1970 2.2E Resto

[johntyboy]

I have been lurking around here for quite a few years as a paid up member and have found the forum a great resource for info and parts. I have only posted infrequently but thought it was time to post some photos of my restoration. I have owned the car for 7 years and used the car on weekends and the like. I have travelled to classic le mans in 2008 and 2010 in it and generally enjoyed the car, during the time I have owned the car I have tried to improve the mechanical side of it. It was becoming obvious that the shell needed a little TLC and I have embarked on a complete shell restoration with Barry Carter of the spider car fame doing the metal work for me.

The car is a 1970 2.2E that was built for the Swiss market, I have ordered a COA, we shall see what that says but the car has S suspension and brakes and trim. I was not sure what the original colour was but from ripping it apart it looks as if it was light ivory. There is very little evidence of the original colour.

It seemed strange driving the car for the last time, it work great, the best its ever ran. Anyway it went into my garage and looked like



and only a couple of days later it looks a little sad.





There are some previous poor repairs to the floors which will be all redone.





But nothing terrible yet.

The plan is to strip it down to a bare shell remove all the stone guard/underseal then send it off for media blasting. Best get going.

Kind Regards

[johntyboy]

I have a resto thread running on a UK based forum DDK, this is just a copy and paste job.

I have made a bit of progress today. I took the angle grinder to the girl, it was quite enjoyable. The offside rear quarter came off first.



then the offside outer sil came off.









It looks as if there wasnt much holding the front and rear of the sill to the rest of the shell :shock:

Any way that was expected. Now to the nearside rear quarter.



you can see where the original stone guard or underseal has missed the top of the inner wing.

Stripped the under seal and quite a bit of corrosion but the chassis leg looks good.









Well best get on with stripping the offside

[johntyboy]

Managed to get a couple of hours on it today, I have removed the nearside sill, its not as bad as the offside but it still has plenty of corrosion at the bottom of the A pillar and B pillar, Barry was saying that the shell will be noticeably stiffer once restored.

The front suspension was removed the engine and gearbox was dropped out on Friday, (thanks for the hand Barry) and the rear suspension removed. All the cables and rods were removed from the tunnel and then the wiring loom pulled from the front of the car out through the tunnel and out of the engine bay.







So that’s it a bare shell just the under seal to strip then it will be ready for media blasting.

[johntyboy]

Work on the shell has stopped for the last 2 weeks as I was offshore but now I am back I can get back on track.

I started today by stripping the engine compartment. Nothing too bad in this area. The parcel shelf is very poor so will need quite a bit of work.





I then moved on to the front nearside inner wing. The bottom of the A pillar is bad, it has 2 previous repairs to it, it also has small holes in it all the way up to the fuel filler.





The bottom of the front windscreen corners have also been repaired in the past. All this will come out and be properly repaired.







Barry’s going to be a busy boy :?

[karlusmagnus]

Great stuff John. It's going to be fun following your thread.

[johntyboy]

A big relief today, managed to get the bits sorted for the rotisserie. Bolted the shell onto it and...





Thanks to Mike Bainbridge for telling me where the balance point should be, he was bang on, you can spin the shell by yourself and Paul for the rotisserie frames :lol:







I have a whole new world to strip now 8)

Chasing Daylight

[johntyboy]

After about twenty two 8 hours days on it, its now stripped and ready for the blasting. Got to say I am just about fed up with scraping, my hands hurt I think I need to man up. I have just about ruined my favourite scraper :P



Kind Regards

[johntyboy]

Just been in the garage today taking photos of all the areas to be repaired. The list is quite extensive and its very surprising that more areas were not externally visible. I have had the car for about 7 years so the repairs have at least lasted that long.

The front suspension pan has been replaced in the past the trouble with it is that it has been attached with a lap joint not a but joint, also we suspect that it may have been attached without the use of a jig so it most probably will be in the wrong place. We will see when Barry attempts to bolt the shell onto the jig.
We will probably end up fitting a new panels in this area.







The front panel has been repaired in the past on both corners, we have a new panel to go in here.



The battery boxes have also been repaired, I have new boxes to go on.

[johntyboy]

The bottom of the A post / wheel well is poor on both sides.





You can see how the bottom of the A post has become detached from the central sill.





The bottom of the B post is not much better :shock:

[johntyboy]

The torsion bar area has seen its fair share of repairs.









Also the back side of the tube area neer the antiroll bar has been repaired, this will all get sorted.