The big experiment - amateur 3B shenanigans

[Nj]

Well it seems only fair that given the amount of help you have all given me that I document my amateur attempts to remove various parts from my 3B coupe (Bought at start of year off ebay with rear end damage) and the fitting of the engine and some other bits to the shell i'm getting off Sal.
I'll hold my hands up and say a few months ago I had only ever changed the spark plugs and brake pads. So this could be interesting. Recently i've chiselled the plate off my dizzy, changed dizzy and had the IM off to search for bits of dizzy gear. the car runs again so i'm going the next step and attempting to change the engine. (ok, i've skipped a few steps)
If this works out it should be a triumph for amateur enthusiasts.
If this doesn't work out it should be a source of many spares for 3B owners.

Anyone who is in the Glasgow area and fancies helping or even just poking fun at me should give me shout and call on over.

right - first step is stripping the old car. there should be wings, doors, tailgate and rear bumper for sale if anyone is interested. more to follow later. I want to strip as much as possible to keep it light because in all likelihood i'll be dragging the carcass out of the single council lockup to get rid of it.







This shows the extent of the rear damage so i'm glad now I didn't opt for having the back end fixed.




next step will be the front end and a bit of labelling like a mother trucker in the hope I reconnect the right hoses, wires etc when the engine goes into the new shell

[ciaranthemurph]

Whilst I'm at home I'd be willing to poke fun and try to help, although I'd more than likely hinder. I'll be back next Wednesday, so I'll pretty much be free for three weeks if I can be of any help.

[Nj]

absolutely mate. There's never any harm in having someone else go "are you sure you should be doing that?" or "i'll get a trolley jack and call an ambulance"
i need to give my mate a lift to have his eyes lazered on sat morning but i'll def be in the garage sun morning. The agenda is labelling everything in sight, removing xmember and anything in front of the engine, then looking underneath to get the propshaft disconnected, driveshafts disconnected, suspension off. OR.. bacon rolls and tyre kicking. i'll PM you my number if you're calling down any time.

[ciaranthemurph]

Well I'll stick my toolbox in the boot of the car, I have a big hammer and an even bigger tea mug, so I can't see there being any problem in attempting to help strip it. I'll drop a PM closer to the time. Cheers

[Acidburn]

Ouch just a small bit of damage then, is the back box still ok? pity you could not just un-do everything then take the shell over the top of it and drop the new one on top, i've seen that done once or twice and its a good way of doing it if a bit of a pain in the *** if you don't have the right equipment.

[Acidburn]

Btw was this on ebay with a couple of shots of the front and one shot of the drivers side rear as I remember a car like this on there with same sort of damage?

[Nuvo]

Do you have the shell ready for fitting? I'd be happy to offer you a helping hand.

[LHD_Kid]

looks like fun....

My advice....

1. Very carefully and gently remove both front wings, so as not to damage them in any way....
2. wrap them lovingly in copious amounts of bubble wrap and cardboard.....
3. Then send them to me for safe keeping......

Good luck with the work, I wish I was around, I am fantastic at eating bacon rolls.....

Chris

[Azman]

Just a quick order for the right direction (learnt the hard way!!!)

1. Jack car up and get the exhaust off!!!
2. Remove heat shield.
3. Then remove propshaft with the back end of the car on the floor (otherwise it will just spin and be a PITA to undo.
4. Remove shaft.
5.Drop car to floor and loosen driveshaft bolts and wheel nuts.
6. If you have room strip the interior out asap and keep it somewhere dry.

The last thing you want to do is the suspension.

Looking at it you will be rolling the car back and forward into the lock up at night.

If you can drop everything off except the subframes and susp then you have a moveable car.

When are you getting the other shell????

Just offering a bit of advice after struggloing myself matey. If I was in the neigbourhood I would come and help but tis a bit of a treak for me .

Az

[Knight Rider S4]

This looks like fun what days are you working on it and what kit you got..ie engine hoist,.ramps so on?

Would be up for stealing bits off it ooohhhhhh i mean taking bits off it...lol
but seriously more than happy to come up and give you a hand just tell us when you are there

Oh aye get to tesco and get loads of boxes and sticky labels

[Acidburn]

wishes i was closer to give a hand..... if it was when i'm on holiday at the end of the month would be seriously tempted.

[madS2]

Let me know if you have the sunroof dial type opener switch complete available mate pls!

[LHD_Kid]

I doubt it, that car has no sun roof.....

[newsh]

who's is the other red car across the road??

[Nj]

Acid Burn - yeah it was on ebay in january and I bought it, drove it home, had a couple of quotes for repairing the back end and then it stopped. ended up taking an eternity to get the dizzy sorted (3 wrong dizzys). My son was born in Feb so it made things kinda slow. Back box was killed so the prev owner welded on a dirty great straight through. it's a tad loud. new back box coming with the new shell though. Lifting the whole shell off and putting the new one would be cool but i don't have the space or equipment and luckily The shell i'm getting off sal is actually more than a shell. I need to repair some burnt wiring in the engine bay but he's leaving on suspension, diffs, prop, gearbox, hubs n a few bits so i'm just going to send him mine and it will save me refitting my own. He's a good bloke.


Nuvo - what part of the world you in mate? I'm not 100% on when i'm getting the new shell ( i keep calling it a shell when it's really whole with the engine and few bits missing). Just trying to get the time to get the existing car stripped on my bits of free weekend when I can. When the new car come up from Sal i'll likely take a couple of days off either end of my weekend. Also my lift with the car from Birmingham to Glasgow fell through so i'm trying to sort that out without having to pay 300 quid.
If you're up for giving me a hand when I get it up (oo-er. i mean the car) i'd be immensely grateful.

Chris - haha. good advice re the wings. had a brief look and there is a wee bit of rust. i'll get a better idea when i get them off. If i continue at this rate i'll still be working at it and there'll be time for you to join me for a bacon roll.


Aaron - really appreciate the advice mate. Expect the odd pm from me with stupid questions. I wouldn't have thought to keep the back end down while i get the prop shaft off. well done that man. I prob won't have the car rolling. Sal wants the rear subframe complete if possible so if I get the exhaust and prop shaft off he reckons I should be able to drop it with diff etc attached. Engine will prob come out attached to gearbox and front subframe so by the time i'm finished i'll probably have a very bare shell sat on blocks. and i'll need to drag it out to get rid of it.
No prob that you can't make it up here mate. it's a hell of a hike, as i've come to understand trying to get the shell up here.

Knight Rider (i'm sorry mate, i've totally forgotten your actual name) - I would really welcome the hand and bow to anyone's superior wisdom in all this. I'm trying to get time weekend mornings just now but i'll try to get a long weekend for putting the engine into the new car. I bought an engine crane and have a couple of sets of axle stands and 12 breeze blocks (after seeing Bo's post). I've got 2 good sets of steel ramps but I don't fancy pushing the car up and down them and they'll be useless for the first disassembly stage anyway. maybe good when the new car comes to jack it up and set it on the ramps though. No 2 or 4 post lift i'm afraid. and to make life difficult i've got 2 council lockups 100 yards apart. Not much room in each one but hey.. better that trying this on my drive. at least I have one lockup for storage and one just to keep me dry while i butcher one of mankind's finer vehicles. Give me a shout of you fancy giving me a hand. If you come down i'll stay out for the day though. the missus can handle a day without my wit and intelligence I think. If there's anything there that you need and I don't need to stick on the new car you'd be welcome to pick over it if you're helping. i'll notice if i'm left with no turbo or something though. hehe

MadS2 - I have a grey sunroof panel with the sunroof switch and light switch. neither are dials though. just basic slide switches. And the actual switch for the light is missing. You can have it for free if you need. I bought it off ebay and discovered later the switch was missing. And turns out I shouldn't need it since i'm getting a different car
Chris - it does have a sunroof mate. pics just make it look like there isn't one. I had to think for a minute but it def does.


Right - this post has gone a bit War n Peace. I'll stop for now. I'm heading to the lockup stupidly early to take some more bits off. I aim to have the doors and interior out before I start on the running gear. No doubt the afternoon will see a grumpy me with oil up to my eyebrows and cut knuckles locking up to go do a family visit to my folks, who are over visiting from Norn Oirn.

Cheers for the support, comments and general magpie-like interest in the carcass
Nj