57 standard 10 - CA18ET going in

[damien4884]

I thought I should start a thread on my standard 10, I bought it about 3 weeks ago.





The brown bits are rust cure thats attempting to stop the worse of the rust spreading so it actually looked better in real life.

Got it home then had to shoot straight back out to disasterbus to pick up a set of tr7 steels.





Need to fit bigger studs and the tr7 nuts as wheels have no taper or radius seats, this has also given me a laughable turning circle so I'm on the look out for the parts I need for a disc brake conversion which should improve turning circle a lot.

[damien4884]

When funds allow i might go for some mgf alloys as i have seen one running them and it looks rather good. I've ordered some combicolour is ral 1015 light ivory so i can roller it to make it look a bit better for when it is on the road.

A patch or 2 of welding is required for MOT



Thats been done and given the floor a coat of matt black for now, need to sort out some carpet as well. I took front wings off as inner arches had a couple of minor bits of rust to deal with, whilst under there i cleaned up, stone chipped and painted.

Other issues for the MOT are the lights and indicators don't work, to start with i converted it to negative earth to make my life easier as its what I'm used to. Chased a couple of issues around, fitted new flasher and thats all working.

Went away for the weekend and the floorpans filled with water due to the windscreen seal being so past it. New ones on order, just got to sort out the collapsed driver seat and i'm as ready as i can be for MOT.

[waveman1500]

Nice car! Sounds like you work very fast. Have you seen substandard's car on here?

[damien4884]

Yes i've seen a few pictures and his thread, he has mgf alloys on at one point I believe.

Today I have been messing around with rear seatbelts got a rear set from a e34 bmw that means I don't have to mount them up on pillars they can be behind the top of the seat and poke through top of seat, then you shouldn't really notice they are there and I don't have to remove or cut the headlining.

Then the kids can come on days out, I might bin them now..........

I'm trying to get a manual vauxhall carlton or omega gearbox so I can stick a 1.8 ecotec in it, I already have a Volvo back axle thats going to be chopped down to fit and a scrap 1.8 engine that I have measured up and should fit quite nicely. But that'll have to wait until I move into a new place with garage. I was tempted by the 2 rotary lumpds but not sure how well they would fit.

[waveman1500]

Rotary engines will fit in anything mate, they're pretty tiny!

[damien4884]

I'm thinking the same with the rotary lumps, just paid a cheque in so once thats cleared i'll see if he still has them.

Started to sort out the seatbelts. I got some 4mm plate from a local metal workers (along with half a sheet of 1mm) for a fiver as sheet had a bit of a rusty stain on it.



Thats the parcel shelf in a 4mm steel sandwich, need to trim a bit of rear of top plate as that was the size it came out the skip. On a bmw theres only one bolt holding the reels in at the top, I might make a bracket to put an extra bolt in on those bottom holes to make sure they go nowhere should the worse happen.

Then trimmed seat around the reels and offered it up to see how it looks.


I have the BMW plastic trims to fit to top of seat once its been retrimmed to make it look like they should be there if a bit modern.



From the back its pretty much as I wanted them to be, once seats retrimmed you should only see 2 little triangles with bolts in and the black plastic trims. Think the seat needs to have a bit of a bulge where the reels are as the Hessian is rubbing on them, but the hessian won't be staying so we will see.

[Ratters]

nice work would love to see it same colour on banded steels with a modern engine though ;D

[damien4884]

I'm tempted to get the og wheels banded to match the dish of the tr7's on it now, then I can have the chrome centre caps back on it. I'm thinking modern engine would be the way forward. Rotaty would be good but i'd be less limited if I get a 1.8 ecotec, then the optional choices of what would fit the gearbox in the future is quite large.

[Neil]

May 20, 2011 15:40:27 GMT damien4884 said:

I'm tempted to get the og wheels banded to match the dish of the tr7's on it now, then I can have the chrome centre caps back on it.

[poproddernot]

nice motor.
good luck, like the mods so far.
cheers chris.

[BenzBoy]

Nice project! Engine options sound good, and the banded steels! If these are 4x3.75in PCD you can get 13x5.5 Triumph GT6 steels but they fetch strong money. Unless you were thinking of going even wider?!

[damien4884]

Wider could pose an issue on the rear, although i have seen mgf alloys fitted without issue.

These are 4x3.75in PCD, the tr7 steels that are on there now are 13x5.5 and came to me a lot cheaper (£35 for 4). The offset is slightly wrong though as inner edge fouls on top wishbone on lock. So I either fit longer 12mm studs and tr7 nuts with a 10mm spacer or band the og steels to 5.5 ( a whole 2 inches of band), then then shoud stick out 10-15mm further than the tr7's, clear the wishbone and take chrome centre caps .

[damien4884]

Well I think i've made the decision not to have the OG steels banded, its cheaper to run the current wheels with longer studs and spacers. Might hunt for some chrome hubcaps i can make fit.

Managed to strip down rear seat back, modify the frame to clear the belt catches and a bit more room around the reels. Also had a look at drivers seat as the back was a bit wobbly and it the base wasn't level left to right. Pulled the trim off and found 3 squares of carpet randomly placed and 2 broken bits on base frame, frame to back of seat had 3 cracked welds so got that all welded up and trim back on minus the carpet samples.....

Paint and windscreen seal will be here monday. can't wait!

[damien4884]

Popped front and rear screens out and prepped from front to rear above gutter and down around most of boot, The driver side rear light area has had a wack and needs some repairs before I can paint down that far. I should get a coat of paint on roof tomorrow and hopefully a couple of coats around screens so windows can go back in.

I'm not very good at the pictures of every stage lark but i'll try harder when I'm painting it.

[damien4884]

Thinking things through on the back end, tomorrow i'm going to lose the pressings that hold the lights and do a spot of frenching.

The only thing that was holding me back was the right size tube, turns out a disposable co2 bottle is perfect size. I'm thinking of not going for a full flush look just leave the pointy bits sticking out, then at a later date i could swap over to L488 lenses and they'll be flush and flat. Will do pictures tomorrow.

[damien4884]

Well i've made a start on the frenching.

First off I wanted to get a better idea of how it would look. So....

Cut off a 50mm bit of disposable cylinder, clean it up and sit light at bottom. Theres a little bit of seam weld down one side but that'll be cleaned up later.



Offered up to back of car and marked out cut line. Now would be the time to get the plasma cutter out, as I don't have one I drilled round and joined them up with a small file. Quick blast of grinder and holes done, you'll notice RH side of hole is nowhere near right as I had to move it over and at a later stage you'll see what I did to sort it out.





You'll now see that I like the way it looks, so whats the point in the pressing to hold the original lights? lets chop that out and smooth it over.







Its moved around a bit when I bashed the smoothing panel into place so i'll chop the tacks and move it round a bit. You'll notice with moving it over to LH I have made it so it will have a nice shape around side of cut out. I'll I need to do now is repeat the steps above 3 more times then I can decide if I smooth it right back or leave 5-6mm sticking out and blend it in. Now off to get the mrs from work.......

[manbearpig]

Nothing like a good bit of frenching I always say.

[damien4884]

Paint arrived and had a bit of spare time and a roller



I'm liking the colour, cant wait to get the rest of it rollered now, but first theres some body work.

[damien4884]

In between showers I managed to get on with the frenching for a bit, finished welding patch in, moved tube a bit leaving a slight downwards angle so water runs out instead of in. Trimmed tube down fully welded in. Popped a light in to have a looksie and cut hole for other light.




Now I need to modify the rear of the inner arch so the light can be fitted from behind, might go and invest in a 72mm hole cutter...........

Also need to make a decision on the front lights, i would like to french the lights in there too, just need a chromed steel headlamp surround from a mini rather than the brass ones i have if you see any

[damien4884]

Got a bit more of the frenching done today.





So one side is nearly done, got to get new gas bottle and more flap discs before I can carry on.

Ordered a pair of 10mm spacers from demon tweeks so I can get some of my lock back from fitting the wider wheels and fit the original type wheel nuts, this means I'm going to have to drill the holes out in the front hubs from 13mm to 14mm to take longer vauxhall type studs but correct thread for nuts