I'll see if I can find the copy I made if anyone's interested.
Would be great thanks.
Well I can now announce that the car has finally arrived, and I've seen it for the first time!
I went down to Fourways Engineering this afternoon to await the cars arrival, after a nice tour around the treasure trove of a workshop, and a small wait it arrived. On first sight being backed down the driveway, it looked stunning in 918 orange. Within seconds it had several of us crawling all over it to have a look at what I had bought with my dad based on photos several thousand miles away. Unfortunately to all of our disappointment the car has clearly sustained damaged in transit from the US. the front end had been impacted denting the bonnet, chipping the paint, and most frustratingly left a dent in a fairly immaculate original looking chrome bumper. Damage also extended to the chin spoiler which had numerous cracks across it. There were also chips of paint missing from the door where it had clearly been knocked, potentially following been driven into the container. To top things off the head liner was hanging down with very sticky glue having failed to do its job. Safe to say, there's a fair bit of work that needs to be done to right these issues, and an email has been fired off to the shipping company to make an insurance claim.
With that out of the way, the car was taken off of the trailer to have a look around and see what I'd got. Safe to say first impressions were very good, the respray looks really good, the interior is in very nice shape and looks to be very complete (minus the head lining issue). The car appears to even have its original spare wheel along with a lot of correct features for a car of its age. Next to try and start it up, absolutely nothing.... Some investigation later the battery looking very suspect and its out and a temporary replacement found. Still nothing, after coercing the starter motor, still no luck. Next job, rolled into the work shop and time for further investigation, up she goes to reveal whats underneath.
A very clean looking engine, which had been tarted up, along with lots of shot rubber bushes and some interesting brake lines. Safe to say those are all on the to do list. The arches appear to have had a few plates welded in, however look very solid and clean with no rust visible. Further discovery however unfortunately lead to some investigation of a suspect looking chassis rail on the passenger side. With permission to get digging given, and the reasonably solid looking chassis rail begins coming off in chunks, revealing the rusty remains of the original rails. Safe to say more digging will need to be done, however some serious welding will be required to make the area solid again. Once I'd composed myself again and we'd looked around some more generally speaking it was good news via a few details here and there.
Car was dropped back down again to see if the guys could get her heart beating again, a temporary starter motor was magic'd up and after some quick testing was installed in the car. The moment of truth came again and the started motor started clicking over, and over. A bit of fettling later, some gas and more perseverance and finally she roared into life!
Relief does not come close to describing how good it felt to hear that car scream into life, safe to say I was grinning like a four year old child on Christmas day. Via a slight rattle that will need some investigation and she was sounding glorious, at that moment I knew this project was going somewhere and after months of emails, phone calls, sleepless nights and concerns vanished.
There are going to be numerous bits of work to be done, and the above doesn't really come close to describing my rather Roller Coaster afternoon. However we have on the face of it a very good car, it needs some TLC in areas, some damage repaired and then it should be an extremely good fairly rust fee (I'm sure there's some lurking somewhere! lol) example that can have its wheels driven off and enjoyed for years to come.
This brings me on to giving a big shout of to Fourways Engineering who have been extremely welcoming, knowledgeable and helpful this afternoon
The whole team was on hand to check the car over for me to see what we've got, it was very clear that there is a team of people who are all Zed lovers, and complete Petrolheads. They were determined not to let me leave before hearing her roar into life, finally making the project very real
Which after some disappointing discoveries, meant I left on a high note.
The car unfortunately won't be making it to Goodwood Revival this year given that there is lots to do, and I don't want anything rushed for the sake of making one event. Hopefully over the next few weeks it will slowly have its niggles sorted so that we can get it onto the road and enjoy it, before the winter hits home hard. I have attached a few photos below, albeit I'm sorry to say it was so focused on taking photos of the damage (for insurance claim) I only took one very poor photo of it on the ramps. I promise once its out and about I will get some good photos of the whole car and share on here.
Its safe to say, after getting home I felt completely drained however I'm looking forward as to how the next few weeks progress and will share as and when things develop. A few pics for you all below as I know you love them. More to follow shortly.
Before I neglect to mention it, I also want to say a big thanks to Craig at 'Streeks transport and recovery Ltd' who collected the car for me. Both him and Geoff have been a pleasure to deal with, and very understanding of my time scales and expectations. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone!
The Dreaded Damage
What Was lurking underneath
A souvenir from the underside