My 12 month "rebuild"..56K warning...
As most of you know (or don't as the case may be!), I bought a GTE last year off a mate which needed "welding repairs" to get it through MOT..fair enough I thought.. a couple months fix, as me and my dad are OK when it comes to welding etc and it will be on the road..
Only it didnt QUITE happen like that... 12 months later..its finished,..well..kinda..
Story went a bit like this:
Got the car to my house, took a quick nosy under the car, didn't see much wrong with it, till I looked closer:
Yup..the spring mount had gone through the floor
This was just a little section of one of the chassis legs..they were a LOT worse up close..
What was left of the sill,
In total, the whole back end needed reconstructing. From the boot, to the rear valance, to the chassis legs, sills, and rear arches.
Anyway.. few months down the line, it was sat doing bugger all, and looking like a hole, as we had cut all the "bad" steel away..there was hardly any good bits left :
Things started looking up tho..I bought LOTS of steel, welding wire/gas, and new arches and sills.
Sorting the rear arch out:
Yes, it looks a state, but it had to be done, and was being covered up anyway.
Story is long, but it took a lot of time, effort and patience. We had no "tools" to shape the steel..we actually ended up shaping hard steel into the shape by hand (and a hammer!). It took a massive amount of labour to get the bloody things to go right..but..first thing we did was those spring mounts:
We plowed through, sorting the back end out, which we did eventually. Finally, 2 months ago, we finished the back end.
We hadnt looked or touched the front since I got it last year, so didn't know the extent of that damage..well it wasn't as bad, but might as well have been:
There was a hole in the "floor" on the passenger side, under the seat..if you can call it a floor that is
Anyway, after spending night and day trying to get this GTE on the road for PV (the plan was to finish all the bodywork as well
She's MOT'd (failed on brakes..which is understandable being sat/rusting brakes for 12 months! and the wiper washers
I gotta say..there was plenty of times when I thought..shove it, send it to the scrappy..but we saved it from its death bed, and it was worth every sweat, blood and tear shed! She drives fantastic, feels great, and don't look so bad considering :wink:
So..hands up..who thinks I should get an award for being:
a) stupid enough to take on the project
b) patient enough to see through this repair
last but not least c) only person to ever repair a dead nova of this extent and getting it done myself?
Any other awards/pat on the back/congrats etc fully appreciated!
Btw, those that want to see the handy work, she will be a "WIP" car at PV just hanging about, and, I might give her a run down the 1/4 mile (funds permitting) to see what power I can get out of her..
But, I am grateful for my dad putting in all the work he did, and plenty of beer was given to compensate this. Pics need to be taken of the "finished" product.
Why did I bother? F**k knows, she should have been in the scrappy now, but I couldnt justify doing it as I loved the car so much.
Anything is possible with hard work and dedication..and if a gal like me can do it, anyone can :wink:
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Originally Posted by scott.parker
