My 13 year project...

[DoloWIGHTY]

I have owned my 1975 Honeysuckle 1850 for 10 years this year, it was pulled out of a front garden by Local Club Rep Graham Stretch (and Angela) with the aid of his Mk1 2000 and towed the 15 miles to my house.

It was two days away from being collected by the scrap man. I paid the owner the scrap value (back then) £20.

The engine was an unknown quantity, the body was very rough, the interior a mess. However chassis rails and inner sills were strong. So it had potential.

As I say that was 10 years ago. Next week I will finally be able to collect the car after the final stage of the bodywork will have been completed, this has come about by my parents moving house, last Christmas they presented me with a sizable cheque and Dad said "now get that bloody old car fixed up!"

So here, is the rear end of the car for you all to see. All these holes had been filled with a mixture of fillers (some probably dating back to the 1970s) to show the extent of the rot that has occurred;





Both rear bumper quarter mounting points are rusted and holed.




Wheel arches are rusted and holed, going to be replaced with full replacement old stock items;




(bought off of this very forum - thanks again Guy.)

All doors are going to be replaced, they all have rust/filler and gouges.

This is the worst one;



Which will be replaced by this;



All doors were bought approx 5 years ago and last year through a friend I managed to get them painted, I only needed to supply the paint. They came out to a very high standard.




Roof is holed along it's back edge;











Every hole corresponds to where a clip once was that attached the chrome strip (this is going to be bonded on)

Scuttle is starting to bubble;



We are confident this can be caught before it gets too bad.

This will mean popping the screen out to repair so is a great opportunity to replace the original rubber;







Which is past it's best.

It will be replaced with the new style one from Wins International;



On the underside of the car there is a large crease/dent which will be pulled out;



When the work is completed I should have a car which should look as good as new, that I still cannot believe and have my parents to thanks entirely for that.

I will put the pictures of the work up when I have the car back again.

[JPB]

[David6214]

Are you going to get a rear vent panel to cut the pieces from you need to let in?

[DoloWIGHTY]

Are you going to get a rear vent panel to cut the pieces from you need to let in?

Sure am!

With this;




Cut off a local car by me around 7 years ago.

I should point out, that my car (known as Happy due to the reg number) has had the front end (bulkhead forward) outer panels replaced around 8 years ago. The workshop that carried out that work is the same one I shall be using this time around.

I will put some front end rebuild pictures up later (when I can find them that is ).

Whilst all the bodywork is being carried out by a professional, all brakes, servicing, interior refurb and panel sourcing (for this restoration) has been carried out by me. It is far from a "cheque book" restoration project (I hate that expression ).

[JPB]

I restored a cheque book once, those moths had done it some damage, but a little glue and a pair of scissors saw it looking fresh again.

[straylight]

nice work alan, one look at the trailing edge of the roof would scare most people away. Great story too.

stu

[1300dolly]

Is this the car for which I supplied a door glass for many yeras ago?

[DoloWIGHTY]

It is indeed!

Anyway.... rewind to 2003 and the front end rebuild;



















A full outer sill repaired at the same;



back home;





Then we find ourselves in 2005, new old stock boot sourced;



Then after a long search a replacement rust free bonnet found ( I did find another but it was destroyed by idiot shot-blaster). .



.. more to come

[TLC]

Well done it will be great car when finished. Iam running up behind you but not as quick !! mines been a 20 year project since it came off the road Must get the body work done befor the vat goes up next year

[DoloWIGHTY]

Thanks for all the encouraging noises so far .

The interior:

When I got the car home I found it was fitted with seat covers, not one set but 3 sets each put on top of the other!!

My hope was that underneath them they original coverings (which are very hard to come by in good nick) would be in good condition and been protected all these years from the harmful Isle of Wight sunshine.

How wrong I was....





So, the search began.

Later that year I purchased a 1981 1850HL. This car was sold for breaking only, I bought the whole car for £75 The GIT who sold it to me was a Jaguar enthusiast, he agreed that for the £75 he would let me break the car there on his premises (a farm building) and he also agreed to cut the front off of the car (included in the price).



However, after visiting the car most weekends it became apparent that he couldn't be bothered to do anything to help me (as it seemed to got his money and did give a damn after that) in fact, he hampered my progress by putting more of his rusting Jaguars around the Dolomite making access nearly impossible.

Anyway, I digress... This car gave up it's interior (Chestnut) and whilst my car was fitted with a New Tan interior, Chestnut was acceptable as it was an alternative interior colour for a Honeysuckle car at the time. The carpets were excellent condition and still in my car today.



Finally my patience ran out I hired the biggest, nastiest angle grinder I could find, returned to the red car and cut it's front off;



..and stored in the garden shed...




I then spent many, many hours drilling out the many, many spot-welds which held the front panel to the inner panel. It was then shot blasted and prepped it ready for fitting.

I returned to to the red car as it had a really nice boot lid and very presentable bonnet and roof over-hang. Only to find that the car had been lifted and scrapped (without my permission.) I wasn't happy, still not.

Anyway, back to that interior. It was okay but still worn, also being from a late car it had many of the features that I didn't have or want on my '75 car. So when funds allowed I located yet another interior this time from a '72 car which was correct for the age of my car.

I had the covers removed and sent through the post. I then fitted these to my seat frames:



The back seat was faded so I repainted it with fabric paint (a long, tedious and very dull job).



Have to say the interior now looks fab!

Then I stained and re-varnished the door capping's, which was a very satisfying job.

[TinDog]

It's good to see you finally telling Happy's story.

Looking forward to seeing the end result.

[DoloWIGHTY]

Cheers Graeme!

Car has now been delivered, found myself at a loose end this morning, still had the rear bumper here so set about removing and painting the bumper irons.


.........3 hours later I had got them off!

As we know, the chrome headed bumper bolts tend to spin in their holes, so gently, gently to release the nuts.

Lost one which insisted spinning in it's hole so had grind head off and find replacement bolt in old rust bumper blade (never throw away anything )

[straylight]

the old front panels were really shot weren't they ?

love the idea of storing things in "back sheds", like whole fronts of cars

amazing the amount of work that has gone into rescuing some dollies. Great stuff Alan.

you used spray on fabric dye ?

stu

[DoloWIGHTY]

Hi Stu

Yes the whole front end was just rust, when I wind up this topic I'll stick some pictures up of the car as I got it, I can honestly say that if you could shut your eyes, poked the front of the car wherever I guarantee you would have pushed through a hole - just with the pressure of your finger, it really was that bad !

I would imagine the car must have been parked near the sea at some point as the front end must have been given regular doses of whatever it was that rusted it so badly. Even the leading edge of the sump had rusted through.

Looking back on these pictures I have here of when I got the car I wonder if now I really would have considered it as a viable project. But, of course I am glad I did now.

Fabric paint for seat?

I submitted a report on the full process in a recent Dolly Mixture mate, or alternatively the same article is in the Club Members only section here:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4340&p=51919&hilit=seat#p51919

[JPB]

Might it be an idea to put that information here, in this thread, as well as in the club-only section?

There are folk who'd benefit from the stuff about fabric painting who aren't TDC members.


BTW, do you need the tiny springs with those wipery bits mate? I might just have had a Dremel-related incident and one of those little sods might be stuck, deeply into my kitchen ceiling.