One of the things I realised very early on after getting the car back was I should have stripped it down fully when we realised it would take a huge amount of effort and cost to repair the bodywork, lesson learnt for the next project!!
So list of work carried out, bound to miss a few things, but here we go...
Remove petrol tank, cleaned outside (wire brush in drill mainly) and painted with Hammerite and Waxoyl, checked sensor and inside for rust, none obvious inside or much outside, happy camper as hard to replace. Also cleaned and painted the filler petrol pipe and replaced the pipe work in the spill prevention arrangement.
Removed most of the inside that was left including dash etc, leaving steering column and cabling. Cleaned (mainly wire brush) and painted all of the inside with Hammerite.
In general the wires were ok, so just replaced all of the connectors with new and soldered and crimped them to ensure decent connection, amazing how many connectors there are. Also used slip on covers for the connectors. A lot of the sellers just sell the crimp only type with pre fit covers which are no use if you want to solder them.
Cleaned up the front and rear bumpers and painted the none stainless parts, also tidied up the rear number plate lights and have replaced the bulbs with Led ones.
Cleaned the rear lights, both had some tape over part of them. One had cracked lenses, so was unusable. These are the early style ones with the smaller red reflector. Fortunately I organised with Angelo in Oz to swap a newly refurbished one for the cracked one, so now have two almost perfect ones which was a full result as they are really hard to find without cracks.
The boot was cleaned and painted with Hammerite.
The car had the original rubber mats unlike later cars with carpet which is a neat item in my book as has a large Zagato 'Z' mounded into the main one. There were some tears which I have used inner tube repair patches to mend, not sure if this will endure, but better than nothing.
All the wiring in the boot and the most of the main compartment has been wrapped with loom tape, the engine bay will be done with the same when the engine bay is put back together.
The front suspension has been removed, the struts stripped down, but dampers left in. These are the removable type so can be replaced if needed. I spent a while sorting out the bearing at the top of the strut. One of them was shot, the other ok. Sourcing one was a trial, finally finding one with a guy in the US, but he did not have a seal for it, but managed to find one in a box of parts that came from a scrap car I bought, do not look forward to finding any more..... The struts were cleaned and painted as were the springs, they look nice now, no idea how long it will last.
The lower wishbones had the bushes replaced with PU parts which fit a 355 Ferrari, see other thread on this subject. I also replaced the lower ball joint.
I stripped the hubs and replaced the bearings, again an interesting hunt for genuine European parts, the original rings were a weird design with no obvious tool available, so replaced with bearing rings from Mark. I had to get the local garage to press the bearings out and replace with new ones. The CV boots were shot, so sourced new CV joints and boots, but despite getting the correct part number they all tend to be different and so far have only one that fits ok, hopefully I should have a second soon.
The rack had the centre boot all corroded as normal by the heat from the exhaust, so removed it, cleaned and rebuilt with new centre boot and filled with fresh oil. Freed up the track rod adjusters and installed new track rod ends.
Underneath was cleaned with drill with wire brush as good I as could, then painted and Waxoyl'd, very mucky job.
The front subframe was cleaned the best I could and painted in situ, so not the easiest or best way, but at least it has some protection. Same for the main engine bay. In order to do this a lot of parts were removed including the servo and brake master cylinder. This master cylinder was rebuilt with new seals supplied by Lukas, who also supplied the seals for the brake cylinders which one of the current jobs partly finished.
The engine has been degreased as best I could with it in situ. Various parts have been removed, cleaned and if needed painted to help prevent father rust. These include -
Two off water rails, starter motor, alternator, fuel pump, sump, oil pump, cam covers, various brackets.
The front lights were removed and the metal parts all cleaned and painted. I accidentally broke one of the lenses so need to replace it, it was not original, but I may just replace with matching set.
The screen was originally installed after the spraying, however it had to removed as the roof lining needs to be installed before the screen is refitted.
The old rear hood was pretty poor, so sourced one from a US supplier. I went for a canvas style rather than vinyl. I cleaned up and painted the frame and installed the new hood, not too happy with my work, so may have to refit, still have issues with clips not latching ok, but have left for the time being as plenty of other jobs to be getting on with.
The wheel arches have had stone chip applied, but do aim to fit liners from later cars to at least the front to aid in keeping them rot free.....
The wiper mechanism was removed, cleaned and greased. Where they come through the scuttle the bushes were pretty crudded up and would have made the wipers very slow, suspect it is a very common problem.
Think that is all for now..... Hopefully more to follow
