My 404C resto begins!

Dee Cee,

no disrespect was meant, but succinct praise can be verbose…

I think it is great that Mike has started. I'm sure Mike will be finished before me. Two house moves in 20 months, does slow things down a tad.

Cheers,

Dano
 
The work continued over the past two weeks. Excellent progress has been made: the floors and sills are complete, the rear guard skins have been drilled off and the new ones readied, with work underneath in progress. It is fantastic to see!

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Mike, you are doing some great work with that car!
 
I wish I could take credit for this, Peter! But I am only paying for it. Coachwerks of Victoria BC Canada is the restorer of the shell. Their work is really excellent!
 
Now is the time to put plates and brackets for inertia reel front seat belts.

It really makes a difference to convenience.
 
Mike Tippett said:
I wish I could take credit for this, Peter! But I am only paying for it. Coachwerks of Victoria BC Canada is the restorer of the shell. Their work is really excellent!
Click to expand...

You can certainly take a lot of the credit. It's your visions, organizing, knowledge, gathering parts and paying for repairs that make it happen.

I am green with envy (in a good way). Great effort.
 
Mike Tippett said:
I wish I could take credit for this, Peter! But I am only paying for it. Coachwerks of Victoria BC Canada is the restorer of the shell. Their work is really excellent!
Click to expand...

Well okay, I kinda knew that. :)
 
Mike,

I totally agree with Fivedoor, it's your project and dream. Like your approach to originality as well, right down to lap sash seat belts.

The floors look great...

Cheers,

Dano
 
Wow Mike,

Those photos are impressive for many reasons. The extent of the rust damage, but more importantly the detail and extent of the fabrication and repair to remove it.

Until someone has done the same, it is hard to really understand the true extent of what you have achieved and what was required to rectify the damage.

Cheers

Dano
 
Dan, if you can believe it, I have seen far worse cars restored! For example, some where the inner sill reinforcements with the round holes in them have totally disintegrated!

My thoughts on car condition is that most 404Cs look like mine inside the sills unless it has had a recent photo-documented restoration. What I mean is that I could have bought a "mint condition" 404 Coupé in Europe for 35,000 Euros, brought it home and still wondered where the metal worm was slowly destroying the shell.

This way, by taking a $500 car (that's what I paid in 1989), spending 100 times that on its restoration, I will have a totally known quantity. This car is not for resale and won't be as long as I am alive, but it should last another 50 years or more after this work. Money well spent in my opinion.

You would know that, Dan, as you'll probably have the best 404 sedan after your amazing restoration!
 
The new right rear guard is welded onto the car. The rear jack mount and part of the inner guard were just rebuilt. Looking good! This external guard was severely rusted before the transplant. I found the rear guards from a Peugeot service point in Williamsburg, Ontario in 2004. Under $500 each, cheap!

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Wednesday 8 Feb: New left rear guard is now welded on, after the jack mount and nearby area were rebuilt with the old guard removed. Three rectangular holes in the dash cut after the car was new are all filled with new metal, to be replaced by a single round wiper switch as per the original.

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Did you have to refabricate the actual jacking points or did you have originals? From experience, they are dicky things to remake. Many hours of work with various size dollies and an assortment of hammers.

It's looking good Mike, keep the photos coming.

Dano
 
Dan, I had the new jack mounts, which you can see below in the attached photo, but all the other parts in that image except the original NOS panel on the far left were made in the workshop by Coachwerks.
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Wiper frame is de-rusted and repainted in Rust-oleum and the two new wiper spindles (unique design for the 404C so I was lucky to get a pair) are remounted. The wiper motor drive axle is the original but after flushing it with Würth HHS it was as smooth as butter. Greased it up and mounted it back together.
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The cover of the AEG fuel pump was rusty and needed a good quality of hard paint because it's clamped on by a wire that uses friction and sits in the dimple of the cover. So I bought some silver POR-15 and applied it by brush. with only 83,000 miles on the car, the electrical part of the pump is in good condition. I will take the hydraulic part apart and regrease it.
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The framework of the AEG/Kugelfischer pump was also very rusty but now looks better and is painted in silver POR-15 applied by brush.
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Thanks Mike,

The POR range of paints are good. What I like most, is how it levels out after brushing on. I must admit, they said it would, but I was sceptical. The Glisten Gloss is good on aluminium bits and pieces. I had the axle tubs, diff housing and gearbox casings wet blasted, then coated in Glisten. They came up a treat. Not original I know, but they do look better then the daggy underbody bitumen black.

Cheers.

Dan
 
These photos were taken Friday around 5 PM. *Major front end surgery is underway!

Front guards are cut off!
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Detail of cowl panel, not rusty at all inside.
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Inner guard panel was not in that bad of a condition, some repair was required near the bottom.
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Dashboard with three rectangular holes gone and one round hole for the new - original type - wiper/washer switch!
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Taillights fit, good!
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Drilled out spot welds and removed outer McPherson strut tower skin.
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Repair panels welded into the nose panel on both sides.
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Interesting perspective!
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Mike
It is amazing isn't, where you find rust. You won't regret going the extra yard, to find it all. It is quite scary though, how far you have to go sometimes. With all those overlapping sections, it could be a lot worse. I guess the factory theory was, ah well, no one will ever keep one of these for ever, so just cover everything with seam sealer. The worst rust in my car was where the seam sealer hid the sins.
Cheers,

Dano
 
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