I finished restoration on this car 2 years. It took me almost 5 years to get it looking like new. I sold it about 2 days after putting it through the Mot so never even got to drive it. I've been asked by a few people about the restoration so decided to add it to the site.

This is the car when I bought it. It had been sitting in a garage for 18 years.

As you can see it suffred from a lot of rust. Basically the front drivers side arch, sills inner and outer, rear wheel arches, front and rear panels. The list went on. 

First job was to strip the car down to the shell to see what extent 18 years of sitting in a garage had done to it.

Engine bay was a bit dusty but everything looked ok.

Passenger side sill was the first bit to get sorted. It looked pretty bad before I even started to it.

Once the sill was cut off it showed the extent of rust on the inner sill. Part of the front wing had to be cut off to to make sure I had enough room to put the new sill on.

There was a nice litle pile of dead metal on the ground once I'd finished with the grinder. 

The inner sill wasn't actually that bad as it was mostly the bottom edge that had gone. I painted the inner bit with red lead before welding new metal in and then painted the complete inner sill wil red lead.  

The drivers side was worse than the passenger side and I had to cut more off the front wing and the rear wing. I was replacing the front and rear wheel arches on the drivers side si it didn't really matter how much I cut but gave me better access to cut all the rust out and treat all the areas properly.  

New sill and front quarter panel fitted and seam welded throughtout.

The rusty rear arch was cut off to shape of the new arch and again all the areas that would be inaccessible once the new arch was on were treated. You can see the bottom repair panel is already on.

New arch now fitted and treated..

Once the arch was seam welded I had to use fillers to finish it off. It took a lot of time to get the line of the car right made harder by me using as little filler as possible.

The front wing getting the same treatment. Front lower repair panel was fitted first to make sure I got the line right for fitting the new arch.

Moving round to the front of the car and the lower front panel had ti be cut off completely so a new panel could be fitted. The repair panel only came as a front section meaning the corners had to be fitted first to get the lines rght. 

New panel fitted but the photo is a bit dark.

Boot lid needed a bit of attention as it it had a few little dents in it. In this photo the dents have been knocked out as far as possible and then filled. A little trick to see if the job is smooth is to spray a dark colour over the area and then flat block the area. This will show any areas than may be a little low making it easier to get a level finish. 

Car ready for painting. At this point the idea was to get the outer body right and get the car back on the road because we were in the throws of selling the house and I didn't want the car half finished.

A complete new exhaust was bought from england for the car. This is it just before fitting. 

Car just after it was painted. Paint hadn't been flattened back at this point.

I got as far as starting to fit the lights back on the car but that was it as the house had been sold and we were about to move.

Once we got settled into the new house I decided to take the car apart again and completely restore the body again. 

The rear window edges had developed a bit of rust and needed treatment. There were other little bits to so the car sitting for a while allowed me to re-visit and rectify anything I'd missed before.

Engine and everything else in the bay was to be removed this time as I wanted to tidy everything up and paint the engine bay.

  

Engine out it was time to get all the paint off. First couple of photos are of the bay before I started to it.

On this photo you can see were the paint has lifted after years of brake fluid has been spilled on it.

Getting the paint off. 

It was well I did strip the engine bay because the cross member that holds the radiator had started to rust through and needed attention.

New metal now put in. I double skinned it to give it good strength.

Engine bay now primed after it had been treated with rust eater.

And then painted.

All the black painted using chassis black paint.

Under the floor was next. First 2 photos are of the floor as it was primed.

Boot floor painted.

Under floor painted. All the black done and all new pipe work fitted.

With the underneath finished it was time to turn to the body. I decided to repaint it as there were a few bits I wasn't happy with. This time though I took the doors, bonnet, and boot off so I could paint them both inside and out.

   

I went round the shell and got as many perfections out as I could see.

All checked over and then 3 coats of heavy primer.

Starting to look well now and since the weather was warm I continued on with getting the paint on. In this photo the body is a bit dusty. The car had been sitting a while and I was starting to get bits back on it.

While tinkering with the body I had been working on getting the engine cleaned up.

Nothing was left not cleaned or painted. Brakes, Suspension back plates etc.

Engine going back in. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the engine all cleaned up after it was fitted.

The rest of the rebuild goes on.

Finally back on it's wheels ready to be started.

Rather annoyingly I don't have decent photos of the car when it was just finished apart from this little one of it outside the house. I hope to dig out better ones at some point.

The car with some of the NIIMC club cars at a show in 2005. 

And at a show in 2006.