Bognor Lean-to Project

[spurs fan in a coupe]

'And the next generation of breakers is already in training as Andy's eldest son wields a nugger gun like a true professional.'

He charges more for the privilege too!

Good to see you today Malc.

 

[Mazza]

The sun was shining...so got out in the garage (with the door open) and went through all the panels collected from Andy on Sunday.

All the panels came from the Topaz 2.2 that Andy is breaking. (If anyone needs the topaz passenger door ....you will have to be really good at panel beating.......)

The bonnet has a slight dent on it but with no rust its in far better condition than the one I have...
The two small front wings , in perfect condition.
The two sills , have a bit of work to do on them on the inside, ( paintwork all ok) but certainly in better condition than those on my 1.9 which I manage to clean up ok. (I do actually have a pair of brand new ones in primer, but I will sell those off at some point. )
Drivers side rear wing panel....minor rust on the inside , again paintwork side ok.....and far better than the original one I was looking to have repaired....now sitting outside waiting for the metal scrappies to drive by.

Passenger side rear wing......when Andy removed it ....OH NO !!!! inside sub panel had been eaten away by rust
From the outside the paintwork was perfect and you would never have guessed it was so bad
Nice paintwork

Inside looks good....

Oh F**k

But ....all the rust was on the inner plate ( which is spot welded to the wing panel ) ....so I still brought it home as I had a cunning plan in my mind......
Sunday night I ordered a pair of spot weld drills 6 and 8mm ( arrived yesterday)

Armed with these....used the 6mm on the 5 spot welds on the panel which worked exactly as I hoped it would.

And other than a bit of surface rust on the back no rust on the actual panel at all.....so all I needed was a new piece to repair it....
Step forward original rear wing.....

This one is crap....but has this......

But not for long...using 8mm spot weld drill

The old panel joined its mate on the scrap pile on the the front drive
The little panel though.....now has a new home

Five little plug welds and will be sorted.
At the moment all the panels have been cleaned and given a rust treatment where needed , and then I will red oxide prime and paint over all the inside of the panels with anti rust paint.

While I was in the mood....gave the seat frame a clean and rust treatment

Probably be a few days cleaning and painting now

Might as well strip all the parts off the bonnet and then remove it from the car.
It can then go on the scrap pile hopefully to be removed by the metal ‘collectors’

 

[t-tony]

A bit of luck with the rear wings Malc, but someone like you can make their own luck. Great job mate.

Tony.

 

[Mazza]

Its not so much luck, its just having people like You, Lee, Andy, Alan Slade and Paul Gunter on speed dial when it all goes wrong….

plus all those that post on here to point me in the right direction when I start banging my head against the wall

 

[Mazza]

Bit more done today.
Picked up a Zinc oxide primer spray early and got on with a bit of rust prevention

The small repair

And the drivers side rear wing panel.

3 coats
Then a bit of topaz ( not that it will ever be seen

Small panel indoors now and let it harden off

Punched out some 8mm dia bungs from the tank strap rubber to mask where the spot welds go

Also cleaned the seat frame of rust and assembled it back on the base

Starting on the sills tomorrow….but had to place on one …..just to see

 

[t-tony]

It’s going to be a belter mate Ready for September?

Tony.

 

[Mazza]

Hope so

 

[TrevD66]

It’s progressing well Mate…. A credit to you for moving forward and getting on with it

 

[Mazza]

Another sunny day in the ‘Tropic of Bognor’.... so speedos and flip flops were the order of the day.....until the police turned up on an indecency complaint

So just got to wait until Martin (my welder) can pop in to sort the panel .....I could pop rivet it but plug welding it is far better....... certainly an improvement on what I first saw of it when Andy removed it on Sunday

It nice when a cunning plan works

Then on to the sills
The edge on one is a bit ‘ al fresco’ but overall both sills are pretty good and were worth getting. All the inner surface rust dealt with by various wire brushes and then painted with a rust eater.....once dry and cleaned they will get the black gloop treatment....and I wont ever have to worry about them again
So I will be selling the brand new pair of widebody sills that I have, as now wont use them.

Guess what folks...I have a cunning plan to sort this

As the bonnet is being scrapped, it seemed a good idea to remove all the parts from it

Managed to reclaim some of the plastic fixings

The rest looked like they had been installed with a nugger gun set at 400Nm....totally destroyed and had to use pliers to get them off.


The washer system was not even connected.... ( if have known that 2 years ago ....I would have never bough it

One of the grills had some tangs missing, but found all the bits so will repair it , So if anyone needs any I have these spare

Various clips, Plugs , fixings all removed.

Now just 4 bolts to remove this vast expanse of scrap metal.....so if anyone wants a free weeks holiday for the family in Butlins in Bognor........just let me know .... but there is a catch.....you have to help me lift this bonnet off.......
( I am joking......who in their right mind would want to come to Bognor in the winter)

So that was it for today......not a lot done really, but Its all in the right direction

 

[Mazzal]

That last photo looks like the head of a bird of prey

 

[Synclare]

.

 

[Mazza]

For those that dont know…@Mazzal is my older brother Alain, … and his only interest in the build is to know when the car will be ready , so he can come down to Bognor and nick it off me… like he used to do with all my good toys when we were kids

 

[Mazzal]

Too right - if anyone knows of another 4 Z3’s that are for sale and need rebuilding please let me know as my sons would like one each - Malc needs to be kept busy - has he ever mention that he built a beach buggy from a bent and rolled VW Beetle about 30 years ago.

 

[Jam03]

Looking forward to the write ups of you taking this one on a load of road trips this coming summer.

 

[spurs fan in a coupe]

Its not so much luck, its just having people like You, Lee, Andy, Alan Slade and Paul Gunter on speed dial when it all goes wrong….

plus all those that post on here to point me in the right direction when I start banging my head against the wall

Yes mate, I’m always here when you need a pile of rust for your collection.

Love seeing your progress, certainly some commitment, driven by a lot skill and guile.

 

[g8jka]

Bloke who delivered my bonnet could have made use of your roof frame

 

[Mazza]

Been doing some more bits....
Found out I can get to the 4 bonnet bolts without having to support it.....just unbolt them then it will lift off...

Without the wing on, a socket on an extension and easy to undo. The hinge stays on the car
But as I am a numpty.....

Just a reminder because I will forget

I did remove the fan and fan housing ( I remembered how from seeing @GazHyde do one at ZedshedHQ....see Gaz I do actually pay attention)

And found this

You can see an arc where the fan has hit the rad at some point....Although it doesn’t leak, you cant tell if any of the water channels are close to breaking through.... NO point in gambling on it..........So Andy's 2.2 breaker to the rescue again, and got a text earlier today to say the replacement rad is already for me to collect.


One of the things I did say earlier, was to do with one of the sills..
This one

I said I had another cunning plan.........

Welcome to the Bognor Regis Zed Lean-to Cunning Plan division

Quite happy with the way its gone....just a bit of a tidy, then refinish the outside of the panel ( fortunately the bit you dont see ) with Zinc oxide primer and then topaz blue and the inside of the panel will be glooped

Probably strip down the drivers seat tomorrow......and more stuff to scatter round the house.....

 

[Lee]

And found this
View attachment 250339

Worth noting mate the main cause of this (Fan hitting rad) is knackered engine mounts allowing too much engine movement. Not sure if you've done them yet.

 

[Mazza]

Thanks for that Lee,,,not checked them … but will do. Might need some advice about how to replace them…. Probably cost me a saturday breakfast baguette but I can live with that

 

[Lee]

Thanks for that Lee,,,not checked them … but will do. Might need some advice about how to replace them…. Probably cost me a saturday breakfast baguette but I can live with that

Yeah just take our engine brace home mate. Supports the engine from above while you replace the mounts one at a time.