MY SPRINT VXG 707N (W london)

[johnnyv1]

Great work Johnny. I have often seen repairs done with no attempt to sort out the rust behind, which seems such a waste. Your car should last for years after the effort you are putting in.

Cheers, trying my best to keep the dreaded rust away as long as possible. Whilst trying to sort out the dolly iv'e found a lot of 'not so good' repairs, inside one of the rear arches i found a hole that had been filled up with a load of black silicon and then a little bit of car filler in front to hide rather then welding it up.

You mean silicon sealer isn't structural?!

Damn hope that wasn't the repair I paid good money for the garage to do! £80 I think for welding a patch on each sill/will arch area. Won't be going back there again...

Hey monty, it was inside the offside rear arch/side panel just above where the mudflaps bolt onto, its not the only place i've found the same. This car was well and truely rotten and was beyond economical repair, so its a good job i have a big heart and am clearly a bit insane for the expense and effort thats going into it. I knew it needed alot of work by looking at it that day monty but i still wanted as you could tell by me getting it towed to london even after the not starting issues etc. By the way, first thing i did was buy aluminium spark plug tubes which totally stopped that oil in the tubes issue...

I seem to have hit another problem with the sills, just when i thought it was nearing 'primer time'-not to be confused with 'hammer time'(which has been everyday on this) , the doors wont match with the sills no matter what way i adjust them. It looks like it had new sills put on at some point, and i'm not sure how well they were matched to the car, they are too far in, The panel beater says that's the problem so it looks like 2 steps forward and 4 back etc etc at the moment.

Anyway, i will update with some more pics hopefully soon, i will be doing some work elsewhere tomorrow so no dolly fixing, and sunday i'm doing a bit of tattooing, i need to make some money to fund this resto on the weekends as i'm in the garage normally six days a week with no pay.

Cheers again everyone...

[johnnyv1]

Oh, and as for any welding patches They were rusted through in most places as i expect that they just cut and welded bits with no care for rust treatment or bare metal covering-(maybe). Any bits i had to cut /weld etc i used 'weld through zinc rich primer', which means you can cover bare metal before you weld it on, so that both sides are covered before and after amongst other good uses. I did that on most places on the car so it should keep out the corrosion hopefully as long as possible...

[JPB]

The sills appear to be correctly positioned relative to the wheelarch lips and the pillars, could it be that the doors have been reskinned or even plated over at some time and it's those that don't fit well?

[johnnyv1]

The sills appear to be correctly positioned relative to the wheelarch lips and the pillars, could it be that the doors have been reskinned or even plated over at some time and it's those that don't fit well?

That could well be possible but its the sills that look new as opposed to the doors, as far as i remember the doors were all mostly off somewhere or other but i figured it was just that the doors needed adjustment. Il have to sort it either way, don't mind doing it, just never seems to end on this car.

[johnnyv1]

Ok, so it seems like some sort of an end of this project. I was working elseware last sat, and due to this the garage owner told me today that i have to be out by march 31, and not one day over because i'm going too slowly on this.

I cant see any way that i will have this finished by then and i dont have anywhere else to put it so i guess i will have to cross that bridge then so to speak.

So, a quick question for everyone albeit a silly one: What do people think on side exits exhaust for the sprint?

Reason i ask is i bought a custom made system on ebay for the sprint but it seems that the previous maker of it cut the boot floor so that it could fit. This seems a bit mad to me as making an exhaust wouldnt it easier to cut the exhaust and weld shape etc. Anyway, with me being in a rush now i thought it would be alot quicker to fit it as a side exit. I would love the look of the big tailpipes coming out of the rear but do not have the time to remake it all up rather than cutting the boot floor.

Cheers.

[Purplebargeken]

The fwd one juts out at an angle by the rear 1/4 panel. Looks cool though.

[Andybrad]

Side exit sounds good to me mate.

[covcourier]

I have side exits on the V8. Exits both sides just in front of rear wheels.

[johnnyv1]

Cheers guys, what about coming out of the side but more to the front, roughly at the end of the front door? Just a thought, i'm trying to do the quickest most simple thing possible at the moment...

[Sprint36]

Like this?





David

[montythemole]

I noticed when I had it the doors seemed to be proud of the sill. Wasn't sure if they were meant to be like this by design or by error since assembly wasn't exactly brilliant back in the day?

Would it be possible now the sills are sorted just to weld another sill over the existing, slightly further out so it lines up with door (obviously paint the inside well and maybe wax inject or similar). Sort of like you would a sideskirts but not in a chavvy way? Just a thought. From what I remember the doors looked pretty original (bar the rust!) so don't presume they need bending to suit?

31st isn't miles away is it? If you were nearer I'd say you're welcome to spot on the drive until you finish it! Anything to annoy the neighbours.


Side exit exhaust - do it! Coming out drivers side seems to get less attention from police from what I hear.

[johnnyv1]

Like this?
David

Yeah that's what i had in mind, but passenger side maybe? Cool car, nice pics too.

Cheers monty about the space, il have to do as much as i can and then see how it goes, just a shame cause there was alot more stuff i wanted to do to it, now il have to just hope i can finish as much as possible.

It has no cooling system fitted, clutch/brake system need bleeding, needs new oil and filter, doors are still off, no exhaust system fitted at all, no dash/seats/carpet fitted, no roof lining made up, still rust on the inside of the doors in places, the main body work of the car and doors is not finished, needs some clutch pipes made up, renew all the electrical connections, still waiting for the headlamp pods to be sandblasted, non of the wiring is fitted to the starter etc, no roadtax, no road permit to park outside my house, still need to buy 5 litres of colour paint which is £30 a litre, even if i had jesus turn up or maybe harry potter to do some magic and help me finish the body and paintwork i would still have to fit it all up after all of the above is done, thats just what i can think on the top of my head that needs doing there is alot more. Thats all aside from the fact that i cant work much while i'm in there so i have no money to buy stuff that i need that often, i walk to the garage as cant offord the bus etc, any money i get, which is very little goes on the car. It would be a very easy thing to do right now to walk away,

Anyway as you can guess i'm a bit stressed at the moment, Iv'e had my moan, sorry to everyone listening...

cheers.

[Sprint36]

By the way, it's 2 1/2" using Jetex boxes. I originally had one silencer running at an angle under the driver's seat. LOUD! It passed the MoT, but was around 100dB at idle, and 114dB at 3500rpm. I now have 2 silencers. The pipe turns under the passenger seat then back 180deg before the sill. There is a medium silencer under the passenger seat, then straight into the large silencer under the driver's seat, before exiting under the driver's door. The sill was cut and shut (before I bought it) to make space for the exit pipe. A lot quieter with 2 silencers. 90dB at idle, just over 100dB at 3500rpm.

I have a spare Jetex medium silencer and a 90deg bend for sale as I thought I would be swapping the large for 2 medium before I found I could fit 1 med and 1 large.

David

[johnnyv1]

This is the exhaust in question (minus the downpipe its on the car), its a 2, 1/2" aswell, it does have a second silencer although it looks minimal, the end tips look huge. I could put it either side i suppose, just worried about if it will bottom out on the road that much, thats not even thinking about all the speedhumps where i live.

[johnnyv1]

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