With apologies to some who might already have read about the raising and rotating of B20-2959 on the LMC forum, here’s a progress report.
Through the forum, I have been communicating with a user known as the.cern, who is restoring another 4th series B20 not too far away from me. Andy (as the.cern is more properly addressed) visited a couple of months ago with his friend, helper and ace metal-basher Jim, in order to take some measurements from the bodyshell of 2959 to assist in the reconstruction of his own car, B20*3447.
As a result of this visit I am now going to have Jim’s help from time to time to help kick my project along.
First visit was last weekend, and the discipline of a full working day, two men, has produced some forward motion for the project. The objective for the day was to get the car mounted on a rotisserie that I bought recently.
While Jim organised the mounts for the rotisserie after we’d bolted it together, I removed the remaining side window and its trim, headlining, dashboard and a few other bits. By the end of the day, the car was on its side. A significantly easier prospect in terms of working access now, so during an hour put in today, Sunday, I have been able to do a significant amount of underseal stripping and mechanical dismantling.
Jim and I didn’t manage to get the car fully balanced about its central axis of gravity (see Andy’s restoration thread), so rotating the car is not a one-man operation at this point, Some trial and error work on the hight of mounting should sort that out – though the front mounts will need to be extended to give clearance for the front of the grille aperture in order to centralise the tilter’s mechanism.
The rotisserie was bought from CJ Autos who seem to be the major supplier in this market. It was ‘end of line’ at a discounted price of approx £500 plus VAT which seems pretty good value to me. The thing is is very solid and well specified (lockable wheels / hydraulic rams etc) though the central bar that should unite the front and rear sections wasn’t long enough. Without that piece to stabilise things I’d not want to roll the assembly around too much. No doubt CJ can provide a suitable one.
All that said, I wouldn’t recommend using one of these on a car whose shell needed substantial structural repair. Picking a car up by its bumpers is a pretty strenuous test of rigidity. One that I’m glad to say B20*2959 passed without a groan or creak.
With improved access and regular assistance from Jim, I’m hoping the shell with be ready to be painted some time during 2012, but even as I type the date I’m wondering why I bother. It’ll be ready when it’s ready.
There will be hold-ups and delays… On Saturday, we found that one of the bumper bolts that had been left in place was there for a reason – it was completely rusted into its 12mm tube. It was a a horrible job to drill out the approx 15cm long tube. That took nearly as long as assembling the rotisserie. Such are the joys of old car restoration.
B20-2959 