Friday 9th September

 

Things are happening around our 1934 rover 10HP again. 

After spending some time carefully restoring the Luvax automatic lubrication

system on his car, Chris discovered that Bentley restorers Feinnes Restoration

(www.feinnesrestoration.com) have been re-producing the system for their cars. 

 

 

 It has to be said that the Rover system at the time that our Rover was made

was slightly more advanced being fully automatic but the fittings are very

similar- just a different thread on the unions. On the basis that new parts are

possibly going to be more reliable, Chris ordered a set in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Quality of the fittings is spot on and together with some absolutely right

new brass thin tubing form the same supplier the "kit has been fitted to Snowdrop

in a little over a morning.

 Elsewhere by co-incidence the restoration of the bodywork resumed and I

was caught in the act of fabricating one of the outer wheel arch to rear seat

pan support panels when Chris came in. The job isn't totally finished because

I can't remove the old panels until I have a tool to accurately measure the

positions of all the old panel work.We don't want a wobbly back seat do we?

 

The first day back from your holidays is always

the worst. Anyone who runs a small business

will be familiar with the irrational fear of what

you might find when you roll up the shutters.

Will the workshop still be there? will there be

hundreds of emails to answer, will the bank be

chasing payment for something?

                                            Triumph Herald body shell removed from Chassis.

 

The answer was that everything was fine this morning,

the workshop was tidy and work had already begun

when I got in. Thanks to Sadie and Beau for doing

such a good job. In fact several key jobs seem to have

been completed and we even have some new bookings

which is great. 

One decision made was to remove the body shell

from the chassis of the Triumph Herald in order

to repair the chassis. This I fully support as it makes

the job so much more efficient.

 

Perhaps I should go off on holiday more often! The only

downside is that I now need to do a few days of paper-

work to catch up.

 

 

 Here at WSR we have a full week ahead.

Well some of us do, some of us are away

for two weeks in the sun and I have to say

that I can't wait! Whilst I'm away, Sadie and

Beau will be looking after the business for

me and should be able to answer most

questions that you ask.

With the somewhat disastrous performance

of our gas supplier last week and the long

delays in getting spares out to me from some

suppliers there's quite a back log of work

waiting to be done. This should keep Sadie

and beau busy for at least a week.

Work scheduled include:

Completing the re-wire of the TR6

Re-wiring the Lotus Elan plus removing the

head for engineering work ( if the manual

ordered turns up ).

A full suspension rebuild on the Triumph

Herald ( parts due in from Wins international

who is rarely late with his supplies at least).

Welding to two Dolomites, The Herald,

The Spitfire mk3 and our Rover collection.

 A universal joint change and MOT on a Spitfire

1500

And that's just what I can recall while I'm sitting

here! Sadie and Beau won't be updating the

web site while I'm away so customers wishing

to know what's happening should call in. A full

update will appear around the 6-7th of September.

In the meantime, there's an update on the blog

for last week.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

There is now an update for the

Rover P6 on the projects page!

 

See our blog  or our facebook page for the latest updates

in our busy workshop.

Another new arrival has appeared. Yesterday evening this

rather smart Mini Cooper S appeared in the work shop.

In the winter, the owner plans to bring the car back for more

 

serious work including front wings and scuttle panel as rust

 

bubbles are starting to appear here and there.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

16th August 2011

I did sit down last night after work to prepare a blog for this morning.

I'd got as far as spell checking my work when the lap top crashed.

Typical! So now I'm sitting in the office at home aided by my side-kick

Mr Woodruff who keeps telling me he needs to go out ( to make

sure that the chickens don't need rounding up).

Today we are expecting a Mini invasion. Beau is our resident  Mini

Expert so he will be doing most of the work. Here's a few shots of

some of his work.

    Beau's own green Mini van.

  New project.

 

 Completed project ( from three years ago).

 

More new parts arrived last week for the Rover 10 HP

( Snowdrop). The first headlamp stay was fabricated

for us some time ago but we now have the full batch

of four - for two cars. The original two seen here

have rusted badly. The chromed one is a steel replica

- well made but still rusting. The others have been

made as exact replicas in brass and should last

an age, They've been made from thick brass so

shouldn't fracture or of course, rust.

The hope is that the welding to the main body

tub will re-start this week-updates should appear

later in the week on facebook and here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

Another new visitor to the workshop is this P6.

We don't get many P6's in. The owner calls this

the flying banana but I think that Fifes would be

a good name. It's in for minor maintenance work

around the rear braking system, a service  and

then it will be off home.  I hope that we will see

it again from time to time.

 

Another recent Visitor was this Triumph Vitesse.

This is just about the best one I've seen in ages

and it drives beautifully. The owner is seriously

thinking of selling it if you're interested.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

This Article should really be on the projects

page however, I haven't set one up yet so it's

ended up here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work on the Rover P5B - Emily, they all seem to

have names- is going really well now and we're

looking forward to beginning the re-spray soon.

At the moment Beau is removing the full three

piece sill set. As Rover P5's are so solid it's rare

for them to have started to sag even when quite

badly corroded. We don't like to chance it though

and have welded a brace into the car to support

it whilst the work is done.

The key to successfully getting panels to fit is

to remove absolutely every fragment of the

original panel. This can be tedious work and it

will take Beau at least two days to remove the

panels and grind down all high spots and

fragments left behind. Once the old stuff is off,

the  new panels should fit fairly easily. there

is a slight complication with the  centre sill

panel which is a good inch too short  and

needs extending but this is nothing to worry about.

ervices, including Jaguar E Type restoration, Rover restoration, MGB restoration and Aston Martin restoration, covering a wide range of options such as classic car respray, bodywork and welding.

 

 

Wednesday 10th August 2011

For once there has been some action on the web site! There are now updates on the

Rover 10 hp project page and also on our blog.

Tuesday 9th August 2011

 

 

We have had several new projects recently and I

hope to find the time to show them here in due

course.

Probably on of the more impressive visitors is this

Aston Martin DBS. Initially, it was in for cavity waxing

but the first disaster was when the exhaust grounded

badly on the owners trailer and one half of the system

became badly damaged. 

 A quick look through Beaus custom car mag located

a supplier who can send us the perfect replacement

for the damaged section and of course knowing how

obsessive custom car owners can be it will be of the

highest quality possible.

 The second disaster was slightly more serious. A call

from the cavity waxing bay " did you know that you can

see the carpet from underneath the car?" brought the

vehicle back from the bay.Once the carpets were out

it all looked pretty nasty but in localised areas.

Repairs are under way now.

 

The usual process is being used: make a template

from a cereal packet, trying to ensure that the

pattern is as close to the original part, cut out the

rust as far as good metal and make all the edges as

clean as possible, fabricate the repair in steel and

weld in.

For the indentations in the floor, I used a blunt drift

and a hammer and with the repair locked into a vice

,carefully worked the punch around a pre-drawn

line forming the shape. By adding these details

you make a "realistic" copy and avoid the popping

you get when hot steel has buckled whilst welding.

Once the floor had been lifted, the outrigger could

be seen underneath. This was full of rust and had

been patched up. The owner has very sensibly

decided to opt for a complete replacement which

is now on order.

Another impressive new visitor is this Ford Capri

3.0l Ghia. It's a rare one as most of them are

2.8 litre cologne engine jobs rather than the

old Essex one. When we learned that the car

had been laid up for some years we were

expecting something rather less impressive than

this time-warp! I can't see it needing much for

the MOT- just a super-service and minor brake work.

 

8th August 2

For the last two months we have been

completely snowed under with work

and I've barely had time to get my

work done let alone enter any updates

here. Together with this, various issues

have left me with at times a skeleton

staff to work with ( namely me doing

90 hours per week to keep going).

Luckily for the company the work

has continued to pour in and staff

service is returning to normal, which

thankfully has meant shorter hours for me.

I badly need to do some updating of work

done since my last comments but I still

don't have the time so for the moment

I'll concentrate on what we are doing

right now.

For some weeks now we have had

this E-type in our workshop. The

planned work included adjusting the

brake bands on the auto gearbox

that should be done every 21,000

miles and restoring the power

steering rack. All was going so well

until at almost the last minute, the steering

rack failed and promptly threw all

it's transmission fluid on the floor.

 What had gone wrong? At first we

suspected that the problem was that

the 'rack was just so worn that the

new seals could not work properly.

The owner ordered a new one from

a company working on eBay. When

it arrived, the plot thickened. The

new rack was definitely right for an

E-type Jaguar but was completely

different from ours.

 The Original fits like a glove, the

new one is nowhere close. The

re-conditioners think that this is an

aftermarket conversion- which it

might be but both the owner and I

have our doubts as the old one just

looks right. Either way, the jag

seals kit that we used on the steering

rack was probably the wrong one

for our unit. The re-conditioners

are going to collect the old one this

morning and do a one off overhaul

for us using their stock of seals.-

 Elsewhere, one of our Rover P5's was

due home on Friday last week but

due to staff problems and availability

of certain specialists last week, collection

was delayed. This week, the radiator

is going away to be reconditioned and

the electrical system will be under scrutiny.

See facebook this week for updates.

 As for Workshop dog Woodruff? He's

one year old now, huge and still

growing. He still loved being at work

but best of all he likes getting all grubby!

 

 

Sunday 19th  June 2011

P5 meet at The Wings Museum in West sussex.

 

Snowdrop our Rover 10hp project got it's first airing since

the restoration began. The bare chassis which is the result

of many years work by it's owner was transported by classic

car transporters SJS Vehicle Recovery to the meeting of the

 Rover P5 Owners club at the Wings Museum in West Sussex.

As usual I forgot to take my camera but luckily Chris had his with him.

 

Despite the occasional shower we managed to keep the chassis dry and we

had many positive comments about the quality of the work done so far.

This was the first time that I had been to a P5 Meeting and I was

impressed by how friendly every one was. Many thanks to Chris for

inviting me along.

 

 

6th April 2011

Show season

 

Spring

Now that the days are getting longer we are starting to see more classics in the

workshop for MOT type work aswell as restoration as the owners start to get their

cars back out of hibernation. Every spring now there seems to be another obstacle

waiting to catch us out.

The EC proposals for ethanol in fuel, the two year MOT and more restrictions on

modifications to older cars are all going to provide new challenges for the classic

owner and garage alike. Still where ever there's a new piece of legislation there's

usually a loop hole to exploit...

 

 

"I'd like cadmium-free tyres, 5 gallons of ethanol free gas, a catalytic

 

converter, air bags all round and a My Littlle Pony hood ornament"

 

 

 

 

 

New photographs.

 

 

 

I shall try to find time to do the photographs justice later on in the week and put some more on the web site.

 

 

 

 

With spring just around the corner and days starting to get longer, we are now getting to the busiest time of year.

The amount of phone calls we are recieving is probably even higher than at this time last year. Some of our

projects are now drawing to a close and space is opening up on the 'shop floor only to be re-booked straight away.

Longer term projects are all coming along well at the moment and there is an general update on the blog page now.

 

New updates have

now been added to the blog and projects page -Thurs  24th Feb 2011

Weather proof.

 

First off the car is lifted up on the ramp. Wheels are removed and if fitted wheel arch liners are taken out. The

bottom of the car is then steam cleaned to get rid of all the salt and  grime. We then have to wait for 24 hours

while the wet underside dries completely out. If we didn't then water would get trapped under the under seal and

cause rust to start.

Once the car is dry, an inspection of the underside is made to check for corrosion. If we find bad corrosion ( it

does sometimes happen) we stop the process and contact the customer. Welding must be done first. Light

surface corrosion is rubbed down and brush treated with a commercially available rust eater. The patch is then

brush painted with two layers of cavity wax. Once this has been done the next stage is masking up

Anyone who has had a go at painting a car will know all about masking up! It takes ages and if you miss a bit

you end up with paint on the tyres. Masking up here takes around four hours to do. The exhaust, brakes and

engine to name but a few are all covered.

Once fully wrapped up in brown paper, the first layer of under seal goes on. Not be confused with inferior old

style hard under seals, the product we use is Dinatrol which always stays slightly soft and "waxy". A good layer

is applied - hot and under high pressure. The resulting layer is then left for 24 hours to harden. Then a second

layer is added and another 24 hours is waited out before the masking up can be removed and the results see

The finish achieved is a smooth satin black covering that gives any car a new look instantly and gives years of

protection.

For all the internal metalwork, hidden away inside box sections such as chassis rails and sills we switch to cavity

wax which is a clear, thinner wax- made by Dinitrol who make a superior product for this job.

Again the car is masked up. Trim panels are removed and a flexible lance is pushed into the panel work and the

wax is pumped in under high pressure. When the sills below the doors are being treated it is common to see

an escaping  mist of wax shooting out of air vents and gaps here and there all over the car. The car is treated

from the internal box sections of the boot lid right up to the tip of the bonnet ensuring that you have the

maximum protection.

Once completed the car is left overnight again. Then the masking is removed and the car receives a valet before

tape is places over drain holes while the wax sets and the car is returned to it's owner.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see at the moment there's plenty of work going on in the workshop. The

workshop has been flat out for some time now and personally I'm happy for it to stay

that way. As with all new years resolutions, mine has fallen by the wayside a bit.

The updates for the projects page are mostly behind by some weeks .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those interested in the 1934 Rover ( Snowdrop ) or the Austin A35 will find an update now posted. For any other projects, try the blog or our facebook page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just lately it seems that we have been so full it was hard to know where to begin. Now after a week of hard work we are about to say goodbye to four more projects- only to be replaced by two new  ones, plus the return of the blast cleaned body shell for Snowdrop, the 1934 Rover 10hp .See more on the blog.

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It has to be said I'm no Cecil B. DeMille when it comes to the camera. Any time spent looking over the web site will confirm this- it's a miracle that the photographs are the right way up sometimes. Last year the My Vision Workshop contacted us to see if we would like to be used as one of the assignments for a professional photographer to use as a subject. I'm always saying if it's too good to be true it probably isn't so the chance of some professional photographs was viewed with some suspicion but we said yes anyway.
 

As things turned out, our photographer for the day, James Stewart,was brilliant and the result was a whole load of fantastic photographs that I've just got my hands on...

By chance, the same day that I opened the CD with James' photographs, we had a call from my vision again and we have been lucky enough to be selected again this year. This time there was no hesitation in saying yes and very much look forward to this years event.

I won't be able to keep the photograph below on for long- Sadie isn't too keen on having her photograph taken.

Finally I found this rather nice one of our dog Biscuit who sadly died last year. We still think of her from time to time.

 

 

 

 

        From everyone here at West Sussex Restorations;

 

 

       Happy New Year.

 

 

We have a very busy few months ahead with plenty of work scheduled on current projects and new Classics due in shortly. It’s definatly the time for resolutions ( and diets if you’ve had a bit too much Christmas cheer),  one of mine is to improve the content of this site. Our current projects pagein particular  is badly behind the times with only a fraction of the workhappening  being listed. If your resolution was to do something about that classic car restoration project- why not give us a call?

See the Current Projects page for more information on all the cars we're working on.

Follow us on Twitter:

 

 

 

WSRestorations

 

 Classic Car Restoration UK including Jaguar E Type Restoration, Rover Restoration, MGB Restoration and Aston Martin Restoration Services

Restoring & Servicing Classics at our Workshop

Monday, 15 August 2011

Monday 15th August 2011

In the workshop last week we had two cars due to leave. I must finally learn my lesson and not arrange for two cars to leave on the same day. Even two in the came week can lead to late nights and frayed tempers as we struggle to overcome the inevitable last minute problems.

First out on Friday was one of the Rover P5B's. This car is in superb order but there's always something to do. In this visit we:


Fitted a brand new distributor from H&H Ignition Solutions ( with electronic ignition inside and quality leads)
Fitted an up-rated radiator
detailed the engine bay
Fitted new brake shoes
Checked the car over for any problems ( a few identified)
Overhauled the rear wheel cylinders ( one of the faults identified)
Fitted a new ball joint ( the other fault identified)
Tried to improve the door alignment and filling ( failed on that one but the alignment isn't bad for this sort of car)
Tried to un-wrinkle the interior trim ( failed - using heat we could flatten the trim but the vinyl keeps reverting back to it's former state as it cooled
Re fitted saggy trim ( with a little Velcro)
Investigated electrical problems.
Ordered up new rad hoses and a conversion to manual choke kit which has not arrived to date.

Typically, the radiator for the car only arrived the same day as collection so we were already struggling to fit this when the steering rack for the E-type arrived. We have had this steering rack on and off of the Jag so many times lately you'd think that we could do it blindfold but the usual complications and access problems ensued and we were still working lat into the night to get the car fit to go.

Happily the owner of both cars showed great tolerance and gave us enough space to get the work done. The result this morning ( Monday ) is a lovely clear workshop.


More new parts arrived last week for the Rover 10 HP ( Snowdrop). The first headlamp stay was fabricated for us some time ago but we now have the full batch of four - for two cars. The original two seen here have rusted badly. The chromed one is a steel replica- well made but still rusting. The others have been made as exact replicas in brass and should last an age, They've been made from thick brass so shouldn't fracture or of course, rust.

The hope is that the welding to the main body tub will re-start this week-updates should appear later in the week on facebook and here.

In the workshop last week we had two cars due to leave. I must finally learn my lesson and not arrange for two cars to leave on the same day. Even two in the came week can lead to late nights and frayed tempers as we struggle to overcome the inevitable last minute problems.

First out on Friday was one of the Rover P5B's. This car is in superb order but there's always something to do. In this visit we:

Fitted a brand new distributor from H&H Ignition Solutions ( with electronic ignition inside and quality leads)

Fitted an up-rated radiator

detailed the engine bay

Fitted new brake shoes

Checked the car over for any problems ( a few identified)

Overhauled the rear wheel cylinders ( one of the faults identified)

Fitted a new ball joint ( the other fault identified)

Tried to improve the door alignment and filling ( failed on that one but the alignment isn't bad for this sort of car)

Tried to un-wrinkle the interior trim ( failed - using heat we could flatten the trim but the vinyl keeps reverting back to it's former state as it cooled

Re fitted saggy trim ( with a little Velcro)

Investigated electrical problems.

Ordered up new rad hoses and a conversion to manual choke kit which has not arrived to date.

Typically, the radiator for the car only arrived the same day as collection so we were already struggling to fit this when the steering rack for the E-type arrived. We have had this steering rack on and off of the Jag so many times lately you'd think that we could do it blindfold but the usual complications and access problems ensued and we were still working lat into the night to get the car fit to go.

Happily the owner of both cars showed great tolerance and gave us enough space to get the work done. The result this morning ( Monday ) is a lovely clear workshop.

--------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Thursday 11th August 2011

 

Yet again I started my day by getting out of bed on the wrong side. Yesterday I was busy demolishing the Capri. Today it was the turn of my wife's  MK1 Spitfire. I like driving the Spitfire, it's easy to drive and economic compared to my cars. 

 

I do wonder if the EEC who has decided that we should have ethanol in our petrol is ready to pay out for the insurance claims when classic cars start catching fire.

 

Wed. 10th August 2011

 The Morning started Badly. Pulling my Capri Convertible out of the workshop I noticed an ominous scraping noise. It turned out that last time I parked my car in the garage I must have got the registration plate hooked over the numberplate and so ripped the thing off on the way out.

 

I was supposed to be doing and early morning assessment of a rather nice 1959 Lancia Appia Vingale ( the rare four seater version) restoration project. A detour to the workshop had to be made first to make new 'plate mounting brackets. When I got in there was Mr Linton Washer our auto electrician waiting for the workshop to open so that he could take a look at GEAK the Rover P5B ( number 5) . By the time he was done I was running  very late- not a good start with a prospective customer. I have to say that they were very good about it

Once back in the workshop, things settled down. Beau had another great day on Emily ( Rover P5B4). Apart from detailing and door skin repairs the drivers side has been finished and very good it looks too. Most of the panels came from JRWadham and they went on with a minimum of fuss.

 

Beau is champing at the bit to do the other side but for a short time I need to transfer him over to the Triumphs. The automatic Dolomite Sprint is progressing equally well with repair section for the inner wing being fabricated and fitted one by one. With any luck the final repair can be done tomorrow and then the front wing can go on.

 

 

 

The Triumph Spitfire project was definitely fighting back today. The driver's door post was looking slightly tatty but as usual this was nothing compared to what was hiding underneath the surface. We still have a frame of angle iron welded in when the car first came in. This allows me to remove panels without fretting too much over weakened panels shifting  whilst being repaired. 

 

Once the outer A post panel was cut off, the inner panels could be seen to be in a bit of a state. Repair sections were made in the usual way with patterns cut from cardboard first and offered up. It took three attempts to get the right shape before  tracing the shape out onto a sheet of 16 gauge steel.

By now I'd had enough of repair panels and needed a break so Beau took over the job and welded the new sections into place whilst I  did some odd jobs on one of the Rovers.

Elsewhere, my Fathers Stag has been sent away for cavity waxing. This is what it came in for over six weeks ago but being a typical stag it then proceeded to chew up it's own gearbox which resulted in plenty of conversations with the reconditioners who re-built it less than 12 months ago. I have to say they've been most co-operative.

We're still waiting for the Wiring loom for the TR6 after we were sent a left hand drive version. It had Sadie going for about an hour when she tried to fit it. Like wise the E-type steering rack is still not in with only two days to go before collection.No sign either of our chassis outrigger for the Aston Martin  or the manual choke conversion kit for rover P5B 5