Graham Brook - 1968 S2 gets a Vauxhall engine
and new bodyshell
In December 2004 I finally bought a 1968 S2 after
searching around for a couple of years. The car appeared to be complete with a
reasonably solid chassis and the previous owner had started the restoration by
stripping the paint off the bodyshell (which was in a poor condition).
In the summer the car was completely dismantled
and work started on restoring the chassis and rebuilding the suspension units,
pretty straight forward stuff but dirty and dull !
Having
repaired and painted the chassis, rebuilt all four corners with nice new avo
shocks, and cleaned up the gearbox it was finally time to start on the engine.
Once the head and block were separated the insides looked in pretty good
condition and the plan was simply to clean it up and replace all the gaskets,
however a check on the bearings showed that they needed replacing. A couple of
phone calls to Richard and a few days later I had a complete gasket set and
bearing shells.
Now I’m not going to fully admit how this
happened but I had occasion to remove one of the pistons and in doing so damaged
the cylinder lining …. Back on the phone to Richard again, who was very
sympathetic, send him the cylinder and piston and he would see if it was usable
or if we needed to find another one.
More phone calls and the news is not good, the
cylinder lining is damaged beyond use and I’ve also damaged the con rod. Richard
assures me that this is not the end of the world but parts are becoming rare and
the cost is going to start to mount up.
I consider this for a while and by chance happen
to mention to him that I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on this engine as I
intended to replace it in a couple of years for a bit more power and
reliability. OK he says, why not upgrade sooner rather than later – sounds like
a good idea and ten minutes later I had agreed for him to supply and fit a
Vauxhall 1600 engine that he had lying around from one of his own cars…
I had already ordered a new bodyshell from
Richard and we set a date a couple of weeks away for him to fit the new engine
and do the bodyshell at the same time.
On a cold day in early December (2005) I headed
for Southport with the rolling chassis on a borrowed trailer and the old engine
& gearbox in the car.
Richard understood that I was only planning to be in the north for a couple of
days and as soon as I arrived in Southport his guys swarmed around my trailer,
manhandled it into the courtyard and started to get the chassis off (even before
I had a cup of coffee in my hand).
Work started straight away with the Renault
gearbox being attached to the Vauxhall engine using a custom adapter plate and
the whole lot being offered to the chassis so they could see what modifications
were needed.
Having
had a cup of coffee I return to the workshop to see what was happening and find
my chassis being attacked with angle grinders, my nice brake pipe work being
dismantled and holes being drilled to move the engine mounting plates.
Richard outlined the plan for me, fitting the
engine itself is pretty straight forward job but needs changes to the chassis,
the engine mountings, main water pipes and gear linkage system.
There is also a tricky bit of work needed to get
the clutch plate and gearbox input shaft working together due to the adapter
plate and he will be machining a new carrier for the clutch release bearing and
modifying the clutch plate itself.
Whilst the chassis/engine work is going on two
other guys will be preparing the new bodyshell for fitting. The newly
moulded shell needs some trimming, holes making and a firewall installing before
being married to the chassis.
Time to disappear and leave them to it and come
back in a day or so.
I go off to my business appointments and come
back a day and a half later; the guys have made terrific progress! The
engine/gearbox has been fitted, drive shafts installed, gear linkages modified,
brake pipes moved, water pipes modified and basically the rolling chassis is
finished and ready for the bodyshell which they will do tomorrow morning.
After a good nights sleep in a favourite
Southport Hotel I arrived at Banks Service station only to find the guys waiting
for me to arrive (they knew I wanted to take some more photos), after a quick
photo shoot they got on with the job.
Marrying
the new shell to the chassis took a few attempts, there was quite a few swear
words in use and some last minute modifications with an angle grinder –
understandable given that we are fitting a TC bodyshell to an S2 chassis with a
non standard powertrain, and even more stressful when the owner is watching!
Incidentally, I am delighted
with the new bodyshell it seems to be considerably thicker and stiffer than my
original one which incidentally was a real mess and was going to take hundreds
of man hours to put right.
The guys pulled out all the
stops and had the job finished and the trailer loaded by my lunchtime deadline
and I was on my way home again. Now I just can't wait to get the electrics in
and the engine fired up for the first time....