Restoring my P1800E

[Burdekin]

It shouldn't look so bad in a couple weeks time and this weekend was probably the most complicated bit to work out how best to tackle the A pillar area and where to start. After this weekend I now know how all the A pillar area fits together and have a plan in my head of what's required. Really enjoying it, been ages since I've done metal work and I know it seems mad but glad there is plenty of rust to replace. The P1800 certainly can hide it!!!

[DJS]

Morning Mitch,

Great work as per normal. Is there nothing that will stop you on this rebuild?

You'll know the body shell better than any of us by the end of this one.

Keep up the inspirational work.

[Burdekin]

Thanks Darren, It's really rewarding to be able to physically see what you've done. I'll keep plugging away.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Burdekin]

More work on the A pillar, will get it finished next week I hope as it's dragging on. I need to spend a bit more time on the car to get things moving a bit quicker.

Firstly I replaced the inner and out sections along the door aperture. I then started taking off the front and outer part of the A pillar but never quite finished. It's a tricky wee fella as it's also tack welded from the inside, but I have the tricky bit done and I have made a new bit to weld in. Quite heavy gauge so was a bit tricky to bend with my limited workshop, I ended up tacking a piece of box section along the bend line, another piece of box section parallel with it and then welded another piece of box on top of the other two bits but at right angles, this was used as a leaver. I then clamped it all to my bench with some more box section along the bend line and then just bent it to the correct angle. It all actually worked a treat, just had to grind off the tacks but you would never know they were there.

Ordered my new front brake calipers, front discs also rear discs. Going for AP CP6600 calipers on the front with XC90 V8 discs (335mm). The calipers are 4 pot with 2 x 41.3mm & 2 x 38.1mm pistons so will make the brake pedal feel lighter due to the increased force applied by the larger pistons for the same amount of effort, but this will be compensated (don't know by how much) by the larger discs.

I've also bought the lights for the rear, they are LEDs but are clear until illuminated and then change to correct colour, so quite cool. I'm going to make a housing similar to the P1800 concept car however I'm planning on getting the housing chromed and then putting clear glass over the LED lights.

I'll put some pics of the discs and lights later on in the week.

[Sojeris]

WOW..
Reading your thread might scear me of obtaining this beutiful car for restoration
Slowly but steady moving ahead, right?
What was your pre purchasing amount dedicated for this project and how do you fit in your plans?

Good luck.
Tomas

[Burdekin]

Hi Tomas,

This is just my opinion but the P1800 is very prone to rust, are normally they are more than 40 years old so have had plenty of time to rust if not treated and there have been a lot which have dodgy repairs. They are a beautiful looking car and the mechanicals are rock solid so the body is the main issue. You would have to be very lucky to buy a P1800 in the UK that hasn't got rust hidden away so even buying an expensive one doesn't guarantee you rust free in my opinion.

Yeah I'll keep plodding away and do things in manageable sizes. It's a lot of work but I'm really enjoying it.

No offense but I don't want to discuss money openly on the forum but my budget has gone up considerably, I knew it would be expensive and I'm going to do a lot of the work myself to help keep the costs down. In the end this is a nice challenge for me to get stuck into and I'm hoping to have a lovely
sports car my wife and I can drive and enjoy.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Sojeris]

Originally Posted by mitch1971

Hi Tomas,

This is just my opinion but the P1800 is very prone to rust, are normally they are more than 40 years old so have had plenty of time to rust if not treated and there have been a lot which have dodgy repairs. They are a beautiful looking car and the mechanicals are rock solid so the body is the main issue. You would have to be very lucky to buy a P1800 in the UK that hasn't got rust hidden away so even buying an expensive one doesn't guarantee you rust free in my opinion.

Yeah I'll keep plodding away and do things in manageable sizes. It's a lot of work but I'm really enjoying it.

No offense but I don't want to discuss money openly on the forum but my budget has gone up considerably, I knew it would be expensive and I'm going to do a lot of the work myself to help keep the costs down. In the end this is a nice challenge for me to get stuck into and I'm hoping to have a lovely
sports car my wife and I can drive and enjoy.

Cheers,

Mitch

Yesterday took me couple quick hours to read all the progress description. It an amazing job you are doing plus your hands are growing from the right places
keep on, best luck.

May be the PM would be appropriate for discussion about the funds?

[Burdekin]

Hi Tomas,

Thanks.

Yeah if you would like any adive on what things are costing etc just PM.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Burdekin]

I've attached some pics of some of the recent stuff I've purchased. The rear LED lights, front mini headlights, mgf doors, supra W58 gearbox and AP calipers.

The rear lights I'm planning on making a housing to fit these. I've also bought the same LED indicators for the front.

The front lights I'll see how they look when I make the new fibreglass front wings, am planning on making new fibreglass front panels from my originals that I have, I'll then modify these and they will the become the plugs to make the new moulds from. Currently I've been reading up on what layers of fibreglass would be best. I was thinking 300gsm of CSM, 3mm coremat and then 300gsm of woven roving. Emailed a guy today who's done some great resto stuff using fibreglass and he uses 4 layers of 450gsm of CSM. I'm going to get some old panels from the local wreckers to play about with and do some experimenting and practice before making anything proper for the car.

The plan for the mgf doors is to use the lifting mechanism and electric drive and retro fit them if possible to my doors. I'm planning on just having one large window for the front doors (removing the small window) so DJS suggested the mgf window mechanism maybe could be retro-fitted for my project. Will explore this later on in the build.

Planning on doing a gearbox conversion so have sourced a Toyota W58 supra gearbox. Excellent gearbox with a 5th speed ratio of .78 so seems perfect for the job. Still need to get a bellhousing etc from oz and waiting for the exchange rate to improve. The pic won't upload for some reason.

The last thing is the APCP6600 4 pot calipers for the front. Very excited about these and hoping the brake performance will be improved quite a bit. I've also ordered 335mm XC90 V8 discs for the front and standard discs for the rear. Looking forward to playing with the brakes. So many interesting parts of the build to get on with but so little time. I'll keep plugging away with the bodywork but am planning on taking some time out to start playing with the GRP part of the build soon.

[hobbes]

Probably a long way down the line but what colour scheme are you planning for this? something old or something new?