My S2 coupe bit of a rebuild and repair thread.

[B5NUT]

There is way more then 3 different shades, I've got 5 other cans to prove it.

Whoever painted the car either did a bad job mixing the paint or the customer asked for a slight change in the colour. I'm just thankful that I've found a mixture that is about 95% correct. I can still tell a slight difference but that could be just being very picky.

On a positive note, I did get a one part that went straight on the car without modification. A new upper steering cowling.
cowling.jpg

Anyone have any idea what this modification was for
old.jpg

Also they also managed to snap off one of the screw mounting points of the cowling so it was another reason to replace it. Never seen a car so badly taken apart before.
snap.jpg

Just need to find one of these screws now as there was only one holding it together.
screw.jpg

[fish]

I had an emerald avant before. Hit a badger with it and mangled the front bumoer. The bodyshop painted the new bumper and i offered to fit it myself. Went and got it, and when held to the car it looked very odd. Alot lighter green. Went back and took the car with me, according to them there were three different shades with the same paint code. They resprayed it with one of the other shades and it was absolutly spot on. They know im picky too.

[K Simmonds]

Yep, that's correct, just the rad end. Radiators/intercoolers should never be solidly mounted to the chassis, even a flimsy slam panel.

[Tractor Dave]

It's only on the radiator side, not the slam panel.

[B5NUT]

One other thing. Anyone confirm if their ABY has a rubber bush on the upper brace arm. Etka shows one but I don't think Etka is correct. Don't remember one on my car
etka.jpg

[B5NUT]

Cheers Kit.

To make sure I get the best possible match I'm painting the panels in the following way.

Primer coat
Black base
Original car colour base
New car colour base
2K clear.

I did it this way as it looks like they have just rubbed down the clear coat on the car then painted the new colour followed by more clear. I will never know why there is a significant change in the colour. There is no damage to the car, all the quarters are straight, doors have no damage etc. I'm guessing the clear coat has started to fail at some point and the wings had seen some repairs (clear coat and wings appears to be a common issue) so the car was resprayed.

I would have preferred the car had not been resprayed. When I saw the car I had a feeling the car had seen paint before as the bumpers, bonnet and wings were just too perfect, in respect to stone chips etc.

[K Simmonds]

You really are getting excellent results with the paint, especially doing the panels off the car. It surprising how much paint can vary in shade from the various manufacturers, though who knows what happened when your car got blown over, could be poor mixing or even contamination with another colour due to sloppy workshop practices.

As I mentioned in my PM I reckon it's likely the bottom rad mount has taken a knock at some point, either while on a lift or perhaps even getting caught while parking on bumpy ground, moving the bracket on the rad should sort it though.

Glad to see you've got a hose at the ready.

[B5NUT]

There is no signs of any accident damage to the car, cannot see any additional welding or bent/creased metal and every thing else fits fine. If it was 5mm out at that point in the leg then it would be be a lot further out at the end of the leg and the front end of the car aligns perfectly. It's more likely the lower radiator bracket is slightly out from factory which is causing the issue. After measuring the lower hole on on the Nissens rad there is about 3 mm difference compared to the Behr rad. The plate is bolted to the side mounting point, and used a rule to measure the center of the nut.
measure.jpg

The paint is OK. I always get a few nibs that I need to deal with, and the only thing I want to play around with is the orange peal, as I feel it could be a lot better.

[Tractor Dave]

You did a very good job on that coolant pipe. Error was going to make some in stainless steel as they are all going to need replacing sooner or later.
Interesting 're your radiator rubbing. I wonder if the leg had a knock at some point?
I need to pop up your way sometime for some painting lessons

[B5NUT]

It's a little on the dark side! Depending on the light and the angle there is a fair amount of purple colour in the paint! The standard emerald green is a good shade or two lighter.

[Rikki Kitto]

Lovely colour

[B5NUT]

Well this is how my S2 looks at the moment.
current.jpg

Almost 2 weeks ago I took the frontend off the car as I finally found a good colour match of paint on the car. At some point in this car's life it's been blown over and they either did a piss poor job at mixing the paint correctly to get the factory colour or the last customer as for a slight modification to the colour to give a more pearlescent effect on the paint. Either way the factory colour was way off. So after 6 attempts at getting the colour correct I finally have a good colour match to the car that I'm happy with that I won't notice every time I look at the car.
paint2.jpg

So this is now the paint code for my car. It's better than nothing but would rather have it the factory colour code, and not some slightly *******ised version of emerald green!
mpia.jpg

Before I fully refit the wings I wanted to replace the radiator on the car. The one that came with the car was not in the best of condition and was having trouble with the car over heating while idle. So replaced the rad with a Behr unit however they now only sell 34mm versions and the standard core and as I'm sure we all know the factory core size for the S2 is 44mm. I wanted the 44mm version as I noticed the car would struggle a little with the higher summer temps, nothing major but just not right in my eyes. As I know I'm losing 25% water flow and air flow on the smaller 34mm core.

So I was able to locate a 44mm unit from a forum member. It's an old Nissens unit with the brass end tanks. Now I know the Nissens units are about as popular as a fart in a submarine but this unit had already been repaired as the lower mount had cracked at one point and it been repaired. So happy days got a 44mm core rad that did not cost the earth and should be a simple install. Wrong. It would appear that something is not quite right with my S2 lower radiator mount! when you try and fit the fan it the cowling is touching the side of the chassis leg. Now first I thought is was an issue with the repair but it looks like the old radiator in my car had the same issue as the paint has already been rubbed away and it's down to the metal.
metal.jpg

Anyone else had this issue? I'm getting a local radiator repair company to move the lower mount about 5mm to give a bit more clearance so it won't rub.

So while I'm in there I decided to do something about the ticking time bomb that is the metal water pipe, that appears to rot away and there is no solution for replacements at the moment. I also removed the rubber pipe as I purchased a spare one last year. I was also told these do fail as well.
pipe.jpg

So after being blasted it was sprayed in with a large amount of epoxy to try and keep the rust at bay. Think It now should last a good 10 + years. if I'd have left it would be be holed in the next couple of years so it's was now or never. It was also a complete pain in the backside to remove the pipe. Cannot believe it secured with one of the gearbox mount bolts and then the 2 wiring harness clips were also a complete pain to open and release the harness.
image_85551.jpg

Won't get the radiator back until Friday. I just hope the Nissens radiator lasts, as I've just not been able to source a 44mm Behr rad and not a cat in hell's chance am I paying the €700 tradition is charging!

[K Simmonds]

Yeah, I'd definitely be inclined to leave it alone, if Mark was happy to let you drive the car away I'm sure it's fine.

As I said the tolerances for camber are really wide on these cars, it can be anything from 0-1.2 degrees each side on the front with a maximum difference of 0.5 degrees side to side and then there's a +/- 15 minuet tolerance on top of those figures.

I may be wrong but I suspect he was trying to get both side's close to the same and there's a 0.5 degree (30 minuets) difference side to side, nothing to worry about.

[Tractor Dave]

I played around with my rear subframe on the Avant at the wheel alignment place trying to fix a small discrepancy and it now feels worse than before. I would just leave it. 0.5 is nothing.

[B5NUT]

Mark did try to get adjustment on the wheel bearing housing but it was already set at the maximum position for the negative camber. I'll either live with it or get the camber bolts. I'll see what the tyre wear is like over the next few months if it's fine then I'll just live with it. Car drives fine to me and it did for mark. I'm happy just to have the wheels pointing in the right direction