1984 Turbo Esprit Restoration

[eeyoreish]

More progress today on the strip out. I now have all the interior, seats, carpets, dash, doorcards and bulkhead stripped out, boxed and labelled. In the end I cut off the choke cable as the engine end could best be described as 'shaggy'. Something else for my shopping list...

Next step will be to remove the drivers door and that bent door post, then set about properly repairing the damage from what I'm now calling the 'trunnion incident'. One discovery today was the base of the passenger door post is rusted out due to a missing seal grommet close by so I'm hoping that can be repaired with a section from the old drivers side post when I fit a new one. A chance for some welding.

Next weekend is Beaulieu Autojumble so I'll be having a weekend out of the garage scouring the stalls there for stuff I already know I need or think I might. Or stuff I just like the look of 😐

 

[eeyoreish]

Managed to get a couple of hours on the TE yesterday after 7 hours straight walking round Beaulieu Autojumble on Saturday. Fantastic event and really too much to see properly in a day! Anyway, managed to pick up a few bits for the car plus a folding Brompton bike that I don't need...

Yesterday's tinkering saw both doors removed and confirmed that I need both hinge posts. The drivers side is (as I could see) properly twisted, probably by some monkey with a hammer and a bar trying to align the door 😡. The passenger side is rotted out at the bottom and needs replacing or some new metal welding in.

Anyway, now the doors are off I need to refurb the hinges before I start trying to realign the doors on the new posts. SJ list the hinge pin bushes at £20 each but I don't fancy spending £80 on 4 tiny bits of plastic! Are there any other sources for these or has anyone machined their own and would be willing to make some more?? Cash waiting of course 💷😀

[silverfrost]

Bad luck on the lower post rusting out chap, strange to rust that bad, must of been left under a constant drip area when it was raining.  

Always wanted to go to the auto jumble,  will get there one of these days 

Great work on the progress, little and often and you will see the rewards 

[Gis]

Have a look at those, should be a good alternative.

 

[eeyoreish]

Interesting. Have you actually fitted these? Until I remove the old bushes I've no idea of the ID and OD unless you've already measured them?

[Gis]

6 hours ago, eeyoreish said:

Interesting. Have you actually fitted these? Until I remove the old bushes I've no idea of the ID and OD unless you've already measured them?

No I have not fitted them yet. I have new pins and a set of new plastic bushes. The plastic bushes are really flimsy and not confidence inspiring at all. Measured them and the bronze ones match. ID and OD is the same as the plastic ones, so is the flange, there is no play on the shaft. The length is a little longer but easy to trim if needed. The doors are on my to do list and when I get to it I’d prefer not to have to do it again a year later.

[Lotusfab]

On 04/09/2018 at 04:13, eeyoreish said:

Managed to get a couple of hours on the TE yesterday after 7 hours straight walking round Beaulieu Autojumble on Saturday. Fantastic event and really too much to see properly in a day! Anyway, managed to pick up a few bits for the car plus a folding Brompton bike that I don't need...

Yesterday's tinkering saw both doors removed and confirmed that I need both hinge posts. The drivers side is (as I could see) properly twisted, probably by some monkey with a hammer and a bar trying to align the door 😡. The passenger side is rotted out at the bottom and needs replacing or some new metal welding in.

Anyway, now the doors are off I need to refurb the hinges before I start trying to realign the doors on the new posts. SJ list the hinge pin bushes at £20 each but I don't fancy spending £80 on 4 tiny bits of plastic! Are there any other sources for these or has anyone machined their own and would be willing to make some more?? Cash waiting of course 💷😀

Matt Watts on here did make some bronze pivot bushes. Look on my blog for more info. There are company's you can buy them from but you will probably need to file them to fit. The pivots themselves are likely to be pitted and rusted. They are just a tube with a thread on the end or drilled and tapped.  The plastic ones are ok but wear out and are pricey. All depends on how much you will use the car. There's no play with the bronze ones which makes the door fit much more reliable and you only need to fit them once in a lifetime.

[eeyoreish]

Little progress on the TE recently while I've been doing some mechanical maintenance on the Stevens but while I'm waiting for valve shims for that I thought I'd amuse myself by removing the rear valance, bumper, ducktail and lamps.

What I actually got was a collection of rusty nuts, spinning captive nuts and sheared fixings. Anyway  the bumper and valance are off now on the floor as one piece, mainly because they were only hanging on by the 2 central bumper bolts and the end valance bolts. The rest of the brackets have rusted into oblivion.

The studs in the lamps are rusted to round stubs and/or are spinning in the lamps so it looks like a session with the grinder is needed to separate all these parts. 

Progress I suppose but found a few more things to do before any of this can be reassembled...

[Lotusfab]

Repairing the bumpers is not a very nice job! You can buy the brackets from Bell and Coville or S and J.

[eeyoreish]

Thanks Fabian. Looks like a lot of rotten plywood and rusty remains of brackets 😩

I haven't delved too far yet but are the brackets held on by rivnuts (fitted from the face) or T nuts (fitted from the back) of the ply? Or something else...

[Lotusfab]

T nuts fitted from rear. You have to thicken the plywood in these areas. It's a nightmare, but essential. 😩😩😩😩

Problem is with  a car that's almost forty You could justify replacing almost everything! 

[eeyoreish]

Haven't posted on this thread for a while but I'm still chipping away at disassembling the TE in downtime from fixing other broken stuff...

Just now I've been trying to remove the wiper spindle from the body. As far as I can see on the car and on the Deroure parts diagram, I've undone all of the fixings but the spindle is still solid in the body. Am I missing something? Tried wiggling it and scraping around it in case some crud was holding it but feels like it's solid.

[Lotusfab]

That should be free now. The two lower holes have screws that go into brackets connected to the arm. The only other thing holding it is the nut on the spindle. The dash hole should be neat and just a hole. It looks like someone my have been messing around or even glued it in. I would prise it out, but thats me! 

[eeyoreish]

Thanks Fabian. I carefully chiselled round it with an electrical screwdriver and finally got it free without damaging the hole. It was almost as if there was some fibreglass resin put around the hole to seal it. Anyway, it's out now, on to the next challenge!