OOPS, CRASH BANG, REPAIR AND RENEW ..

[CHANGES]

Rebuilding this suspension started with a full strip and shot blast of all parts to be re-used , then along with replacements for damaged  and upgraded steel parts it was off to powder coating .. This will provide a good protection against road use .. 

All the bushes are being replaced with Lotac polly bushes, the rear top arms are being replaced with OEM later spec adjustable type.  The front top arms are also being replaced with the OEM late spec adjustable type.  The main reason for this was to trim the GEO to correct settings for this Esprit.. The customer has fitted the S4 wheels which require a slightly different GEO set up.  The original fixed length arms will not alloy for this.   A small but significant detail ..    

The dampers and springs are the spec I developed and extensively tested on my own Esprit from Gazmatic . They are valved to suit and fitted with 2 1/4 inch springs rated for fast road while maintaining a ride quality ..  They require custom top mounts to adapt to the Esprit. These I manufacture in 6802 alloy to suit the model Esprit to be used on ..Pictured below with other parts to be fitted during this build   

 So Starting at the rear on the side that was damaged , some preparatory work to make life easier later . The rear radius arm mount originally had M8 nuts and bolts through the chassis .. 

The later Esprit had the nuts captive on a 'U' shaped plate which was much better once fitted, but gave the same problem of access when removing the bolts completely.  To overcome this I manufacture a plate similar to a full shim plate with Aerotight nuts welded on .. This is riveted into place removing the need to access after fully removing bolts .. 

Because we are fitting polly bush radius arm bush we need to fit the larger dia bolt as fitted to the S350 .  This does mean the early radius arms need the hole drilling out to size . without doing this you will have a sloppy fit of the bolt in the bush .

Next pic shows the bush mounted, this time correctly, also with the late spec split tracking shims  fitted.  Note there is still room on the bolt for adjustment without running out of threads . Very different to how it came in 

The complete N/S rear suspension links / hub were replaced due to the impact on that side .. some parts were obviously bent / broken , others not so but changed on safety grounds.. 

The early Stevens chassis has a mounting collar for the thick rubber donut which the spring is seated on .. 

We remove the rubber completely as per pic and replace it with the new alloy top mount . 

These mounts have High density rubber gasket seats between the mount and chassis and mount and spring .. 

The damper assembly can be sub assembled prior to fitting and does not need spring compressors . 

This unit is simply installed into the chassis and attached to the the lower hub pin same as OEM part .   

Once in place the adjustable spring seat can get screwed up to provide preload and the correct ride height ..  This will get final adjustment when on the scales having corner weights set ..   

One other difference from the Standard and the dampers previously fitted, is the damper lower bush .  These  are replaced with rose bearings . 

The standard mounting format is a steel collar insert , set to bolt /pin size and the spacing distance required  . 

The problem with this is, it allows all the road dirt to access the bearing , this could cause premature ware..  So I always supply and use an alloy insert with sealing 'O' ring set to the required sizes.. 

It not only does a better job , but make the job look more tidy and finished. 

STD

Fitted with seals

  

That finishes the rear 

Next up the front ..    

    

[Sparky]

Lovely stuff mate.  Really looking forward to getting hold of this superb suspension setup!  No doubt I shall pickup soon...

[Chillidoggy]

Great to see the current progress report, as always detailing high-spec engineering and craftsmanship.

Thanks for sharing, Dave.

[tomcattom]

These pictures should come in handy for reference to supplement the instructions when I get around to fitting this setup to mine

[Erikl]

Dave I am ready to purchase your suspension kit once you have supply of the parts.  Is everything still frozen due to lockdown? 

[Erikl]

5 hours ago, CHANGES said:

What this Esprit exposes is the fact that the previous owner did some suspension work which now appears to be very DIY. At the time it would have seemed an asset , but in truth very poor.. 

Oh boy I hope this is not what the next owner of my car is thinking 😀

[CHANGES]

11 hours ago, Erikl said:

Oh boy I hope this is not what the next owner of my car is thinking 😀

One main aspect when doing any work or passing on a car with modifications, will be the suitability and conformity of said parts.  Any new owner should ask the questions of how they were derived and why they were fitted and by whom.   This would be a logical assumption .   

What you need to establish is that the Parts you are fitting are not just a part that is listed as '' will fit'' certain model cars . This is the problem that can cause so many issues..   To date all the Dampers and springs I have purchased and tested , have not come with any installation instruction and specific set up advise .. Uhmm... plus no recommendations on springs type rate length etc     The buy it,  fit it, use it , and hope its right scenario .    ( with the exception of Manufacturers recommended alternative )

With regards to what I supply , you will receive instructions and set up recommendations along with the set of matching dampers and springs along with the mounting kit all bushed to suit your model of Esprit . You will also get the assurance that these parts were supplied and formatted as an alternative,  specifically for use on the Esprit.  

You will also be able to make reference to my Esprit on Forum sites as the source, on which the combination of parts and set up was established and extensively tested over a few years before being released for marketing ..

This should enable you to establish that you have not just purchased any after market damper and fitted it with a spring .  Some thought and consideration and research was made before undertaking the change. 

However this will not alter the fact that some people will insist on original equipment , or recommended alternative from manufacturer.  What I supply is a cost effective alternative, that provides a ride quality and high speed stability that I would expect from an Esprit . 

NB ..As with everything , It is very important that the kit be fitted correctly, then set up by a professional doing the corner balancing along with recommended ride heights and GEO . 

In reference to the supply question,  I am waiting for the covid situation to settle before ordering in any more stock. At present I have only one set available which has been reserved for @Sparky  .   I will look into the best way to keep the price down even though i have been advised the suppliers prices have gone up this year ..  I will advise on all this in time ..

Hope that answers your question .   

[CHANGES]

On to the front suspension.  The installation of adjustable camber top wishbones has been done to allow the correct set up for wheel size ect .  When doing this you need to fit new longer ball joint bolts to allow for the 5 spacer shims along with the thicker camber plate mounts and shims. ..  Anyone doing this conversion will need to make sure they get all the parts.. 

The new damper and spring set up is similar to the rear , but with a different custom alloy top mount ..  This new top mount fits inside the original steel one when the original thick rubber ring is removed. 

Same as the rear no spring compressors are needed , The whole assembly can be built up ready for installation .. 

Once the top and bottom wishbones are all fitted up , the assembly can be installed.  A small point of note, the camber shim plates fitted are matched side to side but may not be the correct ones  , these will get changed when the GEO is finally set up .  The bottom damper spacer bushes are manufactured a little on the large side.  I machine these to a perfect fit using a jig before fitting .. The same is done for any I supply prior to despatch ..

When all fitted in position and relevant bolts torqued up, the spring platform can be wound up to provide spring pre load and correct ride height ..   This will all get slightly adjusted when it goes on the scales for corner weighing  at the GEO centre .. 

In this case the Polly Bush pinch bolts have not been torqued up yet ..  I will need to have the Esprit fully assembled along with ballast to ensure the ride height is to spec first .. 

This completes this section along with a new steering rack which the customer requested to be done at same time .. 

 Next back onto bodywork ...   Oh good more rubbing down , UGH 

[Mysterae]

Outstanding stuff. 

I'll be in the market or both front and rear setups next year hopefully; Dave are you planning long term availability of your kit?

[CHANGES]

So back to body work .. 

We left it at the polly coat stage ,  This was three full coats of polly wet on wet with short flash off in between .. 

Because this goes on so thick it leaves a heavy orange peal effect on the surface .. This is fine, we looking for film thickness not finish..  A drop coat of back, called guide coat will give us a visual gauge for when all this orange peal has been remove .. 

From pic above you can see how the guide coat exposes the extent of the orange peal. 

This can be a slow process depending on how aggressive you are with your intial paper grit .. I tend to start with a 240 they move to a 400, but this can vary job to job .. The important thing is not to rub through but to just flattern the finish .. The polly coat is none pervious to solvent so acts as a barrier coat as well as a levelling layer ..  To reduce the chance of rubbing through I leave the swage lines or prominent features till the end , then just lightly address them after ..  next pic show the prominent point on the rear 1/4 being left .. 

Above pic shows after a flat withn 240 grit. This will now get another guide coat and the process repeated with 400 grit ..   I do all this dry as the micro structure of the polly coat can hold moisture .. This is not an issue if you can be sure it can be fully dried out before next coat .. Failure to do this can cause micro blitering to appear in the finish some time later .. 

You will notice a finer finish on the above pic which exposed the flatting lines of the 240 grit and further refines the finish.  

This is carried out on the whole body , and will expose any failings on the panel form from repairs ..  The n/s front wing as you may recall was completly reskinned , so this stage will show how acurate the re-shaping has been ..

You will note a few low spots in black near the front. These will get flatted till they remove or go through ..  Any area that gets rubbed through , will be recoated with same polly coating  and process repeated till satifactory .. 

This same process is also repeated on the bonnet /doors etc .. 

As we have always said , a lot of flatting.. but its all about  preparation .. 

The next stage is to put it all in a 2k primer .   The colour of the primer should always be a consideration , based on the final colour.  Some final colours will have designated high pigment undercoats , others unspecified. As this is going to be Azure blue it points to a black under coat but not specified .   We can use a black primer , but i prefer to soften it to more of a blue black . This will cut out an undercoat being required and also allow the colour to be more vibrant and pop .  In the pic's below it looks more dark grey but in reality you can see a blueish tinge . 

Next up more Guide coat and , yes you guessed it FLATTING .  But getting closer .. 

[TAR]

How do you deal with all the dust? 🙂

[CHANGES]

11 hours ago, TAR said:

How do you deal with all the dust? 🙂

I wear a coverall, same as i use when spraying, and a suitable mask , then sweep and vacume up after each section ..  You would be amazed how much dust you get .. If i had used a machine or air tool to sand ,it would go everywhere,  even the ones with extractors are not much better .   Its bad enough as it is , not the most confortable job to do ..  I expect that is why it gets short cut in a lot of shops ..  I tend to have the extractors on at the same time which can pull a lot of air bourne dust away , but it still settles .. So a blow down and clean up at the end of  each day is a must .   Just all part of the job. 

[uzz32soarer]

Awesome work. I'm amazed at your fibreglass work, incredible.

 

[Steve4012]

Hi Dave, the car is looking fantastic. I've been speaking to some people about a complete respray for my dry sump and they've suggested once sanded back to either gel coat or a well keyed secure surface an epoxy primer will be used to seal and then filler primer for flatting back before base coat. You seem to go filler primer (Upol reface?) on the sanded surface and fully flat then primer. I presume it's ok to use either method and both would achieve similar results?

Many thanks, Steve. 

[CHANGES]

@Steve4012  Yes either method will be fine . Different shops have different methods and products. This comes from what they have been using during training or what they have found works best for them .. I think the one common thing is the repair where gel crack or damage is, or could be !  A re-gel or GRP with finish mat as i have done on this one Will insure the quality of the repair .. I would not rely on just filler and a Reface primer in those area's , its will not have such a good bridging quality as a mat would .. If all the crack has been removed then this is not such an issue , however experience over the years has taught me you can never be 100% sure where impact damage is concerned .  Where you are just renewing the substrate quality then a full sand back and application of any of those products should achieve the desired result.. One of the most important parts is to seal in / isolate so that solent soke down will not soften the repairs or original surface leading to mapping much later on ..    Sounds like the guys you are talking to know their stuff, so many just repair prime and paint.     

[Steve4012]

Many thanks for that explanation Dave. Learning lots from this and your other bodywork post which also looked terrific. 

Cheers, Steve.

[drdoom]

Remind us please, what sort of paint with which to finish engine bay, boot and wheelarches? Finish these before or after the body exterior?

Cheers

[Fridge]

I used untextured satin black Raptor from Upol. Done after body colour (top).

[fjmuurling]

On 21/02/2021 at 18:14, CHANGES said:

Because we are fitting polly bush radius arm bush we need to fit the larger dia bolt as fitted to the S350 .  This does mean the early radius arms need the hole drilling out to size . without doing this you will have a sloppy fit of the bolt in the bush .

 

Hi Dave @CHANGES, what are the dimensions of the bolt? Looks like to be a M12 8.8 one.

 

[sailorbob]

I do not know the grade or thread but the bolt for the later radius arm is M12 x 120 mm.

[uzz32soarer]

The bolts that I purchased last week were M12 x 140mm grade 10.9

The reason I got 140mm was because that was the closest I could get to actual shank length under the head of the bolt before thread started. You need 98 - 100mm of shank, so the 140 bolt at 100mm was perfect and I simply cut 15mm off and re-dressed the end of the bolt.

 

[CHANGES]

In answer to @drdoom on floor and Arch finish, it is as @Fridge answered Raptor is a great aftermarket product. Just for information purposes I did 2k colour on my own Esprit which has lasted exceptionally well in the main but waring on some of the excess traffic points . 

In answer to @fjmuurling the answer @sailorbob gave is correct with grade 8.8 or higher .  A bit longer is fine as long as you have enough thread length ,  Always remember to allow for the tracking spacers which will vary car to car ..  

( Next up more Guide coat and , yes you guessed it FLATTING )

So here we go again , 2k high build tinted primer fully cured .  First job is a quick tack rag and then guide coat, this time in white for obvious reasons.. 

Because the primer surface has a fine grain we can wet flat without to much concern  of moisture being retained. 

This process is much the same as previous, repetitive i know but all part of the job..  A lot of shops will do this by machine , however i prefer to do it by hand to be more in control of any unseen defects, even at this stage .. A machine is much less work and a fraction of the time, but it does not have the touch or feel, so can lead to rub though or missing the odd high /low spots .. 

Once completed we can concentrate on the blend points on areas not primed.  In this case it was mainly the front compartment .  They were feathered into original surface , then masked using soft mask / roll off . 

Next job is to prep the shop for colour paint with static sheet etc , suit up, then spirit wipe and tack rag the shell. 

Then base / colour coat is applied, first a temp check , then set up gun to suit and shoot colour.  One grip it coat followed by two full coats .. making sure we get all the returns coated.. 

After a flash off period,  I use a daylight light to check the metallic is evenly applied all over...  All was OK so another light tag rag all over just to insure surface is free from inclusions ... During this process it is not unusual to find the odd bit in the paint, these can be nipped out with 1500 paper and flashed over if needed .. as it turns out we were clean in this case , so it was onto clear coat .. 

We applied one grip it coat the two full coats , short flash off followed by final full flow coat ..    

The finish went on very clean , but still has some orange peal in the finish .. This is expected and will be removed in colour flatting after several days of gassing out ..  

All the panels and parts were prepped and painted in the same way over the next few days.. 

Next up,  first stage colour flat , polish , then start assembly.. 

TBC       

 

[Dan E]

Dave, stunning as ever. Can I ask how and where you learnt all of this? I cannot believe how much work goes into prepping before paint. Really interesting stuff so thank you 

[LOTUSMAN33]

That is going to be one very proud and happy owner, fantastic work Dave so hats off to a true artisan.  🙇‍♂️ 

Dave  

[faye2000]

1 minute ago, LOTUSMAN33 said:

That is going to be one very proud and happy owner, fantastic work Dave so hats off to a true artisan.  🙇‍♂️ 

Dave  

I am overwhelmed by the build Daves work is amazing