Blog about restoration of a "hedge fund" '86 Excel

[dancroft1984]

The interior looks like it might clean up nicely.

Pete

It's not awful, but will need a bit of tidying up. Headlining aside, the trim on the pillars and top of dash has peeled off and the back seats are coming apart. The front seats aren't too bad, I'm hoping to save the driver's seat with a couple of new panels where birds have pecked/cats have climbed up/rats have nibbled them. I'd say it's a decent base to fix up though if I can. It's not completely foobared.

[dancroft1984]

So, more jobs done. Exhaust is now attached better and hopefully won't be blowing, I'm halfway through ordering new door handles.

Had the door inspection panels off (driver's side) to check out the door beam/window frames.
Result is on that side at least, door beam is all good. Window frames aren't f**ked, but it's starting to go at the front, so I'm expecting to need to order more from Angus later in the year.

I'm guessing the passenger side is similar, but I expect the window frames to be worse. That's the side that was more hedge-bound.

I wasn't sure when the cambelt was last changed, but probably in 1997, so I thought it might need doing.

It took 7 hours. Oh God I'm so broken, so, broken. All works now though. Oddly, due to difficulties getting it on the timing gearwheel I ended up with the whole belt 1 tooth out according to the markings I put on it, but all the pulleys are correct relative to each other. I'll put together a bit of a rebuild guide on the belt tensioner. I have an early one so all the information I could find was on the eccentric cam.

Next is get the clutch working and un-bend the pedal box. I am not looking forward to that. though hopefully it will bend my back back the other way and between that and the cambelt I'll be able to stand upright again.

[dancroft1984]

I got the pedal box out, many thanks to those who've written up, videoed, photographed (especially Majc.... blog).
I did not care for it. Though it's definitely VERY bent, so needed doing. I'm going to pop the master cylinder in a G clamp to make sure everything moves before putting the box back in again. I also have to fix the electric mirror loom from where rats ate it whilst I still have access.
If I ever bump into the ghost of Colin Chapman, I'm going to punch it in the dick.
Only got one photo.

[bash]

That pose is how the factory started building an Excel cos everything else must have been built around it, a complete tw-t of a job. The good news is, compared to that, everything else is easy.

Bash
30 years an Excel owner and still counting.

[Hawaiis0]

Bash
30 years an Excel owner and still counting.

You got past 20 then ! Did you grow extra toes?

[MetBlue]

That picture sums up how I felt when I finally got my steering rack out with the engine in place.
Pedal box removal is a challenge, but steering rack removal is up there with it
Tony

[bash]

I dont want to brag about the other 10.

Bash

[dancroft1984]

More work (told you I've been busy).
Picked up a set of tyres to replace the absolutely banjaxed 20-odd year old ones on there. A very big thanks to Will for his kind offer of a part-used set of 205s, so that was a Saturday trip.
I've un-bent the pedal box whilst keeping it assembled, but I think for the sake of an afternoon's work I'll disassemble it and lube everything. Don't want to do the job twice. The pivot shaft through the top of the pedals doesn't rotate with them, so that's a good thing and the clutch will drop under its own weight.

Talking of not wanting to do the job twice, the last thing I want to do is re-fit the box and immediately bend it again. So to make sure everything is free I rigged up a dummy pedal by removing the circlip and rod (which is free to wobble about everywhere) and gaffer-taping a bolt to a G-Clamp and screwing it together whilst trying and very occasionally succeeding to keep it all in a straight line, then diving under the car with a set of verniers to see how much movement I had. Nothing seems seized now, but I will probably rebuild the master cylinder whilst I have decent access. I renewed all the clutch hydraulics about 10 years ago, so even though the car's not moved, it probably makes sense to at least do the M/C while I can easily get to it.

[dancroft1984]

Pedal box is now in and clutch is working!
Honestly, it could have done with another 5mm moving across, turns out the brake pedal was slightly to the side for some reason so using that as a datum pulled a few mm off, so the M/C rod is still ever so slightly angled, somethin I could only tell on final fitting. But not so much that I'm going to rave it all out again. It all works fine. I also think I might have jiggled the fuel gauge into life accidentally whilst messing about in the dash.

Weird one - any advice appreciated.

My headlight pods did both work a week or so ago, now the LH one is very stiff. I can hear it squeak. I did initially think it wasn't going down (it was OK going up) due to a sticky relay not sending power to it, but when I went to manually wind it was red hot and would move itself after a couple of turns on the manual knob.
Also, apparently even with the key out of the ignition, if you wind both manually they will move themselves after a couple of turns. Is that normal?

[Gray14]

The headlamp circuit is continuously live, powered even when the ignition is off.

On my 1st trip after purchase to show the car to a friend, after I switched the ignition off and knocked the stalk switch, the d/s pod started to continuously raise and lower until I dived into the boot and undid the battery isolator.

I overhauled the pod motors and tightened the friction screw on the outside (top ?) of the motor body so that the motor did not rotate too fast, past the down position, to break the cycle.

From your description it sounds like this friction screw may become too tight or the stop/go mechanism has seized and needs an overhaul. Manually winding the motors rotates the mechanism past where it is getting stuck. The motor getting hot suggests power is getting to the motor.

Fitting waterproof relays located in the pod housing improves reliability as the pod housings get water ingress.

[dancroft1984]

That's a good point about the relays, I was thinking about replacing them anyway, so it makes sense to do it while I've got the pod out.

[dancroft1984]

So, clutch all went back together, and now works!
New problem arose, or rather didn't. The LH headlamp motor seized up and shat itself. Later Excels used the pretty common and cheap MR2 lift motor from the Toyota stable. My Excel does not. I took the old one off, cleaned, lubed and rebuilt it (breaking and repairing parts in the process).
|https://forums-images.pistonheads.com/83930/202407094779316
Put it all back together and no joy, despite all the cleaning and lubing it was still incredibly stiff and struggled to move under its own power once having to deal with the weight of the headlight pod.
you can get them refurbished for £100 but following a snapped and glued manual shaft while disassembling, it wasn't looking like being possible. So I was on the hunt.
SUCCESS!
|https://forums-images.pistonheads.com/83930/202407094800912
That's an entire Triumph TR7 headlamp assembly (and yes, my bench/shed is pure chaos) £70 from ebay so I can steal the motor and microswitch assembly.
Painted it up and fitted it and it didn't work.

Sadface.

|https://forums-images.pistonheads.com/83930/202407094829514

Issue was with the microswitch contacts needing a clean up and bending slightly. And it now works! There's some tweaking on rest position/speed to make it perfect. But right now I'm aiming for "good enough to pass MOT" so I can enjoy the car while doing it up.

I tried replacing the relays, but kept blowing a fuse with the replacements from Halfords. As they currently work I've put the old ones back in and bought a couple from SJ to use as spares if the need arises.

[dancroft1984]

Little note - some of my posts about this recently have looked a little odd in the context of posting on an Excel-specific forum. That's because I have a resto thread on Pistonheads and I've found the easiest way to do pictures on here is to write that first, using their upload tool and then copy n paste the raw code here.

I made a list of jobs that need doing before the MOT that are obvious. As much as I'd love a pass, I'm expecting to fail on something, but might as well put my best foot forward.

seatbelt mount - These are brackets mounted outside the tub in steel and they are notorious for rot. Mine actually don't seem too bad. I guess they've had 25 years of not being sprayed by road salt. I'm going to rust converter and paint them anyway.

sidelight - Done, was corrosion around the bulb

fog lights - absolute bugger of a job. Had to take the switch apart and mess with it and needed a new bulb at the rear. The fronts I can't get to work but I might just get covers for them/remove if they're a fail rather than advisory (I'll ask MOT man this week). Rears I did get working.

steering rack gaiters. Need to do

seatbelt. Stupid bloody rats ate some of the driver's seatbelt webbing. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable damage. A universal 3 point seatbelt was only 20-odd quid, but to replace the DRIVER's seatbelt, I have to start in the boot and work my way forwards. Yes, the boot.

top and bottom ball joints and track rod ends. Not in great nick and if I'm buggering around with the steering rack gaiters it makes sense to replace these as well.

brakes possibly - Probably don't need doing, but I've got the parts so it wouldn't hurt to do new discs and pads.

headlining blocks mirror - Tore that saggy f**ker out!

headlight aim - adjusted. Seems ok

wiper - nice cheap easy part. Unless it's a stupid old-fashioned pin and clip type affair. Which it is. I've replaced it, but apparently the front wipers off a Peugeot 405 can be used to convert to a more modern hook type affair so I'll get one for next time

reconnect screen washers - Done!

Oil top up - Done!

Water top up - Done!

washer short circuit - Every time I pressed the button the fuse popped. Did some measuring and there's a short circuit to earth somewhere between the stalk and the washer bottle. I'm halfway through putting a new wire in parallel to run it. It tests OK, just need to route it in a way that doesn't involve it going out the driver's door, round the A pillar and into the bonnet! Plus, fun fact, those spring loaded ball bearings in the stalk mechanism can ping out at great speed, never to be seen again. I had some ball bearings for a Honda motorcycle but alas they were too big, so I've had to buy more.

|https://forums-images.pistonheads.com/83930/202407185946629

exhaust blow - Not glamourous. The mid-box to Y-piece is a slip-on connection (on mine) and the slip-over bit doesn't go on quite far enough to cover the longitudinal slots. A lot of gun gum and exhaust fix bandage was fitted last night. Not very glam, but I just want it on the road for now.

Headlight warning light. Had to take the dash out to replace the main beam warning. Even with a new bulb it's very dull so I have some LED ones to try.

Oh, and remove, trim and refit the fuel hose betwixt flowlock and pump. I fitted a filter but it's a bit too long and I want to re-do some connections. It works, but I want that part 100%

|https://forums-images.pistonheads.com/83930/202407185961154