Disassembly, defects detection and compiling parts list

We started dismantling first removing decorations. Many decoration elements with broken attachment screws were simply glued in place.

Ventilation unit is demolished and replaced by air conditioner cooling radiator. Original air ducts are dismantled and replaced by soft plastic hoses led to widen by grinding radio opening on dashboard.

Thermometer hose is leaking so whole temperature gauge shall be replaced. Glass of gauge combination is broken and decoration damaged.

Shrivel glove compartment plastic housing looks like made from ancient animal skin.

Wooden dashboard decorations are damaged by careless removing and installation of dashboard gauges. In some areas even veneer layer together with top varnish has been unripe. Completely separated segments had been simply glued in place with no restoration of warmish layer, but other damages were left as they are.

Decoration rims on both round gauges are damaged - someone already before us has made note on the gauge about noticed defects. 

Front section of the floor (upper panel) has been rusted through in several places. To avoid sinking of the heel at the accelerator pedal there was riveted on aluminium plate, but missing lower attachment of the accelerator pedal to the floor has been valued as unnecessary luxury. It will be necessary to replace both levels of the floor panels in the front section.

Front wings have been replaced, but unfortunately masters probably have been short in time to adjust gaps and surface levels among various panels before painting.

Damaged front lamps have been repaired using epoxy glue and adhesive tape. Instead of original moulding attachments there are used usual screws just drilling holes through chromed decorations.

Repairing bumper attachment after accident separated pieces of the bracket has been welded in wrong sequence thus preventing installation of the bumper in correct position. Right rear corner after accident has not been drawn out to the initial position for around 1 cm.

There is installed wrong distributor cap for this model - high voltage wires are too close to the engine hood.

Air intake duct of the air filter housing is creasy and has strange sharp edged cut-outs.

 RHS parking brake cable is rusted and all rubber dust guards are disintegrated. In opposition LHS assembly has been recently replaced.

 Cross member under the trunk floor needs to be replaced. Bottom protection layer has been applied on greasy surface so it started to fall down during dismounting of gearbox.

Rear gearbox support obviously has experienced some smash-up and its shape is far from original. Front propeller shaft unit is self-composed welding from two pieces of similar shafts. Seems it has not been balanced after welding.

 Exhaust manifold has a crack - preferably it should be replaced. Exhaust system is self made and differs from original installation - whole system is welded together in one piece from the front till the rear. Repaired blown out areas are leaky again.

Fuel pump unit is accommodated from another type of car - original attachment brackets are modified to fit this unit.

There are used adopted pressure sensors which required modification of wiring - wires are simply swaddled together. Self made modifications on the gearbox control junction - for some reason there are attached additional wires to original wire harness though some connections are left empty.

Flywheel teeth are worn out. Some attachment bolt has been ruptured and residuals are left in the hole.

Both RHS air bellows have a vast of deep cracks and must be replaced. All rubber mounts of the engine and front axle are destroyed and must be replaced.

The engine is drawn out and installed on the engine rig for further disassembly and defects detection.

Passenger compartment air inlet filter hasn't been replaced ever. As original mounts are missing self made spacer from cardboard is used to attach windscreen wiper mechanism to the body. 

Close to handle handbrake main wire is broken.

 Under the dashboard instead of ventilation unit air conditioner heat exchanger is installed. Ventilation unit mechanism and controls are exterminated, partly adopted for use with later added conditioner unit. Air ducts composed from different size hoses simply showed together.

 Broken outer shell of tachometer cable - cable shall be replaced.Broken bolt on oil pressure indicator line.

Wrong technical solution installing alternator led to destroyed alternator bearing and worn out attachment - flange on the alternator axle is rotating almost freely driving water pump just by accident. Original coupling unfortunately is lost.

Alternator pulley has been broken and later welded - we shall check condition of the groove to decide on further actions in case this pulley fits to original alternator.

Heating pipes to the demolished heating unit are simply plugged.

Simply weaved to original harness additional wires are falling into pieces as touched. There is no more fire danger as battery is disconnected.

High pressure pump control solenoid has not been properly working as control wire was not connected.

Rearmost part of ventilation air duct is the only part from ventilation system left in the passenger compartment.

Rear axle is removed - all rubber attachment elements must be replaced. Detailed defects detection will follow disassembling it completely.

Front axle is removed - complete disassembly and defect detection to follow.

All remaining components and parts are removed from the body and it goes to preparation for surface cleaning. First we put disassembled body on the rig to transport it to the cleaning station followed by welding work area.

We started rear axle disassembling first removing braking mechanism. Brake cylinders had been recently replaced, but other neat details of brake calipers like springs, pins and dust shields were destroyed. Brake pads were swished off and falling out of the calipers.

RHS handbrake wire was rusty and shroud was broken.

Disc braking mechanism of this model is attached to the axle through bushing. Bushing sealing rings and plastic inserts were worn out and grease was mixed with mud. Sliding surface of the bushing contrary part was damaged by rust.

We completely disassembled main gear of the rear axle for inspection.

Drive pinion had been experienced crash at some time in its life, but it had been a little serviced after that accident - someone had grinded sharp edges of both broken teeth. Separator ring of the bearing also was damaged. Teeth of the pinion had left clear footprints on the housing of the differential.

Locking nut was damaged trying to open it without proper tooling, so even with correct wrench it was almost impossible to unscrew it.

Front axle bearings had been recently serviced. Both front axle brake callipers had been recently serviced and shock absorbers were in working condition.

RHS suspension bellows were in acceptable condition.

All rubber supports and travel limiters of the front suspension were completely lost. Irrespectively of function rubber had been lost elastic features.

All parts were put into boxes for storage according to function groups.

Engine defects detection we started first dismounting all motor ancillaries.

As self-fitted universal joint was not properly fixed on the generator axle, shaft outlet like a generator bearing was worn out. Such specific shim was used to adjust installation angle of the generator on the destroyed water pump and generator base plate.

Seal between water pump and engine block had been improved by silicon.

All auxiliary drive gears were removed from block for detailed inspection.

On the engine repair rig we stripped down also engine block. All components were cleaned and checked before storage in the shelves.

Engine head had been recently serviced, but black depositions on the valves and pistons were signaling about problems with oil penetration into combustion chambers. Camshaft was in acceptable condition with no signs of excessive wear.

Crankshaft was removed from the engine so we could see scratches and excessive wear of the main and connecting rod bearing shells. Pistons were checked before decision to replace piston rings was taken. Like bearing shells also crankshaft main bearing journals and crankpins were worn out.

Engine block was completely disassembled preparing it for the surface grinding.

All disassembled and inspected parts were shelved until further activities. All parts were separated depending on expected further actions.

Body was attached to our cleaning-welding-painting rig. All leather interior trim remains were removed from body shell starting preparation for sand blasting.

 Quite a lot of corrosion was found at the A-pillar as front wings were removed. Someone had been already trying to repair body in this area.

Body inside was covered with some tar hiding condition of the floor surface, but this hole at the accelerator pedal was obvious. A lot of debris was collected in the body cavities by the rear seat stimulating corrosion of the body from the inside. Poor restoration putting patches over the existing holes thus contributing even faster corrosion.

Body from underneath is also covered by some strange tar which can be removed just manually. Jack socket as touched felt out of the bracket it should be attached.

 Luggage compartment completely was covered by some thick tar layer which we had to remove manually. Under the tar we discovered that whole area of the floor was damaged and not aligned.

Those thick tar pads in the passenger compartment were also removed manually.
Under those carpets on both sides we found completely destroyed side walls - see cracks connecting all round holes and tracing to the outer edges of the panel.

Side recesses in the luggage compartment also were cleaned from tar prior to sandblasting. Here we also found areas with patches welded from the outside over the holes and thus speeding up corrosion.

In the engine compartment structural components had just superficial surface corrosion.

As tar overlay was removed manually from the floor it become apparent that bottom flange of the front crossbeam was lost. Especially bad condition was noticed at the rearwards facing part of the crossbeam. Though also front faced structure of the crossbeam needed serious repair.

Front part of the body was manually prepared for further cleaning. Right side of the body was in a bit worse condition so just after sandblasting we could see more on this side.

Rear wheel housings also underwent manual tar cleaning. Wheel housings had been several times repaired again and again welding over new layers of metal and filling gaps by filler. Now there was needed to remove all those kilograms of stone-like materials.

There was a fresh steel sheet put over the rear wing rusted area. It is generally wrong to put fresh steel sheet over rusty area - there were again bubbles under the paint on the rear wings along the bottom edge because of severe corrosion. More than 1 cm of filler on some areas of the rear wing did not help to stop destructive impact of corrosion.

Lower floor panels in the front part had been repaired and there were no visible rusted through cavities in this area. Unfortunately lower floor panels are welded to upper floor plates which were rusted through in almost each section - over the lower floor, behind it as well as behind crossmember. Rear part of lower front had been repaired at some time, but again it was severely damaged by corrosion so whole floor panels we had to replace.

Floor panels and structural components under the rear seats except handbrake cable attachment bracket areas had been relatively well survived.

Trunk floor reinforcement rib as well as trunk floor were destroyed.

Bottom part of the rear panel as well as rear longerons had severe corrosion damages. There were similar damages on both sides of the rear panel. Outer sheet of the rear panel was heavily corroded along the whole width and had rusted through areas in vicinity of exhaust outlet.

Rear crossbeam is integral part of the rear panel so we proposed to replace rear panel at once with smashed trunk floor and front trunk crossmember.

Some engine components were cleaned straight after disassembly to get better view on condition. Crack on the exhaust manifold requiring new spare part.

Rollbar was checked and prepared for storage till painting.

Front axle was completely disassembled to check condition of the components. All steering system components were assessed and worn out parts included into necessary parts list.

Body bottom and interior cleaning we started first removing unusually thick tar layer applied on the bottom surface from inside and outside. This layer was hiding a lot of careless repair traces. Holes in the rear inner wings in the area of rear window dimples were plugged by this tar. There were also hided holes on other surfaces of inner wings and floor pan in the same way.

Exterior paint of the body was removed first manually.

There was discovered deep dint on the side of the body close to rearmost edge of right side window. This area has been repaired in the way requiring application of more than 1 cm of filler over this area. In the same area, but from the inside of the body, there was rusted through window sill area also requiring restoration.

Rear panel at the lower quarter was separated by rust across the whole width of the body. Around 1 cm of filler had been applied on the body sides between doors and rear wheel arches. Behind rear wheels layer of the filler on the body panels was of similar thickness.

Removable body components were completely cleaned manually. Rear edge of the trunk lid had been already repaired putting fresh metal straight over the rust. With no saying such solution did not lasted enough - there were again holes on the same area.

Body had been cleaned manually from tar on the bottom and inside, as well as paint over the external surfaces. As preparations were finished body was moved to the sand blasting camera for cleaning of repairable panels.

Sand blasting frigidly exposed all hidden metal defects. There were rusted holes in the engine compartment on the front panel reinforcement profiles.

There were holes in the engine compartment around the firewall, front inner wing and front longeron junction. There were holes in the engine compartment along junction between firewall and inner wing.

We found rusted through holes on the firewall. Corrosion had been destroyed front panel and windscreen frame close to ventilation hatch. There were even rusted through holes on the inner panel under the dashboard.

There were holes in the spillway of the softtop storage box leading water from the sofftop under the rear seats and into the luggage compartment.

Some centimetre deep footprint of the broken propshaft left after accident on the engine tunnel. Front crossbeam had been replaced, but again it was bent and broken.

There were cracks at all attachment holes of the crossbeam. Both profiles of the front crossbeam were not properly welded together. Old corroded part of previous part had been left underneath facilitating even faster corrosion of the structure.

Front longerons had been repaired putting fresh metal patches just over defects, leaving source of corrosion untouched. Three layers were removed to discover internal condition of structure. Similar situation was an opposite side of this junction - also several layers applied over each other.

Both front wing attachment flanges were destroyed by rust along the whole length.

Front end pieces of doorsteps had been several times repaired, but again rusted through. Front ends of the doorsteps were destroyed. Rear ends of the doorsteps also were in similarly bad condition.

Rear wheel arches had been several times repaired laying metal patches from both, inside and outside, finally spreading tar over such "sandwich". Similar situation was on opposite side.

All possible repair methods had been used on this car - gas welding, riveting and MIG welding had been applied here. Through holes in those panels water had been flooding into the doorsteps. This hole in the rear window dimple on the rear inner wing before was plugged by mixture of tar and filler.

Inner wings on the areas faced towards outer wings and along the wheel arches were dotted with holes over the whole surfaces. Similar was situation on both sides of the body.

There were rusted through holes at the junction of the rear longerons and doorsteps. Corroded were bodies of the longerons around braking arms attachment points. Overlaying longeron patches had to be removed to prevent further decomposition of the longerons. Damaged areas should be repaired in proper way replacing rusty places.

Rear part of the floor pan under the rear seats was completely destroyed. Handbrake cable brackets were repaired in wrong way and it was necessary to redo it as well. Trunk floor, trunk floor crossmember and longerons at the rear of the car were completely destroyed by rust.

It was needed to self-produce and replace rear longerons completely. It was not possible to restore rear panel - damages were too all-round. Close to silencer bracket like rear panel also trunk floor was rusted through.