Nick's VVC tidyup

[Nick]

I've been nibbling away at the welding the MOT tester required, which included replacing the entire lower rear valence and where it wraps round into the wheelarches; attaching the previously 'repaired' NSR wheel arch to the inner structure(it wasn't attached to ANY of it ), redoing a similar budgie shit where it touches repair on the NSR wheeltub, both floors in front of the rear jacking points, and the chassis rail behind the OSF anti-rollbar mount. Plenty of seam sealer in the joints and a thick coating of schutz, and none of it looks too bad.

On starting the car to take it to the MOT this morning, I discovered it had NO brakes. Which required a grovel at the garage(only 100m down the road) and a quick fit of the new master cylinder I bought when I got the car. Then I found that I'd used most of my brake fluid fitting bigger brakes to a mates MGF last week, so that all took longer than I expected.

They had another space this afternoon for the MOT, and after I fitted two new wiper blades - it only needed one but I swapped the better one to the back - and a new headlight bulb which was working but giving a poor beam pattern, it passed

I'm pleasantly surprised by the Sportex exhaust; I was expecting it to sound like a cow farting down a drainpipe, instead it has a decent burble and isn't too loud. I hate loud cars. The road noise that was coming in through the massive gaps in the car's structure is now much quieter.

That just leaves the coolant leak to fix with the correct sized clamp in the morning and the car ought to be usable again. I do need to rewire the manually switched cooling fan back to the proper temperature switch though.

[Nick]

The previous owner lost all of the boot trim and as I'm trying to make the car as civilised as I can, I had a root through my stash of useful stuff.
Which resulted in a pair of these:



and in place:



I also have some charcoal grey carpet for the wheel tubs and boot floor, but that's tomorrows job. As is attaching the lower edge of the bumper to the rear valence, and making a clamp for the spare wheel - one of those is causing the squeak that's driving me crazy

[DotMatrix]

Sounds like a Lot og good repairs going on!
That boot trim looks really nice. Did you make that your self?
Do you have any pictures og changing the rear Valance?

[Nick]

The rear valence was like this when I bought the car:



Replaced the inner valence:



and then the outer:



This was also poor:



so made some patches:



and





I've lightly ground the welds for the rear valence, but it's hidden by the bumper so won't be doing any more than that.

and finally, the boot retrim completed:



I've cured the squeak and buzzing from the boot by bolting down the spare wheel, and tightening the retaining clips for the rear wash-wipe cover.

I've also rewired the hideous bodge that was the manually switched radiator fan back to the proper reliable thermo switch in the radiator.

[Nick]

Moving on to the bodywork, this arch repair was done by the previous owner. I would have cut the panel considerably smaller, and not welded it as close to the bodyline. This would have meant much less finishing work to hide all the distortion:



A couple of wipes of filler and a load of blocking with 80 and 240 grit:



two coats of Green Ti filler primer applied with a roller:



I've since blocked this down to 600grit and the panel is ready for topcoat, as is the replacement wing. That's a job for the weekend, as I've a couple of parts to make for a friend.

[Nick]

Time for some paint.

Remove the side window, bodymask over the whole car, cut out over the quarter and tape the edges down:



About 5 minutes of actual painting(which includes doing the replacement wing):



I'll refit the glass and wing tomorrow when I get in from ringing, and give the whole car a good clean. Hopefully there's enough paint to polish out the defects that are inevitable when you do bodywork in the street.

[Nick]

Reassembled, washed and the plastics blacked, it looks a lot better:



I also have the Rover 100 sill covers to fit, which will smarten it a bit more.