The (Never ending) Restoration story - MkIII M30177

[Gilbern74]

Hello, Jason here….
I thought I’d write up a new post to show details of the never-ending restoration to my Gilbern Invader MkIII (Chassis: M30177 / Reg: ULW 806M).
I say never-ending….what I mean is I started several years ago with good intentions, but then some of the usual suspects (delay tactics) of:
a) Lack of time,
b) Lack of money,
c) Endless jobs around the house, and
d) New baby
have led to the car remaining motionless for the past 2 years.
Well, I’m finally getting the ‘bug’ stirring in my mind and want to get on with the job again.

So here’s the story so far. I have to go back to 2003 when my father gave me his Invader. It had sat in his garage since 1990 (based on the last tax disc) with only the cat for company. He had owned it since 1975, buying it from Ace motor company in Acton.

The day of arrival:

[Gilbern74]

Once safely tucked away in my garage, instead of doing the ‘right’ thing and taking her for a spin, I started tinkering and undoing things.

Very soon the top of the engine was out for an inspection. This gave me a good view of the chassis rails and I decided I had to give them a good scrub. To do this I had to get the engine and gearbox out entirely, so I did – finding that the easiest way to do this was to drop the engine/gearbox and lift the car out over them.



Having inspected the chassis it didn’t seem too bad on first glance. Much of the visible rust only appeared to be on the surface, and having spent most of its life stored in a dry garage this was the case.



I’d soon cleared the engine bay of all ancillaries and I was beginning to make plans for a full restoration, body-off and all. The momentum and enthusiasm was there.

The journey had begun…

[Gilbern74]

Since I started dismantling everything, at every stage I took some photos of ‘where things were’ so I didn’t forget. I’m very glad I have those photos on file as I really wouldn’t have a clue now where most of the stuff goes.

Slowly but surely I stripped off everything inside and out, filling the garage shelves, cupboards and the loft with every type of part. I stored most parts and their respective nuts and bolts (bagged and labelled) together. Again, a godsend after not having visited this project for so long.

Several nuts had to be ground off with the angle-grinder, mainly those that had been exposed to the elements like the bumper bolts.

Pretty soon I had ripped out everything. I removed the interior and spent some time scraping out the old heavily-glued-down felt to expose the GRP.

[Gilbern74]

The coast was now clear to fire up the angle-grinder and start cutting away at the body parts - a daunting task – but as the saying goes ‘the first cut is the deepest’ and once that was out of the way my confidence improved and it became fairly plain sailing.

I used a tile-cutting disk to cut through the GRP. This gave the benefit of allowing me to cut easily through the GRP whilst not damaging any of the metal chassis underneath that it might encounter as it was more blunt than jagged-edged. Good overalls, goggles and face mask needed!

I cut away the footwells in 2 sections, rear seats and front firewall, totalling 4 pieces. The pics below show the lines I cut. This was based on advice taken out of old Rarebits and from calls to Phil Ivimey.





Once the cutting was complete the 4 sections came out quite easily after a bit of wriggling

To remove the entire body section I drilled out all the rivets that I could find, of which there were plenty. Many were hidden beneath 30 year-old dust and dirt! To get to the rear bumper fishplate brackets I had to remove some layers of GRP inside the boot. These were bolted in and had to come off so the rear of the bodyshell could be lifted (see pic)






The door-lock striker plates were a formidable pair to get out. Being bolted through the body and onto the chassis they had to come off. The nuts holding these in place were inside the rear wheel-arches and had built up a lot of debris around them. Needless to say these were rusted solid and no amount of smacking the with my impact-driver was going to loosen them! So the grinder did its work on the nuts and off they came.

With all the fixed obstacles removed I could shift the bodyshell loose from the chassis. It took some wriggling, twisting, bending, and lots of creaking and cracking. Some of the GRP to the rear of the front wheel arches (on both sides) had to be prised away so the front section could clear the door hinges but eventually with some assistance I was able to lift the front up and over the chassis, followed (stubbornly) by the rear. It was free at last!



Once the shell was removed (and slung out on the driveway!) the chassis condition could be fully inspected. Whilst initially it looked a little horrifying, after a good wire brush here and there I could see that underneath it was in pretty good nick. There were no holes (as I’d seen in many photos in Rarebit) and after tapping round all the tubes I could say they were all sound.

[Gilbern74]

After removing the front sub-frame and rear axle I contacted a local engineering firm, which happened to be next-door to a galvaniser, and arranged to have the chassis and many other metal parts (i.e. alternator brackets, brake/clutch pedals, wishbones, axle, prop, light brackets, battery rack, bumper brackets...and on and on) taken in and bead-blasted back to the metal and then galvanised.

By then I had stripped the front sub-frame and suspension completely, along with the rear-axle. The suspension was a real tough-cookie to get apart as some of the nuts and bolts were seized despite attempts to heat up and bash out - the bugger I’m recalling was one of the long bolts through the upper wishbones. In the pic below you can see the culprit still sticking out! As I didn’t want to do too much damage through my bashing, I left it to the engineers to get that one out for me.



The front shocks were well and truly hard to get off as the nuts/bolts were seized to the casing of the suspension. In the end I managed to burn out the bushes (smelly) and cut/drill through the end of the shock to be able to get at the bolt holding it there!





The springs and shocks were going to be replaced so I discarded them, whilst everything else metal went for blasting.

[Gilbern74]

The galvanisers did a great job on the bits I sent to them.
Below are some before and after pics of just a few of the various parts of the sub-frame. I was mightily impressed, although you may be less so with the choice of colours that I ended up spraying them!! I just used up whatever paint cans I had lying around the garage. I hindsight I could have picked better colours...

Sub-frame


Wishbones before and after




Lower suspension before and after




Hubs before and after






You get the idea…..!

[Gilbern74]

Once I’d had the suspension and axle returned, and whilst the main chassis was still being cared for, I began rebuilding the restored parts.

I had purchased complete new sets of bushes for just about everything.
I had new wheel bearings for the hubs, new nuts and bolts sourced from various places (new long wishbone bolts were tricky, but Ford came up with them). eBay was of course a constant place to visit, but I also found many suppliers through Google.
And not forgetting the Club itself, with Roger Frankland always only a phone call away! Roger supplied me with new front and rear shock absorbers. The springs I had already.

I later bought a Wilwood 4-pot calliper kit and discs for the front brake setup.

First let me tell you about bushes. They’re made to be a tight fit for good reason and getting them inserted can be a real pain. They like to put up a good fight! But with some gentle persuasion and appropriate tools, in they will go.
I took some pics of how I managed to squeeze them in, using the suspension bits as an example…

First, boil the kettle, and with a jug of the boiled water let the bushes sit in there for a bit to soften them up.



Add a bit of grease (normally provided with the bushes) to the inside of the item being that the bush is to be inserted into



Here is the lower suspension arm. I used the vice, carefully tightening it and checking the alignment of the bush and was able to slide it in whilst the bush was still soft from being in the hot water.





If the bush has not completely come through the other side when the vice has pushed the near side as far as it can, get a suitably sized tool to use as a dowel that will centre on the middle of the bush and ease the far side through. Here I used a socket (from a socket set) to assist in the final push.



Ta-daaaa!



Here’s another – this time on the wishbone – where I used a larger socket on the far side to allow clearance so the bush could slide through using the vice.

[Gilbern74]

The rear axle had been sent off to Cambridge Motorsport. I had opted for it to be upgraded with a Quaife LSD and halfshafts. I kept the rear brakes on drums – I still have the option of converting to discs at a later stage, but for now drums will do since they only have to stop the car rolling down a hill cos there’s no engine in it yet!

Cambridge Motorsport did a great job, although whilst I left there with a nice reconditioned axle, they seem to have had my arm off (bit pricey!).

[Gilbern74]

Meanwhile, back with the chassis…it had been bead-blasted and passed over to the engineering firm.
They inspected the tubing and reported that they had found two places that needed replacing. Both were down by the front footwells and so they were replaced post haste. Here’s a piccy of the job:



At the same time I had asked them to look at strengthening the rear of the chassis and also adding brackets for rear-seatbelts.

They came up with some (large) support plates that go under the rear bucket seats. Holes were cut out of these to reduce weight, though whether they add any structural strength I do not know, as I’m no engineer. You can see these in the pics below. Whatever, they’re in there now.

For the rear-seatbelt mountings some brackets were fabricated and welded to the top of the frame just behing the rear-crossmember. You can see whereabouts they went in the photos below.

All-in-all they did a great job and I was pleased to get the chassis back home so I could begin on the next stage of the puzzle.

[Gilbern74]

Once the chassis was back in my garage I gave it a couple of coats of a chassis paint I picked up from a local paint supplier. It had rust inhibitor and was also slightly rubberised, and applying it was easy with a brush. Whether it works or not I cannot say, ask me in 30 years!

I also took the opportunity to squirt plenty of Waxoil into the chassis rails wherever possible (in old rivet holes).

Where the chassis rails had open ends I found some plastic plug thingy’s (my technical term) that fitted in them perfectly to seal them from moisture getting in there in the future (To allow condensation to escape I drilled small holes in the ends of these plugs).

I then began putting back the front suspension, rear-axle, brakes and steering, having been rebuilt earlier.
For the steering rack I managed to get hold of a low ratio rack, lock-to-lock of 2.5 turns.
Everything looked great, almost passing off as new!

With the now ‘rolling chassis’ back together I got the handbrake back on to stop any ‘rolling’ around the garage.
Then I put some brake piping in place, running from the rear drums down along the prop tunnel up to the engine bay. Nice to be able to do this job with few obstacles. Of course, all the connections, braided hoses and copper piping were new. It took a few attempts to get the hang of flaring the pipes with the cheapo tool I’d bought, but I got there eventually.
At the same time I ran a new braided fuel line (bought from Roger) down the tunnel as well.

It was almost ready to put its body back on !!!





Note the fuel line, ready for action


Checking that the footwells still fit!




New shocks


Shiny steering column!


Brake pipes to the front




Every chassis, needs some-body….

[Gilbern74]

So there we were…at this stage it was summer 2006. The chassis was ‘rolling’ (given a push!) and if I really wanted some sports-car thrills I could stand, turn the steering and watch the wheels go from side-to-side!

But that wasn’t enough, as there sat on the driveway (for 2 years!) like a sombre child was the bodyshell, unloved and uncared for. What had become of it?



Well whist the chassis had been getting lots of attention the body hadn’t been completely ignored. Although it spent most of it’s time under tarpaulin on the front driveway I realised it still harboured many, many years of dirt and grime.

Likewise the removed internals (floorpans, rear seats and firewall) has also been residing outdoors with the body. The underside of the floorpans, which had made up the prop tunnel, were caked in gearbox oil encased with general muck.

I had to prepare the shell for the next stage, which was to have body and chassis reunited. So I gave them all good clean.

A load of Gunk, tough wire brushes and a pressure washer were used to remove the oily muck from under the floors. This took several attempts as it was quite think (and my driveway suffered as a result!). Once the thickest lumps of muck were taken care of I just used some old sponges and buckets of soapy water to clean the remainder. A days' work but came out lovely, smooth and clean!

With the body all the build up of muck was concentrated around the wheel arches and cills as you might expect. There wasn’t much oil and any that there might have been was already soaked into the dirt so would come off with that. Again a tough wire brush was used, with soapy water, over and over until I’d shifted the worst of it. Then the pressure washer did it’s job (very, very well) and easily hacked off every bit of muck I could find.

With the shell being fibreglass it was easy to lift onto its side to get access to all the places that needed cleaning.


i.e. Before:


After:


Not a tricky job and well worth doing in preparation for it’s repatriation with the chassis.
It was now ready!

[Gilbern74]

I had never played with fixing GRP before and wasn’t prepared to start doing so now. I wanted the body to be put back ‘as good as new’ by someone who knew what they were doing, so I made arrangements to take the chassis and body parts ‘West’ to Phil Ivimey and Steve Boniface in Bromsgrove who were willing to do the re-bonding work for (quite) a few shillings.
Where the hell is Bromsgrove? Well after quick ‘Google’ I realised I had quite a trek to make!

I checked the prices of getting the lot towed over, and back, and decided that it could be cheaper to buy a cheap old trailer, do it myself, and then sell the trailer afterwards. Which is what I did. I bought a (barely) roadworthy old trailer from eBay.

I put all the internals back in place…




…and then with some assistance lifted the bodyshell back over and onto the chassis…



Anyone for a spin round the block in my sportscar??


With a ‘heave’ and a ‘ho’ we got the car (which I can now once again referred to it as!) up on to the trailer.
With some good ratchet straps and ropes holding it in place and with tarpaulin over the top it was all set for the journey.



I had to get from Peterborough over to Bromsgrove. My route was planned. It took a good 4 hours with some traffic in the way, but we eventually arrived in one piece (although had to stop several times as the tarpaulin sheared from its tethers with a few gusts of wind!).

On arrival I was greeted by Phil and Steve and we offloaded my ‘stuff’ from the trailer and pushed it up to the garage/workshop.




Back amongst its ‘Kin’:


Phil and Steve in the workshop




Now I had half expected to be given a few weeks reprieve and have a lovely clean empty garage for a while. Not to be. Phil and Steve got straight to work and only about 5 days later I had a call that the car was ready for collection! So another sunny July day came and I trundled back to Bromsgrove from Peterborough to pick it up.

I was mightily impressed with their work. Everything was bonded back on solid and cleanly. The guys had got the doors back on flush and done several other bits-n-pieces of work that we had discussed. All-in-all very, very happy with it, and can thoroughly recommend Phil and Steve’s Gilbern services to anyone and everyone!!!








The car was loaded back on to the trailer, we bid farewell and headed home. Back into my garage went the car, and there it has remained ever since!

[Gilbern74]

“That”, as they say, “was that”, and “that” was back “then”, and “then” seems a mighty long time ago!!

2 years in fact. Not having the time, money, or enthusiasm to carry on since then, the car has sat still and became another means of storing all the crap in and around the garage….

…until now! Hooray! I have had some pangs of enthusiasm back lately. Comments by the family that my son (8 years old) would probably be driving the car before I did, kind of hurt a little. So I’m finally back on the case.
The next job…. Stripping the paintwork down to the gelcoat.

Watch this space for the next instalments!!!!

[Greybags]

What a great story and even better pictures ..

Really cant wait for the next installment, the next step will be the complete car I hope...

Looking forward to it all and now you've started again, keep the momentum going, although after nearly 2 years doing mine, I know how easy it can be to take a little break from a dark and cold garage during the not so warm and sunny months.

Perhaps we should push each other to keep it up...

Grahame

P.S. ... Lots more picyures please....

[mike whiskey]

Excellent story and pictures.

I hadn't realised that someone was hard at work on a MkIII so close to home.

I'm in Huntingdon, and my car is in pieces at my parents house at Sawtry.

Perhaps we can meet up sometime to swap ideas and try and inspire each other to further progress

MW