[Fwkwallis]

Am preparing to address the poor condition of my project sprint with new panels on order from Biondi.
Primarily the sills, jacking boxes and underfloor cross member are in line for replacement; driver side (LHD) in general being noticeably worse that the other. Obviously more cosmetics.

Despite the rusted out sections the door shuts currently appear good (although I haven't measured in a while).
Is there a prescribed order in which to proceed with this? Given the extent of the work is it advisable to strip back to the shell alone or keep the car on it's suspension etc while possible?

I had thought that 'worse' sill side first and cross member last was the way to go.....along with some temporary longitudinal strengthening inside the car prior to any cutting.
I've done panel replacement before but not really where a significant number of key areas were so visibly effected!

Any thoughts welcome before I get to the point of no return.

Jim

 

[ITALCAROZ]

reach out to OMWattsy on here. he is rebuilding his spider and bought many panels from Biondi

 

[alfaseeka]

Given the extent of the work is it advisable to strip back to the shell alone or keep the car on it's suspension etc while possible?

Jim, you may want to buy/fabricate a chassis jig to keep everything aligned and in position before you start cutting structural metal out. If your Sprint is like mine, you'll find more rust, not less, when you start hacking.

My (completely stripped) Sprint is mounted to a home-made jig via the main suspension pickup points. I've also cross-braced the door openings and further braced the LHS to RHS cross-braces to avoid possible sideways movement of the door openings.

It's also worth recording key dimensions before you start removing metal. Even the pressed-panel 101 Sprints weren't entirely symmetrical.

 

[Fwkwallis]

Many thanks for the insight...this was perhaps what I expected may be the case to avoid unseen issues only evident once too late.

In practical terms how did you get you jig in place?
1) Brace doors and cross brace interior?
2) Strip engine engine and suspension?
3) Mount to suspension pick up points (shim a prefab fixing to a frame or weld the frame structure to the pre - fixed attachments)?


I guess you were happy that this gave you an undistorted result.
Did you send away to be media blasted?.....brace and cut away first then send?

regards

Jim

 

[alfaseeka]

In practical terms how did you get you jig in place?
1) Brace doors and cross brace interior?
2) Strip engine engine and suspension?
3) Mount to suspension pick up points (shim a prefab fixing to a frame or weld the frame structure to the pre - fixed attachments)?

Hi Jim, the sequence was:
1. Remove bonnet, engine & gearbox. Amongst other things, this lightens the car so it raises up on the springs and provides a bit more clearance underneath.
2. Slide the jig under the now slightly-raised car. I built the jig with a jockey wheel at each corner to raise/lower/tilt and to allow it to be moved across the garage floor, pulled onto a trailer/tilt tray etc. As the jockey wheels can be clamped at different heights, and can be wound up & down as well, they allow the jig to be lowered close to the floor. You'll notice that the arms onto which the jockey wheels are mounted can be turned upside down to provide more height variations.
3. Raise the jig to capture the car body. At this point I had fabricated attachments that slotted into the body's jacking tubes.
4. Raise the jig further and remove remaining bits & pieces from the body. Remove boot. At this point the doors were still hung, to maintain integrity.
5. At this point I finished stripping as much paint as possible. Removing underseal is a s**t of a job but is essential - sandblasting heats it and makes it stick worse, so the sandblasting chappies here in Oz require the owner to remove it.
6. Then it went off to the sandblasters. The jig/trolley made it easy to move around.
7. Only when it was back from the sandblasters did I add the bracing to the door openings. Then the cutting began ...

Hope this helps. If you need more pics of my jig, let me know.
Cheers, Geoff

 

[Fwkwallis]

Many thanks Geoff.

Will be some months more before I start stripping the car but will look to get the stock and start to prefab something which works upon similar lines. Have a rotisserie which will try an incorporate potentially.
Likely to be back pestering you for detail nearer the time!

regards

Jim