BRAVE or just FOOLISH RM RESTO

[arceye]

Well a little more achieved. I first made the bottom section of the rear window frame, which sounds easier than it was, the frame sections are shaped / curved in every direction.







A good poke around showed the top rail and nearside sections to be sound apart from a little bit of the joint edge on the nearside vertical section, so I decided to keep these. I then removed the drivers side vertical section of the frame and made up another. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I forgot to take any

Anyway, both sections were fitted and glued, then the edges of the roof were tidied up along with some freh metal let in. The perforated roof has also been given a good wire brush and a thick coat of hammerite.

This done the body and roof were screwed to the timber frame around the rear of the car, and a start has been made on the paintwork, grey primer, followed by a couple of coats of gloss which now needs a gentle sand and a couple of finishing coats.

This is how she stands now







I've bit the bullet and bought in the proper roof kit along with front and rear window seals, once the seals are all fitted to the windows I should be able to get on with covering the roof.

Two windows down, one to go, the fronts are a little awkward.





I still need to fine tune the opening of the rear window frame with a sander now I have the rear window rubber, just to ensure a good fit. But hopefully my next post will see Rusty resplendent with her new roof and windows back in place, Just hope I get it right.

[Xantia-nut]

Ay up, arceye!

I reckon you are

a) Very brave

or

b) Too daft to admit defeat.

Well done on this HUGE rebuild on one of the best looking cars ever built.

[arceye]

Cheers mate, I'd like to say A, but its probably B.

When I got her I toyed with doing a bit of a rod with a special body, but considering she came for free and they aren't going to make another I thought I'd better save her.

I still reckon she'd have been nice with the roof chopped off, no bonnets or side pannels and a V8 through a Jag back axle though , I'm glad I took her this way though, still lots to do but she's not looking like heading to the knackers yard anytime soon now

[rich.]

you could still fit a modern engine.. i know a chap who has had several & aparently its "easy" to fit the rover v8...
you are doing a nice job btw!

[junkyarddog]

you could still fit a modern engine.. i know a chap who has had several & aparently its "easy" to fit the rover v8...
you are doing a nice job btw!

Diesel FTW.


Just have to add,that this is fantastic work Mr.Arceye.
A true,real world,man in his shed resto.

[JPB]

......

Diesel FTW.

Yes!

Just have to add,that this is fantastic work Mr.Arceye.
A true,real world,man in his shed resto.

Seconded several times over.

[arceye]

Cheers chaps, you'll make me blush

I had hoped I'd got the final coat of paint on the back end tonight....but then the bloody midges came out all at once, and flew in the garage attracted either by the fumes or the fluroescent light just as I finished. So maybe one more rub down and another coat, the typical problems of shed resto's.

I'm going to run the engine for as long as it goes ok, but any future rebuild is likely to be drawn out and expensive because of the white metal bearings and parts prices / availability.So if she ever does give up then such a conversion might prove a good idea even if only for a little while. I'm plotting an old very small caravan if I ever find one cheap for fixing up to go behind her on odd occasions, though whether that happens will depend solely on the right van cropping up at the right price. IF that ever happens a nice diesel could be a good idea should the need arise:)

[mach1rob]

Looking bloody good, and I'm sure I'm not the only one to think that roof looks pretty good as it, although may be an issue when it rains!

[arceye]

I did quite like the roof appearence myself Rob, but this isn't going to be no fair weather classic

Anyway, the roof is finally done, as usual took a while longer than I would have liked, but here it is.

First a layer of hessian is draped over the roof



Which was then covered in strips of wadding





The Everflex Vinyl roof then goes over this making sure not to ruck up the wadding as it goes







This was then nailed at the lower of the back window frame, then stretched and nailed all around, going back and removing nails and restretching a couple of times until it was nice and taught with as few creases as possible. A few remain around the rear window but I'm happy enough.

So, rain gutter mounting strip then went on, again using a lot of nails.







Once this was all the way around came the fiddly task of inserting the rubber gutter into it, the roof trimmed down, and the vinyl at the back window was cut to wrap around the frame.

So time for the windows with their new seals to go in.

The front windows were pretty easy, just six woodscrews to each, the back window took some shoving through and then metal surround plates were located into grooves in the rubber seal to hold it in the frame, which in turn were screwed to the inside of the window frame. Not the easiest of tasks especially as I did it on my own when the lad was at work. I'd definately reccomend someone to position and shove the window in place whilst another works inside the car.

Anyway, getting a little dusty again, but here she is with her roof all done.







So, I've now decided to get a bit of the interior tidied and back together, just the dashboard and rear seat back along with the trims around the front window just to get a little of the internals out of the way.

The dashboard was a mess of peeling veneer when removed from the car so I stripped the offending stuff away and have replaced it with some fresh veneer of the same burr walnut.

New veneer going on





Trimmed



I'll post pics of the finished article once varnished up.

The plan at the moment is as mentioned above along with repairing the steering wheel, all work that has to be done sometime and now feels right, then onto finishing the brakes and tidying up the wires / pipes below the car along with getting her connected back up to the fuel tank. Then I will start on door and wing repairs etc.

[ClassicJagMan]

Looking amazing now, you have a keen eye and work to a very high standard