1983 SD1 Vitesse

[robbo86]

aka Operation Don’t Know What I’m Doing

So, having read the marathons that are Jim’s SD1 police car and turbo diesel restorations and watching the YouTube videos for the diesel, I’ve decided it’s time to get on with mine.

I bought this jalopy late November 2019. It had tax and test and I enjoyed it while I could before taking it off the road with the intention of generally improving it.

Things that were immediately apparent were:

Rust under the windscreen needs tackling
Heater does not work
Windscreen leaks from top left corner
Bumper over rider smashed
Flaky central locking and electrics
Some electric windows need attention
Wheels need a refurb and correct size tyres to stop rubbing on full lock
Difficult to cold start and potentially over fuelling
Replacement battery as the one that’s on it is shagged
Repairs to boot floor

I’ve got the luxury of a garage to use to with blokes like Jim putting me to shame doing it In his work car park I’ve honestly got no excuse.

I’ve partly stripped the car out and done a few jobs, such as a new trip computer and the front electric motors out.

There have been several factors in the progress being slow so far:

1 I’m a very lazy man compounded by the fact the number of tasks required to do was so overwhelming I simply couldn’t start
2 The concrete slab of the garage was curse word and would chalk up the second you looked at it
3 I now have a 13 month old baby86 who steals all my time


I’m trying to address 1, by using Jim’s videos as mojo

I’ve addressed 2 by emptying the garage and treating the floor with SBR which has made the world of difference so now everything won’t get so dusty.

Not a lot I can do about 3 to be fair

Pictures to follow

[robbo86]

Here it is as it sits at the moment.








Squeezed underneath for a look. It’s fairly solid from what I can tell, but the under seal has scraped off in a couple of places when I took it onto a four post ramp and it grounded out.






Sills have developed this surface rust so I need to remove, treat and paint it better to protect it.









Bottom of offside B pillar and repair needed to boot floor.

I discovered by accident that the water runs off the car, behind the boot hatch, hits the top of the near side rear light and creeps in behind the lights, ending up in the wheel well. There’s a foam gasket there but it was pretty poor, I’m wondering whether to double up and buy two, or use something like Tiger Seal and accept that if I need to remove the lights again I’ll need a whole new foam gasket.








Need to tidy up these apertures for the rear lights.











Rust under the windscreen.





The picture doesn’t show it that clearly but it’s a little weepy (but not dripping) from both the gear box, sump and diff (not pictured).

Some other jobs I’m considering.

Engine rebuild
Megasquirt (hopefully help with the cold start)
Improved wiper motor (the standard SD1 motor is pony). There a bloke from the SD1 club who has retrofitted one from an e39.

[robbo86]

So took the badge bar off today, hear they can let water ingress to the boot but luckily quite tidy behind there. Went to pop the badges off without realising they are actually stuck down. I’ll have to get some new sticky stuff… or maybe new badges. Trying to figure out the best way to stop water ingress in future, thinking replace the metal washers holding it on with rubber. What do you all think?





Decided to then have a poke at the b pillar which on the last MOT was advised as corrosion but not excessive within 30cm of a seatbelt mounting.

Poke poke poke, all feeling pretty solid and then…

Damn. Tried to get the rear passenger door off however can’t get a socket on my longer extension for some reason so, I’ll have to borrow one then strip it back to assess the surgery.

That’s an MOT fail then…

[quaggers]

Love an SD1! Carry on

[kevins]

Looks a good starting point. The gearbox leak is probably the selector shaft seal, they are only a 0 ring and not really up to the job.

What's the cold start issue, my range rover has the same Lucas 4cu injection system and starts on the button, if you can use a multimeter diagnostics on these are pretty simple, If you need it I can send you the system manuals. (PM me with your email)

[robbo86]

So, a mate of mine I I’ve been sharing the updates with mentioned to me that he thought the paint looked a bit thick at the bottom and he suspected there might be a touch of filler there…

I began to suspect he was right on account of the fact this shape at the bottom of the b pillar was more indistinct.


Once mini86 had been put down for her mid morning nap, I got on with removing the remaining chrome trims, whipped the rear door off and got the drill wire brush out.





Yup, that looks like filler.



Definitely filler



Not as bad as I thought to be fair. That pillar is available from Rimmer Bros for about 60 quid, so I might just replace it. Common repair apparently.













To answer the question about the cold start, it takes ages to crank (though it could be down to the curse word battery) and there is a lot of soot out the back end when started and running.

As for using a multimeter… I’m afraid I haven’t a clue. Chasing that is further down the list now as it’s not going to pass an MOT with a b pillar in that state but I’ll be in contact for those manuals in due course. I think my neighbour might have a better idea.

[kevins]

Mine did exactly the same when the ecu temperature sensor failed, it's the black one on the front of the inlet manifold, the manual gives the resistance at various temperatures.

[robbo86]

Only a quick bit of work today. Too much other Dadmin to do.



Bit of crust in the rear corner of the boot which I hoped wasn’t gobbed full of filler.



Quick poke and it seems fairly solid.



Get the trim and seal off.



Some other slightly flakey parts



After a scrape back I reckon that’s been rust converted once already, but it’s also holed though. Guess I’ll be needing some repair patches.

[robbo86]

Feel like I’m missing the point, given this part of the forum is titled “Build Thread” and what I’m doing in fact is taking more and more off.

Decided to have a little more of a grind. The near side rear where the sill meets the rear quarter panel was in good condition. Suspiciously so I thought. The overspray on the interior trim panel made me suspicious.



Best get destructive then.



Ah yes, there it is. That lovely lovely filler again.



Thank god I know how to weld… oh hang on…



Gave the offside sill a little rub, just to see what happened to the light rusting on there.

It blasts back and there appears to be zinc primer underneath so I guess I’ll have to get busy stripping it back further and redoing it.



Paint inside the door shut on the offside 3/4 appears a little crazed, as if reacting with something… what could that something be do we all think?







Honestly tempted to just message the previous owner and ask where I need to chase filler out to save the guess work.



What do we reckon the state of the offside B pillar will be?

I’m not a betting man, but…

[robbo86]

Only a short one.

Bought an endoscope from Amazon. Does 2k res images. All sorts of uses for it but decided to poke it inside the sills. They look solid and came out greasy so I’m guessing there’s still waxoyl in there. Also stuck it in the holes At the base of the b pillar to asses the state of the sill.

Looks pretty solid.

[robbo86]

So, short one.

Put tiny86 down for her daytime nap and had a couple of hours to work. After spending a good while fannying around without really achieving anything I finally got something done.

Offside rear door off.


Noticed some sort of glass fiber gunk up in c pillar behind the trim. I have to drill the rivets out before I investigate that.



Got pokey with a screwdriver.


But once I’d been at it all with a wire wheel it’s wasn’t gobbed full of filler like the b and C pillar on the other side.





The old man dropped off his grinder the other day as well so… at some point, she’ll be getting even lighter

[Alpina99]

Brilliant !!
Definitely in for the ride on this one,
Love the SD1 Vitesse,
Nigel

[robbo86]

May 6, 2022 1:24:08 GMT Alpina99 said:

Brilliant !!
Definitely in for the ride on this one,
Love the SD1 Vitesse,
Nigel

Thanks mate. Good to hear.

[robbo86]

Usual story, tiny86 down. Time to get my hands dirty.

Got the near side from door off and it was reassuringly solid looking behind… I thought afterwards, if only I’d had some sort of device to allow me to look in small dark crevices that would have saved me the effort…

Oh wait… I do… D’oh! No pictures as you’ve seen two doorless entry ways I didn’t think you needed a third.

Drilled those rivets out to investigate that fibreglass looking stuff…






I’d wager there’s some kind of hole behind there…



Of course there is…

Went at the frilly rear lamp panel…





Not as bad as I’d imagined. Then started to scrape back some of the bitumen type sound deadening.



The holes aren’t as bad as I’d imagined. In the words of Anatoly Dyatlov

“Not great. Not terrible”

What can’t be seen is a small patch of daylight shining through from underneath that bracket. I’ll have to get the wire brush in there at some point.

Also noticed this, so I’m guessing the car has had a minor rear ender at some point.



Got about £100 in vouchers to Rimmer Bros at the moment and there’s an SD1 sale on at the moment. Best try and decide what I want.

[ejenner]

Looks a lot like the Lucas wiper motor which is fitted to basically every car of the era.

I have one on my London Taxi and I rebuilt it and now it's strong as an ox.

On mine the park switch and terminal pack wasn't great so I changed that. I also fitted a brush kit. After those maintenance tasks it's very strong and good as new.

[robbo86]

May 6, 2022 15:09:12 GMT ejenner said:

Looks a lot like the Lucas wiper motor which is fitted to basically every car of the era.

I have one on my London Taxi and I rebuilt it and now it's strong as an ox.

On mine the park switch and terminal pack wasn't great so I changed that. I also fitted a brush kit. After those maintenance tasks it's very strong and good as new.

Guy on the SD1 club basically modified an E39 motor to fit. The trouble with the Lucas one was the magnets were weak A/F and they stall on even a semi dry windscreen. I’ll probably go that route unless yours will have the same effect.

[ejenner]

To be fair it is a pretty weak setup. The balance here is how much grief it is to change to a wiper motor from another manufacturer and is the replacement motor expensive. The repair parts for the Lucas motor are pretty reasonable and the reconditioning is pretty easy.

[nickwheeler]

Another thing to remember about the Lucas design is that there is a lot of linkage to wear out. Fitting a decent motor doesn't help much when the gear and drive pins are tired, the rack hasn't been greased since it was first installed and the wiper spindles are wobbly.

[robbo86]

All valid points. I don’t think e39 motors will be that hard to come by and infinitely stronger than a Lucas unit.

I’m aiming for for restomod I think. I don’t think it was a huge job to modify to fit. But then it’s a subjective term to how difficult you find these things. I’ll definitely bare that option in mind as nothing is set in stone as yet

[Kelvinator]

May 7, 2022 22:00:29 GMT robbo86 said:

All valid points. I don’t think e39 motors will be that hard to come by and infinitely stronger than a Lucas unit.

I’m aiming for for restomod I think. I don’t think it was a huge job to modify to fit. But then it’s a subjective term to how difficult you find these things. I’ll definitely bare that option in mind as nothing is set in stone as yet

My wife and I always used to laugh when I used the sd1s wipers. All three have had a rubbish wipe.

We now have a running joke that the wipers make the groaning noise of an old man getting up from a chair as they wipe 🤣