Stripping for pleasure

[k80rum]

Just spent the day stripping down my '99, SLR seeing as how it was in need of a little TLC. Taking it apart was much quicker than I expected - It took a couple of weeks to put together and only about 12hrs to take apart. It's now sitting in all its component pieces in the garage

 

Does anyone have any tips for tasks that are worth doing/minor improvements that could be made while it's in pieces ?

 

On the list so far:

 

1) cleaning / POR15'ing the chassis and re-nyloncoating the suspension components

2) refurbishing the wheels

3) replacing the clutch/crb, fitting a hydraulic clutch

4) lowering the floor (which may mean i could change my tall FIA bar for a std FIA one)

5) replacing all the mounting hardware - Nuts, bolts and washers

6) replacing all the fluids, plugs and filters

6) fitting a drysump system (if time and funds permit)

 

Also, are there any tips for removing the fuel tank? I think this would make tackling the chassis easier. It's half-full and installed at the moment. I suppose I could wire the pump up directly through a switch to a battery and put the enginebay pipe into a fuel container but i'm nervous of generating a spark and it all going horribly wrong. Advice from anyone that's taken one out would be gratefully received.

 

All the best,

Darren

[SLR No.77]

Darren, similarly, I attacked mine at the start of the winter - I've not owned the car long but I decided that rather than just moth-ball it I'd take the oportunity to strip it out and refurbish it now rather than later.

 

So far:

All interior panels removed

Cleaned and ally corrosion attacked

Waxed

Panels at the powder coaters being done satin black - his bill so far has run to a massive £45!!!!

 

It's all pretty straightforward but does take time. I've still a few further tasks to start which I'm hoping to have done before the spring such as shot blasting and powder coating the wing stays. There's nothing high-tech about it all, just steady work!

 

There's a few pictures of mine here just to wet your apetite now you've started!

 

The wheels are fairly easily refurbed with reducing grades of wet or dry paper and Autosol. I've also fitted new stainless steel wheel rim bolts. Can't help with the fuel tank, I'm avoiding that one!

 

Stu.

[Mcalvert]

I just used a manual "pump" syphon available from most motor-factors at about £4 to empty my fuel tank recently. I did then find that to get the tank out, the roll-bar has to come off althout I since heard that it is apparently possible to drop it out from below?

 

Michael.

[k80rum]

Thannks guys

 

I'll use your idea of the manual syphon pump Michael - I think I'd be less nervous transferring the fuel this way. In retrospect I should have taken it out for a spin to drain the tank before I took it off the road..

 

Stu - superb pics. Your powdercoater sounds very reasonable. Thanks for giving me some added impetus. I'm thinking of pulling the interior pannels out myself now! I take your point though - the quick bit is over with now it's the steady work of making sure everything's done thoroughly.

 

Might still get it done for this summer tho - I was exepcting it to be next year what with other commitments (I've been asked to spend a bit of time on the house...) At least I can drop off the panels and suspension bits for a couple of weeks to get done, while concentrate on cleaning up the rest of the car I suppose

 

All the best,

Darren

[Paul McKenzie]

Yes..it's easy to drop the tank out from below to avoid removing the FIA bar

 

Paul

[TopQ1967]

Darren,

 

This is how I started a couple of weeks ago. Beware!

 

Only the outer panels are still attached, and they will go as well.

 

I suck the tank a litle and let it flow in a can.

 

How did you manage to remove the horizontal panel in front of the scuttle without removing the side panels?

 

Cheers,

 

Q.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by - TopQ1967 on 4 Mar 2007 22:43:36

[k80rum]

I know what you mean Q - I'm already starting to take more and more of it apart in my mind. I was thinking tonight about taking ALL the panels off and getting it repanelled and resprayed..Something I definitely couldn't afford!

 

Good question re; Stu's scuttle panels. Come on Stu - spill the beans! I'm looking to replace the horizontal and vertical bulkhead panels from the scuttle with some of Richard in France's gorgeous carbon-fibre ones. Mine would need powder-coating anyway, so i thought i'd take the opportunity. I'd certainly be interested to hear how easy it was to remove yours.

 

On a seperate note, has anybody had their headlamps re-chromed. Mine have the ever-popular "rusting around the base" motif. I'm hoping I can sand them down and get them re-done. The ones that Caterham supply with the car look to be slightly smoked?

 

Happy renovating!

Darren

[SLR No.77]

The scuttle panel is easy It's actually reffered to as the "heater tray" and although it would appear to be the first panel that was rivetted to the chassis it's fairly straightforward to remove for work/replacement. The key is that the ends only disappear under the outer skin by around 10mm. Remove all the rivets and as with the other panels, run a blade (I use a flexible wallpaper scraper) between the chassis tubes and the panel to break any silicon seal. This includes above and below the panel at the ends in case there's been any dirt build-up.

Remove the steering column outer (4 big head rivets at the top rail) then it should be fairly easy to start to move the heater tray around. Push it as far as you can towards the drivers side and flex it upwards in the center - the passenger end should pop out easily. Opposite for the other end.

I'm waiting until I have the passenger footbox and interior panels back in before refitting - there's much more access without it!

 

Stu.

 

[TopQ1967]

Darren,

 

Thank you. I have Francis vertical panel and want the horizontal panel as well. Unfortunately you cannot flex carbon when it has the same shape as the original panel.

 

I will post some pictures soon, but they look similar to yours Darren (same problems).

 

Cheers,

 

 

Quirin

 

 

[SLR No.77]

Unfortunately you cannot flex carbon when it has the same shape as the original panel

Why not?

 

Stu.

[TopQ1967]

A flat carbon panel you can, but it has a 90 deg edge at the front and rear, you can't.

(Front rail edge, rear to keep the vertical panel).

 

Q.

 

[MartinWoodham]

Darren, ref draining the tank, take the return hose off the fuel pressure regulator, then attach a length of hose with the other end of it in a jerry can. Start the car and leave it to idle, the excess pressure (lots at idle) will pump all the fuel into the can instead of returning it back to the tank.

No need to get a mouthful of petrol, and the only cost is a length of fuel hose!

 

Martin

Aero'd Roadsports B with a garage slowly filling up with upgrade parts

[SLR No.77]

Q - the CF panel you are referring to is therefore very different to the ally one. The front 90º edge has gaps in it due to the mounting points for the engine bay diagonal, pedal box, etc. The rear is also not a continuous fold - it is folded downwards before having a 180º return to hold the vertical section. Where the fold meets the transmission tunnel, again there are gaps for the chassis tubes. When removed the panel is actually very floppy!

 

Stu.

 

[k80rum]

Cheers for that advice Martin - much appreciated

 

WRT not being able to flex the carbon. I'm looking at the problem in my mind's eye and assuming (so i'm probably wrong ) that the horizontal panel (the one a heater would sit on) has a vertical lip that goes downwards at the engine-bay end (hence it cant be flexed as Quirin states) and that the problem with getting the new one in is that the body side panels bend over the top of it and are then rivetted in place so you have a chassis member/horizontal panel/body panel sandwich.

 

Stu could pull his ali panel out because he could flex it but putting a new panel in is more difficult (surely this would apply to ali and c/f panels because they'd both have the lip )

 

I'll have a close look at my car tonight but I guess the only solutions would be;

 

1) de-rivet the body panel at the top just enough (which might be quite a bit) to slide the new c/f panel in - the problem here would be that the panel will almost certainly not line back up again afterwards.

 

2) take a dremel to the top of the body panel at the edge of where it would fold over the horizontal one, carefully prise it up to get the c/f panel in and then bend it back down - the risk here is that stresing the body panel like that will probably cause the paint to flake off along the bend or at least show stress lines

 

3) re-rivet the c/f panel over the top of the ali panel. Is that an option? it may not be optimal but could end up being the best option..

 

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts..

 

Darren

[SLR No.77]

Darren/Quirin - I'll see if I can post a picture of the removed panel. I'd tried to get this straight in my mind for a long time to powder coat the panel on my previous car. I'd decided it would be impossible! With so many more panels removed on the new car I just thought I'd have a go - if it couldn't be removed I'd just replace the rivets!

 

If you push a blade in at the end of the panel, where the side skin is folded over, you can actually "feel" how little of the heater tray goes under the fold.

 

Stu.

 

[SLR No.77]

Even if the CF panel had a continuous vertical fold along the rear edge, it could have a couple of notches removed to help it to flex - the panel is so well supported by chassis tubes that it doesn't rely on the fold for rigidity.

 

Stu.

[k80rum]

Co-incidentally I've just been on the phone to carbon-bits

 

It all seems to be down to a few differences between what can be done in ali and what can be done in c/f

 

the horizontal ali sheet has a lip at the leading edge that rivets over the footwells and a u-channel at the rear that the vertical panel sits in and which is then sealed.

 

Problems are:

Getting the U channel in carbon is too dificult so a new kind of joint at the back is necessary.

 

refitting a panel with a bend prevents it being flexed (this isn't an issue when the side panels are there but if you're not removing them it is)

 

The solution I've worked out with carbon-bits is this -

A single flat sheet for the horizontal surface - no lip so it can be flexed a little. It also comes with a plastic template to enable test-fittign and trimming.

the vertical surface for the scuttle bulkhead

a piece of angle which will be sikaflex'd or similar on the cabin-side join of the panels.

 

This should mean an invisible join and getting it all in without taking the panels off.

 

Quirin - you should be able to do something similar if you wanted to, but I guess it would mean lopping off the lip on the horinzontal panel..

 

I checked about rivetting over the top of the body skin but doing this sounds like it would raise significantly

[SLR No.77]

You have a result then

 

Stu.