73 Stag Rebuild

[73stagman]

This is how the Stag was when I bought it (less than £200) back in October 2009

It looks reasonable and the description on ebay was "a fairly sound rolling shell"
Well the rolling bit was a joke. As there was no diff in place the rear wheels were supported by the inner wheel arches (you can see the crazy angle they lean in at) where the VERY thick underseal became an exceptionally good brake! Still with the use of the winch mounted on the trailer we managed to drag the car on and get it home! Today saw the major welding work completed and now I only have some minor repairs to do to the boot floor. I did this after I had to cut the shell from the frame I welded it to so that I could transport it to its new home! Yes we had to move house 18 months ago after I had removed all the bits that would roll along with the bits that wouldn't
The car had been partially fitted with a rover v8 engine, see the tell tale hump in the bonnet. I have decided to keep this engine as the documents now received have the change noted. Apparently this engine swap was started by an earlier owner then all sorts of changes of hands took place but never recorded by DVLA however one of the more dutiful owners had obviously updated the V5 at some time because all the body numbers and the engine numbers match the current status. Anyway thats enough for now.
More to come over the next few weeks

[Guest]

Brillaint Part 1.

I am looking forward to the next installment. Having a RV8 doesn't mean you have to have the bonnet bulge though.

[Giles]

Looking forward to the next update - find these restoration threads really interesting.

[73stagman]

The bonnet bulge will actually be redundant. I have a Buick "Intake" manifold and Holley Carb set up to "set up". However I like the look of the bonnet bulge as it harks back to the 70's / 80's muscle cars with huge air intake bulges. Just can't help the old boys tastes!
I also have plans for what I thought was unique exhaust system but it turns out its been done and the proof is on "youtube" I will post again later but right now SWMBO wants to go shopping!

[dasadrew]

......Today saw the major welding work completed....

.......I am looking forward to the next installment...........

Never mind the next instalments, I'd like to see the previous ones!

[Guest]

Ahhh...it could be that I am of the same generation as you then with the 70's customisation liking for a power-bulge.

But for me, I wouldn't want that on a Stag. Mine has a Rover V8 and Holley set-up with no power-bulge, although the air-filter pan needed to be flared up a bit to allow the choke butterflies to open properly.

[73stagman]

just got enough time to post these little tasters

[73stagman]

And the engine bay

[StagManiac]

What a great project! Do you have a target date in mind for completion or will it be "as and when?"

Paul

[73stagman]

All welding is now complete. Apart from the small bit needed to the boot floor. Probably get that done tomorrow. Paint is ordered and paid for. The plan is to have it back on its own wheels by the end of this year. Thats a full suspension rebuild both ends but the engine and gearbox are ongoing. I am hoping to have it done for its fortieth birthday, Mid 2013.... plenty of time for that to come forward if possible and back if necessary!

[73stagman]

Since I have had a day off from the car, I thought I would spend some time here with an update. Or more correctly a wind back as most of this work was completed some time ago.
Once I got the car home it was important that the first thing to do was to ensure I hadn't bought a "scrapped" car. I wrote to DVLA describing the transaction that I had completed and also included the car reg number, the shell number and the engine number that was in the car. After a week I got a reply that was quite informative. If I paid the required fee, DVLA would contact the currently registered owner and confirm that the car was sold not stolen, and that it hadn't been "recorded" as scrapped or otherwise written off.
Two weeks after paying the correct fee and less than a month from buying the car the V5 arrived with my name as the new owner... there are only three others recorded!
Included was a confirmation that no sorn was required as the last time the car had been registered was in 1981.
So now this beauty was worth returning to something like its former glory!

Now minus its bonnet in order to let the dog see the rabbit so to speak.
The strip down now began
First things first that lump had to come out

It is of P5B Origin but it would appear that it has never fired a plug since being installed in here. There is no soot in the exhaust manifolds! even though they were as rusty as a rusty thing in rusty town! Fortunately these have proved to be hole free and have now been shot blasted and treated to a manifold paint treatment and have been fired in an oven at work! Pictures of these at a later date. At the moment they are tucked away under my bench at work! along with the cylinder heads and four barrel inlet manifold! Nice place my work

[73stagman]

Once that was out of the way a quick tour of the remains showed that the shell was sort of sound compared to some I've seen! The holes in the floor are pretty normal for Triumph cars (This is my third Triumph rebuild!) as are the knackered outer sills. The outer front wings and inner wheel arches as well as the outer rear wheel arches would all need attention. The headlamp panels and the front valance were all damaged and sort of repaired following earlier "fender benders" The bit that was surprising was not so much the amount of rot in the inner sills and ends of the out riggers but the difficulty in spotting this damage without taking the outer sill off. There was no real evidence of any damage to the inner sill from inside the car or from underneath because the source of the rot is how the floor is attached to the sill causing a moisture trap and allowing rust to go unnoticed. Fortunately the outer sills were totaly rotted away on the bottom edges and so were in no danger of being patched, leaving the inner sill damage to go unnoticed.
The other damage to the floor areas looks like at some time the missing diff tried to get out from underneath of its own accord! The section under the back seat was completely battered upward. Other than that no one seems to have understood what suitable jacking points were and every available flat piece of floor had at some time supported the whole of the car! However on the whole the floors were pretty sound so stood up to this reasonably well. Just needed lots of ignorance, brute force a large hammer and some elbow / shoulder time. Now the pictures follow(It seems I can only upload two at a time... these are probably too big but I cant see where the limits are detailed in order to resize correctly.)

[73stagman]

41.jpg

This is inside the front driver's side wheel arch and as you can see there is very little serious stuff here. Th splash panel and outer arch will need replacing but otherwise its not so bad

22.jpg

This area is full of old filler. Some of it hides rust and some , most, of it is a typical body shop repair following a minor front to rear thumping

42.jpg

This is the section under the rear seat which has been bashed back to something l;ike its original shape. The sound proofing will be replaced after the painting is done.

[dasadrew]

Great stuff!

[Rubce]

Fascinating. Keep the updates coming.

Best Wishes

Bruce