Thread: Little Miss Adventure

To be honest I wouldn't bother painting the exhaust manifold as they always seem to end up an even bright rust not long into being used (unless stainless steel). Well thats my observation anyway

doesn't matter its done now..and I didn't want to put ugly rusty manifolds on a newly painted engine. It wouldn't look right

Hmm thats true, its going to be so shiny and fresh and you'll be so proud you'll take the puma to collect firewood rather than Little Miss


She'll look really classy with a timber sided tray...hint hint

Originally Posted by isuzutoo-eh

Hmm thats true, its going to be so shiny and fresh and you'll be so proud you'll take the puma to collect firewood rather than Little Miss


She'll look really classy with a timber sided tray...hint hint

nope its not going to be timber it will stay metal like it was originally..
Besides I really dont want to have to spend money that I don't really need to, remember this car start only has "just going to give it a tidy up" and look what happened!!!! I got excited.

Absolutely loving your rebuild DB!!!

You've answered a lot of my own questions regarding doing such a rebuild on a Series, n good on you for having a crack at it and doing so well! I've done a few bare-chassis rebuilds on Jags, MG's n TR5's a few years back at work...plenty of stubborn bolts, surprise rust, skunned knuckles, random electrics, unforeseen dramas, et-al. Hehehe! Take heart for your troubles though, because the first look and drive of the beast when it's finished, is simply mind-blowing and satisfying.

While you're at this stage, I would suggest giving the Series a bit of an engine rebuild. It may not need it right now, but if you've gone to the effort of bare-chassis... Removing question-marks is what it's about, and you've done that already with the rust and structural integrity, so why not the engine?

Here's some inspiration to consider and hopefully motivate...a fully rebuilt (well this pic was mid-progress!) Jag 4.2lt engine that I did for a customer. Purred like kitten n will last an eternity.

Hey mate..I cant entertain an engine rebuild at this point for both money and space I want to get the bloody thing out of the garage.
My house and the need to move/build/adjust things is becoming a far more pressing issue. I dont want to get this project to a point where it becomes to much and starts to gather dust

the engine was running really sweet before the thing was pulled apart so hoping it will have a few more years left in it yet.

and if I get it all back together and it does something nasty at least it will just be a park it up and rip out the engine rather then waiting for it to be rebuilt before all goes back in or on.

Thanks for the encouragement

I have just had a gasket set arrive in the post today so parts can start going back on
and I have just done an order through paddocks for a few goodies..and I believe bushes are waiting at the post office so will be full steam head

So we have started to put some of the bushes in the chassis thanks to Wozapinin for selling me a bush kit. I'm just waiting on two packets that hopefully come in on Monday, so we can finish putting the bushes in the shackles. Once this is done and the spring and shackle bolts arrive, it will be full steam ahead as we are only waiting on those pieces to put the axles and springs back on to the chassis.



and some of the bits have now gone back on the engine although the carbi and the dizzy are still yet to be put on. I also polished up the top as I liked the look on ezyrama's operation Smeg rebuild. So here are a couple of pics to remind you what it was like and what it ended up like





and what it looks like now...and I would be lying if I didn't say I was pleased with the way it looks now even if I did stress about it being the wrong paint inn the beginning.

So I have had some doors from another series was hoping to use them but the frames were gone and not just the frames on closer inspection there was also a lot of rot in the window channels too

The door from my car



This is the door I wanted to use



here is a picture of the bottom of the frame (this was from a UK import can you tell).

This was just hitting the corner once...the door rattle every time I moved it



So I figured well Maybe I will use the good skin and place it on the good frame. I have never done anything like this before so I went searching the forum and the net on how to skin a door.
It came up with ZERO results.
I contacted two members of the forum who might have the answers for me and they came to the party.

So I thought, what have I got to lose? lets have a crack! I also thought I would take some pics for anyone else that has thought about doing this, but perhaps feel a little unsure. I thought it was quite a daunting task until I did it.

First of all I removed the window frame by undoing the two bolts on either side of the frame.



This reveals the galvanised capping strip which is riveted on to the top of the door frame



I removed all these pop rivets by using a drill with a suitable sized bit. Just drill the head (in the center) until the head snaps off.



Do this until all rivets on the strip are off and the gal strip can be removed (it just pulls off fairly easily)



When you lay the door down on a flat surface you will note that there are also pop rivets on the front of the door skin (which were previously hidden by the gal strip).



repeat the same process until all pop rivets are out.
Once out I started to work the edges with a large straight blade screw driver. Note: use a long screwdriver so you have some leverage.



work you way around doing a couple of passes until you have the ali tabs lifted pretty much vertically. doing it slowly and evenly remember ali stretches fairly easily so care and patience is needed.







It was at this stage that I realised that I couldn't use this skin as along the bottom edge where the bottom of the fram had rotted out the aluminum had become very brittle, and as I was bending it out it was cracking and crumbling. (but I thought for the sake of a tutorial I will carry on.
In this pic you can see all the corrosion after I have folded up the lip.



Next I flipped the door back over and took the rivets out from around the door handle opening. Some people might choose to do them all in one go rather then leaving these till later.



These rivets are mushroom heads rather than the much easier pop rivets so I center punched all 4 rivets to create a small dent in the heads



I then drilled all the rivet heads with a drill bit which is a similar size to the tail placing the drill bit in the dent made by the punch to keep the big as central as possible. start off slow as you dont want to find yourself flying off the head and damaging the skin.





Once all edges are lifted and rivets are out I started to work the screw driver around the frame between the frame and the skin..take care doing this and try to gently easy the two apart.
I could do this on most of the frame but there were areas that were still well stuck with silicone. in these areas I used a hacksaw blade, cutting away at the silicone that bonded the frame to the skin.



carefully easing the skin away the two can then be parted.







Jobs a gooden.

Now as I'm not using the skins I can't show you putting it back on but as far as I'm aware its the same procedure in reverse. just remember to use a good bonding agent betweeen the frame and skin and if possible get your frames galvanised to prevent having to do this job again.

Now as I cant use these skins I have been really really toying with the idea of having a go at making my own...I reckon I could do it I'm not sure how but I do love a challenge. What yeah reckon????