick layer of filler has robbed me of the precious few millimeters needed to get a washer between the outboard side of the pod and the ball joint. The bodywork is noticeably thicker here than on the other side of the car and there is quite a layer of filler here too.

What I ended up doing was using my Dremel with a routing bit and depth stop adapter to rebate the area in side the tape by a few mm to move that balljoint outboard ever so slightly.

A coat of chassis black paint was applied to protect the exposed fibreglass. Not sure if it was necessary, but it only took a few minutes to do and gives me peace of mind before the balljoint covers it up.

 

Pods all refitted and down positions set flush with the body; the lamps are primed and ready to fit.

 

All powered up and working

 

The operation of the pods is now considerably smoother than before and the lamps don't end up pointing in a different direction every time they're raised now everything is tightened up. Here is a quick video of them in action.

 

I've left the pod masks off until the headlight aim has been setup at the MOT, whenever that happens. There's also a lot of old overspray on the pod masks that I need to remove. I've tried acetone and that doesn't seem to want to budge it, so if anyone has any other ideas how to tackle it, please let me know.

[drdoom]

The most potent solvent I've used is a mix of 70% naptha, 20-25 xylene and methyl alcohol for the remainder. Nasty fumes but highly effective for cleaning.

Cheers 

[Chillidoggy]

I knew there was something I’d forgotten to say.....

When you have the pods out, give the drain holes some serious enlarging. They can very easily block up with leaves and other shite, then what happens is the next time you drive the car, after having washed it, you notice water spraying out of the front corner of the car when you negotiate a bend. Naturally, the headlamp units will also be full of water, and cock everything up nicely.

Don’t ask me how I know. 🙄

[tomcattom]

Guess that will have to wait until they're next out to do that then. The pod holes are at least confirmed clear while the pods were out.

[Chillidoggy]

24 minutes ago, tomcattom said:

Guess that will have to wait until they're next out to do that then. The pod holes are at least confirmed clear while the pods were out.

Yeah, sorry Tom, I wished I’d said something earlier. The alarm bell was ringing, but it never registered. I’d strongly advise having a look in the wells every time you wash it, or if it’s been out in the rain. 

[LotuStuart]

On 25/04/2021 at 06:41, Chillidoggy said:

Have you already bought the LED’s? I think I have a set of original back plates and headlamps in the garage, condition unknown, though.

Good work on the GRP, looks nice.

I can’t seem to email you-but I’m looking for a set of headlamps for my V8. Could you please let me Know the condition and price? Photos would be ideal. 

Thanks!

s 

[Chillidoggy]

8 hours ago, LotuStuart said:

I can’t seem to email you-but I’m looking for a set of headlamps for my V8. Could you please let me Know the condition and price? Photos would be ideal. 

Thanks!

s 

Your messaging is blocked for some reason.

[LotuStuart]

Please try again. Have deleted lots of old messages so inbox is clear now. 

Thanks