Gutes Neues allerseits ;)

Wie vielleicht der eine oder andere im Roadfly Forum ueber die letzten Monate mitbekommen hat, ist einem CSI Fahrer (Gerry) aus England der Wagen auf dem Transport von den USA mehr oder weniger zerstoert worden.

Mit nahezu unglaublichem Enthusiasmus und ganz offensichtlich nicht unbescheidenem finanziellen Einsatz versucht Gerry nun seit August den Wagen wiederherzustellen und auf dem Wege dahin noch einiges an Extras und Verbesserungen/Verschoenerungen einfliessen zu lassen.

Da die reich bebilderten und teilweise atemberaubenden Ergebnisse aus dem Roadfly Forum recht schnell verschwinden, hab ich mir mal die Muehe gemacht die Auferstehung des Phoenix hier zusammenzufassen.

Im Folgenden also eine Chronologie der Ereignisse beginnend mit dem

16. August 2004 - der Wagen kehrt zurueck

Hi Guys,
I have finally been told that my car is cleared customs and ready for collection from Southampton docks tomorrow.
Its been nearly 4 weeks since I left it in Jacksonville, on the dockside with the Keys in it!
Since then its been across the Atlantic, toured all round the mediteranean, changed ships at Amsterdam and sat in Southampton for 48 hours.
As some of you know it was thieved and vandalised on its 7 day trip just from Southampton to Halifax, Canada. Can anyone ease my mind - I am really nervous at what I will find tomorrow.

17. August 2004 - Das Desaster

Someone at the shipping co have been doing burn-outs or donuts so much that the clutch had disintegrated so I will be picking up the
car on a trailer tomorrow. It doesn't even pull on idle.
As many of you know, my car is quite low at the front so I had spring chocks made for the front to hold it about 3" higher for
shipping. It has been driven so hard, the chocks have forced their way down into the inside of the bump stop rubbers and finally,
they unloaded our tent from the boot(trunk), then the chairs, blanket and fridge, then proceeded to rip the f*****g stereo out of
the boot completely, cutting the wiring loom where necessary, pulling the subwoofer box out, stealing the radar detector, damaging
the rear center armrest trying to get the wiring out, stole the top of the Schnitzer gearknob, got grease over the drivers seat THEN
put the luggage back in the boot.
AND NOBODY SAW ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes I am bitter, I have respect for others property and I worked long and hard to get that car as it was, it may not be to everyones
taste but I WORKED for it, I wonder if it will ever feel right again?
Gerry.

Oktober 2004 - ein guter Rat an alle, die Ihr Fahrzeug mit dem Schiff transportieren

I shipped my CSi from the US (Jacksonville) to the UK. When I left it at Jacksonville it was a low mileage, very tidy example. When I went to collect it THE SHIPPERS had been doing donuts and burn-outs in it until the clutch caught fire and it broke down, then they totally stripped it, stereo system, tools, carphone etc, ripping-out the interior in the process.
I would check the archives for my related posts and pics.
ONLY SHIP in a locked container and insure it whilst in the "care" of the shipping company.
Am I biased............Hell yes, $12000 USD biased!!

Ab Oktober 2004 - Die Restaurierung

Hi all, I just bought a digital camera so I will hopefully be able to post some photos of the rebuild of the CSi, dog, garden,kids, (only joking), without having to take a photo, finish the film, get it processed and printed, scan it, file it, and then post it about 3 weeks later!
I currently have the entire front suspension, steering and braking system, rear susp'n with rear wheel steering and brakes, complete transmission from the rear main oil seal to the diff,AV system install, all apart for inspection/service/modification/replacement etc.
I was thinking of making a little article with photos,(hence the new camera!) if anyone was interested in any of the areas I have stripped. I was thinking of:
1. Front suspension/steering assy
2. Rear susp'n assy
3. Transmission front to rear
4. AV Install.
Is anyone at all interested in any of this, or would anyone like any particular photos posted for their own info?
Please let me know, I want to gauge the interest before I blitz the board with unwanted posts.
Thanks, Gerry.








2. November 2004
Here are pics of the first parts to be completed on the restoration of the CSi.
These are pictures of the front crossmember which has been re-inforced in the areas of the front lower arm mounting point and

triangulated in both planes across the "X" section. The crossmember has been powder coated for lasting protection and is shown with

the new stainless steel Allen bolt fasteners, (upside down),in position.
I may be installing the member in the next few days so if anyone would like a particular view photographed prior to installation,

now is the time to ask!
Will post further pics when I start mounting the suspension components. Regards, Gerry. Any Questions or comments?




19. November 2004

The first major components for the restoration of my CSi are now coming together. I have completely stripped the front and rear suspension systems as posted recently and now have something, (hopefully) of interest to share with you all.
Once stripped, all suspension bushes and joints were carefully checked and replaced where necessary. I then taped around all machined surfaces and using an angle grinder with a flapper wheel, ground off all casting flashings and suface irregularities.





Following this, and a good deal of time explaining to the girlfriend the absolute necessity of doing this in the kitchen, and even more time cleaning the washing machine of mettallic bits, the part looks a little like this.



Once this was done, the old balljoint nut and tape was left on to protect the joint and thread so the remaining part could be sand blasted, like this,(apart from the alloy front arms which were polished.)



Then finally protective coated like this.



After this, each component was finally treated in one of three different ways. Parts without bushes or balljoints were powder coated in gloss finish, Black on suspension arms, Red on springs and Blue on the anti-roll bar. Parts sensitive to heat were Cold Enammelled, the same 2-pack paint as hot stove enammelling but taking forever to cure - well a week anyway! and the polished alloy arms were Clear-Coated, losing some of the lustre but giving supreme protection from the elements.

Surface finished and blasted:



Completed:



Polished and Clear-Coated:



Will post pics of front suspension leg assembly in next installment if anyone wants more?????

Regards, Gerry.

29. November 2004

Hi Guys, I have now begun to assemble some of the components that make up sub-assemblies, mainly to keep the number of parts in storage to a minimum and also to keep these parts un-damaged and out-of the-way whilst I concentrate on other areas.
You may have seen my last post on the surface re-finishing of a number of components so I will not bore you with re-posting that. The only thing to add here though is that I have "chased" ALL the threads on ALL the parts that have been re-finished. All fasteners are replaced with stainless steel up to 10mm, larger sizes are either new or triple plated chrome. All fasteners are either lightly oiled or threadlocked whichever is appropriate.

These are the component parts of the front suspension legs. The shockabsorbers are low mileage Schnitzer items so were not replaced.


The shockabsorber is assembled with new bump-stop rubbers and gaiters. These are assembled off the strut.


I had a major tantrum attempting to fit the 2 nylon lower rings below the collar and although new, they split trying to stretch them over so a little soapy water and the old faithful tie-wrap sees the gaiter and bump stop fitted.


Followed by a new lower, top washer.


A new pair of rubber coil spring seats are used, one on the lower spring seat and one on the top bearing seat. The coil spring is then lowered onto its seat.


Now here I must point out that although I look like I weigh 500lbs, I actually do not,........quite, so the reason I do not have the springs clamped here is because they are Schnitzer race springs which are shorter and only need a slight push to assemble and settle the top bearing assembly.


Refit the top rubber mount, washer and new locknut.


And tighten by hand.


Then Voila! we have a finished front leg.


All that is left to do is clean the living room before the wife/girlfriend/mother gets home, and explain how you wanted to be helpful around the house as she works so hard. Then zip into the garage and put your handywork here!



Will post the benefits of doing some housework for the girlfriend later................err, maybe not!!!

Any questions or comments greatly appreciated. Gerry.

13. Dezember 2004

Hi to you all, lots of parts now coming together so I thought I would share a couple of them with you.
Here are the front and rear anti-roll bar droplinks I have just finished making. I have used Aurora rod ends and connected them together with some alloy bar stock. O/D of the bar is 5/8" and lengths are 7 1/2" and 2" which give a stock rod length, = or - the adjustment. I intend using these to set-up the correct loading on the roll bars.



Here is a comparison between stock and my own links. You will see I smoothed and polished the rear stock link then decided not to use it!



As always, questions and comments appreciated.

29. Dezember 2004

Sorry folks for being a bit quiet on the restoration posting but a nasty virus got my computer and I had to get the whole thing Formatted, nightmare as you can probably imagine for a computer illiterate like myself but here we go again anyway.
I have just completed rebuilding the calipers and took a few pics along the way for anyone who may be interested.

The first job after thoroughly cleaning the calipers was to remove the pistons. To do this I put a small piece of softwood between the caliper and the piston and using compressed air on the hose intake, pushed the piston out gently. WARNING, at 150psi the piston shoots out with a force of about 360lbs, enough to severely injure a finger so I released ALL the pressure in my compressor then started it running with the air line connected so it GENTLY pushed out the piston as the pressure slowly rose.



With the piston removed, gently prise out the old piston seal without marking the caliper surface and pull off the old dust seal from the piston.



After washing out the inside of the caliper bore and piston face with alcohol, lubricate the new piston seal with fresh brake fluid and gently fit into the seal groove.



Lubricate the piston with brake fluid.



Before fitting the new dust seal/boot. I fitted it as shown to facilitate easier fitting into the caliper as shown next.



Seat the boot into the caliper housing whilst it is "hanging-off" the end of the piston.



Before lining-up the piston and gently pushing it in to the caliper as far as the seal previously fitted.



With a gentle "wiggle", start to push home the piston into the caliper, pulling fully home with hand pressure.



A liquid soap on the slider rubbers greatly easies refitting.



And copper grease on the sliders stops corrosion and binding later.



That completes the build on the rear caliper.



The front caliper, being a CSi has 4 pistons so a slightly different procedure is necessary to remove the pistons. The first can be done as above but I used various bits of wood to use the air to push all 4 pistons ALMOST fully out then finally eased them completely out by hand.
Here we have the front stripped caliper, clearly showing the different piston bore sizes.



The main difference on the assembly of these is the fitting of the heat shields covering the piston boots.



Which need to be pushed home gently around the end of the pistons with a screwdriver.



If anyone is interested, the next installment on the brakes is the discs, (rotors), then the fitting, hoses and bleeding in part 3.

1. Januar 2005

Just got the rest of my chroming parts back so I can now start to re-assemble. Here are some of the parts I've not yet used.