S4s rolling restoration project

[tomcattom]

Yes, mine is an early S4s. The early combined chargcooler/condenser is bolted in from the bottom of the tray and then four panel edge clips are supposed to hold it to the upright bars on the rad frame. Later versions seem to have some metal brackets to hold the two rads together and then it's bolted in from the side of the pack from what I can see in the parts list.

I found some panel edge clips that have wider jaws last night so I'm going to measure the gap between the rads today and if it's within range I can put some packers between the rads and use these larger clips 🤞

[tomcattom]

I don't enjoy painting anything at the best of times, let alone parts of my car, but the various bodywork repairs needed doing; it was stressful to say the least. I painted the frunk floor first and despite my best efforts to sand and clean the area the paint reacted in the area between the two main cracks I repaired and I ended up having to sand the whole area back and start again  Thankfully it and the boot floor came up fine on my second round of painting. Got a bit of dust still to clean up in the boot area but I'm satisfied with the finish.

[tomcattom]

Managed to finish off the gear linkage overhaul this evening having had a parcel of parts delivered this morning.

When I took the exhaust cradle off the car I noticed one of the bolt holes for it in the RH mounting bracket had stripped its thread. When I went to helicoil it I noticed evidence of a welding repair, and fearing that may also have been contributing to the misalignment of the gear cables, along with the exhaust frame so I decided not to take any chances and ordered a new one.

When I compared the old one with the new one I couldn't see any measurable difference, but as you can see its clearly been repaired and based on the success rate of all the other previous 'repairs' I couldn't trust the quality of it.

 

New exhaust mounts fitted to the cradle

 

The cradle all fitted back to the car and the gear linkage successfully set up as per the manual at last.

 

Most of the centre tunnel has also been reassembled, but I haven't gone any further with the interior because I need to run some new wiring through to the centre console and its going to be a lot easier to do with the interior partially stripped out.

[Chillidoggy]

If you haven’t already done so, it’s a good idea to use copper grease on those gearbox mount bolt threads, especially as they’re so long and thin. Mine were seized when I came to remove the frame, and I really thought they were going to shear.

[tomcattom]

I haven't copper greased them yet, but I will do. Thanks for the warning.

The two long bolts have actually been bent from the damage that bent the frame so I've got some replacements on order and the frame will have to come off again briefly to allow me to renew the reflective foil around the edge of the boot floor in the area above the exhaust too so I'll do it then.

[Chillidoggy]

I should have said grease the whole length of the bolts, they’re going through alloy, and we all know what can happen when alloy and steel and a bit of water get together.

[tomcattom]

The cradle is made of steel isn't it? So copper grease should be fine in this case shouldn't it.

[jonwat]

And, I'd give that lovely new cradle a couple of coats of paint while it's accessible as an investment against future corrosion if I were you. 

[tomcattom]

I wasn't sure how hardy that plating was going to be so I was planning to get a few bits, including the cradle, powder coated over the winter when the engine is out for the belts to be done.

I'm hoping to be able to drive it before then though, so didn't feel painting it the cradle was essential right now. That said the wife and I are still shielding due to her medication so at this rate I might not actually get out in it before the summer's out. I'll be gutted if that does end up being the case 🙁

[Chillidoggy]

4 hours ago, tomcattom said:

The cradle is made of steel isn't it? So copper grease should be fine in this case shouldn't it.

Yup.

[tomcattom]

Spent the last two evenings putting together a brand new fan sub-loom from scratch. It's all been trial fitted and brielfly tested with a direct feed from the battery.

 

I need to procure some clips to hold the loom to the front of the chassis but I'll sort them when the rad pack is fully installed in due course.

 

Fan fuses all properly secured with new fuse holders again.

 

I've also given the tail pipe a quick once over with some fine wire wool and some metal polish. I don't intend to run this back box long term because I've got the V8 valance, but for now it will look a bit nicer while I get the car running again.

Before

After - I'll go over once more to try and improve it further but I don't plan to spend any more time than that on it - it needs to go back on the car.

[Barrykearley]

Best thing you can do with the old exhaust is ditch it and make one up yourself 👍

[tomcattom]

It only really needs to make it through an MOT and then I can think about changing i providing everything else goes to plan.

[AndyPG]

2 hours ago, tomcattom said:

It only really needs to make it through an MOT

Hi Tom,

Not sure if it's on your to do list (I haven't read every post yet) but that front lower wishbone pivot bush looks to be toshed in the second picture.

The rubber lip looks to be missing and it's metal to metal with the subframe. Could certainly pick up a fail on the MOT if it is as bad as it appears in the pic.

Andy.

[tomcattom]

I hadn't noticed it @AndyPG - I thought I was done with unexpected surprises on the car for now 🙁

Interestingly the bush on the other side looks the same. Is this a common way these bushes fail? Or has someone tried to bodge the wrong bushes into the arm maybe?

Part of me thinks I'll just chance it at the MOT and hope it passes because I'm worried what else might be uncovered if I start stripping down the suspension now.

[AndyPG]

27 minutes ago, tomcattom said:

Is this a common way these bushes fail?

Hi Tom,

Not really a common fault as such, IMO, but after 25+ years in use, many bushes are showing a bit of distress.

It's a fairly easy change and will be affecting your suspension/steering geometry slightly.

A bush can pass if it's slightly cracked or perished but if it has lost it's functionality it's a certain fail if it's spotted.

I think they're about £20 each for PU ones.

35 minutes ago, tomcattom said:

I thought I was done with unexpected surprises on the car for now

They're always just around the corner 😆

 

Andy.

[Chillidoggy]

Welcome to the Esprit Club, Tom.

Please leave your wallet open for anyone passing by to help themselves, and you’ll be fine. Don’t ask me how I know. 

[tomcattom]

You'll only find a couple of maxed out credit cards caused by Esprit ownership in my wallet 😂

[AndyPG]

2 hours ago, tomcattom said:

You'll only find a couple of maxed out credit cards caused by Esprit ownership in my wallet

I used to keep a log of the spend on my Esprit but that period of masochism soon passed. Now I just keep a log of parts and try to forget the cost.

10 hours ago, tomcattom said:

has someone tried to bodge the wrong bushes into the arm

It's the correct bush (probably even original)

From what I've seen, those ones always seems to end up squeezed rearward. You may have lost a couple of degrees of caster with the lower wishbone displaced as it is.

Andy.

[tomcattom]

Couple of important deliveries arrived this morning.

Oil coolers have returned from Serck. One or the original coolers was fine and just required a clean and lick of paint, the other was leaking and has been replaced for a new one.

 

I also took delivery of a pair of replacement ducts for the oil coolers. The drivers one was missing entirely and the passengers side one has a nasty crack in the duct where where the horns are fixed. The main part of the duct is available still, but the splitter part that goes behing the cooler is NLA. I struck out finding replacements in the UK and ended up getting these shipped in from a breakers yard in the US.

 

The grilles that go behind the coolers are on order and should be here in a week or so, along with the heat reflective foil, so I'm almost in a position to get the front end reassembled and get the car into something resembling running condition.

[sailorbob]

How much did Serck charge for the new oil cooler?

[tomcattom]

The new cooler was £160+VAT and delivery.

[sailorbob]

Thanks 

[tomcattom]

Brief update, work and waiting for parts deliveries have slowed things a little again recently.

Over the past week I've been putting my fibre glassing skills into practise again, this time repairing the damage to the boot floor infill panel.

I'll re-drill the missing hole in the repaired area when I have the boot floor back in place to line it up with.

 

I've also removed the front bumper to inspect the damage to it and make fitting the thermal foil eaiser. The bumper and valance are competely trashed and haven't been repaired very well. Long term I'm going to replace them both, if I can find a RRIM type bumper. In the meantime I'm going to try and improve upon the previous repairs so they can be reused in the short term.

 

This moring fitted the charge cooler rad and A/C condensor to the rad pack. I solved the earlier issue with the gap between two rads caused by the bolts Serck used to rebuild the rad frame. I replaced the bolts with some that had lower profile head which closed the gap from around 6mm to around 3mm. With the thinner gap I could use some foam tape between the rads and then some slightly wider jaw panel edge clips that was original used to hold it all together.

 

Then I spent pretty much all of this afternoon removing the tattered remains of the foil under the frunk so I could fit some fresh stuff.

 

Removing the remains of the adhesive and various fixings (tow hook and spare wheel bolt etc) took what seemed like and eternity, but it was worth it to ensure the new foil had a sound surface to adhere to.

 

Fitting the foil took quite a while too, particularly in the concave sections betlow the head lamps. I made several paper templates to ensure it would all fit nicely before I wasted any of the Thermal Velocity stuff because it isn't cheap.

[Chillidoggy]

Those last three photos bring back happy memories. I think I recovered the feeling in my arms after about three days.