S1 Rebuild(s)

[Dave Adams]

some pics of the rebuild process,

the top trailing arm bracket is broke......

the diff is sloping back a little (looking up) so that will need sorting.......

As you can see there isn't a lot of bracing in an S1 chassis, that will be sorted.

[1xf87h8w80hlh]

looking good i made plates with large holes to go over the bottom mounts welded on to releve stress form the brased tubes when u fit bottom wishbones

[Dave Adams]

Yeah Danny i will be doing the same to mine, i also noticed that my rack mounts are also braised on....odd..... unless it has been modified as the early S1's were supposedly poor rack alignment. but by the factory or previous owner?

[Dave Adams]

got the front wishbone mounts and shocker top mounts all welded in. i have spent some time making sure that the two wish bones are parallel to each other

and....

just a little bit of fettling to do and jobs a good one!

[Dave Adams]

well its been a busy weekend, i have fully welded the front suspension mounts and painted the new adjustable top wishbone mounts. The car is now on polly bush's front and rear with the only exception of the panhard rod which is still on rubber bushes. the trailing arms for the back axle and panhard rod have been taken back to bare metal and re-painted red to match the front wishbones (from previous owner...not brilliant but.....)

The chassis is now 90% painted and hopefully 100% by tonight. But i do still have to weld some bolts and studs to the chassis to assist with the rebuild process (one man job for me, so some "through bolts" will be welded studs to make my life easier)

[Dave Adams]

here are some pictures of the progress......look painted chassis,

i am leaving the roll bar until last as it will be on display and i don't want it scratching

here are the rear trailing arms and panhard rod......

[Paul Sheridan]

Dave, I notice that you have not put a support bar across to go up inside the front edge of the dash scuttle, are you going to fix the front edge by using ally plate down to the bulk head top cross member?   

[Dave Adams]

There are two uprights welded on the chassis but not across the top of them because i will be modifying the scuttle top snd don't know where it will end up....i have also welded a plate for the bonnet catch to secure to. i will post some pics later.....
i thought to make the bulkhead from 1/4 ply covered in a layer of GRP.

[Dave Adams]

a bit of an early finish today.....only 10 hours at work, so i did a bit more to the S1.

I have started to pannel out the interior. I am using the old side panels to do the interior as i have acquired some new fibreglass sheet for the out side.

the floor is going to be Plywood 10mm for the front and rear section of the floor and 12.5mm for the middle section of the floor (where you stand to get in the car)

here  are the scuttle front supports i spoke about earlier, and you can see the plate that the bonnet catch will bolt to (through whatever the bulkhead will be made from.)

i keep chipping away at it whenever i can.....Stoneleigh may be possible......

[allan wheatley]

Item number: 110829150050 on ebay

if your after front supencion bits

[Dave Adams]

Not as much done as i would like to be at so far.....to be honest i had hoped for a bit more progress today, but a very poorly stray cat came into my garage and i had to take it to the RSPCA. One thing and another it took 3 hours!

As you can see i have started panelling out the interior...it uses a fair combination of size and types of panel

the floor is 10mm ply and 12mm ply, the forward bulkhead is 4mm ply, the seat back is 6mm ply and the transmission tunnel is 2mm fibreglass sheet and 3mm ply. It will all be sealed at the edges with silicone and most will have a layer of new fibreglass to give it all some extra strength.

[Dave Adams]

I am constantly chipping away at the S1 and if i get home early enough i will have an hour or so in the garage, so last night it was the fitting of the pedal box and steering column before the rest of the cockpit is fitted. Because access will be very restricted when its all together....

and....

One problem highlighted in the fitting of the pedal box is that the bulkhead wall thickness of 4mm has affected the rest position of the brake pedal. (about 15mm or so....a pedal ratio of about 4-1, so not bad really)  this will be easy to fix now, as the bulkhead will be cut away round master cylinder to allow it to sit on the mounting bracket directly. This will bring the pedals all level with each other again.

[Dave Adams]

I am not unhappy with this weekends progress so far, i have now got the cockpit fitted and painted, so the reassembly will get going now......

and...as well as......

one issue that has shown up is the rear axle location is still not right, now the polly bushes are fitted the O/S axle mount is out of alignment, this is the last bracket / adjustment by the previous owners that looked like it was OK and in fact turns out i was wrong, it points the axle trailing arm too far to the outside of the chassis........Its already cut off and a new one ready to weld in place. All this was found out as i offered the axle to the body work to make sure it does not touch anywhere, i noticed the axle was "binding again" the rubber bushes must have been much more flexible and miss-led me....