The restoration of S1 234G

[JonSE]

Oooh that’s lovely!

[LOTUSMAN33]

Brilliant work Paul well done, you have been putting it off but just shows once motivated you nailed it! 👍🏻

I may have to reconsider my repair now and go for the mould option rather than the repair panel.

Dave  

[Lotusfab]

Hi Paul, great job! It will all be done very quickly.

[Paul Coleman]

I decided to tackle the other side today so it was much of the same really. I started by cleaning the paint and filler off the front lower quarter so that the mould would be touching the original bodywork. Being able to turn it upside down means I can work on it at a reasonable height instead of grovelling around on the floor. It has some deep scars from the previous butchery so God knows what they went at it with...

As before I want to keep as much of the original car as possible and you can see that whoever fitted this S2 spoiler removed some of the red gelcoat but there's nothing I can do about that.

Then it was a case of waxing the mould and applying a good thick layer of gelcoat before offering it up and tightening the mould to the body with ratchet straps...

As before, the mould isn't quite big enough so I taped over the gap to stop the resin dripping all over my shoes...

Then the fiddly job of applying the matting begins but this time I didn't do as good a job right at the front corner so that section didn't come out as well but it can be rectified at a later date quite easily...

It's not the best but can be fixed when the time comes. The rest of the fit is pretty good...

Looking underneath...

And the front of the wheel arch...

 

The matting on the back of all the holes will allow me to fill them with a bit of filler easily...

I got a good few layers on the inside to build the strength up...

So that's it for the front lower quarters and the front now looks like an S1 again.

It's now onto repairing the next area of butchery... t.b.c.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Paul Coleman

[Paul Coleman]

Aren't you bored with reading my rubbish yet? If not, then...

The postman came today and delivered my new firewall panels...

I suspect these are made to order by some old boy in his shed! They will do the job though and it saved me having to make them. In answer to @TAR they're not a bad fit...

So then it was on to more bodywork. This time I thought I'd start filling in some of the endless holes that have been cut in the poor thing. Some Philistine fitted Turbo sills to this car and butchered the body to take the air pipes that are on the ends of a Turbo sill...

So I thought I'd fill both of those in to start with. I used a piece of flexible plastic backed by a piece of wood to cover the outside of the hole...

Then working from the inside I added gelcoat and matting...

I waxed the plastic so the gelcoat didn't stick...

This will be hidden inside the sill and under the fuel tank so it doesn't have to look pretty but it does need to be strong as the inner sill is a structural part of the car and the fibreglass is very thick in this area. I had to do both sides...

I then had to deal with this hole that has been cut to presumably funnel some air into the engine bay...

Having sat on the M40 in nose to tail traffic this week over heating in an S1 on a hot day I can understand why people did this as they do get ridiculously hot. I've heard of engine bay temperatures in excess of 60C. So I covered this in a piece of waxed plastic and just fixed it with electrical tape... 

I again filled it in from the inside with gelcoat and matting...

It looks pretty good from the outside and a coat of high build primer will blend it in and disguise it...

It's difficult to see as the gelcoat is clear...

After my previous efforts this week the front of the car now looks like an S1 again...

I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with this car yet. I liked finding all the missing bits but then I realised that I would have to do the bodywork on this car if I wanted to sell it as most people would run a mile from such a butchered car. I probably paid too much for it but I liked the idea of saving it from just being parted out and that was where it was headed. When the bodywork is finished I will then make the final decision as to whether to sell it or restore it but if I do decide to sell it I am going to put a clause in the sale that says it cannot be painted white hahaha

Total so far

£18,797.54

Edited August 20, 2021 by Paul Coleman

[LOTUSMAN33]

Wow it’s flying along now Paul, at this rate you will have it painted in weeks!

The bulkhead panels look pretty good.

Dave  

[williamtherebel]

Thats a hell of a lot of work Paul. All credit to you for taking it on. . The 'slot' near the filler cap looks like the  gap for the 'ears' that were fitted on the S2 onwards to (as you thought) to get some air into the engine bay. So perhaps some previous owner decided to 'improve' things!!

[Paul Coleman]

1 hour ago, LOTUSMAN33 said:

Wow it’s flying along now Paul, at this rate you will have it painted in weeks!

The bulkhead panels look pretty good.

Dave  

Don't hold your breath will you Dave - I have a kitchen to fit at my Son's house so I suspect the car will be taking a back seat very shortly!

49 minutes ago, williamtherebel said:

Thats a hell of a lot of work Paul. All credit to you for taking it on. . The 'slot' near the filler cap looks like the  gap for the 'ears' that were fitted on the S2 onwards to (as you thought) to get some air into the engine bay. So perhaps some previous owner decided to 'improve' things!!

Yes it has the 4 fixing holes for an S2 type 'ear' and I'm guessing the beautifully crafted hole at the bottom of this picture was to allow a pipe from the vertical slot into the engine bay even with the engine cover fitted...

So that's another hole I have to fill and you can see the area above it has split so that will also need repairing whilst I'm in there. Somebody has done a lousy repair in that area already (which you can't see in the photo above) so I've also got to remove that and do it properly 🙄

Edited August 20, 2021 by Paul Coleman

[Lotusfab]

Nice job. Finish the repairs, prep and paint in primer and then decide what to do.

[Paul Coleman]

5 hours ago, Lotusfab said:

Nice job. Finish the repairs, prep and paint in primer and then decide what to do.

Yes I need to prime it so that it looks uniform and anybody who buys it will hopefully have a better idea of exactly what they're getting. If I sell it I won't go any further than etch primer though because I suspect it will end up white

[Fridge]

Great work @Paul Coleman but don't forget to add in the current cost of all those parts you already had stored to get the true picture of the cost of this restoration so far, and the materials of course.

I think the car would look great in white...

[Lotusfab]

Yep whats wrong with white?

[Paul Coleman]

The world does not need another white/tartan S1 and it won't make you James Bond!!

[Lotusfab]

Thats where your wrong!

😀😀😀😀😀

[Paul Coleman]

A boring update for a boring job, but it's got to be done! I thought I'd have a break from fibreglassing so I turned my attention to the firewall. But to start with does anybody know what these 4 rusty jacknuts are for behind the driver's seat under the petrol tank...

My white car doesn't have these and I have no idea what they could be for. 

I started to clean up and remove the fibreglass that bonds the firewall to the body. There are strips of it between the wood and the body which also helps to stop any fumes getting into the cabin...

I used a hammer and a paint scraper to remove the fibreglass and although it came out okay it was a horrible itchy job...

It had to come out so that I can make a decent job of bonding the new plywood in...

This was the pile that came out by the time I'd finished...

So after I'd finished cleaning that up I refitted the rear cross member...

This is the datum for the firewall so you build the firewall around it starting at the top and bottom and then adding the middle section. It's a bit of a juggling act as you need to get all 3 panels in the right place.

This was a quick trial fit...

Looks as though it should go back together relatively easily but I have a couple of jobs to do first before I can start bonding them in. One job is that the cut-outs for the seat belts are not big enough...

You can see the metal part of the cross member at the bottom of the slot but this slot has to be big enough to be able to feed the seat belt through from the back so it needs to be quite wide. The other one is not the best and I need to open it up a bit...

I was thrown out of Woodwork (and virtually everything else) at school so this may not go well 🙄

Edited August 22, 2021 by Paul Coleman

[Lotusfab]

You’ll have it all done soon and be bored!

[Fridge]

At least you went to school @Paul Coleman

I've no idea what those jack nuts are for, and couldn't quite get a handle on the orientation of the body shell on your new Delia Smith rotisserie.

Edited August 22, 2021 by Fridge

[Paul Coleman]

27 minutes ago, Fridge said:

At least you went to school @Paul Coleman

I've no idea what those jack nuts are for, and couldn't quite get a handle on the orientation of the body shell on your new Delia Smith rotisserie.

I spent very little time at school but I got all A grades, A=Absent.

The first and second pictures show the same area. If you look bottom left on the second picture you can see the big hole which is also shown in the first picture.

Edited August 22, 2021 by Paul Coleman

[Paul Coleman]

I managed to get a bit of time to work on my car today so I decided to do a bit more on the bulkhead so I started by sticking some matting to the top section...

If you don't do this and try to fibreglass it fully in place it will be very difficult. At least this way, once it's dry, it doesn't slide all over the place. I fitted this piece with the shell upside down and then did the fibreglassing that way so that gravity was working for me instead of against me. It's very tight getting the brush in to bond this panel to the body as the gap is so narrow...

If you do this make sure it's tight against the metal bracing panel at the back...

I had to modify the slots for the seatbelts because they weren't big enough or even straight. A few of the holes didn't line up either so I had to modify those as well. I think this was a Friday afternoon one...

Before I could fit any more of the panels I had to deal with this...

 I did a dry fit of the other two panels and this side looks fine...

But this side is a bit short...

It gets fibreglassed to the body so nobody will know (or care). You have to remember to get the holes on the correct side for the handbrake as these are where the cables run through to the back under the fuel tank. I then glued the centre section and screwed it together along with the bolts...

I didn't bother with all the bolts as I'm going to remove the metal brace to finish fibreglassing the back. In the factory I think they fibreglassed it all and then fitted the brace which stuck the two together and explains why it was difficult to get the brace out.

Then it's a case of fibreglassing a strip of matting to bond the back of the panels to the body and also to stop any fumes getting into the cabin...

I've got a bit more to do but I'll wait until this lot has dried...

At this point I got bored and decided to call it a day as I was itching and needed a shower. I will try and finish it off tomorrow if I get time.

I think I'm going to sell this car once the bodywork is complete although I'm not going to do all of it, just the awkward difficult bits. I'll leave the star cracks and paint stripping to the new owner I think. Not sure if I will have taken it far enough to move it on at that point?

Edited September 10, 2021 by Paul Coleman

[Paul Coleman]

Time to deal with the 80s sunroof. I started by cleaning all the black gorilla snot off which had been used to seal the aluminium sunroof frame to the roof...

And then stripped the paint off around the hole...

It makes life easier when you can rotate the shell...

There wasn't any primer underneath the paint and whoever painted this just slapped it straight onto the gelcoat.

I've got an external roof mould so I gave it a coat of wax...

Then, with the shell up the right way I used nearly every clamp I own to hold it to the roof...

And then flipped it over before painting a layer of gelcoat...

Then it was a case of laying up some fibreglass...

At this point I thinned down the area of the existing roof around the hole and started laying up more fibreglass but going onto the roof as well...

And at that point I ran out of resin so I removed the mould and flipped it back over...

It's difficult to photograph from the outside because the gelcoat is clear...

 

There are some air pockets between the gelcoat and the matting which you can see when the gelcoat is clear which I need to fix when I get some more resin. This was due to the fact that I went and had lunch between the gelcoat and first layer of matting...

Once this has had a coat of etch primer and then a coat of high build primer it will be easy to blend it all together but according to Miles Wilkins these repairs need to be left for six months before painting to let the gasses out and stop sinkage...

I left the repairs on my white car for six months and there is no sinkage on any of them...

The next job is to fit the two new sills I bought from SJ Sportscars and at that point I just need to fill a couple of large holes and then the difficult bits of bodywork will be done. Any bodyshop will be able to finish it if the new owner doesn't fancy finishing the body themselves.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Paul Coleman

[Fridge]

I'd leave the sills off, as they'll need painting first.

[Paul Coleman]

I am knackered! I've been fitting the new sills I bought from SJ a while back. The quality of the parts are fine but when you offer them up to the car there is a massive gap between the centre of the sill and the body which has to be pulled together as you fit it. It was something like 1/2" or more...

That was at the back of the door and the gap is nearly big enough to fall down.

Those two surfaces need to be touching and the sill needs to be tight against the body but you can't get behind it to push the two together. If you need to do this job... give it to somebody else!!

With the first sill I fitted I managed to pull these together by fitting one pop rivet at a time and as I went along it pulled it bit by bit but on the other sill it pulled it out of square and I had to take it off and do it again. This was the first one...

The pop rivets are 6mm diameter so don't bother trying to use one of those things you squeeze together to fit the rivets unless of course you have arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I used one of these and they're dead easy to use and don't require a lot of effort...

I did not enjoy doing this job at all and wasn't sorry when it was over...

And before you fit them make sure you've put the seatbelt brackets and the handbrake bracket on or you'll have to take them off again!

 

But at least it now looks a bit more like an S1...

 

If you'd like me to fit some for you at any time... you can bugger off...

I just need to drill the drain holes in each sill now and I can tick that job off the list. Then I have a couple of big holes in the body at the back that I intend to fill in and then I'm done with the bodywork. I will let the new owner deal with the star cracks and any splits that need fixing but that will be easy work and anybody could do it themselves. All the new panels will easily blend in with a coat of high build primer and some blocking. There won't be a lot of filler needed at all.

I will probably be itching for a week now as fibreglass really is horrible stuff to work with.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Paul Coleman

[Fridge]

Good job you "dried fit" those sills! Were they originals or aftermarket ones?

[Paul Coleman]

4 hours ago, Fridge said:

Good job you "dried fit" those sills! Were they originals or aftermarket ones?

They're SJ aftermarket ones and a bitch to fit

[scroogemcd]

On 16/09/2021 at 19:54, Paul Coleman said:

Those two surfaces need to be touching and the sill needs to be tight against the body but you can't get behind it to push the two together. If you need to do this job... give it to somebody else!!

And how did you manage to get them tight? I have the SJ sills lying beside me and planning to fit them in the near future...🙄