My S2 coupe bit of a rebuild and repair thread.

[K Simmonds]

More excellent work here Lee, great stuff!

You did an amazing job on that pipe for someone with so little practice, I know you've got a cracking machine but still that's impressive, as Dave says you must be a natural when it comes to welding. Yep, you need to acquire a welding bench, you'll work will be even better then.

Your engine looks to be in great shape inside, really nice and clean, must have been looked after with regular oil changes.

[B5NUT]

Don't start. I did think about it but I've just about enough of ripping the car apart. It's time to just enjoy it now. I do have some body work trims I want to respray and the b-pillar trims to respray and a few annoying internal rattles. Then I'm done for the summer.

This afternoon the subframes are getting some extra internal coating.
1-wax.jpg

[newsh]

Got the A/C system gassed today. Had to tighten the belt a little as it was slipping, and we found one slight leak on a joint that after taking apart and cleaning the leak was fix. It's been a lot of time, effort and far to much money. However I finally have working AC.

Well done! I removed mine years ago after spending a load of money and getting nowhere..

Now you’ll be thinking about converting to climate control, a few on here have done it

[B5NUT]

Cheers Dave, but I think the welder has made the job far easier. There are lots of preprogramed setting depending on the thickness of the metal you are welding, and you can adjust the setting very easily. There are also some very good YouTube videos that r-tech have made that give you the settings for the correct thickness or metal you are welding. Without that information I would have not had a chance at setting up the welder correctly.

What I really need now is a good metal bench and loads of clamps. I had to weld that pipe while it was clamped in a vice and my arm hovering in the air. Would have made it far more easier if my arm was resting on a bench. Going to sell my floor standing 150 litre parts washer that I never use and get a decent metal table in it's place.

Got the A/C system gassed today. Had to tighten the belt a little as it was slipping, and we found one slight leak on a joint that after taking apart and cleaning the leak was fix. It's been a lot of time, effort and far to much money. However I finally have working AC.

[Tractor Dave]

Well done for learning tig that quickly! I have been stick and mig welding for years now and even went to evening classes. I still struggle with tig and gas welding. You must be a natural.

[fish]

On my 80 Competition we had the same problem filling the AC. Nothing fit the low pressure switch. We had aa modern machine, that you just type in how much gas and oil you want to fill. We filled it through the high pressure port istead. Worked just fine.

[B5NUT]

Cheers. I'm a bit OCD about parts not working or broken on cars, and the aircon not working has annoyed me for months. So it has to be fixed. Just a shame about the costs involved.

[anthonys2]

Have to say you doing a cracking job sorting all the bits out on your S2

[B5NUT]

Thanks. I've got used to having A/C working on my cars. However they have all had climate control so will be interesting to see how this manual system works. I just hope there is no further leaks in the pipe work as I have now fitted a replacement dryer so will be annoyed if I have to replace that again. Going to get the system filled in the morning so will see then.

On a side note does anyone know how much oil and gas needs to go in the system? I've got the filling quantities for R12, but I'm sure the R134 values are different.

[sidrick]

Excellent work. One of the first things I did on my old S2 was ditch the AC at the same time as I did the timing belt. No need for it in Scotland and at the time, when these cars were sensible money (haha), the cost of parts to recommission was more than the car.

[B5NUT]

Over the last few weeks I've really been enjoying the car. However I took it off the road a few days ago as I found a very small coolant leak at the back of the engine. It was also clear the rocker cover gasket was starting to go as it there was a fair amount of oil at the back of the engine.

Before I tackled the above jobs I got on with the aircon system as I got some parts from kit to help get the system working again. So fitted a replacement compressor with replacement lower pipes that were free from holes.
1-pump.jpg
So with that done I went off to get the system gassed. Which did not go well. First there was some confusion about how the system was filled as the low pressure side port is a screw thread rather than the push fit on the R134 systems. So went with just testing the system using the high pressure port. That found another sizable hole behind the protective on the pipe in the image below as you can see some of the green oil that was spat out.
2-cover.jpg

So at this point I got a little fed up with the car so purchased a new toy to fix that sort of BS.
3-welder.jpg
After a long talk with the guy's at r-tech I went with the digital version, as it does appear to be easier to setup.
4-welder.jpg

So on with fixing the pipe. The hole first hole was easy enough to repair. Once done I noticed the nut at the end would turn but not move down so after a bit of a smack it moved and it presented me with this.
5-hole.jpg
There was no way my welding skills could have fixed that so near to that lip, so the pipe was scrap!

Thankfully kit had a spare which turned up today. It did have a small hole but was easy enough to fix even with my poor welding skills
6-hole.jpg

So after cleaning up the area the hole was welded up. Not the best of jobs but OK for someone with about an hours worth of practice
7-fixed.jpg
At least now I should be able to fix and make some parts myself. Rather than standing in front of someone with a small job and them, sucking air through their teeth. It's almost like I've just dropped the titanic off for a quick welding job to get it up and running again!


Also purchased these adapters, got two types to see which would be the best fit. Turns out the L shape one is better as there not much room near the compressor. I was concerned the push fit connector would not fit with the straight adapter attached.
16-adapters.jpg



Next up on the list was the coolant leak. Looking through the old threads most users have talked about the union being damaged due to it being brittle. So I ordered replacement unions as they are cheap enough and Alex did not have any of the alloy ones in stock.

After draining the coolant system which feels like I've done it hundred time now, the union was removed. It looked to be in very good condition, no cracks or damage and had no signs of being brittle.
8-union.jpg

The o-ring however was in a poor state, that was starting to crack and was no longer round. So I refitted the old union with a new o-ring which I hope will resolve the minor coolant leak.

To give better access to the union I removed the heat shield that protects the brake reservoir. It was covered in rust and looked very scabby.
9-shield.jpg

The rivets were drilled out and all the parts shot blasted.
10-blasted.jpg

The heat shield material was then painted with high temp paint and the steal parts with epoxy. While the Mrs was out I put the parts painted with the high temp paint in the over to cure Once dry the shield was rebuilt.
11-cover.jpg12-cover.jpg


Next up was the cam cover gasket. when it was removed it was on the hard/crusty side. However I was pleased with what I found when I removed the cover. It looks nice and clean in there.
13-head.jpg

Cam lobs also look in good condition, and the chain appeared to be tight enough.
14-lobs.jpg


So with the new gasket fitted the engine was put back together which was as far as I got today before rain stopped play. Hope to get the aircon pipe fitted tomorrow morning along with a new dryer. I just hope that will get the A/C working again.
15-engine.jpg

[B5NUT]

Another little job ticked off the list over the weekend. Fix a couple of trim panels that had alloy corrosion.
1-trims.jpg
2-trim.jpg

Parts were shot blasted and the faces were sanded as the corrosion has caused some pitting.
3-trim.jpg

Parts were then sprayed with a primer, black base coat, top coat and finally few coats of 2K clear.
4-trims.jpg
They need a bit of polishing but unless the boot is open you will never see them


Colour match is also very good
5-trim.jpg


Also fixed the bodge job the screen fitters left for me as they are still waiting on rivets, which is strange as I got them next day from TPS. So it appears they snapped the clips on the inner A pillar trim, rivets were missing and other not drilled out and stubs had been left in. Also found Torx head screws holding the black door frame trim in place rather than rivets. Took most of yesterday afternoon and this morning to sort the mess out. I'm sure the other side in the same but ran out of rivets, so have ordered some more. So will inspect that next week. I really do hate other people working on my cars.

[B5NUT]

The other week I was at my local paint suppliers with the S2 as I wanted to get a paint match for the satin black B pillar trims. They got a new range of paints from a company called Mipa, and with that they received a very nice colour spectrum analyser. Using that on the car gave a modified version of the original colour of the car (LZ6U) Emerald Green. So it's no wonder why I could not get a good match. Had 1/4 of a litre of the paint mixed up and yesterday sprayed up a test area on the old rotten wing.

Note the "corrected" under the paint code
5-paint.jpg

So only painted a small area to check the colour match on the old rotten wing
1-paint.jpg

Few more from different angles.
2-paint.jpg
4-pint.jpg
So I think that's as best as I'm going to get it. I cannot really notice any difference. So over the next few weeks I'll have a fair bit of painting to do as I also want to sort out the door mouldings as they have been damaged in the past by someone trying the pry them off!

[B5NUT]

Yes, I've got loads of the stuff left over. Let me know if you need some.

[Colesy]

Excellent work! I really need to post a few updates on my project.

Do you still have a lot of the under carpet insulation you used left over? I'll definitely be needing some soon.