S3 1981 restoration

[wayneb911]

Well as you all know i have purchased my Esprit. I collected the car today and now after 17 years of outside storage she is finnaly under the roof of a garage. With the boot of my car loaded up and short of

[slewthy]

Very exciting!

Great initial documentation. Cant wait to see what you find as you strip her. Heres hoping things arnt too badly corroded in the engine bay.

Whats your general plan of action?

[wayneb911]

Slewthy

First thing is to give it a full valet. I know it sounds daft but least that way i will see progress already. I have given some of the interior a light scrub and to be honest apart from headlining and sunvisors the interior is actually in pretty good shape with no rips or sags. I think the fisrt major task will be engine out for inspection and overhaul. Hoping i may get away with cambelt service waterpump etc and crank her up but i may be wishfull thinking!!

[slewthy]

You're right, Wayne. Cant remember which resto it was but someone posted pics of an interior that looked beyond help but with just some 1001 and some elbow grease looked restored.

The S1 barn find of Matt Watts is a truly inspirational piece of work. Is this the level you would be going for? Before I crashed mine, it was a rolling restoration so I was never going to reach those dizzy heights without committing myself to 2+ years of work and a non running car. You are starting from a different position so, as I said before, I'm quite envious. I still havn't finalised how I'm going to repair my car but if its a new shell, then maybe....

Also, are your plans total originality or upgrade where you can?

All the best.

Simon

[silverfrost]

Wayne,

Glad to see you finally got her picked up! The pics look great, you have got your work cut out but the pics are fab,you will be able to look back at them during the restoration to give you more inspiration to show how far its coming along!

Im just glad that our esprits are fiberglass imagine what would be left if they where metal after been standing that long.

A good wash by the looks of it will transform that car and some de mossing! Good luck with the project and looking forward to seeing the up dates mate.

Regards danny

[wayneb911]

Simon

Upgrade all the way as much as i can afford. Mainly going to go for looks not performance at this stage. Just want a standard and reliable engine to get to grips with and then maybe a V8 in the future. Of course with twin turbo's just for theat real super car power!! But i have to say i am more of a plod along driver just to enjoy the car so power not really a must! I will post some pics once i have cleaned it up as well prob this weekend if the wife lets me!!

Danny

Thanks i will be keeping everyone updated so much they will prob get fed up!!! Sorry just excited and the Esprit forum will feel the full brunt of it... ha ha!!!

Wayne

[hilly]

7 posts and no pictures, tut tut......

The headlining always goes ropey so no surprise there.

It is available from a load of places (eg Wollies), I ended up making my own from a Alcantara looky-likey material called hide from Blendworth Fabrics, it is about 1/4 the price of real Alcantara but much easier to work with and comes is a huge range of colours.

Danny can vouch for how much work a V8 conversion is, so not something to take on without proper thought, if you do go that route (which would be a shame as you went for a good base for a proper resto instead of a project car) then you won't need to mess about with turbos as it will be PLENTY fast enough, trust me

Hilly

[wayneb911]

Hilly

Link attached on first post as i had trouble last night loading pictures.

Fors some reason i am having same trouble today. I click upload and it just starts to load and then says attachments and then nothing? Can anyone help.

[Advantage]

Link them directly from Photobucket (800x600 max size please), such as:

(if you quote this post you'll see I've stolen a pic from your P/Bucket album and re-sized it in mine, but the tags are the ones you want to use from your album - but again, please no bigger than 800x600. P/Bucket allows very quick and simple resizing)

[wayneb911]

Forgive me for being stupid but how do i link them do i just copy and paste the link on my post?

[Bibs]

Look in the 'forum info & help' section, there's a big post at the top that's been there for years & years telling you how to do it. All will be explained

[wayneb911]

dont know if this works, cant see anything saying img on the screen

Think i got the hang of it at long last. Can anyone move this to the top instead of the link?

[Advantage]

Can you resize those first please. 800x600 max.

[Gert]

Cool pics ! Another Esprit saved !!

[wayneb911]

GKP

I thought they were actually smaller as size said 160x180 i think? Will have a look and see. Still need to get the hang of this.

WELL!!!! My first update. Not even owned for a day and out came the spanners tonight. I set out with just a small job in mind which was to completely hoover the car inside and out. I can now thankfully say that the car has no leaves, moss, cobwebs, Nuts?? dont know where they came from but the engine bay was covered in them, And i can safely say that what ever was living in it has vacated the premises!! Well i hope so anyway cos those poops were as big as the guinee pigs!!! Second task and final for the night was to remove the boot floor. Oh boy that was fun!!!!!!!! Sometimes you aactually want the bolts to snap but did they.... No!! Everyone hung in there but victory will overcome. 12 bolts latter and with arms the size of arnie the floor is out!! Yippee progress already. Oh and more leafs and cobwebs under there to hoover out!

One questions: Clutch is stiff as hell? Seized or pedal box? Any clues. Pictures to follow but was to dark and being only a day old divorce was already on the cards so thought i better come in!! Albeit with a big smile of progress.

[Advantage]

Right click>properties. 1024x768.

Photobucket gives you the option of resizing them to a number of standard sizes with just a couple of clicks. Also if you edit your upload options on P/bucket they can be preset to a forum friendly size. We ask you to limit your image sizes simply as a courtesy to other forum users who may be on a slow speed connection.

Normally I'd have just deleted them by now and sent you a PM letting you know why, but seeing as how you're still a relative Newbie...

[wayneb911]

Thak you i will spend some time resizing them.

[wayneb911]

Just a few more pics of what i am up against. Also boot floor is out and engine has been hoovered!!

[markt]

Nice Wayne

Great project, nice colour and uber cool number plate as well- Walther PPK

Good luck with the project - Mark

[richardvg]

oi ve'

you got a high pressure water washer ol bean.

i think we should start with the missus as you need time;

step 1 ; book a friday night out in advance with her to a place of her choice.

step 2; take her to friends or her mum one afternoon on the weekend.

step 3; show her the value,paid and the value when complete of the car.

this should buy you at least 40 hours a week to work with no moans and groans.

after all ,better you are there than in a sleezy,sexy club!

richard

[slewthy]

Here's how I get the time to work outside/do what I want.

When I havn't been tinkering, I'm a bad tempered B*****d.

When I have had a decent amount of time to play, lets say 4+ hours, afterwards I'm a new man. Happy, helpful, prepared to tidy the house/pick up clothes a little. Even be considerate in the bedroom.

Like Pavlov's dog, message soon gets learned.

However, Wayne, with the amount of work you need to do, you might need to up the game a little.

[LSV]

Looking at the picture I get an immediate feel for the first tool I would take at hand:

WD40! Loads of it...

Regards, Ruud-Peter

[wayneb911]

Ye time will always be against me but i will try and make progress everyweek. I have to fit in my family, wife and daughterwho is not old enough to help on the spanners yet but when she is i will be recruiting! A full time job monday to friday 8-4 and an airport transfer and wedding business which is worked around the full time job so late nights, weekends, early hours etc. Oh also i like to go to the gym for an hour each night.

Well the little one goes off to sleep by 8 so i plan to get at least a few nights a week on the car and hopefully a couple of weekends a month to. Will still try and make the gym just reduce it to couple of nights. Cant stop going as i wont be able to undo the rusted bolts!!! So a very busy life style. I will manage and you will all see a nice car at the end. Someone siad the same about the plate yesterday so i think i will keep it.

[Bibs]

You need a 28 hour day in a 10 day week. Or a hammer.

[Simon350S]

Agree with the WD40!

You'll need the gym to undo the driveshaft to gearbox bolts, they sieze on like a bastard!

Looks like a lot of work, but I'm sure you'll have fun doing it