Post Croix - Monza GSE

[Bstardchild]

TERRIBLE!!! It will be Mad Max's engine! 

Lotus Carlton parts have look easy to find in England ...

I wish Lotus Carlton parts were was to find and cheap but they are not, 3 of us have been collecting parts for more than 10 years.

[Bstardchild]

A week with the flu sucks especially when you want to make progress

However at last I felt well enough to get back at it

so front end was the target





That's cleaned that up nicely - I have no idea where the inner wings are going to meet so minimum metal removed

[MANTAO]

It's like an episode of Monster Garage!

[Bstardchild]

It's like an episode of Monster Garage!   

 

Never seen that so I'll have to see if any episodes are on the net.

Not sure today's progress is worthy of an update but as I took pictures I'll share

First job remove the mounts for the "removable" rear brace (If I didn't I'd either have to cut a lot of metal out of the parcel shelf to get the shell over or the shell would sit on them and not go all the way - easier to remove now)





Then clean all the old paint, waxoil, makers rust proofing from the inside of the sills both sides and weld up some trim holes for the door step covers which are long gone

Holes be gone



Break out the red oxide



An of course repeat on the other side



I think this is the other side - hard to tell!!



Old passenger seat mounts removed



And the bulkhead edge trimmed and a little more paint to protect



Painting made a change from cutting and grinding - I can remove a strip off the edge with a strip disc just before welding but at least it stops it going f'rusty.

Next jobs (from the plan)

- clean up the welds on the cage
- give it a clean/de-rust and paint it as it's difficult to paint in a lot of places when a shell is on top of it.
- Clean the floor pans and grind back a couple of repair patches
- Finish the rear inner arches and stitch weld the shock turrets

[Bstardchild]

OK took a night off from the garage tonight to try and find an alternative plan to a problem I need to resolve

So the Monza track is wider than the Commodore so an element of my plans was always going to give some issues - wheels and tyres poking out of the arches.

Now rolling arches is one way of resolving the issue but my rear arches aren't good and the fronts aren't much better so lets rule that one out

these have been a little more than rolled but I actually don't like the look - nothing I can put my finger on it just doesn't look right



If I had the god like skills of a certain BMW restorer "tonybmw" I'd make my own in steel but I do not have those skills so that's out

I keep seeing pictures of Commodores with a "Steinmetz breitbau"

Have a nice std Commdore



OK not exactly std - it was the winner of the Willhire 24hr race in 1980 that was restored recently and should be going back on track as a classic racer... )I has more pics but lets save that for a rainy day)

anyway my calcs on the back of a postcard was telling me I was going to have an inch and a half of poke

and a "breitbau" would solve my problem





They have been done in various widths but the subtle one would be enough for me

The rears are just an arch extension



The fronts complete wings (which would be a bonus)



And they also have an option of a deeper front air dam



However it appears that they are made of unobtanium and I only found one set not fitted to a car (the pictures above) and the owner wants to fit them one day

I considered commissioning someone to fabricate some for me but he's got enough on his plate already and I'm not sure he does commisions

So what I needed was an alternative and I went in search

I found these





OK I need to ask some questions re dimensions but I reckon they will do the job nicely unless I'm sleep deprived and have google flu

[sixenligne]

The Comonza Sebring!
Or the Coupé Sport!!

Nice extension kit!

What were you springs and shock absorbers mounted on your Monza?
Were you satisfied?

[Bstardchild]

The Comonza Sebring! 
Or the Coupé Sport!! 

Yeah any of those

Nice extension kit! 

Looks like it has potential - will find out soon

What were you springs and shock absorbers mounted on your Monza?
Were you satisfied?

Front

OE GSE spring (minus 1 coil)
SPAX Dampers
24 Roll Bar

Rear

Senator B Irmscher Rear springs
Originally SPAX Dampers (way over damped - to hard and eventually blew a seal so replaced)
Gaz Dampers (custom valved - much softer damped and huge improvement)
Std GSE Roll Bar (needs more roll bar)

OK overall it was OK but SPAX Dampers are too stiff and will be replaced with Gaz (custom valved)

[Bstardchild]

Really should update with a picture but garage camera doesn't want to play.

So

The rear shock turrets stitch welded (inside and out)

Roll cage where it was welded in situ and was missing a bit welded up plus coat of paint

Most of the bare metal is primed as it's gonna have to live outside for stage two

Its been on axle stands for a while and during that time it's had more metal removed and nothing put back so I was twitching a lot when I got it of the stands and back on the wheels.

It was fine and I was fretting about nothing.

Saturday garage contents get swapped so I promise pictures then as Commodore will be in for stage one (strip down without any cutting) so I can be absolutely sure my silly idea works

[Bstardchild]

Well today the other half of the jigsaw arrived home

Liberated from it's storage place (it's been there a long while)

Loaded (quite easy with a power winch but the tyres were struggling to hold much air - picture below shows the side where air was staying in the rubber - other side had splits in the tyre walls that you could put your fingers in)



Paul Christian (another Roast Beef who has attended Croix before) providing the tug and trailer (Technically the tug was provided by his lovely wife Gillian as it's her Pathfinder that got borrowed)



So a little distance to cover and the Commodore was home

Gravity provided the input to get it off the trailer but pushing a car with two flat tyres up a drive with a slope was gonna be a bit tough......

So the first thing that needed to be done was - a wheel swap obviously :D



Cheeky picture with the Monza looking at it's sexy new bodywork



Then bonnet removal as it needs four hands followed by a final push into the garage



Monza wrapped for temporary driveway storage



Then I got stuck into to mucking it out........

[sixenligne]

Thank you for the info.

Great! Go for the jig saw massacre ! Ah no... It's massacre in the plasma torch!
I waiting to see how you fix the body.

Have you kept the Makrolon windows that were mounted on the Monza ?