Ivan's coupe: bodywork is done

[Ivan141]

Today's work in the garage was relatively fruitful.
I fixed the damaged seat rails of the MA70 drivers seat.
Basically chopped the broken bits out, aligned the parts and welded the missing bits full. Also added some seamwelds along the sides for good measure.



These zenki headlight brackets had broken studs on them so I powerfiled the old ones off from the rear and welded some new bolts in there. This is only for completeness' sake since they are identical to kouki brackets of which I also have an intact pair. I did not finish them any further as they are going in a pile destined for powdercoating. Will try to protect the zink treated threads from blasting/coating as it is rather good. Just found a washer that has been laying outside in the rain for weeks (dutch summer) and it's clean as a whistle.


I couldnt be bothered to restore the original fuel tank, which is not beyond rescue, but just a lot of work, so I ordered up an aftermarket Spectra fueltank from Flos.ie.
Here it is, scuffed up for primer:


And with some 2k primer on:



You may notice the filler neck looks a bit rustical, this has to do with the paint being scraped off by accident when I turned the tank during painting. My paint gun was empty at this point so just I scraped some leftovers from the mixing cup and just slapped them on with a mixing stick. Will sand it flush before the next layer goes on (which will most likely be Raptor liner tinted to underbody color).

[zenki]

Did that fueltank arrive bare metal?

[Ivan141]

Yes, it came naked with just a bit of grease here and there that was probably there for the molding process.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn Pixel 4a met Tapatalk

[Ivan141]

Slapped some Raptor on the fuel tank today, nice and thick on the bottom, thinner layer up top.

[pack]

Swweettttt! Love how it turned out!

I should do something with my tank also....

[banpei]

Looks much better than Neil's (Juicebox) tank in his latest video!

[Ivan141]

Today I bolted the very first parts on my bare chassis.
Had all kinds of plans of things to do, mostly leading towards getting the shell back on its feet for bodywork.
While the body is still in the rotisserie I wanted to get the jobs out of the way that are no fun when working from underneath the car. First thing that came to mind is the fuel tank assembly + lines.

I quickly abandoned plans to clean up the fuel lines after wasting 30 minutes trying to get the old undercoating off of them.
Bent up a new front-back brake line (used cunifer) because I want my brake system to be 100% new lines, then mounted the whole line assembly.


I'll have to buy some rubber hose and a new one way valve to get this to look as fresh as it needs to be:


I am still missing 2 clamps that I'm hoping may still be in my basement, if not I will bend something up myself.

Putting the fuel tank in was a no-go because I also managed to misplace the rubber linings for the tank straps. In a moment of joy I managed to find them in some obscure box before I went home so next time it's going in.

Anyone happen to know what size the fuel pump bracket bolts are? Pretty sure my old ones wont survive removal and dont have many bolts smaller than M5 in my bolt inventory.

[bozu]

Progress! Very nice! Maybe we should do meetings more often ;-)

[r.ave]

Indeed, if that causes you to finish your project

Nice work again!

[Ivan141]

Another day, another dissapointment.

Work on the fuel tank install proceeded today.
-Took the fuel sender off the old tank, had to beat the screws into submission with an impact screwdriver. Then discovered the sender unit was falling apart inside (worked fine when taken off the road).
The wiper did not contact the coil at all and some of the shielding had slipped down from its proper position. I bent the wiper arm a bit so it makes good contact again and jerry-rigged the thing back together.

When I wanted to mount it to the new tank I discovered I have left my gaskets in a box at home. ffffFFFFFUUUUUuu.

Havent found my missing fuel line brackets so I bent up some new ones for the time being:


In some further preparations for mounting the fuel tank I treated the nooks and crannies around the fuel tank with cavity wax (Noxudol 700) and emptied the rest of the bottle in all chassis members under the floor.

This stuff was best in test in some british magazine a while ago. eventually I will also fill the sills and other sensitive areas up with Mike Sanders fat, which was best in test in some german magazine. It needs to be heated for application though, which is finicky.

A question to any of you who may be rocking the Spectra fueltank: It seems to be missing the wide bit at top of the filler neck that the OEM tank has. This leaves a gap between the pipe and the plastic shield around it, also I think the fuel cap screws into this.
How did you solve this? The original one should be detachable according to EPC pictures, but it sure seems welded in place on my crusty old filler pipe.