1600 Coupe Restoration.

[lanciamad]

Great progress Matt, those non-adjustable rear transverse arms look a bit more substantial than the later type, are they? Keep the pics rolling, its nice to keep tracks on a project 

[MattNoVAT]

Yes they are much more substantial. 

As per the later cars the the tube with the slot cut in the whole length remains unchanged, but on later cars the non-adjustable version just has a flat piece of steel with a bush pressed in at both ends, on mine it has a pretty solid heavy gauge tube. Similar spec to the engine stabiliser bar.
 
You can definately see some subtle changes over the production life cycle of the car. I keep darting across to my S2/FL to confirm differences . Things started off over engineered and then as time passed the bean counters cut cost or unnecessarily over engineered elements were toned down.  Probably a combination of both those factors.

Thankfully, I finished the re-undersealing up to the rear ARB last night before daylight faded. Once the back end is rebuilt I will underseal the rest of the underside of the floorpan, from under the rear seats right the way up to the front of the car. (Thats should be easy as there is pretty much nothing in the way and 95% of the original underseal is intact, I just have to leave the sills untouched as new ones will be welded in once I've finished refurbing brakes/suspension etc.

[MattNoVAT]

While poking around yesterday I was under the car having a good look at the rear ARB bushes, I noticed that one side of one of the bushes has perished a bit so I think I'll have to have them out and replace them.

From discussion with Mark W it looks like I may have to have these specially made (from PU).

Not Ideal but I dont want to do all this work and it fail an MOT on something I knew about.

[rossocorsa]

Yes they are much more substantial. 

As per the later cars the the tube with the slot cut in the whole length remains unchanged, but on later cars the non-adjustable version just has a flat piece of steel with a bush pressed in at both ends, on mine it has a pretty solid heavy gauge tube. Similar spec to the engine stabiliser bar.
 
You can definately see some subtle changes over the production life cycle of the car. I keep darting across to my S2/FL to confirm differences . Things started off over engineered and then as time passed the bean counters cut cost or unnecessarily over engineered elements were toned down.  Probably a combination of both those factors.

Thankfully, I finished the re-undersealing up to the rear ARB last night before daylight faded. Once the back end is rebuilt I will underseal the rest of the underside of the floorpan, from under the rear seats right the way up to the front of the car. (Thats should be easy as there is pretty much nothing in the way and 95% of the original underseal is intact, I just have to leave the sills untouched as new ones will be welded in once I've finished refurbing brakes/suspension etc.

on some cars both arms are pressed and tracking adjustment is by rotating the mounting bolts 

[MattNoVAT]

The rear crossmember is back in, so is the fuel tank which has had new fuel pipes and clamps fitted.

More fun with the orbital wire brush inside the rear turrets and a liberal coat of jenolite and the same on the odd light patches inside the boot.

New oem rear top mounts arrived from Italy today.

Waiting for springs and strut bodies to come back from powder coating and collecting inserts when at Bristol. Then the back end is pretty much sorted.

If I can track down new ARB bushes I'll be a very happy chapy.

[MattNoVAT]

So after all the parts came back from blasting, painting and electro-plating I plan to refit the rear ARB and the rear hubs.

I am having the metal spring cups for the rear suspension remade, so am waiting on those and I have to rebuild the rear calipers and then the back end (underneath) is complete.  Then I will move on to doing the front suspension, front brakes and replacing of fuel lines, belt change & a service on the engine.

All the parts for the back are shiny and looking like new :-)

Looking forward to re-assembly tomorrow - inbetween working, taking my daughter to a 4 year olds party and packing for my holiday.

Two weeks without being able to work on my cars........ how will I cope?

[Duncan23]

Sounds good. We need pictures of the newly shiny parts! 

Enjoy your holiday.
Cheers
Duncan

[rossocorsa]

I am having the metal spring cups for the rear suspension remade,

I bought those new from cavalitto not so long ago they seem to be the emporium of unobtainium 

[MattNoVAT]

I am having the metal spring cups for the rear suspension remade,

I bought those new from cavalitto not so long ago they seem to be the emporium of unobtainium 

Yep,

Thats why I'm having a batch of 50 made!

[MattNoVAT]

I'll post up the pictures of all the shiny stuff tomorrow.

It's nice to see the parts back in good condition, if the rust had attacked the bits too much then I would not bother with refurbishing them, but if they are structurally sound and just require a blast and repaint/powder coat then I think its best to do that as it will prolong the life of the parts and ultimately the whole car.

I had both rear springs and both rear strut bodies, a pair of cam covers, pair of rear top mounts, and the rear brake disks all shot or bead blasted, the fittings for the struts vapour blasted, the rear top mounts nickel plated and the rear brake discs skimmed 10 Thou - All that cost me £120 -  which is money well spent I think.

Personally, I dislike working on oily or very dirty cars - I don't mind working on them if I'm taking stuff off thats grubby, but I think its easier to work on and especially refit parts if they ain't covered in s**t!  So I always clean them up a bit before they go back on.  Plus it looks so much better... the car looks like its been given a bit of "TLC".      (I know... I'm sad!!)

Where I can find new OEM items I will grab them,  I found a pair of rear coupe top mounts in Italy for £80 for the pair including postage, the ones fitted to the car were in good condition but cosmetically they just required sorting out.  So I have unused spares which is still handy as I have 2 Coupes!

[rossocorsa]

I am having the metal spring cups for the rear suspension remade,

I bought those new from cavalitto not so long ago they seem to be the emporium of unobtainium 

Yep,

Thats why I'm having a batch of 50 made!

I take it that at cavalittos prices (always a little bit  ) you figure that it's cheaper to make 50 than buy from them?   

[MattNoVAT]

Correct.  I will keep half a dozen or so and the rest will end up with Mark W so other Beta owners can benefit.

[MattNoVAT]

Shiny bits after refurbishment....

Even the rubber mounts get powder blasted which makes them look like new but more importantly give you a good chance to see their condition after the muck has been removed.

Note:
I modified the rear strut insert retainer slightly so that I could use the spanner off an old disc cutter as the tool to tightening/releasing.  Made more sense and faster than fabrication of  another tool.

[rossocorsa]

very impressed it's taken me 9 years to not be anywhere near as far on as you are with my vx which is sort of in a state of suspended stagnation

[Duncan23]

That is fantastic!
What media did you get it blasted with?

[MattNoVAT]

Anything with rubber is powder blasted so as not to damage the rubber itself, sand blasting is too aggressive for rubber.  The brake disks are bead blasted with very small and very hard plastic beads - not sure exactly what they are made of) as again, sand blasting is too aggressive, just need to remove the rust from the hub area, the disc faces don't get blasted at all, just a very light skim on the lathe.

Strut bodies got a light sand blast to remove old paint and any surface rust, they are bit more sturdy so can cope with a more aggressive media.  The rear ARB had a sand blast and then a coat of Jenolite just in case and finally I've just sprayed that with two coats of silver paint.

My engineer is always having stuff nickel plated and I throw my stuff in with his, so we both benefit of the entire batch being done at a cheaper rate.  I am always having loads of Beta bits cleaned and plated - If I had to pay full whack it may be a little different but it works out fairly cheap for me so it's a no brainer really.

Wait to you see the rear brakes all built up and refitted the plating on those makes em look brand new.    But that'll have to wait till I get back from hols.

[MattNoVAT]

A relatively quiet weekend on the Beta front.  (Family over from S.Africa and finishing off painting in the hall/landing and stairs   )

I have been rebuilding rear brakes and getting things prepped for the refitting the rear ARB, before that goes back on I have to put a coat of underbody sealer on.

Put together the hydraulic press that I got as payment for doing someones wheel bearings. I'm becoming even more self sufficient.  

Also tracked down the cause of the constant squeak from under my dash in my red coupe, after much contorting, I discovered that one of the four bolts that hold the steering column to the bulkhead had sheered off, allowing play. I had to drill it out as its welded in place and then tap a new hole to accept a new M6 bolt.  Now I have solid steering and no squeaking!

I did put my back out a bit though - so now have to wait for that to heal up before I start getting underneath the blue one again

[MattNoVAT]

More progress on the 1600 this weekend.

I have finally completed the thankless task of re-undersealing the underside of the car, again the loose flakey stuff was removed, bare metal was treated with Jenolite and new underseal across the main floorpan.  The rear ARB has been refitted as has the centre section of the exhaust, I was going to fit the rear silencer section, but after cleaning it up and respraying it I discovered that its off an HPE so wont fit a Coupe, so got to find a Coupe rear silencer now!

I have re-assembled the rear suspension apart from the upper spring cups with arrive next week, once they show up the rear suspension, hubs and brakes can be re-fitted. For the time being I think I will be leaving the old brake pipes in place until the welding work has been completed, that way any spatter burns to the pipes will not be an issue.

The front of the car is now up on axle stands as well as the rear, I have removed both metal splash guards so I could access the thermal switch in the radiator and because I am building up a batch of parts that are going to be powder blasted and repainted. 

I have started tidying up the engine bay, all the large bore coolant hoses have been replaced with new ones including new hose clips, the cracked expansion tank has been swapped over for a good one, the old coil has been removed and the new one fixed in its rightful place.  Its also given me a chance to see what other pipes need replacing due to age/fatigue. Next stage is give it a full service, drain the engine & gearbox oil and change those, change all the filters and all the belts.

I don't want to start stripping the front brakes & suspension until the rear is all back together as I do not want to be tripping over the parts. So I think I'll get the back rebuilt before I go away to on business and start on the front when I get back.

Could have done a bit more on the Beta but some of my time was consumed removing the gear selector box from the broken Espace - and while it is up on stands I had to change the front brakes/discs too.

No pictures this weekend as its all happening underneath the car and its pretty much just prep work and under-sealing.

[rossocorsa]

Matt your progress makes me very embarrassed my VX is still going pretty much no where!

[MattNoVAT]

It's odd, at times I feel the same way about the progress I have made so far, the vast majority of which will never be seen as its all taking place underneath the car out of sight.  I, as have probably most of us on here, have seen cars which visually look great but on closer inspection are actually quite rough.   It's worth the perseverance, it may seem that progress is slow and that not much is changing but there is a moment when the components start going back on the car and it starts to look like a road-going Beta again, then the progress speeds ups, the enthusiasm is easy to find and the effort involved with finishing gets easier and easier.

I always break the tasks down into sections to make it easier to obtain those feelings of achievement.  Like concentrating on the back end first before tackling the front end. Trying to do everything in one hit sometimes makes the task overwhelming (I've been there with that one!)

You'll get there, little by little your car will move closer to that moment when you can start refitting all the bits.   

Keep at it, we need as many Betas on the road for 2012 40th anniversary!