1967 E Type roadster (MH) Total restoration with upgrades

Specification (briefly) for this project is as follows: Another total Team CJ restoration to include just about every conceivable performance and reliability upgrade, including a CJ5 transmission, uprated brakes, cooling, ignition, etc, etc. The car will be finished in ultra-dark BRG with a custom (all hide) Suffolk & Turley interior.

Your car is now finished and ready for delivery. I hope you enjoy driving it as much as we have enjoyed building it for you!

We are now in the middle of road testing and shaking down your car - and so far so good. The Becker Mexico (Hokey Cokey 500 model, complete with Blue Tooth, iPod, Mp3 and Sat Nav) arrived safely from the UK and is now wired in, although not presently installed.

All being well, I expect to ship your car by the end of next week!

Trusty old slave seat is used for road testing	Becker Mexico is a really nice piece - a vintage look with state of the art capability	iPod adaptor in the glove box
Blue Tooth microphone	Satellite radio antenna

Almost time to send your car back to Brazil! The Becker Mexico radio should be here early next week...

Time to install the custom Suffolk &  Turley interior	Hides were "skived" thin to allow for sharp  folds around door panels
	All the chrome fits beautifully	Custom black top frame, per you request
	Time to install the top
	Installing the door panels
Seats beautifully trimmed out	Door panels installed, time to install the seats and center console...

Your engine is now running and we are currently in the process of wiring the dash and gauges. We are using an upgraded volt meter and a mechanical oil pressure gauge, both made by Smiths. Your custom Suffolk & Turley interior kit arrived last week. The maiden voyage is only a week or two away! Merry Christmas!

I am pleased to report that your car is now back on its wheels and already has the engine and CJ5 five speed installed. It won't be long now before we are test firing the engine.

Old gas tank had bad rust pitting	Inside was rusty, too	New gas tank has shipping primer  removed
New (painted) gas tank installed	Car now back on its wheels	Engine and transmission installed
Headers and carbs will be installed next
		Grade 8 bolts used throughout
	Spin-on oil filter	CJ5 five speed viewed from beneath
	Installing brake lines, front to rear
	Fuel line installed	CJ5 trans mount uses factory 4 speed  mounting holes

The paintwork has been sanded and buffed and we have now started installing Dynamat in the boot compartment and cabin.

Carlos sanding and buffing your finished paintwork	Installing Dynamat is next

I am pleased to report that your Stage One engine rebuild has now been completed and the main bodyshell painted.

As with all CJ engine rebuilds, all  the sleeves were replaced	Re-ground HP cams	Bearing clearances are checked  and re-checked
	Forged pistons installed on meticulously balanced rods
	Quality machine work and quality components	Almost ready to install the rebuilt head

Painting inside the cabin and the boot compartment...

Interior is first sealed with tinted primer
BRG paint appears lighter than it is under the flash of he camera	This is actually one of the darker BRGs we have used

After weeks of painstaking blocking and sanding, and I am pleased to report that the first coats of British Racing Green have now been applied. As always, the underside is the first thing to be painted, closely followed by the interior, then finally the outer panels.

First the boy is thoroughly cleaned	All new joints and seams are carefully sealed
After masking, the Rocker Guard is then applied
Applying the first coats of  British Racing Green!

I am pleased to report that all of the bodywork has now been completed and your car has been primed with Slick Sand. The panel fit throughout is truly exceptional, including the rebuilt bonnet.

		Panel fit is exceptional
Lower rear corner of RH door	Lower front corner of RH door

After weeks and weeks of delay, we finally received the new bonnet center section. The transatlantic journey was not kind to the new sheet metal and Darrell had a number of dents and creases to straighten out before he could begin the trial fitting process.

Front of new panel was folded back on itself during shipping	Nose also had a significant dent	Shipping primer was stripped
Starting to bolt everything together		Stripping primer from support brackets
		Trial fitting process underway

Lots of great progress since our last update!

Trial fitting side bulkhead panels	Inner areas are coated with Wurth Body Wax	As is the underside of the replacement panels
Trial fitting bulkhead closing panel with subframe mounts	New subframe mounts welded into place
More Wurth Body Wax	Outer sills will also be coated
Trial fitting outer sills	Welding outer sills into place
Stripping 'shipping' primer from new boot lid
Time to address corrosion in rear cowl	Drilling out old spot welds	Peeling away the old rear cowl
Not so nice underneath!	More corrosion, viewed up inside rear wheel well	This area will be cut away
	Shaping a replacement panel
	New panel is a perfect fit	Tig welding completes the repair
Same repair carried out on the other side of the car	Inner frame cleaned up and primed	Trial fitting replacement cowl panel
New panel welded into place		Welded seam lead loaded
Making a template to mark where badging  goes on new boot lid

Before...	After...	Rust proofing at every opportunity
Installing the new inner sills		Installing inner sill stiffeners
New rear clip didn't fit at all!	Had to be cut and re-welded	After a great deal of massaging, the  new rear clip is welded into place
Time to go back on the rotisserie
Lead loading the welded seams		Bronze IRS bushings
Koni shocks and uprated springs

Lots of progress since our last update!

Corners of the boot compartment need a lot of attention
These areas had to be repaired before we  could do anything else		Stripping 'shipping primer' from the new boot floor assembly
All of the other replacement panels were also stripped and sealed	Edges to be welded are masked off prior to applying etching primer
		Stripped panels then sealed with BASF etching primer
Both A posts required rust repairs
	They were blasted,acid washed then sealed
Body wax injected into all box sections
Cutting away the old rear end
Everything starting to look a lot  cleaner now!
Finally time to start welding some new  sheet metal into place!	More next week!

Time to get the body restoration underway.

Your IRS components have now been powder coated and various other items that will be needed for the IRS rebuild have been submitted for Nickel plating.

Your engine has now been completely disassembled and the machine work will begin shortly.

The following photos show Carlos sealing the body and your engine frames with BASF etching primer. On closer inspection of the engine frames, they have a few dents and bruises - although no obvious corrosion issues. The doors are both in excellent shape.

The following photographs show some of patch repairs in the bonnet, highlighted with a marker pen.

We finally received the car back from the blasters and unfortunately, the news is not good. The people that do our media blasting tell us that they have never seen as much bondo on a car - ever. Unfortunately, the car has been subjected to some poor bodywork where bondo has been wiped over rust and holes.

It is difficult to demonstrate in the photographs, but basically the entire bodyshell (and the bonnet) is comprised of dozens and dozens of crudely welded together patches. The boot compartment (and in particular the lower 3/4 panels) is completely out of shape and needs major surgery. Both inner sills are paper thin and have a number of rust holes. The engine subrame mounting brackets need replacing, as do the front kick panels, the bulkhead side panels and the left hand shut face panel. Hopefully we will be able to save the floors (which are new) although the new outer sills will be destroyed during removal. Both doors look good. The boot lid has some problems but they can be very easily repaired (holes where a boot rack used to be fitted). The bonnet is something of a disaster area. It was originally from a different car (as evidenced by the early horn mounts behind the headlamps). In any vent, it is way beyond economical repair. Parts of the underside are so badly pitted that it already has holes through the center section

The cylinder head on your engine is from a RHD Daimler Sovereign. The differential, although labeled as a 3.54 is actually a 3.77.
 

Holes in boot lid seal channel	RH A post	Trans tunnel
LH sill a patchwork quilt	Holes in inner sill	LH frame mount needs to be replaced
Rear bulkhead	RH bulkhead side panel	Front edge of same panel
LH kick panel	LH bulkead side panel	Rear edge of same panel
Rust hole in top of LH inner sill	Rust holes in LH shut face panel	RH inner sill also a series of patches
Note rust holes in kick panel	Boot compartment is a mess of crudely wleded patches
	Entire rear end is mis-shapen	More rust, upper RH shut face  panel
Note pin hole	More pin holes

Much can be learned from the following sequence of photographs. The first half dozen images show some suspect areas inside the boot compartment. The edges of the boot floor (and adjoining lower 3/4 panels) should be welded to the curved brackets on each side of the boot compartment. In fact, they are not attached at all. On the right hand side, it is possible to put my fingers between the two panels which should be spot welded together (see photograph # 2). There are also some strange weld repairs that I have marked with a series of x's. It will be very interesting to see what lurks beneath the paint after the car has been blasted back to bare metal.

The photographs showing the paint, primer and bondo being removed in chunks demonstrate very clearly what happens when bondo (or primer, for that matter) is applied over a surface that is not totally clean. Basically, the bondo never properly adhered to the metal and has been lifting and moving since the day it was applied. If you look at the backside of the bondo (photos 9, 13 and 14) you can still clearly see dirt and surface rust that was never completely removed when the car was stripped.

We will obviously know more once we have the car back from the blasters, although we already know why the paintwork was bubbling and shrinking.

Another CJ restoration gets underway!

Unloading your car from the container was an adventure		Bonnet looks rusty
	Lots of bubbling and shrinking beneath the paint
	Time to take her apart
Radiator platform (marked A) was broken  away from rest of hinge frame	Out with the engine and trans
Removing the old top		Rear bulkhead in good shape
IRS removed	Not sure if we will ever be able to remove  all the sound deadening material!	Boot floor looks pretty sound
	Almost ready for the rotisserie