for anyone who is interested here are a few snaps of where im up to on my restoration/customisation. ive mainly focused on the engine bay as that is what im doing at the moment

 

engine bay was taken back to bare metal, this is just about the last of it

 

 

pas pot has been moved to here

 

 

to here, hicas has been removed, inner wing deseamed/smoothed. all holes have been welded up (except a few that i still need)

 

 

same goes for this area too, there will be nothing here except the brake servo/clutch master cylinder

 

 

Alot of work has gone on in this area, the battery tray has been removed which revealed a few holes where the battery had leaked, the upper suspension mounting had also had a bit of a bash at some time and had distorted the reinforced panel. i cut out the whole panel in this area and replaced it with one cut out of my breaker. all spot welds drilled out etc and welded back to look factory-also checked to correct chassis dims. you can see which panel i mean as its red (weld through etch primer)

 

 

same goes for the passanger side, i have replaced the headlamp pod aswell, it had been repaired to a good standard but i was not happy, it would appear my breaker had a bad bump (bent the chassis rail) but they had replaced the headlamp pod with a new nissan item so this was grafted onto my car aswell. all looks perfect now. the fusebox will go under the nose panel on the inside of the chassis leg opposite the pas pot

 

 

 

both chassis rails have been given the smooth treatment too

 

 

fuel filter has been moved down here where all the aiv stuff used to live, the stock fuel lines have been tweaked to pop up under the chassis rail where you can just see the little notch. the fuel lines will then go up through the panel above (where battery used to be). ill use a jic bulkhead fitting here so in the engine bay i will have aeroquip type braided hoses with propper connectors in stealth black onto an adapted fuel pipe.

 

 

tomorrow i will spray the bay in a final coat of etch, then seam seal a few bits. might even get on to giving it a coat of 2k high build. Colour will be pure gloss black. im going for a very stripped out look in the bay, no wires showing and nothing but the engine to see. colour scheme will be stricktly black and silver/chrome/pollished aluminium.

 

hope you enjoy.

Simply awesome. This build is an inspiration to get mine sorted once I'm home

 

Great work.

Wow trully dedicated work there very impressed, would love to do something like this, just done the rust in mine at the rear sills used some aquasteel that was pretty good stuff,

 

dont want to ruing this awsome thread by writting too much but all i will say is

 

:bow::bow::bow::bow::bow::bow:

 

Keep up the good work

Simply WOW! :bow:

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Any updates mate?

Dont think he has been online? Had no replys to my pm's or recieved anything after paying for some parts. Has anyone got a contact number for him?

well

i havnt updated my build for over a year but there will be updates to come over the next few weeks

Good to hear buddy :) I know other things get in the way but crack on - i want to see this thing finished :D

well loads has happend on the car in the last 6 months

 

im very happy to say all welding grinding and other similar crappy jobs have been done. The whole of the body has been taken back to bare metal and the floor pan etc has been restored to the best of my abilities

 

i cant add photos at the moment but will add them in tonight.

 

in a nutshell though.

 

both sills have been replaced with new panels as seen earlyer

dents in floor and chassis rails have been corrected

rear arches behind wheels have been rebuilt

engine bay has been shaved

rear hatch smoothed

aerial removed

stealth relocation of under bonnet crap, inc battery, hicas (gone), pas pot, fuel filter, fusebox etc

 

paint is now on the underside, this consisted of the following

 

bare metal cleaned, degreased and phosphate etched

2 coats of epoxy mastic

1 coat of etch

PE seam sealer

stone chip in arches

2 coats 2k in white

 

this little lot should last a long time plus looks amazing

 

body shell should hopefully be in topcoat this weekend, its a little different to when it was last seen as i have had a change of plan and now is ford frozen white with a black roof. I would have gone for a nice pearl but i know my limits when painting.

 

lots more updates to come

welcome back stranger. good to here your still ploding along :biggrin:

thanks mate

 

its good to be back

here are some pics

 

here are some pics

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and here are a few of the body in primer and the underside in gloss topcoat

 

black epoxy mastic

 

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Nice pics of the underside of a swb which is different from the lwb at the rear. Good work Dougal.

Crikey! :bow:

Awesome work Pete. Glad you are back and updating again. Am I right in thinking you were going with black before? I look after a white ford with a black roof, good choice should look great on your Zed.

thanks for the comments guys

 

I was undecided for a long time about the colour choice, it came down to a few factors. I love black cars but unless I got the paintwork spot on I would never be happy. I also love the contrast of a white zed with a black roof and have always admired funky si's motor. plus with all the work ive done on the underside I wanted it to stand out.

 

on the down side, a white car never really shows off the quality of the bodywork and the underside might prove tricky to keep clean.

 

Cant wait to get the rear subframe built up, should be a little different from the norm.

where abouts in Cheltenham are you ollizx

 

im only down the road in evesham

Haha the race is on!!

 

Lol only kidding, that looks awesome Dougal, it's good to not be the only one to take this task.

 

Keep up the good work and more pics!

Wow this is an amazing effort :thumbup1::bow::shock:

Im confused Pete, is this how it stands now or before you did all the engine bay black and all new bolts etc..?

yeah, its confusing.

 

this is how it stands now. the engine bay is now less pretty but should be repainted by the weekend. Was a bit funny sanding back the fresh paint but it will be worth it in the end.

 

bolts etc are still all assemble to the front cross member ready to go back on, hopefully for the last time.

Ah cool, i admire the time and attention to detail, this is going to be one stunning example, im glad youve got some enthusiasm back to get moving on her again and look forward to some more pics.

for anyone who is interested here are a few snaps of where im up to on my restoration/customisation. ive mainly focused on the engine bay as that is what im doing at the moment

 

engine bay was taken back to bare metal, this is just about the last of it

 

 

pas pot has been moved to here

 

 

to here, hicas has been removed, inner wing deseamed/smoothed. all holes have been welded up (except a few that i still need)

 

 

same goes for this area too, there will be nothing here except the brake servo/clutch master cylinder

 

 

Alot of work has gone on in this area, the battery tray has been removed which revealed a few holes where the battery had leaked, the upper suspension mounting had also had a bit of a bash at some time and had distorted the reinforced panel. i cut out the whole panel in this area and replaced it with one cut out of my breaker. all spot welds drilled out etc and welded back to look factory-also checked to correct chassis dims. you can see which panel i mean as its red (weld through etch primer)

 

 

same goes for the passanger side, i have replaced the headlamp pod aswell, it had been repaired to a good standard but i was not happy, it would appear my breaker had a bad bump (bent the chassis rail) but they had replaced the headlamp pod with a new nissan item so this was grafted onto my car aswell. all looks perfect now. the fusebox will go under the nose panel on the inside of the chassis leg opposite the pas pot

 

 

 

both chassis rails have been given the smooth treatment too

 

 

fuel filter has been moved down here where all the aiv stuff used to live, the stock fuel lines have been tweaked to pop up under the chassis rail where you can just see the little notch. the fuel lines will then go up through the panel above (where battery used to be). ill use a jic bulkhead fitting here so in the engine bay i will have aeroquip type braided hoses with propper connectors in stealth black onto an adapted fuel pipe.

 

 

 

Are you going to reinforce the area with the fuel filter e.g a cage or similar, my worry is that in the event of an accident that`s going to pour fuel everywhere.