72 r12 restoration and upgrade

[Rory]

Hi all, I have been working on a r12 restoration for the past couple of year and thought I'd share some progress as approach reaching a drivable car again.

The car was my daily driver since about 2011 or 12 and earnt plenty of sentimental value. A fun car to drive with surprising reliability.

I really let the car go unfortunately with panel damage and rust and poor paint, so when the opportunity came up for a parts car with 17g running gear in it I jumped at the opportunity and let the build snowball into a more complete restoration.

It has been the first full build I have undertaken so there has been lots of learning the hard way through mistakes and trail and error but nonetheless has been fun learning experience. And the support in sourcing parts within the community has been exceptional. I have a lot of appreciation for everyone who has helped and contributed in some way

So details of the build are as follows.
844-12 engine with 40dcoes and 123 ignition. Fully rebuild, reground crank and cam.
Only a 4spd bolted up ATM. But I have a 5spd ng3 to be sorted out at a later time
17 vented brakes up front and gordini sway bars front and rear.
Rear axle with disc brakes also to be fitted at a later date.
Suspension lowered 1-2imches all bushes, ball joints and shocks new
I think I'd like to upgrade to adjustable coilovers at a later date also.
Electrical system refreshed with new extra fuses and relays. With a few additions including wideband o2 sensor, electric fuel pump and fan. Hazard light circuit, addition front fog lights.

Bodywork
Front panel replaced
Three good used rust free doors
Nos door skin on driver's door
Rust free front gaurds.
Rust and dents repaired in rear quarter panel and rear window surround
Paint stripped and repainted. This has been my first respray so there are some imperfections but overall happy with how it is turning out
Repaired cracked dash and other cosmetic parts

I will try and upload some photos now

 

[COL]

Glad you have started a thread for your R12 resto project Rory, looking forward to the pics. Lots of support is available on here if you get stuck. Keep up the good work.

 

[Rory]

Uploading pictures is proving to be a challenge.
Sorry for the disorder but here are some pictures in to particular order

Front suspension rebuild and homemade compressor

Front hubs rebuilt with vented dics

removal of old parts

front panel replacement. You can see some minor differences between parts

engine rebuilt, had to reshape combustion chambers after getting head skimmed. A lesson learnt here in checking head thickness

repainted the engine bay, safe area for learning to paint

front panel removed and LH Egine bay wall reshaped and repaired from accident damage

Rear suspension rebuilt. Will need to put stiffer springs in

primed after rust section cut out

Surface rust removed from floor, centre hand brake fitted and sound deadening installed

 

[Rory]

Engine installed work on orientation on hoses and wiring
Had a set of silicon hoses made up and a custom alloy radiator

rust in window frame corners, cut and sandblasted

work on rebuilding the structure in dash boar. Was completely disintegrated

from suspension rebuild, springs cut/lowered

sanded back to bare metal. Was a time consuming process. It was pleasant to find the main frame had minimal rust or repairs

Painting time. No suprises here I made a few runs and spilt paint on the floor. A couple of sections required to be redone. And a cut and polish a month later bought it to life.
I used a colour matched Sungold yellow acyrilic

Engine bay/front ready to be repaired

after paint bought it out in the sun. Before it's wet sand and polish

 

[Rory]

After hours of wet sanding and buffing

had to repaint this quarter due to runs with I burnt through trying to correct.
Some lessons to be learnt here in correct masking practices

the donor Car is very rusty with no usable body parts and mechanical parts needing full refubishments and sitting for a few decades

 

[Rory]

Some TS wheels I refurbished, later I acquired some cosmic rims I am yet to clean and paint

dashboard with new vinyl fabric

Welded up the trim locator holes on the good used doors I acquired

attaching the vinyl to the dash

inside boot area painted. Fuel tank removed, cleaned and painted

Front spring FYI

CUT OUT RUST IN BOOT LID

repaired rust section LH rear quarter

Donor car 844 engine prior to rebuild

rust cut from rear quarter. I would have gone about it differently if tackling it today

 

[56 Fregate]

Oh wow! It's good to have some meat and potatoes back on AF again. Go you! Keep it coming.

 

[Rory]

There are lots of details I have left out here. And when you look back through you're photos it is surprising to see lack of progress and particularly before pictures. But I'll try and get some more details up when I get a chance to put a bit more time into the car.

 

[COL]

Rory you have answered one of my questions and that was how well does an 844-** motor with its fuel injection fit into and R12, looks like snugly with a bit of room. I thought I was going to have to modify the mounting of the fuel injection when I got to that stage on my R12 project.

Also I see you have found a good use for under sized brake rotors.

Keep the pics coming.

 

[Rory]

Rory you have answered one of my questions and that was how well does an 844-** motor with its fuel injection fit into and R12, looks like snugly with a bit of room. I thought I was going to have to modify the mounting of the fuel injection when I got to that stage on my R12 project.

Also I see you have found a good use for under sized brake rotors.

Keep the pics coming.

yes snugly. it appears with that setup the air filter was just rubbing on the underside of the standard bonnet

 

[Peter C]

Lots of work with a very good result. Metal fabrication, welding isn't for everyone, so well done.

 

[21571]

Very nice! I'd like to do the same to my '78 Virage wagon. I have a spare D-Jetronic set up. I just need to get the car on the road first!
North American R17 Gordinis had a different plenum and throttle body set up on the D-Jetronic compared to the rest of the world. Might be easier to squeeze under the R12 bonnet, if you can source one!

 

[geckoeng]

My advice is throw the FI away and go Webers (40mm). When it goes wrong there is very little fixing available.

A R17 I did recently, runs like a Steam Train .........(With 123 Ignition).

 

[Shoji]

View attachment 233223

I think he has Ray

Rory, where did you get those Leads? Nice lengths!

 

[Rory]

I think he has Ray

Rory, where did you get those Leads? Nice lengths!

Super cheap leads. The coil wire is from the parts car, will need to find a replacement so it is new as well. Needed a longer lead than was supplied.

 

[geckoeng]

I think he has Ray

Rory, where did you get those Leads? Nice lengths!

Sorry pictures a bit disjointed, will be much better. Only FI is modern 4 port, Jenvey or similar and some of the good small computers.

Ray

 

[Rory]

A bit of work done over this Christmas break. Front gaurds prepped and painted.
I seem to never accomplish this in an organised fashion as these should have been painted when I did all the other panels.

Bitumen type coating on inside of gaurds and in front wheel arch

Stripped and body filler where I welded up holes for the badges

guide coating

happy with the shape

Paint. It's impossible to avoid all contaminats when painting in an open carport. Some small fleck of dust and a bug hopefully will sand out

chasing electrical gremlins getting all the lights working again.mostly problems due to bad earth's from painting and a stuck flasher can

Oil pressure, wideband and coolant temp

Spun up a new handle for the handbrake on my friends wood lathe to replace the broken plastic one

I am missing this rear window corner chrome peice if anyone knows where I can find one

 

[Rory]

My advice is throw the FI away and go Webers (40mm). When it goes wrong there is very little fixing available.

A R17 I did recently, runs like a Steam Train .........(With 123 Ignition).

View attachment 233743

Looks very nice.
Over the past few days I managed to take the car out for a small road test and the engine performed nicely. The sound of the dcoes is awesome.
With the wideband I was able to confirm afr's were all pretty close for now maybe some small tweaking down the track.

I'd be interested to know what sort of ignition curve people have been running with their ignition systems. I've uploaded a few samples into the program and am yet to give it a proper trial

Also thoughts on the oil cooler whether it's necessary for a street car, I do not have one

 

[geckoeng]

Shoji should be able to give you a good ignition curve,

If you run points/condenser you must rebuild the distributor, as weights have a tendency to come off. And springs stretch. And they are not as crisp at the computer generated spark. Hence the "123-Tune".

As for oil coolers, on relatively standard motors, not really needed. But on decent modified I always put.

Ray

 

[Bowie]

Dude!

It’s beautiful

So much work there, good on ya!

Re ignition curve, they were printed in a manual somewhere, the different dizzy curves available via the different models..

I’ll see if can remember where I saw them,