Bodywork and Reassembly
It was announced in August 2023 that the renovation of the Spartan would take a new turn in September.
It started with his passage in the bodywork, you were able to follow the main steps on the Facebook page, the details are below.
As they leave the bodywork, the shiny parts leave for the new home port of the Spartan in order to be reassembled.
If it is necessary to reassemble everything, many parts of the car still need to be renovated, adapted, replaced or even manufactured.
It is now in a garage specialised in the renovation of vintage and vintage cars, English in particular, that all these operations will take place.
The objective is to get closer to this roadster presented in 1983 by Spartan Car Compagny :
The body of the Spartan
The body parts are cleaned before they leave for the bodywork.
However, the complete painting of the Spartan is not for now, there is still a lot of work before reaching this stage, but we are preparing it…
September 4, 2023, the wings and hood of the Spartan are being prepared at the bodybuilder.
The bodywork, naked on the chassis, will arrive on Saturday to be also dentled, adjusted, primed and painted.
The French Spartan has arrived at the bodywork where it took place, the renovation continues.
The 4 wings received an internal anti-gravel treatment :
The front wings were prepared, before being sanded again :
It's time for the rear wings to be sanded, puttyed, and sanded again :
Before also going into the cabin to receive a primer :
And they will be sanded again before painting...
The windshield has been removed, work on the car will begin.
The trunk will be prepared, the inside of the wings is protected to go into the cabin.
…Tadam !!! Here is the red :
The hood panels are dentled, sanded, they will be prepared, sanded again, and then painted :
Do..., and redo...
I thought this work was finished, but it was without counting on the requirement of the bodybuilder who noted imperfections in its realisation, and decided to redo these 3 parts :
The doors were removed, stripped, the aluminum sheets detached from their frames to be prepared.
The amounts will be pickled, then treated against rust, primed, sanded, and finally painted in red.
The sheets were stripped and straightened before receiving aluminum protection, primed, sanded and painted.
The doors will be sanded again before being put back on the car, and will receive a second coat of paint with the car.
Work on the car itself has begun.
Between the dashboard and the windshield was fixed a kind of unsightly empty pocket.
This one camouflaged a big hole that had been made wildly to probably create an air inlet from the heating.
Wrongly placed, and also badly done, it is necessary to close this hole by straightening the aluminum sheet that had been opened like a can.
Big work for this shaping of the aluminum sheet.
Pickling, straightening and sanding continue.
We discover that, when the Spartan had been repainted, some blows had been chewed rather than straightened sheets.
The mastic amalgams are removed, and the sheets are manually reformed according to the rules of the art.
They will receive a special treatment for aluminum, before being primed and then painted.
The rivets that fix the sheets to each other will be replaced :
The Spartan has received a special protective layer for the aluminum :
Then she receives a primer :
The Spartan will now be fully sanded before returning to the cabin.
The rivets have been replaced, she has been degreased again, here she is back in the cabin, wrapped, ready to receive her first coat of red paint !
!!! Red is back !!!
The door frames were reassembled on the car, their freshly painted sheets sanded again before being put back in place and riveted.
The rivets will receive a special primer before the whole is painted again.
The pickling of the a roll bar has begun.
The steel crossbeam will receive an anti-rust treatment and will be painted in black, the aluminum side uprights will be polished.
It was the last part to paint.
The protections are removed.
The bodywork works are finished.
The Spartan is ready to go... to the reassembly !
The Reassembly
Here we go, still with the 1983 sales brochure as a source of inspiration :
Under the hood
The engine, power steering tank, oil recuperator and windshield washer reservoir have been put in place.
The water pump has been replaced.
The exhaust collector was sandblasted, repainted with the product RESTOM Collector 4070, and reattached to the engine.
A double stainless steel exhaust line with chrome side outlets will be custom made.
You can find it on the page "Unique pieces".
The aluminum radiator has been installed.
For technical reasons first, but also aesthetic, the radiator will be adjusted to be advanced and mounted on silenblocs.
The fan will be discreetly positioned at the rear, in suction mode.
The silicone hoses connect the radiator, and the heating.
The motor belt driving the power steering pump, alternator and water pump is put back in place.
The tank
The tank was treated with RESTOM products, repainted, then put back on the vehicle.
Braking
Discs are changed.
The drums were sandblasted and repainted, the master cylinders and fittings replaced.
The brake system is completely redone, according to the rules of the art.
Reassembly of the body
The rear wings are back in place.
The bumper was treated and straightened. The trunk has been reassembled. The chrome of one of its hinges is particularly stitched, new ones have been ordered and they will be replaced.
A chrome valve cap nicely closes the fuel tank.
The front wings have returned their place, the hood will follow :
The polished chopsticks surround the Spartan again.
Rubber coatings are customised to dress the steps.
They will be glued soon.
Electricity
The electrical harness must be completely customised.
The first elements that will compose it have just been delivered to Boutier Retro Motors, it will be created and implemented soon.
The dashboard
A model of the dashboard is sketched…
The panels are cut, drilled and adjusted.
The dashboard itself will be trimmed to match the seats and door trims.
The central part will be made of black granite aluminum, to hightlight out the Smiths metre and rev counter with their white background.
Hubs and Rims
In February 2024, hubs and rims will be installed on the Spartan.
The tires have been mounted, the wheels balanced, and in mid-March 2024, the Spartan is again placed on its wheels !
The support for the spare wheel was manufactured and fixed to the trunk.
The wheel took place with its characteristic big central Spartan nut, a pretty piece
of aluminum foundry.
An exceptional end of renovation
On July 3, 2024, while the Spartan has to go to the technical inspection, we realise that the steering column and the Mastervac are failing and must be replaced.
However, the finalisation of certain elements such as the hood remained to be done after the technical inspection.
With a huge delay from the deadline initially announced, the Spartan will be recovered on Friday, July 12, 2024 because, beyond that date, the garage was no longer available, and a subsequent
delivery would have compromised any chance of departure for the Road Trip scheduled for August.
After the cancellation of the Road Trips in May and June, everything had to be done to ensure this departure in good conditions
A new team of mechanics is formed.
The steering column and the Mastervac are replaced immediately.
The interior mirror is absent, it is immediately controlled and set up.
The Horn that had been put in place is faulty and must be replaced.
The planned USB sockets had not been put in place. They are also ordered, even if the emergency is elsewhere.
The car does not have an air filter, so it is urgent to order one!
The dashboard is not operational :
- The speedometer has not been connected.
- The oil pressure gauge has not been connected.
- The oil temperature gauge has not been connected (we will discover the probe wrapped around its wire in the motor compartment, wedged behind the electrical harness).
I wonder how the garage intended to pass the Spartan to the technical inspection on July 3 without having completed this essential work....
The heating ducts have not been put in place behind the dashboard.
A short circuit burns the fuse of the headlights, it will be quickly identified. The wires that lead to the headlights have not been attached and come to rub on the power steering pulley. The
problem will be corrected immediately.
The English license plates were lost by the garage just before its delivery, they will be redone and installed so that the Spartan finally takes the path of the technical inspection.
It will be done in the process, and the result will be catastrophic.
Out of the question of taking the road with a car in this condition, the new team of mechanics is not only maintained to ensure the resumption of work, but it is strengthened in view of the scale
of the task.
Here is the list of the main updated problems:
- Fuel leakage at the major fuel pump.
- Significant oil leakage from the gearbox drain plug, the oil change had been done just before the car was recovered.
- Front brake hoses too short, significant risk of breakage.
- Non-compliant lighting, the headlight has been mounted sideways which makes a correct adjustment impossible.
- Electrical problem, the headlights have the ability to stay on just a few minutes before the fuse grills. Replacing the fuse, even with a more powerful model, does not change anything, the
current assembly does not allow the headlights to stay on for the time of the technical inspection.
It is a beam design problem, it must be redone.
- Rear brake imbalance, an adjustment must be made.
- Incorrect fixing of a brake hose.
- Excessive ripage, the parallelism must be redone.
If I am demanding about aesthetics, I am uncompromising on safety, a lot must be redone, in the rules of the art.
This is considerable work that must be done by the new team. Each failure must be corrected, from the relays to be added to the electrical harness, to the resumption of the braking system, through the repair of gearbox oil and gasoline leaks, without counting on the necessary checks, here that of the gearbox :
This is considerable work that must be done by the new team. Each failure must be corrected, from the relays to be added to the electrical harness, to the resumption of the braking system, through the repair of gearbox oil and gasoline leaks, without counting on the necessary checks, here that of the gearbox :
And, July 20, 2024 :
Engine failure
Passing through Saint Flour in Auvergne, a sudden and very disturbing noise is heard at the engine.
The vehicle is immediately stopped.
In search of a garage capable of taking care of an old vehicle, the Sanflorains unanimously advise me to contact the DELAIR Garage.
This is how The French Spartan arrives in this garage for a diagnosis.
The compressions remain correct, but the noise is such that you have to empty to open the engine bottom to see the problem.
The metal flakes in the drained oil confirm the seriousness of the problem.
The result will be without appeal, the connecting rod bearings are completely shretched, and the crankshaft is irreparably damaged.
This engine is no longer repairable.
In all likelihood, the cause of the poor lubrication would come from the fact that the oil filter that had been put in place was not the one adapted to this Ford 2.0 engine, and that it was not
designed for the viscosity of the oil necessary for this engine, nor to operate with the flow and pressure of the latter.
The poor circulation of the oil damaged the pads that heated up and "decomposed" into flakes that obstructed the suction strainer, permanently cutting off the oil circulation in the engine,
condemning it.
This is certainly not the cause, but if the Garage Boutier Rétro Motors had connected the oil pressure gauge during the renovation, the oil pressure drop displayed would have made the problem
visible before it became fatal.
Unfortunately, he had neither ordered enough to connect this pressure gauge, nor had he planned an engine light on the dashboard he had made.
The removal of the engine was also an opportunity to understand where the small coolant leak that I had from the beginning came from. A resin part at the thermostat had been broken by the Garage
Boutier Rétro Motors who had been careful not to tell me, and a repair had been made discreetly with joint paste.
I had reported to them that I had a small leak, he had certified to me that it was traces of overflow during filling, except I was forced to constantly put some back.
On the water circuit, the joint paste does not hold...
From now on, everything is being done to find a new engine.
Luckily, an engine with very few kilometres is available in Spain.
His condition seems so good that this opportunity seems almost too good to be true.
It will take a week for it to be delivered to the DELAIR Garage, which can't wait to check its condition.
As soon as it is delivered, it will be observed in depth to check the slightest corners.
The camshafts, the beaming, the oil suction strainer, the distribution are controlled.
The pistons, the shirts are observed with a magnifying glass...
It's hard to believe, absolutely everything looks new!
All these checks will, of course, require the replacement of all engine seals.
Finally, as a good professional, the first thing the DELAIR Garage will do after setting up the new engine is to connect the oil pressure gauge.
Everything is done according to the rules of the art, the work is neat.
I am surprised to see that the coolant put in the engine is different from the one that the Boutier Retro Motors garage had put, it does not have the same colour and different characteristics.
Alain, mechanic at Garage DELAIR, simply put the right coolant, the one recommended by Ford for this 2.0i DOHC engine.
