Rexanne - Gold s2 restoration project

[Steve-A]

I\'m going the other way round.

I really fancy some proper classic jap wheels. I\'d like to go for wide, deep dish, low offset wheels and run over fenders.

Getting hold of them is pretty tough though so I doubt I can be too choosey about specific widths and offsets, wider and lower offset = more money and I\'ve got a budget to work to so that limits me further.

So I\'ll buy the best set of wheels I can, then treat the arches in the way that suits the wheels best.

[Steve-A]

Well another day working from home, so I took advantage of the sunshine for a couple hours and I\'ll get back to work in a minute.

I started by jacking up the back end. I ended up on 4 axel stands with safety wheels and wood for piece of mind.



Then I spent until it got dark working to remove the rear axel so I can get into the rusty spots.-





Now this is what I found.... (those of a nervous disposition may want to look away now):o






As usual flash photography makes the underneath of cars look utterly terrible, even if they aren\'t too bad...

There\'s surface rust all over the place, but it is just the sills and the upper link mount that are rotten properly. The sills are pretty gone upto the seam level with the back edge of the door, the first 4" on inner wheel arch are pretty dead. The upper links are pretty well gone too.

Overall its similar to what I was expecting, maybe a bit worse on the sills.

Next time I work on it I\'ll continue stripping the under body. So suspension links to come off, the fuel tank to come out and various heat shields and stuff, to make sure there\'s no more hiding rust at this end of the car.

:Hammer:Hammer

[Ian65]

All the usual typical places then Steve

[Steve-A]

Yeh nothing too unusual and aside from the 2 problem areas on each side I\'ve found nothing other than flakey paint.

[CHC (RIP)]

Actually Steve, it looks worse than it is so don\'t dispair. Having the axle and ancillaries out definitely looks an easier job too. As you say, out with the petrol tank etc for a good survey - at this rate the body should be ready for painting for beginning of Dec, good luck.

ps - don\'t know what your profession is but sure wish I had time off like you to work on my projects.
:Thumbs-up

[Steve-A]

I\'m a freelance video editor and motion graphic artist. At the moment I\'m not getting 5 days a week work, more like 3-4, I am looking for more clients though so project time may suffer, but more work = more money to spend on the car. I\'m also very lucky that I get to work from home quite a bit and when I do that I can often take the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine and then work through the evening. Obviously those are the plus points, the downsides are it can mean days on end staring at a computer barely speaking to anyone whilst making constant creative decisions, which I find much harder mentally than logical decisions, with deadlines and budgets to meet. I\'ve done stuff for minor sky channels before, and if something\'s being broadcast next week there\'s no option to push the deadline back a few hours.... It can be pretty high intensity.

I think its fair to say I\'m also a pretty obsessive person, and once I get into something I\'ll spend every moment I have on it. I\'ve done little other than eat, sleep, work and put time into Rexanne for the last fortnight!

[CHC (RIP)]

Actually sounds quite an interesting career Steve - I can understand the down side to having to work from home but another plus is no commuting (time or travel) and the mental anguish comes with that territory I\'m afraid.
I\'m a Quality Assurance/Control Manager for an Engineering/Fabrication company so don\'t have any choice of working from home and as a rule work 9/10 hr days in the works + travel time each way.  So have little time for project work on weekday nights in the winter - horrible.  I like yourself, am constantly making decisions so the practical work on project cars (this is only my 2nd by the way) and DIY are my relaxation time and I love it.

Keep earning the pennies then more work and pleasure on Rexanne.
Cliff
:cheers

[Steve-A]

Yeh I find the physical work on the car very relaxing.

[CHC (RIP)]

Life\'s too short to be doing nothing while you\'re relaxing.:rollin

[Hobbawobba]

Looks like your getting thigns done at a good pace, which is always good! Haha:yes
Cant wait until I see it running around malvern, if im still around (trying to find somewhere to live by december 18, possibly going to worcester:()

[Steve-A]

Had a good days progress today

Firstly I\'ve got her a little makeshift home now


It isn\'t exactly double glazed, nither will it be super waterproof but it does make a good wind break which is making working out there much more comfortable and it should keep light to medium rain off fairly well.

So today I carried on stripping back the underside of the car. First up I ran the car upto temp for the last time and to use the last of the fuel from the tank. Then I dripped a little 2t oil in the ports and cranked her over by hand. Gonna keep cranking her by hand every week or so which should keep the seals free. Think I\'ll go pre-mixed when I get back on the road, as its been no problem for me in the mx5 and it means nice burning clean oil for the engine

After that the exhaust came off. Excuse the picture, I was in a bit of a rush to get on!



Tempted to get a different back box a this one only has a fairly small silencer and with only a single resonator otherwise the system is pretty loud!

Next up the exhaust and tank shields. As with all my mx5\'s these thin shields were rotting away to nothing and it was pretty much 50/50 whether the bolts holding them on would shear off or break the bracket because they were so rusted. This is after having soaked them all in wd40 for days :Hammer Still I got them all off.

 

I should be able to re-use them, after a clean up. Will need to tag a couple of brackets and corners back on to them though.

If anyone\'s got the tank shield section that protects the front edge of the tank (the left hand one in the photo) going spare in reasonable condition I\'d probably like to buy it as that panel is more gone that all the rest!

Next up the tank came out.



Ouch. Looking pretty grim. I turned it upside down a few times and no fuel came out, and poked it a bit with a spanner and didn\'t go through, but it is pretty damn rusty.




What do you guys think? get another or just give it the rust killer and paint treatment? I\'m leaning towards getting a better one.

Next up I started to take the suspension links off. They look like with a bit of a clean up they are structurally fine.



I soon decided I needed a bigger spanner, so after those 2 I put it on hold till I\'ve gone an bought one.

This is the view under the back now.




The boot floor and tunnel look really solid, which is good news.

Think I\'ve just got those other suspension links, the handbrake cable and the fuel pump/filter to deal with then i\'m ready to start on the serious metal work

[David Nock (RIP)]

Tank Steve....I\'d start looking for another now. You\'ve plenty of time \'cos a replacement tank can go on at the very end. Looking at pics I don\'t figure I\'d spend any time trying to save that one.

So I\'d guess it\'s S2 tank and tank shield from a scrapper.

[captainbizzaro]

I\'m binning my tank so if the heat shield is any good then you\'re welcome to it.

[captainbizzaro]

Kudos on the rotorbivouac by the way!

[CHC (RIP)]

Good work up to now Steve, the underside we can see looks pretty good but tank - ooh does look in a pretty bad way.  Me - (unless it was leaking) I\'d rub it down, treat it, prime & paint then at least you have an emergency tank for the future as spare.  Gives you some time to find a replacement without panicing.
:Thumbs-up