Project Bentley

Rear bumper has been mostly sorted and refitted (just needs a few tweaks to its positioning and a little more tidying work). Will have some photos to post in a bit. Already looking a lot better than it did!

A few more paint blemishes have been spotted, those should be sorted in fairly short order. Then we need to sort the leather on the front seats and get the centre console up to take a look at the seat switches. Almost looking forward to that job, given how long we've put it off :D
 
MrLOL said:
not like wheeler dealers where its all done in a weekend then ? :D
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Hell no. Think we're at 18 months at the end of May, and counting.

Initially when he bought the car I was in a patch of unemployment so I could help out rather more. These days I'm once again a wage slave, and can't.

Some photos of how the bumper looks right now:







We've got a little more to do to it, but it honestly looks a lot better in the metal than it did. Those endcaps were practically 'S' shaped they were that badly bent!
 
Couple of things.

1) That rear bumper job - I don't know how complex rear bumpers are on many cars, but I do know how bad this one is. This bad:



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The cost of a complete new one? Lots. Lots and lots and lots. Which is why the owner went with fixing what he had, unsurprisingly! It was pretty badly damaged in places, but the fixes are pretty damned good and will do until he wins the Euromillions.

2) We've talked over the idea today of removing the (utterly crap) viscous driven fan off the engine and fitting a Kenlowe in its place. As it stands, the viscous drive drags the fan around way too much at idle - it's like a damned wind tunnel in there if you're trying to work on something with the engine running, and it makes getting it up to temperature quite difficult as it's pretty much overcooling the radiator. I've pushed this idea for a while now (I really hate viscous fans), and we've seen how it might wire in so I'm finally getting the owner on-side with the idea.
 
On the temp gauge does she actually sit dead on the middle when warmed up, or just on the edge of the white?

Overcooling can be a bit of a problem on these, and cost a retarded amount to sort out properly (radatior, Fan, thermostat, etc).
 
We've occasionally got the temp gauge to get near to upright. Generally it sits a little way under. Like I say, that viscous drive on the fan is just dragging it way too much (though nowhere near as bad as when we first started working on the car).
 
Right, updates!

1) Viscous fan drive replaced. Certainly quieter than the old one, but no change in engine temperature or the rate at which it gets there. I'm still thinking about an electric fan to replace it entirely.
2) We had a go at removing the centre console to get the (broken) seat memory switches out. Turns out that you can't do it without removing the dashboard instrument fascia. Will have another go next weekend.
3) Bumpers have been back-to-blacked, looking pretty good now. Tyres less so, but that will be sorted soon.
 
Eventually I'll post a 'start-to-finish' look at our current job on this car, but I just wanted to show you this. This is what happens when you decide that the wood on your dashboard and console isn't quite the right colour....

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The upper fascia panels for the gauges and the wood in the console have been painted a deep piano black (looks utterly gorgeous), the rest of the wood is getting painted to match. The door cappings are also going to get redone as we aren't quite happy with their current condition. The seat memory switches are currently being repaired by an instrument mech' friend (saves us spending over £1k on a new panel, or ~£300 on an exchange one), and we've replaced the rear electric window inhibit switch.

On the very left of the dashboard you can see the map light/vanity mirror light switch hanging down. The little end piece of wood fascia that this switch attaches to was a complete and utter **** to get out. Bentley, in their boundless, infinite and glorious wisdom, thought it would be a particularly corking idea to make the nut that holds that piece on pretty much completely ******* inaccessible. Eventually a 7mm socket, fingers that were cramping up by the second, and a small amount of vehement cursing did the trick. Couldn't have made it simple and used a wingnut, could they? Bunch of ****s :D
 
Project Bentley (a few pics)

So, where was I?

Oh yeah. The dashboard was in pieces and the centre console was out of the car.

Little bit has happened since then....

1) The wood came back from the paintshop. More on that in a moment.
2) Our instrument mech friend pitched up at the pub one night with the seat memory switch panel fixed. Over £1k's worth of kit, sorted for rather less. This is what is technically known as an epic win :D The switch panel was duly fitted back into the console.
3) Topped up the hydraulic oil reservoirs. Well, I say 'topped up'....pretty much filled from bog-empty. The brakes and rear suspension work a bit better now :eek:
4) We changed some bulbs, refitted the seat and memory switches (see 2)) and put the centre console back in the car. This would have been so much easier had the seats not been in place. Hey ho.
5) Then today came....well....the following.

First this piece went back in (an utter swine of a job, worse than removing it in the first place):

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Then this little lot followed (also a pig of a job, since it needed a few shims to line everything up right):

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And in quick succession we ended up with a few more bits attached:


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You can tell I'm no bloody photographer, can't you? There's a couple more photos to post when my prehistoric internet connection finally drags in the e-mail that they're attached to. I can't promise that they're any better than the above, but they do have a wide-angle shot of the whole dash. Tried to record the engine sound with the owner's phone as well, but it really doesn't come out very well. Will have to borrow something a bit better and get it uploaded.

Still a fair amount to do, but definitely light at the end of the tunnel now. Bunch of cosmetic stuff, the tracking wants looking at, and the ever-present mysterious twittering sound from behind the dashboard still hasn't been eliminated fully.

Oh, and a lesson in why cheap leather 'refurbs' are never a good idea. This is what the drivers seat looks like right now despite the last owner having paid to have the seat renovated:

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Looks even worse IRL. It'll look a lot better than that by the time we're done....
 
Jez said:
Fantastic :) Keep the posts coming.
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Cheers Jez.

Taking the car for a run later on to get the rear end pumped back up and make sure we have enough LHM in the system now.

DiamondMark said:
Thats a great job.

Try Gliptone this time for the leather restoration, its not a cheap nasty paint type, best iv seen.
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Cheers for the tip DiamondMark. I'll pass that one on to the owner.
 
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