Red Rallye resto

[Ben_w]

So, the insignia kinda sparked my interest in cars again after a rough 12-18 months. That led to me looking at the Rallye and thinking, I'd really like to drive that again….

If I'm to do that, there's a lot of work to do yet. So, this afternoon, the red rallye restoration recommenced.

First job was to get under it and see how its held up underneath. All of it got bare metalled, it all got zinc primered and some got done with the two part epoxy. The boot floor got stone chipped and painted.

Considering it spent 9 months though autumn, winter and spring on a wet grass bank, and then another summer, autumn and winter on my drive, it's held up incredibly well. It's proven to me I've used the right stuff. There is a little surface rust towards the front bulkhead, but this is due to this section only getting zinc primered and the rust actually appears to be the zinc in the primer. A rub with a finger and it's gone. Good stuff. So, the pics (and this is exactly how I've found it after all this time, no cleaning etc)





Boot floor and tank area (this bit's been epoxy mastic’d)









Very, very pleased with that lot.

So, got busy with a small wire brush in a drill at the front of the car to remove the surface rust. You can see how clean the metal is underneath.







Now, I'm not happy with this triangular strengthener. It's out of shape, probably from errant jacking and there is surface rust under the mounting flanges and God knows what else under the body of it





There's a tag that sits over the chassis rail which oddly isn't spot welded. I pulled this back.





I'm currently investigating if these little strengthener sections are available. They appear to be fixed with a total of 5 spot welds. My plan is to drill out the spot welds and replace if i can find new parts or clean up, straighten and then replace if they are not.

I need to buy a new grinder tomorrow. My mate needed his 110v back so gave me another but it's not an M14 spindle, which all my wire brush attachments are. Weather forecast is good for tomorrow so plan is gym, nip to argos for a grinder, then subframe off and finish bare metalling the front end/base of the bulkhead. I'm also looking to get a rotisserie so i can spin it over and work at it in a far more ergonomically comfortable position. My shoulder still isn't right and thoughts are at the mo I've done the rotator cuff (too many years of throwing shot putts, discuses and hammers….) plus it's far safer having a grinder with a wire brush doing 10k rpm at arms length, rather than inches directly above your face….