778R

[Straker]

Finally moved 778R home

the main challenges are...

Missing wiring loom... rotten interior and the unusual litany of poorly undertaken maintenance and repairs.

eg boot adjuster bolt wound in so far it has gone through shell... boot seal has 100mm missing... lock spring missing ...

I’ll start posting pictures once I get past identifying what I need to do and priorities 

R

[TAR]

looking forward to seeing your progress. 

[Straker]

I’ve been relieved that my car seems to be free from the dreaded scotchlocks.... however I found this cable joint, whilst removing the damaged front spoiler....

the front spoiler was cracked in two and stuck together with no-nails and held in place with a selection of wood screws and    Gutter bolts....

I’m intending to rebuild the front spoiler as it’s Grp.

what colour should it be? It’s a series 2 spoiler.

The car is black and the bumpers will be satin black. Should the spoiler be satin? Gloss? Or stone chip? 

[pbharcourt]

Spoiler should be body colour with the central scoop bit satin black.

Not sure if thats relevant on a black car though!

[Straker]

Many thanks, I hadn’t considered that the inside would we satin... it wouldn’t have been possible to tell when fitted to the car as it was full of animal feed pellets and mouse droppings.....

i think I’ll wait until I’ve repaired / repainted/ refitted the front bumper.

the bumpers will be satin, the mirrors are satin and chrome cromadorra’s so I think a satin front spoiler might work.

I’m repairing parts as I remove them and storing them later for when I reassemble

[Straker]

Should the springs on the boot hinges face inwards or outwards?

I’ve not been able to find any photos  of an Eclat boot showing the arrangement and the manual I have only has detail of an elite hatch. I’ve seen pictures of an excel where the springs extend inwards.

I’m not convinced the hinges have been installed the correct way around as they have comically long bolts fitted...

Comically long bolts are going to be a recurring theme on this thread...

[Straker]

Meanwhile at the front.... I’ve found the leak in the bulkhead... which was the rotten battery securing channel.

Thanks to the post on here  “my Eclat leaks like a sieve” I’m sure I’ll be referring to that one again as the next leak is sure to becomes apparent.

[Straker]

So... the rear hinges have been installed incorrectly.

Bolts have been threaded in to underside the upper fixing on the brackets and stick through to the mounting hole in the channel by the seal with a nut (only on one side) 

both bolts are so long that the heads foul the hinge mechanism 

I’m getting plenty of practice cutting down bolts + cleaning threads, thankfully I bought a bag of stainless M6 bolts.

the hinge mounting point is starting to lift from the lid, what adhesive should I use?

[EXCEL V8]

5 hours ago, Straker said:

the hinge mounting point is starting to lift from the lid, what adhesive should I use?

If you can squeeze some epoxy in there, that's what I'd use.  I tend to use Pliogrip 576b for everything like that - expensive but brilliant (it's what they use to bond modern aluminium chassis together with).

Pete

[Straker]

Many thanks, I’ll go with epoxy.

the boot hinge wire springs are clamped tightly  to the hinge body by the clamp plate. 
 

Should there be some spacers washers between the hinge body and clamp plate so the whole spring can flex?

 

[Straker]

Comically long bolts time again....

the hinge fixing bolts from the parcel shelf area were 60mm long.... and the heads had been glassed over to fix them ..... all that did was hide them so that they spun in place......and had to be dug out....

looks like some speakers had been installed in the shelf area back in the 80’s and someone filled in the holes as a repair.

As I can’t identify what would have originally been there I’m going to glass in some m6 bighead fastener with 20mm studs.
 

Probably a bit of overkill but I’ll be taking it all apart again at some point for a respray 

[Straker]

Bighead fasteners to replace the  spin-o-matic m6 bolts currently glassed into the rear bulkhead

Every task seems to prove the theory two steps forward... one back.... 

[tom kilner]

6 hours ago, Straker said:

Every task seems to prove the theory two steps forward... one back....

"one step forward two steps back"          is what's happening for me.  how do I get up to your level?🤔

[Straker]

Put off the difficult jobs until later 😀

[tom kilner]

If you go two steps forward, one step back,  and I take one step forward and two steps back, I wonder if I'm just facing the wrong direction? 🤔

And I just thought I had the wrong crankcase and a rusty chassis. Life could be so much easier the Straker way 😀. Bring on the knocking big ends!!

[Straker]

🤣 sounds like a routine from ‘strictly’.

miniscule progress this weekend... fitted tension spring to boot lock.... only ordered 2 and ended up with 20 (used a UK based eBay seller and the parcel came from China for £1.90)

 

 

[Straker]

At some point the rear parcel shelf had been repaired to fill in some holes for some 80’s tastic speakers...

The whole shelf had been ‘glassed’ over which would have been ok if the surface had been prepared 1st... so it’s delaminating ....

as it appears to have been applied like 1980’s artex and it twice as thick as the shelf...it’s probably a good excuse to replace. So I could just glass over the holes or the whole shelf.

is a neat repair of 2x holes better than covering up the complete shelf? 

[tom kilner]

I think you should get an undamaged shelf and put your repair time into fixing the fixable!

 

[Straker]

Still contemplating what to do with the parcel shelf....

 

having fixed the leak where the screws for the battery fixing rail went through the bulkhead... I’ve identified another leak.

Its in the left hand foot well it appears to be coming from around the LHD  blanking plate, has anyone else experienced this? 

Should I replace the mastic seal with tigerseal? Or glassfibre over the plate?

 

[EXCEL V8]

I've never seen a LHD blanking plate before!  Where is it exactly?

Pete

[Straker]

It’s where the steering column would pass through the bulkhead about 150 mm up from the front of the footwell next to the gearbox tunnel. It goes up to the join between the upper and lower body shell sections 

it appears to be made of the same coloured plastic sheet that the heater motor shrouds and covers inside the doors are made of. 
 

Rob

[EXCEL V8]

I wonder if your car was originally destined to be a LHD car but the order fell through, or something like that, and they covered the holes already cut?  Interesting.

Pete

[Straker]

I think your right, it matches the materials and workmanship of the factory.... I’ve had a quick look at the drivers side and it mirrors the left hand side.

theres a hole in another bulkhead which definitely isn’t original.... that has been filled with a piece of number plate.

I think I’m going to use tiger seal and then glass fibre over the panel and then deal with the engine bay side when I inevitably end up taking out the engine.

current plan is to get 778R back on the road and capable of passing an MOT and then take it apart again and do the paint 

It’s been through various hands since the early 90’s as a project and I’m sure I’m going to discover many more mysteries..
 

Rob

[EXCEL V8]

I deal with holes like that by feathering the edges quite "vigorously" - back to a knife-edge, holding some polythene on the opposite side, usually backed with something like plywood, and then building up a couple of layers of CSM with extra layers in the middle of the hole.  All that's left then when you get the engine bay accessible is a skim of filler if there are any small voids around the edge of the hole.  You'll need a fan heater in there at the moment to get the resin to cure!!

Pete

[Straker]

Pete, many thanks.

Id forgotten about the curing temperature, I’ve got plenty of other jobs to do so I think I’ll leave this one until the spring