I thought i would show the pictures in here and make a complete time line
So on my 19th birthday I decided I wanted to learn how to look after my car/s this was brought on by being ripped off by a tyre company in my home town. The car had been stood there for a good 6 years. I replaced the leaking radiator and a few little bits, while doing this with my Dad we saw that the exhaust manifold to cylinder head was leaking, which was then attempted to be tightened up, this then proceeded to snap the stud in the head.... My dad words were "no problem we can drill it out" as you can imagine it did not go well.
This lead me in to looking for a 2nd hand head and manifold, the chap on the phone said "yeah i guess we could get thos part off the complete engine if we must, 40 quid each... or you can have the whole engine for £40 and get it out of here" - no brainer there. Picked up the engine and a hynes manual and a socket set (the start of my own tool collection). so read the engine section least 4 times and then set to work. head came off new one went on and all went back together nicely - cue smug Benji grin
.She then went for an MOT on my 21st birthday and failed on sills, these were welded up and then she passed and she became my daily driver, so i could restore my Volvo 440 SE half way though the restore the little duchess decided to brake one of her CVT belt and throw it all over the road, await rescue, rescue came but couldn't tow her (even though i said that she was an AUTO, but they didn't listen, the part of the remaining belt had jammed up the CVT unit, managed to cut away the locking belt and then she was able to be tow, slowly.
At this time a young lad driving far to quickly over took us and after a corner or two smashed into an on coming car, his partner was thrown from the car and was not breathing, My recovery driver just stood there saying "what should I do" so there was me doing mouth to mouth, although i am very pleased to say that she was fine and i believe still is to this day.
So the multi coloured 440 was rushed back in to service, and she was happy to do it
, Duchess the 340 then went off the road, and that is where she stayed, I got hold of a set of belts after painfully searching. and then proceed to remove the CVT units and remove the belts... well what was left of one of them. replaced the belts and there worked, but she was retired to the hard-standing, while this was all happening i claimed my dads Rover 600 and that was now my daily driver (he never looks after his cars, and sadly the piston rings died) but not before the the 440 was completed!
Sadly this success was short lived as she was written off not long after
This time in my life was not a good time with cars, after my lovely Lilac Lil was written off, I got a S40 this one lasted 3 weeks, before a women in a rush went into the side of me.... the pay out allowed me to get a better S40 T4 this time (i miss her)
However this now free up some time to work on Duchess.
I started with the rust holes and damaged boot lid, at this point i was still very much learning the rust was treated and filler was used... I know if you are going to do a job do it right, but the sills are on the list of things to be done now.
The alloys were saved from my beloved 440
the rear door was so badly rusted it was replaced and the arch was showing rust signs, as i was not able to find the time i did what every good engineer would do..... used duct tape!!
another bad section of rust, this was due to the leaking rad and a Benji with not much knowledge
So now i decided to learn, I went to Lakes autos, and cut the front end off another 340 and a front valence and part of the wings off another.
and then set about fixing the duct taped arch and the sill holes
Start next on the wings and doors
Tea break time..
at some point in her life the front wing was dented, instead of taking it of and fixing it, they just cut a hole through the bulk head to get to the dent...
cleaned it up painted and welded a new piece of metal in
Next attempt was to take care of the front slam panel and valence
snapped a bolt in the bumper mount.. bugger
ground off the original front panel
in place for the new one
while this panel was off I decided "I know i'll remove the water container so i dont damage anything when I weld" this was not so easy, as I soon found out that the water container was only held in place by the underseal in the wheel arch.... and the battery tray was equally as bad.
so sorting this first while i could get in
and welded everything up
welded the new bottom sections in the wings and gave them a large coat of underseal
Fitted a the new bumper mount and a second horn, she does not sound like noddy coming around the corner
Made a new battery tray
and then turned my attention back to the door and body work, i used this blue hammerite stuff... NEVER AGAIN!!! it sprayed ok and nice colour tbh, but when it came to remove it it was a nightmare, it never actually dried
This now saw the end of summer and time for me to go back to Uni, so she was wrapped up for the winter, here she is ready to be wrapped up
The next year in spring, she was uncovered to find that the rust i thought i had got rid of was not so gone...
the bonnet saw the worst of it
I decided to sand back the rust and re-clean it up, and went way over the top with primer to seal the rust away, this kinda work for a bit - this is how she stayed until i finished uni and found a stable job, which leads on to present day and when she was moved to devon
Sorry for the long post, but wanted to give a detailed look in to what has already been done over the last 11 years
some pictures were not included but are here:
http://s1308.photobucket.com/user/Benja ... ry/Duchess
Thank you for looking
Ben
