Rexanne - Gold s2 restoration project

[Steve-A]

Cheers for the tips Cliff

Yeh I used wire wheels and files on the first section that welded in just lovely, then decided this was hard work and I could dress it quickly with angle grinder, big mistake it seems!

I am using a MIG. I\'ve only been attempting welding for a couple of months, and this car will be by far the most ambitious thing I\'ve ever tried to weld! Should have plenty of time to practice.

[CHC (RIP)]

I would say -:
60% of the weld is down to good preparation (this includes removal of rusting metal) otherwise you will simply \'blow through\' the little amount of metal remaining
5% having a good earth
10% having your settings correct - amps and wire feed speed
and the remainder down to operators control
So don\'t be afraid to practice a lot first to get used to the equipment and balance of the mig torch.  You don\'t have to squeeze the handle to death, it should just be a light touch on the trigger and make sure that you don\'t try and stretch the cable or have acute angles in it - the wire has trouble getting around corners.  Just be comfortable with it.

[Steve-A]

Cheers again dude.  

Yeh I think I got too excited and rushed the prep on the 2nd hole. Lesson learnt I had another shot at it this morning, much better. Pretty much as good as the first patch still need to grind the welds down smooth but I\'ve run out of time for today.

I\'ve been practicing with the welder lots in the couple of months leading up to now. I\'m loving slowly. Found a great website with beginner tutorials and things to practice which I\'ve followed and this has helped me lots. Im on my phone right now so can\'t be sure but I think it was //www.mig-welding.co.uk. Or something!

[David Nock (RIP)]

Yep, I think it\'s the wiper blades which touch the trim and wear the black off?

Need to think again about this. I\'ve been spouting a load of ......xs.

If it\'s wiper blades why is is both sides? - The wipers don\'t go near the pass side.
Lil ol\' Gus is affected both sides.

Must be weather/ice/snow wear then?? Anyone?

[Ian65]

Need to think again about this. I\'ve been spouting a load of ......xs.

If it\'s wiper blades why is is both sides? - The wipers don\'t go near the pass side.
Lil ol\' Gus is affected both sides.

Must be weather/ice/snow wear then?? Anyone?

just down to old age I reckon..... that\'s the trims Dave, not you!!!
They all suffer from it these days.... another problem now that the cars are in their 20\'s... like leaking tanks and cracking radius arm mounts.....
Faults they didn\'t suffer from in the early years.

[captainbizzaro]

NEV\'s whole surround is pretty much devoid of black paint altogether.

[CHC (RIP)]

JAZ & Goldie too come to that but I\'ll change that.

[Steve-A]

Today once the mist cleared the sun shone. And so once I\'d finished my mornings meeting I decided I\'d work through the evening and so I got to play with tools for the afternoon.

Not really much to see, but I did finish off sorting out the 2nd rust hole in the rear hatch sealing rim. Here you can see it where I\'ve ground the welds back and its ready for a quick blast of temporary paint.




Then I made a start on this the 3rd and final hole in the hatch rim.



Its gonna be much tougher than the other two as its on a bend. I decided to try and do it in 3 stages, meaning for easier metal shaping. By the time the light was fading tonight I\'d got this far....



All the rust cut out and the first section of new metal welded in. I\'m going out to work for the rest of the week rather than working from home so I doubt Ill get any more done till the weekend. This weekend I\'ve set both days aside to work on her, an I intend to sort out so light and rain cover.

I got a battery charged, so ran her up to temp again as well today. Now I\'ve only really got my 13b to compare her to, but the engine feels great. She idles nicely now I\'ve tweaked the idle speed and mix, and starts nicely from hot or cold and revs up freely. Looking forward to how revvy she will feel once that big heavy fan is gone!

[Ian65]

Ditch the fan Steve, wire the secondaries to manual and pack out the accellerator pump and you\'ll get some more power out of it.
Is it already running headers in place of the old reactor?? Best bang for your buck is to ditch the old reactor and exhaust... most cars seem to have been done these days.

[captainbizzaro]

Seconds for the manifold ditching exercise-you think she revs freely now just wait till she\'s flowing like a beauty. Flames a go-go.

[Steve-A]

She has indeed got un-branded mild steel headers then mid section back in stainless with Powerflow silencer. The stainless section is crush bent though Still the thermal reactor is gone, as is the air pump

The fan ditch is high on the list when I get round to the front of car, and I\'ll look into those carb mods, thanks Ian I have many more plans for more extreme power but for now making the most of what I\'ve got is never a bad idea!

Flames sounds good Tim As long as I get good over run pops and bangs I\'ll be a happy boy, haha.

I know its a bit unusual but I\'m also gonna invest in a wideband o2 sensor early on as I\'ll need it for when I go fuel injected, but for now it\'ll let me know how good the carb is set-up and I should be able to dial in things like accelerator pump perfectly.

I managed to talk a friend of mine into doing the same when he converted his VW polo to run on bike carbs (very popular placebo power mod in the VW scene), the sensor cost £160 and we saved a good £300+ worth of dyno time.

I\'m just very pleased that it looks like that the engine is plenty healthy enough to get out and enjoy the car once I\'ve done the chassis, suspension, brakes and body work!

When the time comes I shall have to consult you all with regards to whether I should go for wild n/a porting or turbo and whether to keep to 12a for originality or go for 13b. But thats a long way off. Shame really as I was sat in the garden revving it up and I so wanted to go for a drive! I cannot wait!

[rossonza]

Bet the neighbours loved the revving :-) hows she sound in your garden?  Louder than the 5?

[CHC (RIP)]

Nice work Steve - coming on good.
:Thumbs-up

[Steve-A]

Another grim misty cold November day, another day of reasonable progress on Rexanne

I started the day by finishing off the rear hatch area. I ended up making the corner section out of 3 separate plates.

Here I\'ve welded the first one in, and just offering up the second one.



And all done....



Then I needed to tack the brackets that keep the wires neat and help support the boot lining back on. And gave it all a blast of temporary paint to keep the elements at bay.



Aside from a skim of filler and proper paint, the rear hatch area and roof is now done . A friend of mine used to work for a body shop, and is pretty good when it comes to filler and final smoothing and finishing stuff so he\'s gonna give me a hand when I comes round to that stage.

I decided its gonna be best to work my way round the car, so next up I moved towards the rear bumper. I took it all to bits to see what might be hiding in there.



The good news is all round the lights is perfect and on the main body itself there are only very early stages of surface rust coming through underneath the number plate and underneath the arial. So I\'ve knocked them back with wire wheel and put some rust killer on them, and covered them from the nights damp. Tomorrow I\'ll put some paint on them and that should have stopped that in its tracks.



Not so good is the rear valance. Its only rotten though on the one edge where it joins the main body structure, and the body itself is fine there, but theres plenty of surface rust.



By this time the light was fading, so tomorrow I\'ll get out with the wire wheel and rust killer early for the valance, and cut out the main rot there, and hopefully get some temporary paint on all that.

If I get time I\'ll start on the bumper itself. Again there\'s nothing major, but while its apart I might as well clean everything, grease every bolt, paint everything that I wont be able to get in and paint easily later etc etc.

[captainbizzaro]

What welder are you using Steve-I\'m considering getting one for jobs like random brackets I\'m gonna have to fit etc. Looking good by the way!