REPAIRS - PAGE 6
A RESTORATION TALE - Part 1 - In the beginning-
-there was this reasonable N/A for sale locally, so I bought it, with ideas
of bringing it back to top condition within about a year - no sweat!
Two years later - well l am some way down that road, but still have a bit to
go. It's not that the car has proved any more difficult or perverse than I
thought - far from it - its much more the initial 'rose-tinted' under-estimate
of man hours needed, and more importantly my man hours availability!
Was it ever thus - magazines like Practical Classics abound with similar
stories - but the results of those who persist to the end are truly magnificent.
I still live in hopes of joining that happy band!
Coming back to the relevance for this Club, this article is intended as an
introduction to a series chronicling my progress to date.
It is not intended to be a detailed course on advanced welding and
panel beating etc. (though I will happily advise anyone who wishes to contact me
on this) - it is intended as an overview of work done, problems to watch for,
and hints and tips.
I would not suggest for one second that any members should suddenly hurl
themselves into full-blown restoration work, far from it, believe me its a
labour of love!
The real point is that my work has covered a host of individual jobs on
various parts of the car - body, mechanical, electrical - that are probably of
concern and interest to members for their own particular cars.
So, I intend to 'segment' the story to date into hopefully digestible topics
so that members can then 'cherry-pick' those which are of most interest for them.
As a sampler of what’s to come, my initial subject list (working roughly from
front to rear of the car) is:-
Front bumper
Headlights
Front compartment floor
A-posts
B-posts
Floor pan
Sills
Rear arches
Rear skirts
Rear bumper
Boot
Welding
Panel-beating
Paint
Engine/gearbox
Suspension
Brakes
Exhaust
Ancilliaries
-bloody hell! - am I tackling that lot? – er, well, yes actually, and I
reckon I'm 2/3rds there. However jobs done inevitably do not follow the above
list order, so my following articles will 'jump about' the car.
Ultimately the idea is to put such articles into a structured guidebook to
the 'Classic MR2 MK1' - which Richard Morgan is masterminding.
In the meantime, I'll try to give an indication in each issue of which topics
will follow in the next 2 issues.
Work permitting, the next articles will cover:-
1) B-posts
2) A-posts
3) Rear sills
4) Engine/gearbox - the easier checks to make in situ.
Yes, it’s a tall order, but I really must get on with it, watch this space!!
ALAN JONES