Jeemy's Elan Rebuild

[epipete]

Jeemy, use DVB for the rod, it'll cost but it'll be easiest solution.

Incidentally,with the heater out you can replace all the hoses with silicon - from the actuators through to the connection block and install the entire unit in one piece - saves a lot of time and bother.

[Jeemy]

I think I had better. 3mm was what I was told. I'll do some measurement and work it out. I might as well replace them all now its out.

On a positive note, I only have the spark plug cables to remove, and some missing wiring to sort - there are 3 plugs in the engine bay not connected, which pass through a solenoid on the right hand side which I believe is the EES - exhaust emissions sensor? This would fit, as the 3rd plug is sticking out by the gearbox, as if it might connect to some kind of sensor near the exhaust.

Once I solve this problem and remove the spark plug cables, I'll be down to cleaning and corrosion proofing all the electrics in the engine bay, before I refurbish and detail it and fit the new gear cables and short shift kit. This will be the first time, if you don't count the turbo CR refurbished, that I will actually progress to rebuilding, instead of dismantling.

So after this final bit of research, I have all the parts in hand, everything that needs a refurb or clean removed or accessible, and I can start putting the car back together to get me close enough to move out of the engine and onto the next part - the body refurb and respray. There is very little fibreglass to repair and I'll be doing it as I fix the small parts of fibreglass damage in the engine bay and touch up the interior red.

So I am very close to the exciting part! I am so far very scared I will be able to put it all back together and it will start, 80% or so confident that the photos and notes documented here will be enough to get me back in the other direction, and very hopeful that over February, I'll be able to refurbish all the removed parts so by the time it starts warming up and the days get longer, I will have everything in place to start putting her back together and taking her down to the bodyshop.

I have contacted DVB and will post up lots of photos of the "inside work" - tonight, I am emptying my store-rooms and starting to put together a support structure for the dashboard which needs some strengthening, soundproofing and adjustment, so I can work on it in situ and also a tablesaw station so I can start to build the subwoofer boxes.

[Jeemy]

I've just seen this. Am once again reconsidering the trim plan:

[Jeemy]

Long time no post.

In the infrequent bouts of sunshine / weather that was not freezing, I started detailing the engine.

You can see the built up grime, dust and road film on the PAS pump and brake fluid pump here, and below, the general engine grime at the bottom of the plenum chamber.

I spent some time with a clipboard writing down every part of the engine that needed a clean, what I was going to do to it, and grouping them by type.

The big thing for me was the kind of plasticy film, I guess a heat repellant, which wasn't so bad to be dire, but bad enough you could see little bits of rust coming through. I did a practice with some old high-temp yellow paint I had lying around, to see if it would stick to the piece who's name I can't remember:

It seemed to stick! Plan is, to paint all of that material with the yellow, then paint gold over it. Back to reality, I started on detailed cleaning of the engine bay. This is a picture of the right hand side before I started, just after a quick wipe with G101 and paper towels:

I started working across the back of the engine with 1:1 G101 and boiling water, using a toothbrush to start lifting the bulk of the dirt:

I then started on the front of the engine block. This is a picture I'll be coming back to over and over. This is after the first go with G101. You can see the silver start to show through on the pipe connectors, and the rust showing through on the lower part of the block once the grime lifts.

We'll be back to the engine shortly. Longer days approached, and Norman had put me onto a section I might have overlooked at the top of the rear chassis legs:

This was something I had totally missed, I had to hold the camera where I couldn't really see even to get these pics. We discussed it and it doesn't look that bad. In this pic you can see where my POR15 painted parts meet the untouched parts you have to reach round to at the top of the rolling chassis:

A detailed picture shows that there is definite rust showing, but the structure is sound:

[Jeemy]

So I started on a detailed and final clean and rustproof of the underside.

I used Bilt Hamber Surfex HD for the initial clean.

*a wee note on Bilt Hamber. Having discovered this firm, I would be keen to advise future readers going down this path to use their products over any of the current brands out there. Having suffered a severe acid burn on my arm from POR's Marine Clean, had mixed results from clay bars from other manufacturers, etc etc, I have been nothing but astounded by their products. More info to come.

So yeah, I rubbed down the underbody with Bilt-Hamber Surfex diluted no more than 1:1 with boiling water. Following this, I went to G101 diluted 1:1 boiling and scrubbed, and then had a good wash down with hot soapy water. During this time, I was shedding layers of clothes like nobody's business - despite not having felt any pain from the Surfex, I was keen not to repeat the last time and the use of hot soapy was as much for me as it was for the car!

I then went to Tardis neat with a toothbrush for the stubborn inner and outer corners, and a final spray and wash with G101 10:1 got me to here. The left is the clean half, the right is only with the surfex. You can see the difference:

This left the centre section. I've cleaned up to the first set of seat posts; you can see the difference and the built up crap, slight rust, and plastic brake pipes:

[Jeemy]

Out came the fibreglass. This is all too messy to have photographs detailing everything. The main thing was the break in the dashboard, which I fixed by joining the two parts broken here, with thin copper wire and then fibreglass and matting. I also repaired all holes/scrapes under the car, some dings in the surface, headlight pods, my van wheel arch, my surfboard, and some of the inner panels of my van, together with a crack in the interior fibreglass of the dash, and the hole where the immobiliser key sat. Photos will follow where appropriate:

The car was ready for injection. I plugged a can of Dinitrol ML:

Into my compressor:

After one final clean, the underside looked like this:

I proceeded to inject the cavities with Dinitrol ML. It seemed to work well, although its very hard to tell. I shoved tons in there, nothing came back out.

You can't get into a lot of the sections from underneath, and while the car is on blocks, I can't get the wheel arches off.

So I've appended the diagrams with what I did. Basically worked through the centre struts, and the top angled sections of those, plus the long bar that goes through the engine:

I pulled the rubber plugs from the places shown in 2, 3, 4 below and the converse side. I've obviously already covered 8 inside the cockpit with POR15/corromax.

Some of the plugs in 2/3/4 and converse were going to just blast into the engine bay, so I left them. I don't see the point of them, there are easier ways to get to them.

The chassis over-riders going through the engine aren't actually detailed on this plan that I could see. So the pink arrows show other internal points I found and blasted Dinitrol ML into (these are below the coolant tank, plenum etc on the centre rigger running through the engine bay):

Basically if there was a chassis hole you could shove the probe into, I filled the f*cker with ML…...

I left this for a week to settle, virtually nothing came out, so I did it again!

This week, I decided to hit the final coat. Again there is very little in the way of pictures I can show you. Despite all my cleaning its still an absolutely filthy job. I'd been agonising about a different colour for the centre, etc etc. But the rust was so minimal, I used Corromax on the visible parts, gave the whole underside a blast with a hand-sander, rubbed down with a cheapo tack cloth and decided to blast the whole thing in 4147.

I wrapped all the brake lines in masking tape, and masked the whole car in cling film up to as far as I thought I would overspray, taping it down with masking tape again. I used 3M, there's no point in using anything cheaper when you are attaching to bodywork. I know when I take it off the paint will be fine. It will get a sand and machine before it goes to the spray shop, but why risk any defects?

Then I blasted Dinitrol 4147. The results were OUTSTANDING. You can see my last photo taken about 4pm today. This is just before I put the sides on the tents (more for other cars than mine), put up halogen lighting underneath, and sprayed.

There is LOADS to show you. As a reminder to me:

- the fibreglassed dash fascia, now totally rigid
- the underside, now a beautiful matt black
- the detailed engine bay. the lower block now looks like an Aga, the core plugs are shiny silver. I'm ready to remove the final cables and paint the parts
- the sandblasted heatshields and manifold

Hopefully this gives some insight into the last 3 weeks' work. Its so dirty working upside down, its very hard to take pics at critical stages.

[Rambo]

It all looks very good Jeemy. How do you fancy practicing on another ?

When will it be back on the road ?

PS Is detailing the new word for cleaning ?

[Jeemy]

Heh - I will not do this again without a proper garage to work in. Its too frustrating sitting with £1000s worth of parts & a car you can't drive waiting for the right weather.......

On the plus side, it actually took less than 15 minutes for each coat to do the underside. Literally if I'd had a lift I could have hoisted the car, pressure washed the underneath, sanded, and treated the whole thing in a couple of days. The delay has been having to make full days of it, doing a thorough job with the cleaning, and getting totally soaked in chemicals by being under the thing which means you have to keep stopping. I also took really great care on it but you could do a bodge job or maintenance pretty quickly.

I can't wait for you to see the photos of the underside, it looks pristine now. Won't be today unfortunately, kid is ill so I am working from home.

Detailing means repairs, protecting and dressing as well. Like if I valet a car, it gets washed, waxed and hoovered.

If I detail a car, it gets an extraction wash followed by a clay bar to remove bedded-in impurities and particles, then all the shuts cleaned and rubber treated with a preservative, stone chips fixed, paint scratches corrected, lacquer sanded, washed, polished, waxed, sealed, plastic wrapped, etc. Whatever it needs so every last 'detail' is addressed.

So when I refer to the engine being detailed every part is either being cleaned and dressed, or if a clean will not be good enough removed, replaced, sandblasted, powdercoated, painted, wrapped or repaired, right down to the last hose clip.

I actually have tons more photos as I've done a lot of work, its now gleaming clean and I am just about to strip out the last of the cables & hoses and start painting the back wall of the engine bay. It just takes so long to upload photos and the work is so infinitesimal that I'm not going to 'detail' each step so much, ahem.

I've got a good left & right shot of the engine bay which really shows the difference its made. But when you are cleaning each wire individually its too much to photo it all, and not that helpful to others, I'll put up the rest of the shots tomorrow with the underside.

[Jeemy]

In answer to your last question, depends what you mean by on the road!

9 full days' work - approx 100 hours (so 3-4 weeks) before it comes down off blocks - it should be drivable at that point. I almost posted my full list but its pages long.

A week to respray it and get it back to wherever I finish the job. Home I'd be able to come and go but get more hassle. Studio means a long day in town to get anything done.

Then 8 days dealing with each wheel in turn - brakes, shocks, wheels, tyres, cleaning, rustproofing, fixing up wheel arches. During this time the interior will go away to be recovered. 2 days to fit the stereo, refit the interior. If I have it at home I can get 4 days a week done, work 2-3. Probably works out the same, approx 2.5 days a week, so 4 more weeks unless this takes less time than I thought.

So 8-9 weeks in total. On the road for June.

But before any of this I have to identify a loose plug. More on this in a seperate thread.....

[Jeemy]

No time to post much but I wanted to show the picture of the finished underside, now dry. Delicious!

Compared to before:

And this is how the metalwork looked, now completely sanded, injected, rust-cured, painted with POR15 and black wax covering everything above the baseline which I will sand and topcoat much later down the line as I work in from the wheelarches and spend more time on each corner:

It still looks a bit messy as the masking is still on the brake lines, and the large platform under the engine and the brake lines will be getting another coat, definite red brake lines, possibly white, grey, red, yellow or black on the large section.

But this is all essentially touchup and final detailing now, which can be done anytime; next step is to identify the final loose plug before starting on the sandblasting and paint of the engine pieces in preparation for putting it back together!

[Jeemy]

I've spoken to a few people privately, I am running about 4 weeks behind on reporting and posting photos, aargh.

Weather continues to be a bugbear, I can only work on the car outside and I can't lift the bonnet in high winds or rain, which is what I mainly get. I may have a working garage soon!

So here is the thread detailing (Rambo, take note, hehe) some work I've done over the last weeks inside. I've fixed up the dash and dealt with all the removed metal and plastic.

I bought a cheapo sandblasting cabinet for £70 or so on ebay months back. It turns out it was damaged in transit and the top glass was cracked, so it took a while for me to fix it up. In earlier and foolish days I bought a £18 "sandblaster" from Machine Mart, little realizing it needed a compressor to drive it. It was tiny, but in a giant box, so it laid unused and optimistic for months. Thankfully useful for spares, I only had to go out once to buy more BSP 1/4" valves……

The main focus of the sandblasting was the manifold.

*NOTE* I do need advice on this. Are the superficial cracks OK? From what I've read, they are normal and manageable. I truly hope so.

You can see them where the rust has yellowed above and to the right of this pic, and less easily visible, coming down from the right hand side of the turbo mount:

Here you can see one of the heatshields as it came off the car, just before blasting.

And here is the turbo heatshield. I found each one, the paint stayed on under blast if the underneath was good, and if there was rust, the rust and paint blasted off…..good enough, the sand will roughen the surfaces ready for repainting if they are solid:

Another removed metal piece before blasting:

And another:

And another!

Sandblasting was a pain. I thought it would be easy, and amazing, but my gear wasn't up to it. You clearly need more power than my 90L compressor could provide, equally it does up to 10 bar and the gun said 6, the gun inside the cabinet didn't work well, although it had variable nozzles, the Clarke stand-alone gun was better for flow, but only had one nozzle width. Long story short, I messed around and after 5-6 hours the pieces looked like this:

I used the same gun to push compressed air over them and blow away most of the dust, rinsed them under the tap and dried them with a heat gun, then wiped them over with phosphoric acid to neutralise some rust, finally used Dinitrol Converust RC900 to kill/stop any surface rust remaining:

[Jeemy]

So here is the manifold with the 3 cracks shown by arrows:

And individually:

I would really appreciate some advice on whether these are critical…..

[Jeemy]

So everything was blown, rinsed, heat dried, rubbed down with phosphoric acid, and then sprayed with RC900. I did some masking on the manifold:

And then sprayed everything in a heat-resistant matt graphite paint - 2-3 coats to the reverse, and 5-6 coats on the front. They then went into the oven to cure at 160 degrees……

Midway on painting:

[Jeemy]

And the final parts:

[Jeemy]

Having ordered an aluminium radiator, it turned out there was one last piece to remove from the vehicle. In fact there turned out to be loads.

I pulled off the little rubber protectors:

Cut the cable ties for the radiator power cables:

View from the top

…and removed the little cable clip from the top of the prongeron > radiator front mount with a philips head.

Then used a small ratchet to remove the 3 bolts securing the centre radiator mount, and the top 2 on the brackets…..

and then wedged a breaker bar against the ground to get the large bolt holding the centre radiator mount off. Out it came and the radiator, already disconnected, and all the brackets. I will paint the mount black, in fact everything will get POR15 black, and then I will overspray the brackets in red with the cam cover:

[Jeemy]

I gave a general clean round the underside, pulled some flaky paint off the side of the oil cooler; now I just have to wait for the howling winds to subside before I can finish the clean and treatment underneath the engine bay.

The wind came down a bit so I moved onto the top section in preperation for the short shift.

Loosening the arrowed bolt allowed the clutch cable to come out, so I can now tuck it behind the plenum chamber and paint the lever.

I decided to remove as many of the additional hoses as I could; sorry for the mad attention to detail but this is the only way I can remember how to put it all back together!

Clip from a vacuum hose:

The other side of which led to the actuator, which I am replacing anyway:

I pulled this hose from the back firewall:

And I think this pic is to remind me I cut this cable clip, or I tucked the hose end back…..

I pulled the pipes going to the oil filter:

And from it:

And started rubbing down the hoses with 1:1 G101 & boiling water, using a paper towel dampened in the mixture and another one to pull it back off, just to start degreasing them:

When I got to the pipes feeding the EGR solenoid from the plenum, I was going to clip and clean in situ; then I decided not to do this and to remove everything and clean it properly off the vehicle. You can see why in this closeup:

This is how the solenoid was fitted and where the blue and white pipes go:

[Jeemy]

The blue pipe pulls out from the back of the plenum chamber:

I removed all the old white tape where the notation has worn off, and started to retape & mark plugs:

And pulled the whole solenoid assembly so I could clean behind it, and clean it off the vehicle:

I disconnected the plug feeding the sightglass:

And disconnected the two electrical connector blocks from their mounts:

I unclipped the hose clip at the back of the coolant tank mount:

Unclipped the 3 plugs feeding the ignition coil packs:

Together with the earthing point and the other two bolts:

I unclipped the spark plug cables from the base of the coolant tank mount:

Seperated the two large electrical connectors, and pulled the coolant tank mount:

[Jeemy]

Then it was time to remove the spark plug cables. I made a video showing how they connect just to be 100%, although I discovered once the cables were off the DIS is marked with numbers, which is nice. I removed the 4-way clips before the oil filler:

Pushed the clip attached to the oil filler gently off with a screwdriver:

And the clip under the oil feeder pipe:

I cut the corners off my parts bags and used them wrapped in tape to seal off the ignition coil connectors as I know these are very sensitive to moisture:

And used cotton buds dipped in G101 to clean the coil pack surface. During all of this time I was wiping down pipes with G101; you can see here the cleaned coil pack, the EGR pipe starting to look pretty nice, and all of the cables now neatly out of the way so I can access the gear cables.

You can also see the massive amounts of dirt & baked on crud on the back of the gearbox and the centre rigger:

I spent the next couple of hours wiping down cables with G101 solution, and using a toothbrush and Tardis to start taking off all of this crud. The goal is now to get superclean throughout this area, so I can prime all the metal and paint it up, together with spraying the back firewall with red Plastidip.

All of the removed clips were taken away to soak and clean or replace, and after a couple of hours agitating dirt and rubbing it away with paper towels, the area is starting to look a lot cleaner:

Next steps are to do a thorough job masking everything off again. Then I will use cotton buds, with G101, to clean around all the ribbed and spiral tubing, the small electrical cables (although I may try Ferrosol on these) the areas under cables and clips, and Tardis for any stubborn deposits: although it is safe if washed away on most anything; washing is not an easy option; the best I've got is to rub down with Tardis, then use G101 solution to rub the Tardis away, and a damp paper towel to finish. Rusty pipe ends will be sealed and sanded clean, plastic clips if riveted on will be cleaned as best I can then vinyl wrapped, and wherever possible electrical plugs will be disconnected, cleaned with ACF-50, and re-made after putting a neater sleeve on than the horrible wrapped tape. Gear cables will be disconnected and the mountings cleaned up.

Once everything is as clean as I can get it, I'll remask once more, sanding or fibre-penning all the exposed dirty metal, and slowly mask the whole engine bay up as I do it. I'll then paint all the metal with POR15 except the gearbox which I will metal polish. I'll then spray the back firewall red. After this, I'll prime the areas I am not leaving black, lightly sand the primed coat and then paint the grey coated parts gold, and the remaining parts silver. Gear cables will be pulled through to fit the short-shift, and then I can reassemble.

6-7 4-hour sessions, and then hopefully very quick to put everything back in!

[Jeemy]

Nothing amazing to report today. Got some forward movement done though.

I fibre disced, wire brushed, washed down with Tardis, phosphoric acid and then RC900 on the radiator mounts:

Pulled another wee connector from the clutch cable:

Hauled out a couple of grommets, god knows how this got a puncture:

And then spent 3-4 hours with cotton buds, paper towels, G101 and Tardis, cleaning dirt off cables and little corners. I honestly think you are starting to see a difference in the engine, but maybe thats me and the rare sunlight:

Wanted to paint the radiator mounts but couldn't get into my store due to clients using the room, so I flushed the radiator:

A few bits and pieces came out, mainly grit, twigs and parts of the old hose I had to cut off:

Actually had some difficulty getting the leaves & twigs out of the radiator, on the plus side, the fins look in good nick. A mixture of a normal hoover, a mini car hoover, and an airgun removed all of this:

So yeah, the engine bay is coming on leaps and bounds. I am very close to being able to paint, probably 2-3 more cleaning sessions to go. You can see in these two pics the difference in the plenum chamber, fuel injector mounts, coolant tank mounts, gearbox, the electrical distributor box at the back, cables leading to it, and the DIS. I pulled the final few cables from the clip mounts, and remasked all the plugs, hose ends, etc.

[GoM100Go]

Hi, I am following your progress and it's turning out amazing! Had a question about your wheels? Manufacturer and size? Thanks I really like how aggressive the car looks with them. Thanks.

-James