Restoration Diary

Up to 10th October 2001    We're going to try and document as much of the rebuild of the M as possible. As we're actually seven weeks into the restoration at the time of writing much of the strip down has already taken place, but a lot of photographs have been taken, so we'll be able to show most of what has been done so far.

The initial aim was to separate the body from the chassis and treat them as two mini projects, as both need a lot of work. Preparation of the body for painting is going to take a lot of time and effort, so if we could get that right down down to the bare shell, we'd be better placed to work on it. This involved removing the interior and all fittings. 

The rear screen came out first, giving us easy access to the interior and fuel tank area. The interior at the rear of the car isn't in bad shape, but we wanted to get the carpets out to let us see what was what. The hardboard panels at the back came up easily, and the panel with speakers lifted up to reveal the fuel tank All seemed in fairly good condition on first inspection. 

I was surprised to see the two wooden struts going across the fuel tank, but checking the parts list confirmed the M was actually built with these formed into the GRP! The main problem with getting the carpets out was the mounting bolts for the seatbelt reels. Bolts went through the bodywork and onto a strap coming off the rear of the chassis. These were well rusted, and any amount of effort would not shift them. 

Still wanting to achieve something, we moved our attention to the front of the car. The bonnet was very loose, so removing the hinge bolts was an easy job, and gave us a lot more room in the single garage! Work on the bonnet itself is low priority at the moment, so this has been put into storage under a tarpaulin in the back garden!

With a little more room to spare, we went back to work on the bolts at the back of the car. We invested in a nut splitter in an attempt to get them off quickly, but as the nuts were under the rear wheel arch, the angle we had to come in at was very tight, and the splitter was not as effective as we would have hoped. Victory was gained with the help of a set of bolt cutters and a cutting disc on a Black and Decker multi tool. The two bolts on the other side followed soon after, enabling the future removal of the carpets on the rear shelf and on the rear arches. 

We had the opportunity to borrow a friends pressure washer, and although the weather was doubtful, we were able to tow the M out onto my driveway and have a good go at cleaning up the wheel arches and as much of the chassis as we could see. There was over an inch of mud in places, and a fair amount of oil in and around the engine bay, so it was an ideal opportunity to get a better view of the underside of the car. Some of the engine bay was also cleaned out, particularly around the sump area, and the difference was amazing. When it comes to taking the engine out, a little gunk should clean things up nicely. The chassis, at the front at least, doesn't seem to look too bad. There is of course some surface rust, but as can be seen from the photo. the original paint can be seen in some places. Suspension areas were all cleaned up and at the rear of the car the diff was cleaned of as much as we could reach.

Next to come out was the fuel tank. We had a suspicion that the interior was corroded, as when tapped, what sounded like rust could be heard falling off the inside. The main pipe to the filler cap area was very tight, but with copious amounts of Plusgas, the pipe eventually slipped off. We never expected there to be any fuel in the tank, but on moving it we realised that there was a small amount still in there. A bit worrying considering we had been cutting metal very close to that area! A bit of a clue to the condition of the tank was the colour of the liquid inside - a strange pale orange colour...! After we fed the tank through the gap in the wooden struts, it became apparent that there was some badly repaired crash damage on the o/s rear quarter. Although very difficult to spot from the outside, the inside showed a very sticky area of GRP, and a couple of self tapping screws holding the side light fitting on. The bolt to hold the rubber bumper to that quarter looked relatively new too, and was loose. We'll have to make a decision sometime about how stable this repair is, and if we end up grinding it back and renewing it before respraying.

With the weather slowly closing in, time to go back into the garage and look some more at the interior. Wiring is a particular issue with these cars. The vast majority of the wiring is black, and identification is by means of small rubber bands slipped over the wires themselves. Over time of course, these bands come off and identification is down to testing and wiring diagrams, so labeling of any wires that were still connected was paramount. The dashboard was already loose, so we started to disconnect it and label any wire we took off. Taking the windscreen out made life a little easier, so we had access to the whole of the back of the dash. This was in really good condition being fairly protected from the elements. The center panel of the dash comes out, so moving forward it would be nice to replace this with a decent wooden panel. All the instruments seem ok, but we'll have to wait and see if they all work or not! This also seemed like a good point to take the drivers door off, giving us a little more room to maneuver around the car and work in the cockpit area. The fitted door is damaged slightly at the front, but when we bought the car, Adrian gave us a spare, which will be prepared for spraying with the rest of the car.

With the dash disconnected, the only areas stopping us from removing the loom were the steering column/ignition and the engine bay. The steering column would have to be removed to take the body off anyway, so this seemed like a logical step to take. with the steering wheel removed, the rest of the column was straightforward to take apart, and this along with the column controls was labeled and stored. The only remaining section is an 8" strut coming through the bulkhead. Also in that area, the pedal box was removed, although this needed a little persuasion. A couple of swift hammer taps, and the entire unit came away. This is in generally good condition, but the pedal rubber is very well worn. This was certainly a well used car! The other main interior fitting was the drivers seat itself. This looked to have been removed/replaced fairly recently, as the bolts were quite new. I also found out why I had problems getting myself into the car - under each of the seat mounting, there were three wooden blocks, raising the height of the seat by about 2.5"! Being 6' 8", suffice to say these won't be replaced! 

Although not connected to the chassis directly, to clear up the body for future work the brake servo was removed. This was an easy removal after the fluid was drained from the reservoir. The bleed nipple on the front o/s wheel was loosened, and with some gentle pressure on the brake pedal, clean fluid flowed freely. Although the brake piping will be replaced throughout, this was a good sign.

After some deliberation, we have decided to leave the wiring loom in the car for the time being, as it goes through a hole and grommet in the bulkhead. We need to find out the best way of dealing with this before jumping in feet first. 

As far as we can tell at the moment, this covers all the fittings that may connect body to chassis, apart from 15 or so rusted 25 year old bolts that is! Next job, body off!