Sunday, December 21, 2008

Repair Progress

The going has been slow, but I've made some progress with the repairs to the e12. I finished off putting the battery in the boot. It looks quite neat, just needs the spare wheel well cleaned up. I'll get on to that once I've finished the front end.

I removed all the bad paint and surface rust from the front of the car. Turned out to be a much bigger job then expected. Especially when my Dremel died half way through and I had to remove the little fiddly bits of paint by hand! I got the undercoat done last week and got some orange on over the weekend. There's some little tidy up bits to go, but it's looking much better.

Next up is the radiator, windscreen wipers and strut brace. Lucky I've got until Easter!

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Some Repairs for e12 (at last)

Now that the season is over and there might be some rest for the e12, I thought it would be good to get to some of those little jobs we never seem to have time for. I've got the old girl in the garage for the next couple of months, so I'm hoping to get some good time at it. The plan is:
  • Relocate the battery to the boot (partially complete now)
  • Fabricate a front strut brace
  • Paint the area in front of the radiator under the bonnet
  • Paint the repaired bonnet hinge (it's only been 14 years!)
  • Fix the passenger door lock that was broken by an attempted thief (this one's been 11 years)
  • Remove the rust from the passenger side rear door
  • Cover the holes left by all the speakers that have now been removed
  • Remove the rust under the driver's side tail light
  • Install larger diameter brake cooling ducts
  • Fix the leak in the power steering system
  • Paint the windscreen wipers

So far, I've moved the battery to the boot and run the new cable. Very hard to do as it is so thick and didn't want to bend around corners. It all works now and just needs a new earth cable in the boot (mainly because the blue one looks dagy).











I've taken the bonnet hinge off and underneath looks pretty ugly. Not all that rusty, but the paint is shot and needs to come off. The hinge itself should be pretty easy to paint though. It all looks in good nick and just needs a rub back and a new coat.




Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Beautiful End to a Great Season

It was a wonderful end to the season at Oran Park over the weekend. The driving rain from Saturday disappeared for Sunday and it was clear and sunny.
We skipped the skills section in the morning on the basis that the e12 could do without the wear and tear but ended up running one of the skills tests.
The afternoon saw the track a little more slippery than last time from all the rain. The pace was still good and the e12 dropped 2 tenths off the best time to a 1:32.4. Some fiddling with tyre pressures improved the front end grip but, by that stage, the brakes were past their best and times didn't improve. At the end of the day it was a win in class B for the day which meant an overall championship win in Class B for the year. A great result for such an underrated car.
Many thanks to Dad for his tireless help during the year. We couldn't have done it without him.