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LH SL/R EFI 355 RESTORATION

Started by _LH SLR 3300_ , Oct 23 2010 08:05 PM

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277 replies to this topic

#1 _LH SLR 3300_

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Posted 23 October 2010 - 08:05 PM

I've owned my 1974 LH SL/R since 1998 when i bought it as a completely factory original six cylinder auto. Since then i've replaced the running gear with a EFI 355, TH350 & 9" diff. I've run it twice at WSID with a best time of 11.9@113mph on it's third pass. As much as i loved the car the way it was, the factory paint had deteriorated badly & surface rust was appearing in places, so with words of encouragement from a couple of good friends i decided to give the old girl a new coat of paint. This is how the car looked until today.
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Starting about 11am today, my good friend Scott & i proceded to strip the car. I was wrapped upon taking the rear screen out to find not a spot of rust.
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My luck ran out once the front screen came out.
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Oh well, just get into it. Masking the car in preparation for the paint stripper.
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My mate Scott has painted a few cars for me, we work good together. He works cheap too.
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The basic body on my car is pretty good, first coat of stripper revealed no suspect repairs or bog.
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Scott getting into it. A messy shite of a job but had to be done.
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By 5pm, most of the factory paint was gone from the rear of the car & roof turret.
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#2 _LH SLR 3300_

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Posted 23 October 2010 - 08:16 PM

This is far as we went today, tommorow the doors, guards etc will be coming off to be stripped out & sent off for media blasting & the door apertures will paint stripped. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, the basic shell will be in epoxy urethane primer.
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My aim is to have this car painted & finished by christmas.

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#3 fatslr

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Name:Garth
Location:Dunsborough W.A.
Joined: 17-July 07

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Posted 23 October 2010 - 09:30 PM

Hey Matt

I was wondering how long you could leave the old girl before you gave her a lick of paint.

Why didn't you keep your old thread going it would be good for all the members unaware of your build so far?

What colour you going for ? I am sure it will come up looking the goods going off the missus's car , How is the little lady's Torrie going?

Can't wait to watch the step by step lessons again on how to panel beat the correct way.

Garth

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#4 tsn007

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Name:Tony
Location:LIVERPOOL, NSW
Car:LX hatch, LX sedan
Joined: 25-April 07

Posted 24 October 2010 - 06:58 AM

Looking forward to this build,this is going to be an awesome paint resto

Are you keeping it Silver?

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#5 _LH SLR 3300_

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 07:24 AM

The car will be painted back to original Sable silver with the SL/R black stripes & paintouts. I took plenty of photos, tracings & measurements so i can replicate them as close as possible. The interior is stripped out & will be retrimmed as original in Ash grey with Herringbone cloth inserts. Basicly i want to restore the car back to how it would've looked when it was new right down to the 3300 badges on the guards even though it has a 355 V8 in it now.
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Here are some more pics of the car for those who don't know the car as i was too lazy to revive the old thread Posted Image

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#6 _ass308_

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 08:59 AM

good work matt

its going to be great to see this one painted,looking forward to the finished result

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#7 _LJ355_

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 09:39 AM

Good stuff matt its going to look great with nice fresh paint look foward to see the finished product :spoton:

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#8 unclefestal34s

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 11:35 AM

so my months of ear bashing you finally sank in...good stuff matt this car will do you proud as i personally think your a very good tradesmen..

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#9 _LH SLR 3300_

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 05:45 PM

so my months of ear bashing you finally sank in...good stuff matt this car will do you proud as i personally think your a very good tradesmen..

Sure did Joe, your words of encouragement & a promise to my mate in the photos really got the ball rolling. Thanks i think i needed it Posted Image

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#10 _AD_75_

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 06:20 PM

Looking forward to this build, it looks a lot like my last SL/R except for the color.

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#11 _LH SLR 3300_

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 06:22 PM

Today was fairly productive, we didn't get any epoxy primer on but then we didn't get to work until 11am & we only worked until 5pm. Still i'm happy with the progress. I began by stripping off the front sheet metal & n/s doors so Scott could start paint stripping the apertures. The Sydney Morning Herald came in handy again.
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While Scott was busy with the paint stripper, i went to work on the o/s/r quarter. It was basicly straight, but had plenty of minor high spots & park dents. I started by blocking the panel with P180 to "pick up" the inperfections.
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Next step was to start dressing down the highs with gentle hammer & dolly work, & bringing up the lows with a slapper & dolly. The areas i couldn't get to with the dolly, my trusty dent puller was put to use. After running a body file over the panel i gave it a guide coat then blocked it with P120.
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This picked up any areas that weren't right & any small dents i missed. A couple hours more work & i was satisfied with my work.
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My aim is to metal finish this car so no body filler will be used, instead epoxy urethane primer will be applied followed by polyester spray filler.
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N/S door aperture & sill are bare metal, not a spot of rust & only minor dents on the sill.
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Next step is to repair the rust in the front screen aperture. I didn't bring the tools i need to do this from work so i'll be doing this during the week & hopefully moving onto repairing the n/s/r quarter & roof turret next weekend.

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#12 _Kush_

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 08:39 PM

I am REALLY liking this. Very interesting

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#13 _sshatch355_

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 09:34 PM

AWESOME!!

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#14 gtrboyy

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Location:SYDNEY,NSW
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Posted 25 October 2010 - 10:32 AM

Wow Matt,you really are ripping in & making fast progress.

I kinda of liked that funky old factory paint lol.

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#15 Redslur

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Name:Gerry
Location:Canberra
Car:HQ GTS Replica 350.
Joined: 08-November 05

Posted 25 October 2010 - 11:10 AM

I love these rebuild threads....Looks like great progress already...

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#16 _LH SLR 3300_

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Posted 31 October 2010 - 05:23 PM

Not much progress this weekend, got pounded at work so i was tired saturday, didn't really do much & pulled the pin early. Got to work at 11.30am today & went hard till 4.00pm so this is what i got done. First up, rust repairs. I started by making a channel from an off cut of steel at work.
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There were about 5 or 6 areas that needed plating, both lower corners & along the base.
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I started on the right side & began working my way along to the left. First step, cut a section from my pre-made channel to cover the rusted corner & scribe the outline onto the aperture.
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Then i cut the rusted section off carefully using a cut off wheel & air hacksaw. I'm butt welding all the repairs & metal finishing them so i won't have to use bog to "hide" the repairs so everything has to line up perfectly. Here, the aperture is ready for the repair section to be welded in. The blue paint is zinc weld thru primer, i plug weld the repair section here as i don't have a spot welder.
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I tack weld the corners then slowly & paitently weld the section in, finishing with an air grinder, belt sander for the tight confined areas, then an air sander. I got about half the aperture done. The line between where i joined the rust repair & the panel directly below is where i had to sand away the factory lead wiped join. I can fill this with polyester filler.
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This is what i have left to complete the rust repairs.
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When i got sick of grinding & welding, i worked on the rhs rear quarter, i've got it 80% finished so far.
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While i was working on the rust repairs & rear quarter, my mate was finishing off the lhs door aperture removing all trace of the original paint & sealer from the rain gutters & body joins so we can address any minor rust that might be forming. So far so good, the body shell is exceptionaly clean & rust free confirming my faith in older drivers. The original 85 yo owner of this car took very good care of it.
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Next step is to finish the rust repairs & lhs quarter, then move onto repairing the beaver panel. Tomorrow the front panels will be going to get media blasted followed by the doors. I've already re-skinned both passenger doors with NOS skins, the rhf door maybe getting re-skinned too as it has rust near the belt mould & i have a NOS skin if i need it.

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#17 _SS Hatchback_

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Posted 31 October 2010 - 06:51 PM

nice work Matt, cant wait to see this finished :spoton:

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#18 _nial8r_

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Posted 02 November 2010 - 07:45 AM

sh*t Matt you sure dont muck around, its coming along very quick and all quality work as always, glad i found the thread.. Posted Image

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#19 _ass308_

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Posted 04 November 2010 - 07:31 AM

its coming along very nicely matt

must be nearly finished already

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#20 _agroslr_

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Posted 04 November 2010 - 10:43 AM

nice work mate... shes lookin great

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#21 MRLXSS

The Render Garage

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Name:Matt
Location:Upwey, Melbourne
Car:355 LX Hatchback, DeLorean DMC-12, LX SS Hatch, VY Cross8 Crewman
Joined: 09-November 05

Posted 04 November 2010 - 11:44 AM

Shiny metal looks soooooo nice!!!

Can't wait to keep watching this one evolve!

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#22 _AD_75_

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Posted 04 November 2010 - 02:52 PM

It sure looks like some tricky rust repairs were needed around the screen area, glad you got the skills to tackle it! coming along nice.

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#23 _LH SLR 3300_

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Posted 07 November 2010 - 01:50 PM

Rust repairs finished, only spent a few hours yesterday on the car as i had to work on a friend's car for the rest of the weekend.
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Some of the rusted bits i cut from the car. I didn't take any pics of the finished repairs, but the whole aperture is rust free & ready for epoxy primer.
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#24 notna

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Car:1976 LX L32 SL/R
Joined: 21-May 07

Posted 07 November 2010 - 06:28 PM

Inspirational!

Really appreciating the detailed pics and descriptions of your work, as we all need exactly this kind of thread to learn. Loving the original look you are replicating. That's exactly my thing =)

Will be watching this with a keen eye. Posted Image