1970 Notchback

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Sjazze
Posts: 9
Joined: 14th September 2016 - 11:43pm
Location: Belgium - Leuven

1970 Notchback

Post by Sjazze » 20th September 2016 - 8:27pm

Hi, I am Jasper, 25 years old, living in Belgium.

Seven years ago I bought the Notchback with the idea to get it on the road with minimal work. Of course there was more work than expected and the to project got on a hold.

7 years later, a few degrees richer and some spare time I got him back out of the garage.

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I got it up the jack and checked out the underside, looked very nice. Once I got the interior out, I a was a bit less happy. there was some rust, noting very serious but it would need some care.

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The heater channels seemed very good optical, but after a bit of testing with a screwdriver I found out they were a bit crusty. The right hands side outer rocker was once replaced badly, the door does not line up as it should with the rocker.

After disassembling the left hand side rear wing I found that the back part of the rocker is completely rotten. Because of this, together with the crusty heat channels and the badly welded right rocker, I decided to do a body off restoration to be able to check the true state of the body and chassis.

First I pulled out the motor:
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Completely standard 1600 FI motor

Then I made a stand for the body and gathered some friends, the body came off on the first try, jeej!

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I made the stand high and wide enough to be able to store the chassis underneath it.

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The chassis did not stay long under the body, I started disassembling it to be able to clean it up and give it a nice new coating.

I went in one day from this:

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to this:

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I removed the rust with a wire brush. The back panel took some extra time, I had to clean it with paint stripper because of the interior glue.

After cleaning the topside, I started on the bottom side. It was covered with a rubber stone chip coating. To get this coating off, I used a Tercoo disc.

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At this point I am making some small repairs on the pans and looking for a nice coating for the pans.

The front wings are fiberglass, they are not in excellent condition but usable. I heard that the fit of these wings is not very good. If I can not make them fit as I want, original ones will need to be found.
The rear fenders are in a good state except the bottom rocker side, further research will show if a replacement panel is needed.

For the future: Finishing the chassis, ordering and installing two new heater channels, outer rockers and the front bumper replacement panels.

Color, motorization and ride height are unknown at this point.
Last edited by Sjazze on 28th May 2017 - 10:21am, edited 1 time in total.

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Editor
Posts: 5515
Joined: 10th October 2004 - 8:52pm
Location: Pensford, Bristol
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Re: 1970 Notchback

Post by Editor » 22nd September 2016 - 1:52am

Well done - never underestimate the amount of work needed, but it's 'quality' time, and quality work judging from your efforts so far.
Dave.

Sjazze
Posts: 9
Joined: 14th September 2016 - 11:43pm
Location: Belgium - Leuven

Re: 1970 Notchback

Post by Sjazze » 23rd September 2016 - 1:52pm

After cleaning the underside of the pans, I found some small holes in the battery tray. Some small hole became very rapidly larger holes and the panel was not repairable.
I tried to weld in a large sheet metal plate but I am not happy with the result. Ordered a replacement battery tray at werk34. I hope to get this in next week.

Also a family friend with lots of welding expertise will come hand have a look on the pan edges next week.
Hopefully I'm able to fix the battery tray and pan edges next week so I can start prepping the chassis for a nice coating!

Sjazze
Posts: 9
Joined: 14th September 2016 - 11:43pm
Location: Belgium - Leuven

Re: 1970 Notchback

Post by Sjazze » 28th May 2017 - 9:54am

It has been a long time since posting something here but I have been working on the car!

I got some small welding lessons and it gave the project an extra boost!

The pan edges are repaired!

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After this and welding in the new battery tray from werk34 I cleaned the whole chassis and gave it a nice coating with RX5/RX10 (special chassis coating with very good reviews)

After painting I had this:

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Next job, cleaning the front and rear axle/suspension.

On the front beam there was only a small repair needed on the mounting point to the chassis. The rear axle needed repairs on the bump stop form the IRS arms.

The tower to keep the bump stops in place was gone.

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Bought the repair parts for a bug and modified them to fit these arms.

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After this I cleaned all the parts of the front and rear and gave it a nice coat of paint.

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After all this welding and painting the fun part!

The chassis is build op with new rubbers and bearings where they are hard to reach or not to expensive.
  • The breaks have new lines, flexibles, pumps, calipers and pads. I somewhere have a brand new master cylinder but at the moment he is missing in action.
  • The rear wheel bearings are replaced, the front bearings are not yet in place because new disks will be bought one he goes on the road.
  • The front axle bearings where in excellent condition. They just got cleaned and greased again.
  • 4 new shocks and a new steering damper.
  • the ball-joints of the front suspension where still in very good condition, the dust caps are replaced and the joints are greased.
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Sjazze
Posts: 9
Joined: 14th September 2016 - 11:43pm
Location: Belgium - Leuven

Re: 1970 Notchback

Post by Sjazze » 28th May 2017 - 10:19am

After the chassis comes the body!

I already have new heater channels and outer skins and front bumper mount panels form CSP and inner arch repair pannels from Konny. I thought these panels would suffice to repair the body.

I started on the front wing first.

This wing had a nice surprise from the previous owner. patch panels welded over the rust and nicely painted in the original color.

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I started cutting out the rust and welding in new panels. I made the repair panels myself because good panels are hard to find for these sections.
I did it piece by piece to keep as much as possible form the shape of the wing.

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It needs some more grinding but overall I am quite happy with it. I'm still working on the box section for the strength, possibly I need to make a new section because is to damaged from the rust.

I also started working on the front bumper support and apron.

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The both bumper mounts where repaired by the previous owners with weld over parts. The underside of the front apron and spare tire hole and the inner part were also patched over completely and covered in a big layer of filler and fiberglass. I would never get this as I wanted it without weeks of work so I started emailing with Alex from ISP west and I he shipped me a whole front.

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This will save me a lot of time and because of all the other repairs panels it found it justifiable for my conscience.

Plans for this summer:

Building a rotisserie and getting the body ready for paint against the end of the summer.
The original color of the car is L97D Colorado Red Metallic and 9/10 it will get this color again.


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