Vitesse said:

Here you go.

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Cheers Tony

Problem sorted.
Removed the idler arm, placed it in a vice and hit it with a big hammer!
The arm now sits in a similar position to the steering box arm and has a decent gap from the inner front panel.

Today my sound deadening sheets turned up.
Ultimat Alubutyl Sound Deadening/Proofing mat.
Easy to cut with a pair of scissors. Its very flexible and moulds into all the contours.
I applied it to the floor panels, 1/4 panels & door skins.
Its amazing how much different it makes the car sound. Totally kills the tinny sound when you shut the doors.
Once applied I could fit the sound proofing under the rear seat, carpet, sill threshold covers & centre console.


I also dismantled my flexi joints again and ground a bit off the edges of the lock plate as these were too long and the flange wouldn't bolt over it.
I had used my original spacers between my rear bearings, and lucky enough they seem to be just the right size and they nip up just right. I found that if I do them up tight I just feel some resistance and when I back it off to the next split pin hole it still has a little resistance. So without making it all too technical I am going with that and see how they perform.

That looks like good stuff Sean. Was it expensive? It will be interesting to see if it cuts down engine noise once you have put it over the rear seat area? It removes noise patina!

I like that blue carpet as well. Where did that come from?

Cheers Tony,
sound deadening was £29 for 5 sheets that covered this area.
I wasn't going to do the rear seat back. I was just going to use the standard insulation but I can always add it later I suppose.


Carpet was from Van der Lann.
This was the only site I could find who did the blue. There was a couple listed on Italian E-bay but with postage it worked out a lot more expensive.
It fitted quite well and managed to make just the one long cut for the throttle pedal and then removed a small patch for the base of the pedal.
Just need a few black screws and cups to secure the remainder of the carpet now - ebay here I come!

Oh that's pretty reasonable. I bet it's most noticeable on the doors when opening and closing, gets rid of all the rattling. I suppose it's more to cutdown the noise of the panels vibrating as opposed to sound deadening of engine noise etc, so wouldn't make much difference on the rear seats?

Few more jobs done today:
Horn has been dismantled, blasted, repainted & rebuilt.
Fuel tank has been fitted along with boot liner.
Also had to make a new hook for the washer bottle as the new one (original type) had the holes further apart than the prongs on the inner wing. So when I tried bending one it snapped off. A new one has been made and held in place with a pop rivet as I didn't fancy getting the welder out!
I also got all my seats out the shed in preparation for the new covers.
I have 2 really good ones with fixed frames, I plan to keep these for my 500D as they will be perfect.
Then I have about another 6 seats.
One is bent - in the bin it goes.
One is a fixed frame.
One was a non fixed frame but has been welded together. This had a good set of runners.
Then I have 3 non fixed type from the 126's I robbed. One was corroded right through, one perfect, the other was good but runner was corroded.
So I removed the runner from the welded one and also removed the corroded runner.
Seats are all stripped and going to the sandblasters tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see how well these come out.

Perfect, absolutely perfect mate! If that doesnt win best in show nothing will

Have you tried the seats on the new runners yet?

That can be good for a laugh.

Depends on the paint thickness, but I find they usually bind up.

HA

I didn't try these seats on them, but I did check them out with 2 other seats before it went for paint.
I had to remove the runners from the floor, reshape the contour and make them slightly narrower as they wouldn't go in the seat runners.
So I am fairly confident they will fit.
Fingers crossed?

Impressive rebuild, looks immaculate!

Have some of that lining that I got myself (yet to fit) but never considered putting it in behind the door cards. Will do after seeing this.

Apriliarider said:

Impressive rebuild, looks immaculate!

Have some of that lining that I got myself (yet to fit) but never considered putting it in behind the door cards. Will do after seeing this.

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My original doors and 1/4 panels had the heavy stone chip applied, the same stuff as the engine bay.
This material is far better and will stop any drumming noise and most definitely makes the doors sound nicer when closing.

This little car is happy! He has now got his big grin on?

He's a car again!

Franko500 said:

This little car is happy! He has now got his big grin on?View attachment 165885

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Looks amazing you can really see the colour in that picture. Well done keep it up, should look awesome when finished.

Looks great, will be too good to use

H A

Great progress Sean. You're cracking on at a great pace - ready for Easter weekend?

cheers, Steve

View attachment 165885

In that colour, even the amber lenses look good.

H A said:

Looks great, will be too good to use

H A

Click to expand...

Looks good enough to eat... like a chocolate Smartie.

Made a couple of items on the lathe today.
2 fixings to hold the runners to the seat frame. These take the place of the original peened over pivot, I have made mine to take a nut.
Also the new sunroof arms are wider than the shoulder on the nuts. So when doing them up they clamp the roof bars up too tight.
So I made a couple of spacers out of brass. These are wide enough to hold the arms wide enough from the roof aperture so as not to rub on the roof edge trim. I put a shoulder on them so it gives the arms some free play when using the new nuts.