2002 Touring '74 from Belgium, full restoration project (Lots of pictures)

[D.martijn]

Friday evening I went back to work and got the raintray/gutter sandlbasted as some slight surface rust was forming. After blasting I also gave it a coat of Corroless. I still need to make the oval hole for the hose to fit through but will do this once the paint is dry.

 

 

We also figured out a way to re assemble the hinges for the seats. We had taken them apart to zinc plate the inside mechanism.

And old spare hinge was used to make a holder and tool to "repack" the big spring inside.

 

 

Only thing left is finishing the splatter paint texture on the hinges. 

[D.martijn]

Last weekend I finished up the new isolation pad clips for the engine bay, only think left was making the chamfered corners

I printed a little jig to get a nice consistent 45° chamfer, I went back to work and used he disc sander

 

I've made some then enough claps so it you also need some, send me a pm!

 

In preparation to welding in the repaired raintray, we decided to sandblast the underside of the window sill & the hood latch panel.
Turned out great

 

 

 

 

A wile back I made some new shims for the steering box, while going through the blue books again, I noticed that the bearing need a specific friction.
I converted the numbers and it should have 0,1 - 0,24Nm of friction. I decided to get a small torque screwdriver, after telling a co worker.

He pointed out we had one at work! Interval of 0,05Nm, should be accurate enough for the steering box.

 

I also ordered new full door skins from Jaymic, I'm curious on how they will look/fitt. Pictures looked promising!

 

 

[D.martijn]

This week I received the reproduction doorskins from Jaymic in th UK.

Very pleased with the result, however the pocket for the door handle could have been formed a little bit better.

I'm not sure if I'll leave it like this or cut out the original section from the old skins, any suggestions/input?

 

 

 

 

I also planished the rain tray a little more, added the original wiring clips back.

(After talking to a 02 owner in Belgium, he send me pictures of his rain tray and on this the same clips are used like I'm making at the moment.) On mine they are a little narrower + longer.

 

First I spot welded the speed nuts plates on the back, these are used to fix the hinge plate for the throttle on the carb.

 

 

Carefully removed the paint and added some weld thru primer where the clips need to be spotwelded

 

 

 

On the back side of the rain tray (the side facing the firewall) there is some small step between the original piece and the repair panel I welded in. This is mainly because of the thickness of the plates. However, I remembered taking of the original sound deadning and turns out it'll cover this step. It's hard to see on photo though

 

 

I also prepared the underside of the hood latch panel with weld through primer where I need to spotweld the panels together.

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by D.martijn

[D.martijn]

Finally got the rain scuttle spot-welded in.

 

We first spot-welded the newly made firewall isolation clips into their place. I got the old ones of by using the power file which made quick and easy work of this.

Glad I remade these in the correct gauge/thickness.

 

 

 

 

 

Also test fitted an old rubberdrain hose to check the oval hole that needed to be remade in the middle.

 

 

On to the next job!

 

 

[D.martijn]

Before going ahead and removing the old door skins on the doors, we wanted to fit the fenders.

However, we bought some repro's at the start of our restoration but as most of you know, the quality of these it pretty poor.

So we set out to find some reasonably priced genuine fenders.

 

Took some searching but I was able to source two NOS fenders, from an old production run.

After 1660km of driving we arrived back home with our find. The guy selling these as a real enthusiast, he even worked together with Schnitzer to make replica E9 race cars

He also has this.. not registered since 1980!!

 

 

 

 

 

I gave one panel a very quick test fit and am very pleased! We definitely made the right call to buy some original sheet metal

 

 

 

 

[D.martijn]

I got a message from a friend that he needed a tap and die for his E30, I told him to come to our workshop when I was done with working.

While waiting for him to arrive, I test fitted the new fender a little more, very pleased!

It would have been a shame trying to adjust the reproduction ones as these are pretty much spot on. (time wise)

 

 

 

I decided to also clamp the inner support piece, to check fitment of the mounting holes

 

 

Nice and flush with the doors

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2020 by D.martijn

[D.martijn]

A little update, after we also fitted the old reproduction nose panel we got with the car, it seems like the nose panel itself it a little to short?
The fenders stick out a little. I might have a source for a new old genuine nose panel but it's pretty expensive. so I'll have to think about that one.

 

However, we decided to go ahead and start with repairing the doors.

At first sight they look pretty rust free, but once the skin is removed, there is quite some rust present in the folded flange, even at the top of the door.  The door skin is also spot welded in a couple of places

 

 

 

After carefully removing the brazed connection on both corners of the door, we test fitted the new panel after cleaning up the flanges.

 

It sits pretty tight against the door frame with the help of some clamps.

 

 

With the door skin gone, we got a close look "inside" the door. we had already noticed some buldging at the part where the hinges go through. But upon further inspection, there is quite a bit of rust forming between the door frame and the hinge attaching point/panel

Since we had already removed the skin on an other drivers side door, just to "test". we decided to use it's hinge panel on the better door frame.

 

 

After some clean up with the belt sander, we will obviously sandblast the door frame

 

Spare hinge panel, as you can see it's "painted" black. I'm pretty sure this door was a new replacement door once in it's live time.

 

 

 

[D.martijn]

Today the frame for sandblasted together with the new hinge panel. Pleased with the result, took a while to reach all the tight spots as the sandblasting cabinet at work was just big enough for the door frame to fit in.

 

 

After sandblasting, both the frame and the new door skin got a coat of corroless, now we can start on repairing the door frame and fit the new skin.

 

(bottom of the door frame will obviously need to be replaced)

 

 

 

 

 

[Cruzr]

What are you using for the bottom of the door? W&N has replacement parts for that.

[D.martijn]

16 hours ago, Cruzr said:

What are you using for the bottom of the door? W&N has replacement parts for that.

 

I plan on making my own repair panels. The panels W&N are offering isn't very good quality I think. Especially the corners.

I might try to remake the pressed corner section by making a 3D printed mold. We'll see how good it turns out

 

 

[D.martijn]

It's been a while but we started on repairing the drivers side door frame.

I first made a small "panel" for the corner, I think this is originally only braced to the door frame but I decided to use the spot welder.

 

 

 

After this, we cut out some rot on the flange that sits a cross both sides of the door frame and where the door skin is spotwelded onto

The repair patch came from an other door we had cut up as a test..

 

After making sure the flange was nice and straight, we also welded it onto the door frame. (I didn't take any pictures of this)

 

There was also a spot on the front side of the door, where the flange was mangled a little, this got cut out and some new metal got welded in.

 

 

I also tried modeling the corner section of the door. After this, I modeled two molds to try and press the shape in some 0,8mm steel.

The molds were 3D printed, after work I cut a small sheet and tried pressing. Turned out pretty ok.

I will have to adjust the shape a bit with hammer & dolly but for the most part the shape it there.

 

 

[Niels - GetBrainlifted.com]

That looks awesome, very nice progress you have!

 

Are you 3D scanning your modelled section before you model your mould in CAD and 3D print it? I'm pretty interested in what processes people use as I also design and manufacture. Also, quite a nice range and quality of the 3D print, what machine are you using?

 

Cheers,

Niels

[D.martijn]

Finally some more progress!

 

The corner on the other side of the door was in pretty good shape. only the little triangle was a bit thin. So we removed this inner section and were able to keep the original pressed shape

 

We were able to adjust the shape of the pressed sheet a little bit more with the use of a hammer and chisel.

After some adjustment on the radius it was close to be welded in

 

Clamped onto place

 

 

Welded in

 

And finished

 

 

Next up was removing the lower flange of the door frame. I got new plates bend up at a local fab shop (I also asked some info from this guy when I made the dies to press in the indentation in the rain tray panel)

 

Ready to weld in!

 

 

 

 

[D.martijn]

On 9/11/2020 at 10:07 PM, Schreuders Engineering said:

That looks awesome, very nice progress you have!

 

Are you 3D scanning your modelled section before you model your mould in CAD and 3D print it? I'm pretty interested in what processes people use as I also design and manufacture. Also, quite a nice range and quality of the 3D print, what machine are you using?

 

Cheers,

Niels

 

Thank you!

 

I just used a caliper to measure some basic dimensions to get the overall shape close enough. I then model the sheet and base the dies from that model. 

 

It's a pretty basic Ender 3 pro

[D.martijn]

Got the new lower section welded in.

The new flange got clamped against some box section, so we were sure it's flush with the existing frame.

Clamping it down pretty tight also made sure the gap stayed nice and consistent.

 

 

Fully welded

 

And grinded smooth, minimal filler will be needed!

 

 

The window frame brackets got spot welded again

 

 

showing the before and after

 

 

 

New drain hole, we drilled them a little closer to the edge. But not completely as we plan on running a bead of sealant in the corner of the frame and skin