New member - Excel SA

[Excel SA]

Now you tell me!

Neil

[Pete Boole]

Pete

[Excel SA]

Oops - I see it has been 2 months since I last updated this - sometimes time just flies.

Progress meanders on - it is winter here (so a bit like the UK summer ) and I've spent a lot of time scratching my head wondering how to get past the various obstacles as they crop up.

As usual there was some fiberglassing to be done....The hole for the side indicator had been butchered somewhat - the original lights were replaced, and the holes adapted to suit. On the driver's side there was damage to the body, so the hole was filled up when that was repaired, I decided to just fill up the hole on the passenger side as well, and when I find replacement lights I will recut the holes to suit them.

The edges of the hole were bevelled:



I put some masking tape across the back of the hole from the inside and and layered on the fiberglass cloth:



And sanded and filled it, ready for final finishing/recutting:



The bottom corner of the body, on the passenger side, just behind the front wheel had also suffered from one of the previous accidents and looked like this - the fiberglass had been ground all the way through on the edge:



It was cleaned up and many layers of fibreglass were applied - wrapping up the front edge as well as the side and bottom of the car - this area will still need a bit more attention, I will wait until I can get the body up higher and have better access to sand underneath:



The right-hand side of the front bumper was not a good fit to the body at all - it was sitting 2 to 3mm proud of the body, so it got a few relief cuts, had some fiberglass applied to the inside and has been strapped to hold it in place - it will still need more work to get it a better fit.



Whilst going through boxes of parts I noticed the the inner door handle plastic bits were in need of attention - they had all cracked in the corners at the opening for the handle to fit through (yellow circles), and on one of them a piece of the plastic had broken off (red circle). I decided to reinforce all the corners with fiberglass, and filled up the broken section with epoxy resin and filler. The hook/catch on the one cover was also broken, so that got rebuilt as well (green square/circle).



The missing section after being filled, sanded and polished - red arrow marks the spot.



And the back side showing the other repairs including the "hook" in the white circle that was rebuilt.



Other work has been done as well, I will post an update on that once I've sorted through the pictures.

Neil.

[Pete Boole]

I've missed your regular updates Neil - they inspire me to get stuff done on mine! Got a timescale for paint yet?

Pete

[Excel SA]

Thanks Pete - sometimes other things just get in the way and time runs away!

I have quite a few things to do still before paint - some alterations to the engine bay for a bit more clearance - so that means getting the engine in and out a couple of times which is challenging! The outlet for the power steering pump needs a fair bit of extra space currently taken up by the wheel well.....I also need to get the body off the chassis again so I can get engine and gearbox mounts fabricated and try and fit/squeeze in the rod from the gear lever to gearbox. I also need to get the exhaust headers and exhaust system made - I'd rather do all of that before paint - there is not much space for them.

I'm slowly ticking things off my "to do" list - as well as adding to it - but it can feel like it's never ending!

Neil.

[Pete Boole]

I've recently started working on mine again but can't bring myself to make a to-do list - it would need a roll of wallpaper!

Pete

[MetBlue]

some alterations to the engine bay for a bit more clearance - so that means getting the engine in and out a couple of times which is challenging! The outlet for the power steering pump needs a fair bit of extra space currently taken up by the wheel well.....I also need to get the body off the chassis again so I can get engine and gearbox mounts fabricated and try and fit/squeeze in the rod from the gear lever to gearbox. I also need to get the exhaust headers and exhaust system made - I'd rather do all of that before paint

At least a weekends work there then

Keep the reports coming. Between you and Pete, you may even drive me back onto the Elite

Tony

[rbgosling]

Great job tidying up those door handle trims. I just cheated and found some on eBay, they are Toyota items and I found a pair for £40.

[Excel SA]

Today's update is unfortunately not a good one, and there will be an effect on my completion time.....

Last week my wife, my 2 kids and myself were held up at gunpoint in our house - it happened in the early evening, and despite already having abnormal amounts of security, we were taken by surprise. No one was seriously physically hurt, but my son has some cuts and bruising on his wrists from being tied up with cable ties - as we all were. He has since gone back to the US (as planned) where he is studying - and no doubt making plans to stay there. My daughter finishes her medical degree at the end of the year, she has to complete another 2 years of internship and then a year of community service before she can practice as a doctor, at which point she will almost certainly be emigrating so safer pastures - this is the second time she's been held up.

We were robbed of phones, watches, jewellery, laptops, wallets etc. which they piled into my wife's car - they took that as well - but it was recovered the same night. They were in the house for 10 to 15 minutes before they seemed to get a bit jumpy and leave - they had asked if we were expecting visitors and I led them to believe my daughter's boyfriend and his parents were expected for dinner.

We're all pretty traumatised, and are pretty much keeping ourselves locked inside the house - spending time in my garage in the evenings, which means going outside, whilst my wife and daughter are left inside isn't an option right now, and won't really be until we can beef up our security even further.

Now we've got a good deal of admin to do - insurance claims, replacing stuff that we need to carry on normal daily life with - credit cards and banking, phones, laptops etc. as well as getting repairs done.

Apologies for the miserable post, we will all recover and get better, and progress on the car will continue, but even slower than before.

Neil.

[rbgosling]

Really sorry to hear of that terrible trauma Neil. Look after yourself and family, and when you feel ready to get back to your car we'll all be here waiting for you.

[Hawaiis0]

Sorry to hear this Neil. Glad everyone is safe.

[TAR]

That's just awful. I do hope that whatever they took is replaceable and that the scum get caught.

[bash]

What a terrible experience but dont let it influence the rest of your life there are bad people wherever you are in the world but they are vastly outnumbered by the good.

Bash

[Pete Boole]

Really sorry to hear that Neil . Hope you can all get your heads back together before too long. Nightmare stuff. We were traumatised for ages after being burgled while we were out many years ago but your ordeal is an order of magnitude worse.

Pete

[richardw]

What a terrible experience Neil. At least you all got out of it relatively unscathed. I share everyone’s sentiments and let’s hope time can do some healing.

All the best, Richard