What did you do to your E-Type today? (Part 1)

This does sound like a giant PITA, wish I could offer more than my sympathy.
Persevere

Alan

It has been my experience that replacement panels often require tweaking in order to fit them to the auto body being repaired. Where bolt holes in the panel are not critical to proper fitment they will be included but where they need to match up with other parts and panels they will be omitted to allow the holes to be drilled in accurately after the panel has been welded in.

If the trim pieces around the quarter windows feature screw holes, the trim will originally have been positioned in place and then had the holes drilled through them and the panel at the same time to ensure a perfect matchup for the fastener. As such the holes would not be in a standard position and would not be included in the replacement panel.

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Poorly fitting panels seem to be a consistent problem. That said I have been using Monocoque Metalworks since 2013 and have had no problem with fit. Of course the patch panels are oversized to allow for trimming.

I just looked at the MR site and did a quick lookup of a S2 complete rear wingā€¦GBP865ā€¦and x 1.4 = around $1450ā€¦plus shipping and reseller markup puts the price to me about right.

Sorry - I was thinking of S1ā€¦ Interestingly, they are much cheaperā€¦

This car better be faster to assemble than it has been to disassemble! Iā€™m running out of beer! Might have to switch to Scotchā€¦

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It takes THREE times longer to reassemble.

Laphroig, perhaps?

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to all who have disassembled an unmolested E-type - you can tell what day of the week and whether the guy on the right side was better than the guy on the left, or had an extra ale the night before, they beat things around until they could get it to fit. I seriously doubt it that you could buy any panel that would fit without some modification - just look at the entire body, compare right to left. these cars were hand built - just smile and feel accomplished when your done

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It wonā€™t because youā€™ll want to fiddle with everything to get it perfect as it goes back together. And no matter how many pictures you take or how many notes you take you will pick up something and have no idea what it is, where it goes or what it does.

I found it helpful to clean, repaint, refurbish, whatever needed to be done, to each part and sub assembly as I removed it. Then I bagged, boxed or labeled each piece. That made reassembly go quicker.

What are you doing to refurbish the fasteners and hose clamps?

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Thatā€™s why Concours showing is such a joke, these cars were not
perfect when they came off the assembly line but they sure better
be for JCNA, no flaws!

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Evaporust is amazing - Rural King - the stuff wonā€™t touch paint or plating
then coat with fluid film holds for a couple years

The overall build quality of my Rover is head and shoulders above that of Tweety: in additionā€”and I have done thisā€”body panels are effortlessly interchangeable from 1963ā€™s first production, all the way up to the carā€™s demise in 1974.

You are correctā€¦:wink:

Honestly, being around exotic cars for the last 20 years, I think we should still be overjoyed that we can get these or any parts and panels at obtainable prices :slight_smile:

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That is a good question. I am deep into disassembly still and I keep looking at all the hardware and thinking, what do I attempt to reuse and what do I replace? How do I clean ALL this muck? Advice (just the free stuff!)

There isnā€™t much in the cleaning realm that would be free. Probably the cheapest would be a gallon of Simple Green, or Super Clean, plus a gallon of WD40, as itā€™s great for really caked on grease. If I had the space though Iā€™d certainly consider a cheap parts washer. Hand scrubbing is exhausting and time consuming. As for what to reuse, everything you can except for moving wear parts or things that are badly damaged.

For all the small parts:

Go to your local Sally Anne and pick up a stainless steel deep fat fryer.

Boiling the small parts in TSP solution will take off any paint, grease, silicone, muck.

Donā€™t put any Al parts in though.

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Andrew what is TSP? 20char

Trisodium Phosphate. (Laugenpulver - just the regular stuff you get in the paint section at your local baumarkt.)

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Alles in Obi !
Sorry, couldnā€™t help it. Suddenly came to mind when I read your answer.

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I meant for the ā€œadviceā€ to be freeā€¦ ! :grinning:

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