83 Campaign Full Restoration including new Roof Skin

Well its been two long years since I took my pride of joy off the road, and I think its well overdue that I start the ball rolling with the build thread! I purchased the car in August 2008 as a daily runner, she'd done a lot of miles but was in a very tidy condition (Or so I thought!).

She started on the button and ran like a peach, from the test drive I knew I had to have her! I was going from a 2001 BMW 330ci which had every gadget you could get, so it had to be mint or the Mrs would have said no! Anyway we fell in love with the car, and bought it. We then drove her 165 miles home from Taunton. (Which I must admit was a little daunting at first, but she never skipped a beat. Anyway we continued to love her for about two and a half years of really happy motoring, she never failed to put a smile on either one of our faces. Here she was when I brought her…







As you can see, she was a nice example, not perfect in anyway but very nice. The amount of people that offered to buy it on the petrol forecourts said for itself.

During her time on the road I did a bit of tinkering here and there; fitted poly bushes throughout (too harsh for Telford roads!), Gaz coilovers, new wishbones, strutbraces, full Magnex exhaust + manifold and all the usual servicing, including a cambelt change.

All of this was new(ish) to me, as before I was 'a take it to a garage' kind of guy. My dad was a mechanic and a top class panel beater, welder and restorer of Truimph Stags amongst other classics…but whilst he was alive I never really showed much interest in the mechanical side of things; I was more into the finished product, not the blood, sweat and tears that goes into it!

Right, so before I get carried away, you are probably thinking why I would start a restoration on such a tidy example…well, when we bought the car we noticed after the first down-pour that the car had a leaky sunroof. I tried jetting the drainage pipes through with the air gun, but every time it rained, the passenger would get soaked! (Good job I was the main driver, much to the wife's disappointment :-))

It came time for her 3rd MOT whilst in our possession and they put her up on the four-poster to do there checks on the underside. She had gone through the other 2 with only minor advisories, which were rectified immediately, so I had nothing to worry about. So, I was stood watching and I noticed the car started to drop on the passenger side! Fortunately it stopped and the tester dropped the car down to the ground rather promptly!

Upon inspection the jacking point had totally given away on the inner sill and collapsed along the edge of the rear chassis mount. The outer sill was intact so it did pass but either way, I was not happy! I took her back home and I started seeking out the rot, and the more I looked, the more I found. Nothing totally major, but previous repairs that just hadn't lasted. So we decided to take her off the road and start taking her apart to restore back to her former glory. The strip down took about a day, with the help from a couple of mates.

You can see the roof is perforated along the gutter and onto the roof skin itself.  At the time I searched the forum and could never really find any detailed way of dealing with such a problem.  Over the years water had been accumilating in the roof gutter and running down the A, B and C pillars.  This meant water had sat inside the sills and between the gutter and the roof skin itself, causing it to rot from the inside out.

The sunroof had to go!

I tracked down a tintop roof from one of the other members, that had been cut off at the pillars but was completely solid.

I then went about separating the skin from the rest of the frame, I wasn't bothered about keeping any of the frame so I carefully cut under the gutter where it meets the car. Being careful not to go too deep, and cut through my new skin.


I then drilled out the spot welds around the windscreen and the rear hatch and separated the skin from the frame. Job Done! (trying to find the photo's) At the back there is a brazed joint along the seam between the skin and the rest of the frame, I just cut straight through this along the seam.

In the meantime, and after watching 'Camper Van Crisis' I decided to get the car dipped. So I spoke to the guys at SPL in Dudley and arrnage to have the car droped in for stage 1 of 4 in the process.
Stage 1: Acid dip, removing all none iron material from the car.
Stage 2: Car came back to me for repairs (none of the panels can be painted)
Stage 3: Car returns to SPL for another dip, this time just to clean and remove any surface rust that has accumulated)
Stage 4: Car is sent to MOD tank place in the south for a full immersion Zinc Phosphate Primer. (this covers nearly 100% of every panel, more coverage than any e-coat process offered by
SPL's competitors.

So here is the car before:


And while we were there Phil gave us a tour and we found this little beauty:



So, we went on holiday and left the car in the hands of SPL…How much would we get back? Is it worth it? Am I prepared for this? All these questions were driving me mad for the next 3 weeks! The day came to pick her up from her 'detox':



Not too bad ey!
Ok a little worse than expected in some areas but, overall well happy with the result!

To be continued in the morning…

Nice project!

I've got a shell that I may get dipped having had some other work (not cars) dipped by SPL.

Will putting a non sunroof skin on no longer validate it as a Campaign though or maybe it doesn't matter because of your plans for the car?

Hi mate might sound a bit cheeky but what aorta price range did the place give you for the whole 1-4 stage to get the car done? ( im just a bit curious cuz i would love to get a mk1 done like this if i ever get another one one day) 
Thanks dan

chipster2407 said

Hi mate might sound a bit cheeky but what aorta price range did the place give you for the whole 1-4 stage to get the car done? ( im just a bit curious cuz i would love to get a mk1 done like this if i ever get another one one day) 
Thanks dan

Not cheeky at all…Are you sat down!

Stage 1 = £1200
Stage 3 = £400
Stage 4 = £1800

All plus VAT.

Like I said it certainly isn't cheap, but at least when its all done I will have the piece of mind of know what every inch of the car is like.

Yomp said

Nice project!

I've got a shell that I may get dipped having had some other work (not cars) dipped by SPL.

Will putting a non sunroof skin on no longer validate it as a Campaign though or maybe it doesn't matter because of your plans for the car?

Well the way I see it; When I brought the car, it passed all the campaign checks… it is registered on the log as a campaign…. It has the 17EWxxx chassis number, etc, etc…

So really it still will be a 'Campaign'

Like mentioned so many times on this place, the Campaigns were only a run-off model anyway, so its not like I am taking a Series 1 and putting Series 2 panels on.

That's just my opinion - What do you guys think? (not that I will change my mind :-))

Rusty little b****r under that shiny paintwork, why I hate to buy a restored car, just don't know whats underneath, although looks like it will end up rather minty.

jonwilliams84 said

Well the way I see it; When I brought the car, it passed all the campaign checks… it is registered on the log as a campaign…. It has the 17EWxxx chassis number, etc, etc…

So really it still will be a 'Campaign'

Like mentioned so many times on this place, the Campaigns were only a run-off model anyway, so its not like I am taking a Series 1 and putting Series 2 panels on.

That's just my opinion - What do you guys think? (not that I will change my mind :-))

I'm not fussed by Campaigns either way, other than the troublesome roof all the campaign add ons are only bolt on anyway so they're a bit over hyped imo.

My only thought is taking the only non bolt on Campaign part off the car could lead to debate later on if ever trying to sell it as a "true" Campaign. - This comment maybe irrelevant if rebuilding to a smooth bayed 20vt track car though

  Hi jon, not sure if you got the pm about your sunroof roof skin?  I wondered if you would help me out with a repair piece off your old roof to save mine?  I only need the back edge of the sunroof apeture.
  I bought my car as a fully restored example which id never do again as like ABFmk1 says you dont know whats underneath.
  The car i bought was acid dipped and galvanised before i got it which has led to many problems.  Firstly the acid has leeched out of seams, spoiling the paint in areas.  Rust has come back through, very aggressively in some areas, inside of seams which cant be gotten to without removing panels.
  The acid is great at taking the car back to rust free metal but the problem is reapplying protection to those hard to reach areas, which can only be reached by the acid.
  By the sounds of it the process your using should reprotect the areas that the acid has attacked but then you need to get paint and wax onto those areas which is the difficult part.  I sincerely hope you dont end up in a similar situation to myself! a very expensive nightmare.  If i ever decide to restore a car myself ill be going down the media blasting route everytime.  Im not saying the acid dip is always going to cause such problems but its only as effective as the people doing it and the protection reapplied to those hard to reach areas.

daniboy123 said

  Hi jon, not sure if you got the pm about your sunroof roof skin?  I wondered if you would help me out with a repair piece off your old roof to save mine?  I only need the back edge of the sunroof apeture.
  I bought my car as a fully restored example which id never do again as like ABFmk1 says you dont know whats underneath.
  The car i bought was acid dipped and galvanised before i got it which has led to many problems.  Firstly the acid has leeched out of seams, spoiling the paint in areas.  Rust has come back through, very aggressively in some areas, inside of seams which cant be gotten to without removing panels.
  The acid is great at taking the car back to rust free metal but the problem is reapplying protection to those hard to reach areas, which can only be reached by the acid.
  By the sounds of it the process your using should reprotect the areas that the acid has attacked but then you need to get paint and wax onto those areas which is the difficult part.  I sincerely hope you dont end up in a similar situation to myself! a very expensive nightmare.  If i ever decide to restore a car myself ill be going down the media blasting route everytime.  Im not saying the acid dip is always going to cause such problems but its only as effective as the people doing it and the protection reapplied to those hard to reach areas.

I too have seen examples of what you are describing, very sad to see.

I might add though, and by all means don't want to get into a debate, but all the ones I have seen do this have had the process done by a competitor of SPL, in the Notts area. (not naming names) One example we saw was actually at SPL after coming back from the other dippers and rotting completely back over in less than a week. It was having 'corrective treatment' so in your case, it might be worth having a chat with them, they might be able to help you neutralize the acid.

I will post further details of the roof swap with the aid of a diagram later this evening - off to the outlaws for a couple of hours….

The remaining problems are going to be dealt with by shot blasting and the car is getting a bare metal respray. Would there be any chance you could help me out with a repair piece please before you scrap the roof?

Great resto thread mate. Looking forward to more updates. You're right they aren't cheap cars to maintain and keep gleaming these days

jonwilliams84 said

chipster2407 said

Hi mate might sound a bit cheeky but what aorta price range did the place give you for the whole 1-4 stage to get the car done? ( im just a bit curious cuz i would love to get a mk1 done like this if i ever get another one one day) 
Thanks dan

Not cheeky at all…Are you sat down!

Stage 1 = £1200
Stage 3 = £400
Stage 4 = £1800

All plus VAT.

Like I said it certainly isn't cheap, but at least when its all done I will have the piece of mind of know what every inch of the car is like.

Money well spent in my opinion. I've been looking at getting mine done, but never found prices so ploughed on with other bits.

So yours came to 3.4k all in? Is that with you delivering/ collecting?

Cheers,
Adam.

adi3390 said

jonwilliams84 said

chipster2407 said

Hi mate might sound a bit cheeky but what aorta price range did the place give you for the whole 1-4 stage to get the car done? ( im just a bit curious cuz i would love to get a mk1 done like this if i ever get another one one day) 
Thanks dan

Not cheeky at all…Are you sat down!

Stage 1 = £1200
Stage 3 = £400
Stage 4 = £1800

All plus VAT.

Like I said it certainly isn't cheap, but at least when its all done I will have the piece of mind of know what every inch of the car is like.

Money well spent in my opinion. I've been looking at getting mine done, but never found prices so ploughed on with other bits.

So yours came to 3.4k all in? Is that with you delivering/ collecting?

Cheers,
Adam.

There or thereabouts…prices didn't include transportation - I arranged this through anyvan.com for a reasonable enough price.

Also made a mistake the stage 1 price - it was 950 plus vat so just under 1200 including VAT.

daniboy123 said

The remaining problems are going to be dealt with by shot blasting and the car is getting a bare metal respray. Would there be any chance you could help me out with a repair piece please before you scrap the roof?

Yes, no problem fella…I will grab some pics of what I got this afternoon when I get back in the garage. I will warn you though mate, its pretty ugly what's left!

Wow epic build Jon  

I think the dip is well worth it - you'll have one tidy MK1 once it's all done and congrats on the roof re-skin - brave move!

You may not have shown interest in the 'mechanics' of it all with your late father as you mentioned but you seem to have inherited the jeans  

Hairyarse said

Wow epic build Jon  

I think the dip is well worth it - you'll have one tidy MK1 once it's all done and congrats on the roof re-skin - brave move!

You may not have shown interest in the 'mechanics' of it all with your late father as you mentioned but you seem to have inherited the jeans  

Cheers fella! Just hope I can do half as good a job as he did and I will be happy!

Done a bit of tidying up today and almost drilled out all the spot welds for the gutter 'strip' once I have the one side off I will get it down my mom's place and see what they can come up with.

More pics to follow tomo evening after work.

Amazing thread mate! good luck with it all, I'll be watching with interest  

Andy.

Melteddrummer said

Amazing thread mate! good luck with it all, I'll be watching with interest  

Andy.

Cheers! Wouldn't call it amazing…yet :-)

Only had about 30mins on her today...managed to finish removing the gutter on the passenger side and have cleaned it up and got rid of the surface rust....Bit concerned by the top frame where the gutter was, looks a bit bumpy, but the metal still seems fairly ok... I will get pics up tomo, photobucket is being a b!tch and phone is dead...

*bumpy as in like 'bird cr P ' from rust…anyway only quick update, more to follow :-)