R4 restoration made in France

[Rutger-peer]

Haha, well, I'd rather have them produced in Germany too! Here in the Netherlands we even say "Duitse degelijkheid", which would translate into something like "German reliability". The Germans themselves call it "Deutsche Grunlichkeit". Well anyway, I guess I am taking this too far.

I got a question for you actually:

How did you paint the wishbones and other (strangely shaped) parts of the suspension? I see you left some on your chassis and painted it with the chassis but what about the wishbones etc.?

I have been cleaning them with a wirebrush but can't get into all the small corners etc. Did you paint them with special paint? Do you think spraypaint would do the job (from a spraycan)?

 

[Snoopy1974]

I didn't want to remove all the parts of the front and rear suspension, expecially the torsion bars which are considered very hard to adjust correctly. So even it's not the best solution for a perfect finishing the lower arms of the front suspension, the rear axle arms and the rear suspension moutings, the parts not removed, have been painted exactly the same way as the chassis:
Rust preventive primer;
Primer;
2 coats of silk-finish black paint.

Concerning the upper front wishbones and the wheel knuckles, they received the same threatment. Only the steering gear tie rods and the anti-roll bar have been painted with a brush after being refitted on the chassis.

Finally some other parts like rear brake drums have been epoxy coated by a special company.

The only thing I'm sure of is that you'd better avoid painting some parts with spraycan, I think using a spray gun will give you a much better job

 

[Rutger-peer]

Ah okay!

The wishbones etc. I will do with the spraygun, only thing is that I need to be instructed how to use that thing and that'd mean the people I am restoring the car would have to help me and then spraycanning parts is the easy way. I actually started spraycanning some parts already. But spraygun would be lots better and I will use that on the suspension parts, which after all are quite exposed to the elements too! Thanks for your help!


PS: Though spraycanning can be quite okay and I will probably use that on some other parts that are less exposed such as the airfiltercover (and I've got some experience with spraycanning parts).

 

[Snoopy1974]

Good evening everybody,
the body is now completly dismantled, me and my brother did the job in few hours, wednesday 14th I started to remove the 4 doors, after that the body seemed surprisingly very light to to lift up:

Considering that all window rubbers will be changed, the old ones have been cutted to be quiclky removed:

I'm going to do the body job in my garage, but as the body is still outside the house, me and my brother scratched the old stonechip and the old paints, he worked outside the body:

I worked inside, we used a very useful tool, a thermal scraper which makes the job really more easy:

The body is now completly naked, only the bolts (with Torx head) of the passenger side locks have been impossible to unclamped, I will certainly have to find a impact wrench

Here is what we took off the body: seal, old paint, etc

Finally here are pictures of the main problems at the rear of the body, classic to begin, the seatbelts mountings, for example the passenger side, oups :eek:

Left rear wings mouting from inside, please note the marvellous repair done by the last owner, I cannot find what he put at this place, an awful mixture impossible to identify

There is a good new The right rear wing support seems to be curiously in a very good condition, rust is present but only at the surface of this part

 

[Rutger-peer]

Nice job! I think the bodies of both our cars kind of resemble eachother regarding the condition they're in. Good luck on this one!

 

[Snoopy1974]

Good evening everybody
Today i'm going to show you the way I work on my car with the example of the steering column and pedals, even these parts seem to be very simple I think they need attention to be dismantled carefully to be refitted later without problem or question...
Here is the steering column and pedals from my poor GTL:

First of all I remove the little 4mm diameter bolt which is screwed in the lock cylinder:

Then, with a screwdriver I remove the lock cylinder out of the steering column tube, not very easy, I should have 3 hands: one to press the screwdriver, another one to push the cylinder and a last one to turn the key

I also remove the joint of the 2 parts of the steering column, I noticed that one of the bush inside is totally out of order because of of the cracks in the rubber:

For just the brake pedal, here are all its connecting parts !

I take pictures of the pedals, springs and spacer to be sure to know how to fit them later:


Now I can remove the upper part of the steering column, I also remove the upper step (not sure of the word, sorry ) of the column, I have to remove this "clip". Every time I remove such a part, I fear to take it in my face :eek:


I have a problem... Is anybody here able to tell me how this step is fitted ? It seems not to be "open" like the upper one on this picture, so can you tell me how will I be able to change it ?????


To be continued...

 

[Snoopy1974]

Result of the day job: all the parts are now dismantled, some of them are going to be chromate conversion coated or epoxy coating, or simply changed for new ones, before refitted.

And last but not least, all the notes I took during the job, lenght of every bolt, details of some parts, etc.


11.34 PM in France, and I work tomorrow :eek: :eek: time to go to bed... good night to everybody.

 

[Rutger-peer]

Wow, that's a very precise way of working! That's the proper way to do a good restoration I guess. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how to remove that ring . Hope somebody else will be able to tell you that. Is it not stretchy, so it will stretch over the thicker part?

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hello everybody,

I started the job on my body few weeks ago, the first step was to put the body outside my garage, I cut the damaged parts on the right side (I decided to work on the body side by side, starting with the right one which is less damaged than the other one :eek
I cut the seat belt mouting under the rear wings, a piece of the floor, a little corner at the front of the body, near the passengers foots. There is also the rear door corner to be repaired, but I cut this part just before welding the parts I built in 0.8 mm steel sheet.

Pictures:










The most difficult part of this job was to dismantle the cut part from the luggage compartment floor, it's spot welded and it was VERY hard to make this part of the job

 

[Snoopy1974]

After about 2 hours, here is the result:



I decided to make models of the parts in cardboard before cutting them in my 0.8 mm steel sheet...

 

[mike4gtl]

Hi, Are you using just normal steel sheet or a coated steel like Zintec?

michael

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hi Mike,
I use normal steel sheet, I've been heard that coated or zinc plated steel is very hard to weld, considering that i'm not a very good welder (I'm going to borrow the welding equipment) I prefer not create other problem

 

[Snoopy1974]

:smile: Good evening,

continuing of the story of my restoration: fabrication of the first patch in 0.8mm steel sheet, this is the mounting of the rear seatbelt:









The last folding will be done with a special hydraulic tool (too long to be done with tubes and G clamps)...

 

[Snoopy1974]

Here is the fabrication of the patch to repair the luggage compartiment floor:

 

[mike4gtl]

that is a very nice repair you are doing!

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hello and thinks Mike,
nice job I hope, but I have to admit that it's difficult to make these patches, I don't possess specific tools and I have to fold, cut, and prepare them with simply my hammer, grinders, G clamps and few others very simple tools as you can see on the photos...
I also repaired the front corner 'passenger side) of the body:




At the right rear door corner I had to destroy this little part to check up the body behind it and put an rust primer, I bent a little patch to fit at this place:


At the outside of this rear corner another patch has been made, before being welded all the hidden area behind it will be sprayed and threated with my famous "Rustol CIP":



This last week end I did one of the most difficult part of the job: the fender attachment edge rear... :eek: :eek:

 

[Snoopy1974]

Hi, here are the pictures of the repair of the rear left wing mouting, I had to cut all the rusted area and create a new one before welding the part bought at Der Französe:








Fitting of the new part, the view from inside shows that there is a large part of the body need to be re-created:

 

[Snoopy1974]

End of the repair:

 

[Rutger-peer]

Didn't you weld those part together?

Very nice job by the way!

 

[Rutger-peer]

Hey Alexandre,

I've got a question: I see you fitted the brake lines before you put on the body, and thus the master brakecilinder. How did you know where the brakelines had to be? Or wil you join the last ends on later with joints?

Regards,

Rutger.