Nice surprise

[Mazza]

I thought I’d better get on with some of the jobs today, and inspired by those people doing their sills, got on with one side.
Nowhere near as fast as some, as never done this before, but after two hours had everything off, and found it all in pretty good condition for a 20 year old car. And only broke 4 plastic clips.

The sill cover had some rust bubbles on the inside so cleaned it all back and painted it with a phosphate rust treatment. I’ll over paint later with an anti rust coating. Need to go and get one so it will be drying overnight.

Will try to get all this side completed tomorrow, then start the other side on Wednesday. Hopefully it will be as good as this side. I also want to remove the spare wheel carrier to clean and paint it. Should be fairly accessible when I get the other side stripped down.

Most difficult bit......getting in and out of the boiler suit !!

 

[Grumps]

That looks I'm damn good shape.

 

[hard top]

Looks like it has just come out of the factory.

 

[gookah]

I am sure I can see the line where both cars have been welded together.....

 

[colb]

Looks as clean as mine were, really good preventative job to do. Must get around to doing my wheel carrier as well, but not in this current weather.

 

[Mazza]

I am sure I can see the line where both cars have been welded together.....

That explains the 2CV badge on the back!

 

[N4LLY]

Most excellent !

 

[Jjim]

Nice work there

Wish I had a bigger garage to do work in the warmth and dry

 

[roadvoyager1]

"Pretty good condition" is something of an understatement!!
They look extremely good to me. Wish mine had been as good as that.

 

[jonco]

Agree with others - thought mine were good but they are exceptional. If you haven't already check inside the wing panel - bottom lead edge - that was the weak spot on mine.

 

[Althulas]

That’s really clean nice to find no horrors. So wished I had a garage.

 

[t-tony]

Almost makes me wish I had a Z3 ..................

Tony.

 

[Mazza]

Almost makes me wish I had a Z3 ..................

Tony.

Almost .....but not quite !!

Got on with the work today.
Washed all the wheel arch covers, cleaned all the fixings and finished putting it back together ( with copper grease) .........And nothing left over ...except for the broken bits which have all been replaced
Moved the car over a bit to give me a bit more room and got everything ready to do the other side tomorrow.

 

[PHILIP BAXTER]

Cracking job @Mazza. Keep up the good work.

 

[Mazza]

And now the other side !!!
1 hour and 14 minutes to get the sill cover off....getting faster !!!
Two awkward screws....one eventually come off , the other one of the studs that has a plastic 10mm nut sheared off Will have to sort that but not sure how to yet.
Lost a few more of the plastic push fits so ordered some more plus a few spare screw and captive nuts. Worth having a few in the toolbox.

Sill cover had a bit more rust that the first one , but condition is still good. A bit of rust treatment to do but nothing major thank goodness.

Pile of stuff to clean and paint before it all goes back.
The drop cable was a pig to undo from the spare wheel cage but a bit of heat from a blow lamp and it succumbed. And I didn’t set fire to anything while heating it which is always a bonus.

So just cleaning and painting tomorrow, pick up the fixings Friday morning and put all back Friday afternoon....
I love being retired

 

[Jjim]

Looks like another good job

At least you had better weather to do this.

This sill still looks good, only minor bit if rust. I’m getting my sills off tomorrow evening so will post some horror pics

Have some serious garage envy now I see the width of your garage

 

[BMBabe]

Great work

 

[Mazza]

Just finished cleaning and painting.
Just the broken stud to sort. I have found a tool on eBay that will rivet in new studs.
£50.00 plus I would have to get a pack of M4 studs. Seems a good idea (cost apart!) but I don’t know how thick the metal will be if I grind off the broken stud and drill a hole through the centre of it. If it was welded from the back there could be a load of weld, in which case the rivstud would not work, as these are designed for panel mounting.
Have to think about this and decide best way ( or easiest and cheapest way) forward.

Just one tip for any one with the covers off......
I put a LED light up to the sill and could see loads of broken off plastic clips inside, plus a 25mm grommet that had been pushed inside at some time in its past. I got a piece of clear 25mm tubing, taped it to the vacuum cleaner hose and sucked out all this debris. Not that this stuff would be a problem but could cause an annoying rattle!!!!

 

[Ianmc]

Slightly off topic, but the red (burgundy?) hood looks great with the silver coachwork.

 

[Mazza]

Thank you, and It goes with the red interior

Apparently, the roof was originally black but the previous owner fitted the red one about 18months ago.
(Judging from the amount of water I found under the carpet the black one must have been leaking on the passenger side !!!)