Early HPE restoration

[peteracs]

Not much to report on the car, the bodywork is apparently moving on after about 3 months of inactivity, fingers crossed.

Last year I bought a pair of the red door lights fitted to early cars, the lenses were in decent condition, but the internals were all rusted as I received them, not my best deal, but they did come with the rubber seals for the doors which are useful. I decided to ditch the bulb holders and bought a pair of generic holders and a number of the rubber covers I have previously used on the water temp sensors on the Spider and will need for this car’s engine. A bit of fettling and it all goes together quite nicely.

Peter

[SanRemo78]

Nice find Peter, also on Gammas and Stratos.... That's why they can be soooo expensive. Especially the ones you didn't get that have the Carello logo in a horseshoe shape on the lensed.
Guy

[betaveloce]

Top tip: Bielstein in Germany sells those new for not much: https://www.bielstein.com/Light-for-door-Carello-14784718  

[peteracs]

Hi

I think Guy mentioned these AFTER I had bought these second hand ones, unfortunately. I just did not want to effectively scrap what I had, just seemed wrong when the lenses were in good condition. Also I did get the door to A pillar seals with the wiring which was a bonus.

Peter

[peteracs]

Hi

I had the Siem headlight bowls back from re-silvering. Not quite as I had imagined them with a few marks on them which I need to clean up, but they will be perfectly acceptable when finally assembled and a lot better than when I sent them off. I am probably getting too picky in my old age. I bought some Sikaflex 221 to reseal the lenses back in and to provide a seal around where the bulb retaining metal attaches to the main bowl. The original seals were old and not reusable.

Peter

[peteracs]

Hi

During The Restoration Show I had a chat with a guy called Simon Cox who works for Longstone Tyres in Bawtry. He has a Coupe and is looking for a 1600 engine for it if anyone knows of one? As well as that he also has a very rusty HPE facelift and a VX Coupe which is engineless and missing the front end, the front end went to repair his Coupe after an accident. My HPE has very very bad rear wheel arches, more patches than original, and I wondered if the Coupe rear he had was in usable condition. On quick inspection they do look in good condition, so I called in at John the body guy's place, had a talk with him and he was going to measure up the wheel arches on the original Coupe I have which donated the front parts to the HPE to see how similar they are. We know the turret tops are higher, but they are good on the HPE and are simply a welded section attached to the wheel arch. If they are usable this will save a bunch of time and money.

One positive is that work on the HPE sills is continuing and should be completed soon which has been a major job to replace them all.

[peteracs]

Hi

Decision made not go the Coupe rear wheel arch donor route, so if anyone wants a Coupe body for parts, mainly rear end looks to be good, get in touch.

Had some photos through of the work done, so thought I would post here. These show repair to subframe, right hand side lower sill repair, right side upper sill below door repair and left side inner sill which was also the same as the repair to the right side. The inner and upper sills were made in house, the lower outer sills were supplied by Mark.

Peter

[peteracs]

More

[peteracs]

Had an update from the body guy. All the sills are now complete (inner, middle, outer and upper) as well as various other areas needing sorting. They have now installed a roll over hoop so they can get on with the rear wheel arches which are a complete mess, so hopefully more progress together with an appropriate bill. I am looking forward to having the body back painted as the big bills should then be over.

Peter

[Nigel]

Exciting progress Peter.

Looking forward to seeing it in a couple of weeks.

N.

[WestonE]

Great to see it coming together

[peteracs]

Hi

Visited the car end of last week with Nigel.

Work has been going well and John commented that Dale should have the welding finished during July, we will wait and see, but hopefully near to finishing at least.

Currently on with the rear wheelarch/turrets which are a mess as the photos show, but will look well when finished.

Peter

[peteracs]

One item which I had almost forgotten about was the front subframe which John the body Guy had taken off. It was in decent condition and he sent it off to be powder coated. I picked it up on my last visit. Most likely the only part which will be powder coated, came out very nice. Hard to photograph, but here for the record.

Peter

[Nigel]

Hi Peter,
I don't know which subframe you've had coated, but the rear mounting bolt holes
vary between early and late versions.
Early have the bolts screwing into the base of the firewall directly, late type bolt fixings
go into small triangular 'outriggers' that were welded to the outside
of the firewall.
I suggest the subframe is offered up to the car prior to body completion.

(sorry I didn't think of this more recently)

Nigel

[peteracs]

Hi Nigel

John originally made a support frame for the original early subframe mounts and then realised the replacement front had different mountings so had to rejig the support frame to suit.

I have not checked, but given he removed the subframes, he was aware of which we needed to have painted.

I will double check tomorrow.

Peter

[peteracs]

Hi

I checked the subframe and it has two pairs of holes at the rear, whereas on another old subframe it has two holes and two locating pins which fit into the body and I know this pin version is on the early cars, so happy the powder coated one is the correct one for the HPE now.

I am unsure if there were only two styles of subframe? Anyone know?

Photos show the powder coated one for later cars and an old one from early cars.

Peter

[SanRemo78]

The things you learn! Mine has the locating pin so it must be an early one then. The subframe bolts onto the pyramid shaped brackets welded to the front firewall at it's turn underneath the car. What are the threaded holes for on the later subframe Peter?

Guy

[peteracs]

Hi Guy

Simple answer, no idea. I did not take the subframe off, so not sure how it fits. I had assumed your car being a facelift would have the later subframe and mounting points, so wonder if there is more than 2 versions?

The thing which is curious on this later subframe is that there are no locating pins and hence just located by the bolts. I would have though the pins give a good reference for the front chassis at the bulkhead.

Peter

[peteracs]

Finally plucked up the courage to resell the headlights today. It actually went quite well, just messy sticky stuff which you need to try to only get on them places you want it!

I installed the lenses dry then put the sealant around the lens, finally smoothing with a flat bladed screwdriver.

The bulb holder to bowl sealing was a similar technique.

As a test on these first one I actually did yesterday, I ran water over the lens to check no water could get in, so a bit of confidence I will not end up with water in the lights when out in the rain.

Peter

[peteracs]

Forgot to add I also bought some generic bulb covers on Ebay which fit both the main and full beam Siem lights. I was not a fan of the originals which do not provide good sealing to the bulb area as the connectors poke through rather than are contained within.

Peter