Project Bentley

Cheers sigma, we're certainly doing our best with the old girl.

I know I've said it on here before, but it stands repeating - straight restorations are not too bad, undoing bodged-up and cack-handed work is the real problem. You shouldn't see screwed-up paint on rust-free panels - unless you fail to prep the surface properly, which the guys who painted this car in the past (before Gary owned it) obviously ****** up on. You shouldn't see vacuum pipe "repaired" with electrical tape, unless you buy a car that Bubba The Retarded Hillbilly™ worked on at some point in the past. And you definitely shouldn't see bits of wiring loom bypassed with crap wires simply because Bubba's cousin Cletus couldn't figure out where the original wiring was supposed to go once he'd disconnected it. A sensible human being would find a wiring diagram and sort it out, but not Cletus - he just tucks it into the nearest space he can find, forgets about it and splices (badly) another cable in up-stream....I found one of those delightful little puzzles right in the front of the centre console, and pulled almost 40cm of redundant wire out. Fortunately, Gary was indoors making me a coffee and missed the resulting bad-tempered and sweary tirade....:o
 
News from the paintshop. Some good, some bad.

Firstly, an historical curiosity - confirmation that this car has been painted more than a few times in the past. We're talking multiple blowovers, not necessarily done with all due care. The car was beginning to look a bit like a patchwork quilt before this latest escapade, with different shades of what should be the same colour starting to make an appearance!

Secondly, a gripe - the guy doing the welding is having to re-do some work that had been done before under Gary's ownership, because the quality isn't up to scratch. The bodyshop that did the previous job on it had a decent reputation once upon a time....guess we know now why they aren't there any more.

Thirdly, some better news - the car has had a full inspection underneath now, and it's perfect. Once these bits of body are sorted, the car should be very easy to maintain in great condition.

Fourthly, a confession - I don't have a fourth point to make ;)
 
Some more shots of it stripped:







Some more cutting of crap metal and adding of better metal should have been done by the time I type this. As an addition to my previous post, there's a reason the underneath of the car is perfectly solid - it's been Waxoyled three times in its life!

Also, Gary found a slightly less expensive way of getting a proper Winged 'B' mascot for the front of the car. Find one that someone has converted into a paperweight, and convert it back!



 
So, an update.

Got some photos to post, will get them up as soon as I can. Bodywork and paint should hopefully be finished midway through this month so we can start the reassembly. Going to have to do that without the original starter motor however, as the venerable Lucas unit cried enough when the paintshop guys tried to move the car the other day.

*sigh*

Upon being told this by Gary, I did what any mate would do - hunted for a way to save him money and improve the car at the same time :) Such a solution exists - Powerlite makes a reduction-gear starter to replace the original Lucas that draws less power, weighs less, and spins the motor quicker. It's also a ****-load cheaper than sourcing a Lucas one would be! A quick call to Holden Vintage & Classic to confirm that the part will strap onto the '89 car, and all is well. Starter should be delivered this week or next.
 
Sukh said:
Did you see the episode of wheeler dealers when they did a Bentley?
Click to expand...

If by 'did', you mean 'mackled up beyond belief', then yeah :) Last time that car came up for sale, the then-owner gave the full story - the show spent far more than they claimed, sold it at a loss, during the painting they had to replace the dash as they melted the original in the oven, it had a bloody big patch of filler in the back passenger-side arch, and he'd spent £400 putting that 'restored' car through the previous MOT.

Joshy said:
Just how serviceable was the car before all of the work you put in?
Click to expand...

The stuff that was needed to make it truly usable was getting the drivers seat control module working, bottom ball-joint on one side, a top-up of LHM and a vacuum pipe in the engine. Everything else has been about making it pretty again - the leather, the wood, the body and paint, rubber seals, etc.

Joshy said:
I've really fallen in love with some of the old Sprints/Spurs/Mulssanes/Turbo Rs at work and am starting to talk myself into saving up and buying one as my next car.
Click to expand...

You know that hoary old cliché about how if you can afford two of a car you can afford to run one? ;)

To be honest, they aren't as bad as all that. The biggest problem is when you have work done by a shop - people look at, assume you're moneyed, and double their prices. We've been lucky with some local outfits when we've had to call on them, but others want to charge the Earth or simply refuse to have anything to do with it (even though at the end of the day it's probably less complex than the nearly-new Audi they've got parked in the workshop....go figure).

If you're serious about having a Bentley, save up for a Turbo R. Motronic rather than K-Jet fuel injection from '87 (the Mulsannes didn't get Motronic until 1990), Panhard rod at the back, stiffer anti-roll bars front and back, firmer dampers and springs. If you want the R-R, get one with the best brightwork you can find, even if it means having to do work on the car in other areas, because replacing trim on one of those can bankrupt you!

Joshy said:
As always, if there is anything you think I can help with get in contact. If I can't help I'm sure I know someone who can :).
Click to expand...

Know anything about the cruise control on the '89 model? That's the next job after we reassemble the car - get that thing working.
 
So, the new starter finally arrived (manufacturer was on a shut-down, so Holden didn't get stock when they thought they would). Currently being fitted.

New problem - we've got a leak! Specifically, when the car was put in the air to get the starter motor swapped out, something looking suspiciously like LHM was seen dripping at the back (LHM being that green oil found in Citroen hydraulic systems along with the cack-handed self-levelling setup in the back of R-R/Bentley models of this vintage). We'd noticed a few marks on the driveway before, obviously with the suspension unloaded the leak is a bit worse....filing this one under 'sort another time'. Until then, we'll just have to keep topping the system up.

Next week the car should get some paint on it. And once it comes back I've got a rush-job on my hands to get the car together for a little outing that it's been promised for in September.
 
It's taken me a while to get around to posting this, because the story makes me almost want to weep with frustration about how a fairly simple job just snowballs.

The car went in to get some bodywork tidied and fresh paint. There was a bit more bodywork to do than was initially thought, so this made the job take longer. The starter motor packed in while the car was being shunted back and forth at the paintshop, so we ordered one. The manufacturer of them was on a shut-down, so it took longer to arrive than anticipated. It eventually arrived, and was handed to the mechanic to fit.

It didn't.

One strangled curse later, I ask Gary to confirm that the starter motor was the right model, and that Holden hadn't sent the wrong one by accident even though they'd invoiced for the correct one (3spd and 4spd cars use different motors, obviously). It was. But none of the bolt holes lined up. There was a good reason for that as it turned out - they'd been drilled wrong. In fact, we're pretty sure that the entire batch was drilled wrong. So someone has probably lost their job over that one....

Scott the mechanic took the dead motor over to a local auto electrical outfit and asked them to rebuild it. He didn't tell them what it came off, apparently they guessed at several things but didn't get the answer until he told them. Meanwhile, Holden are refunding Gary for the unusable starter motor. Scott then refitted the original motor, and it works perfectly. Apparently they had to do quite a bit to it, as these motors don't fail at the first hint of trouble - they wait until they're completely destroyed before giving up :o

Anyway, now that the car is back on the ground again the leak at the back appears to have stopped. Hoping it was just overfill combined with the system being unloaded. Which would be nice, because that God-awful mess that R-R/Bentley stuck on the back of these cars and laughingly declared to be a good rear suspension is a bit expensive to sort.

Car probably won't be back and on the road in time for the outing we were hoping to give it (MOT's up next week as well, so we need to reassemble the car before we can get that done). Hoping we get a better September than August was, I've had my fill of working on that car in the rain.
 
Had a phone call from Gary earlier, as he'd been down to look at the car now that the final paint job is in progress. It's looking pretty damned good apparently :)
 
Another quick tease:






Getting there, now. Not had the final cut back yet. I love the way she looks on that middle shot myself - this car should look unbelievably good when she's done.
 
The car should be done by Wednesday, all being well. Going to hopefully start re-assembling her next Saturday. If we can get to the weather-proof stage before close of play on Sat (glass and associated trim in), I'll consider that a win. We've got some work to do on the rear bumper (drivers side end cap mainly, but needs some work on the main bumper as well still), I need to sort a minor wiring snafu in the left-rear door (window switch not working, and I should probably haul the console back again to do a final fix on a few things in there. Oh, and I might (read: almost certainly) need to have the drivers seat half apart to get at the control box, since the battery in it might have (read: almost certainly has) quit.

Hope the heatwave Burton is getting at the moment holds for a while longer. I've had my fill of working on this car in bitterly cold, wet, miserable weather. Another run of that and I may have a psychotic break.

*twitch*
 









She's going home later today. Guess I know what I'm doing on Saturday, now....best start getting all the drawings together for how everything fits back on the car!
 
Cheers Rilot. Will be taking photos as I go with the re-assembling, planning on taking some at similar angles to the 'before' shots so it's easier to see the improvements made.

Stuff to put back on:

Radiator shell
Cowl vents
Wipers
Door cards
Door cappings
Windows
Wing mirrors
Seals
Trim
Rear bumper

New stuff:

Headlamps
Winged 'B' mascot

Fixed stuff:

Front badge
Headlamp surrounds

And no garage to do it all in, or even a carport to shelter under! I'm going to be pretty hacked off if I have to do all this in the rain, given that the last week or two has been pretty damned good around here :o
 
re: cover from the weather - the driveway that the car is now sat on (home at last!*) is a bit difficult to shelter. I'm sure we could do it, somehow. But the mechanics of it are beyond my feeble brain at the moment. Car is underneath its own cover now anyway, so if it rains before I can get to it to sort the glass out she'll be fine.

* - 'at last' is about right. Looking at the dates I posted on in this thread, the car hasn't even had windows in since April!
 
Tum tee tum tee tum....



Tum tiddly tee....



Tum tee tum tee tum....




Tum tee diddly doo....



:D

Not quite as much of a pain in the arse as we expected....

So far, it seems like the rear window at least runs smoother in its channel than before. Front one needs to wear the seal in to be entirely smooth. Interior is abso-bloody-lutely filthy, desperately needs a good valeting!

Going to do the other side tomorrow morning. Both Gary and I are pretty much wiped out now, and I'm not sure we'd make a very good job of it if we pushed on today. I thought about just getting the glass in place and worrying about the tensioning tomorrow, but **** it - quitting while we're ahead. Will post more photos tomorrow when we get after it again.
 
And she's weather-proof again, for the first time since ******* April.



Just to highlight some of the formerly grotty bits -

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



icon14.gif
 
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