In the Issue No 45 of Le Journal I wrote an account of the Club Alpine Dieppe Touristique (October 2008) in which I made reference to the unfortunate incident involving Paul Godfrey’s A110 when the car suffered an engine bay fire resulting in extensive damage to the off side rear of the car.
At the time of writing that article, the car was in store in France (thanks to the assistance and generosity of a fellow Club member) whilst the insurance issues were resolved. Paul’s initial thoughts were to have the car repaired in France and the insurers were happy with this arrangement but after giving the matter more thought the decision was made to return the car to the UK. After discussing the matter with us, Paul asked Milton Holland and myself if we would be prepared to effect the necessary repairs and this we agreed to do. And so it was that NAL 250E was transported to Milton’s house in March 2009.
I perhaps should explain that Milton had bought an A110 (imported from France) in 1982 as a box of bits and utilising his skills in mechanics and fibreglass, he totally restored the car. I got to know him some time later (he was a near neighbour) and acquired an A110 of my own in 1991 (albeit written off with extensive frontal body and chassis damage) and with his assistance the car was rebuilt/restored over a 3 year period. The successful outcome of these projects meant that neither of us was unduly concerned at the prospect of helping Paul get his car back to full working order.
Before bringing the car up to us in the Midlands, Paul had previously removed the engine and so we began the task of repairing the affected bodywork. First inspection showed the off side rear wing was very badly damaged and required total replacement, likewise the back panel including the light units, and the boot lid. The engine bay was badly affected by smoke and flame damage and the wiring loom was reduced to a mangled mess of bare cables with no insulation.
Paul had provided a new off side rear wing, a new detachable rear panel and a second-hand engine cover, so essentially the plan was to clean up the engine bay, clean and repaint the chassis tubes, remove the damaged bodywork, replace the affected panels, repaint the repaired areas inside and out and return it to Paul for reinstallation of the engine and replacement of the burnt wiring. That was the original plan but little did we know how things were going to turn out. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that!
First off, we removed the gearbox, suspension and transaxle as a unit to give us the necessary unrestricted access to the engine bay and started cleaning up the area removing all the affected paint etc. leaving what remained of the wiring loom for reference, although at this stage we hadn’t envisaged getting involved with the rewiring task. Replacing the rear wing was relatively straightforward, the boot lid required totally stripping and resurfacing with new fine weave cloth and resin. The rear panel fitted about as well as you might expect from an nth generation moulding! In order to achieve a half decent fit, it was necessary to cut away the mouldings supporting the bumpers and reposition them and make some other minor alterations.
Paul suggested that the opportunity could be taken to install a mid mounted fuel tank and make the necessary modifications to introduce a fuel flap in the usual position in the off side wing behind the door shut. Paul also mentioned that at the previous MOT an advisory note was issued referring to corrosion in elements of the chassis at the front. A first look confirmed that there certainly was significant corrosion in the forward facing rectangular hollow sections behind the front cross member. These elements are fixed to outriggers from the central chassis tube to which the body is bonded under the footwells. It was decided to remove the sufficient fibreglass to determine their condition – there was very little left of them, the corrosion had reached catastrophic proportions.
Paul paid us a visit to discuss the situation and it was at this point that the project changed dramatically and the crucial decision was made by Paul that this was now to be a complete restoration/reconstruction project which in order to be successful would entail the removal of the body from the chassis to allow the latter to be repaired. The prospect posed no fears as we had done exactly this with my A110 many years previously. Obviously this decision had a major impact on cost and time but little did we know what a can of worms we would be opening. From what we knew of the car’s history it had had serious money spent on it by the previous owner (well into 5 figures over 5 years or so) with a number of Alpine specialists but it has to be said that some of the work done proved to be of a dubious standard.
We started removing as many detachable bits as we could in order to lighten the shell. Doors, bonnet, seats, steering components, brakes, suspension, windscreen and rear window, the front fuel tank, radiator and lights were all taken off until we could decide what to do with them individually. Whilst trying to remove the various components we were given some indication of the difficulties we would face in trying to undo some of the fixings, virtually every nut and bolt on the car was rusted solid. Having removed everything we could, it was time to muster a couple of friends to help us turn the car over (it is essential that you don’t allow it to rest on its roof for obvious reasons). Past experience told us to support the shell on three trestles, beneath the tops of each rear wing and in front of the windscreen.
Having turned the body over, we then removed the remaining extraneous bits; the brake lines, speedo and handbrake cables, pedal assembly and the badly corroded coolant pipes which ran through the chassis to the front mounted radiator. The body on an A110 is bonded to the chassis in a number of places; in the front wheelarches, the outriggers referred to previously, either side of the gearbox unit, beneath the rear window and inside the engine compartment. So we had to remove all of the fibreglass at each of these locations and it was during this process that the true state of both the chassis and body were revealed – they were not pretty sights!
When the A110s were constructed they had a section of plywood enclosed within the floor when it was laid up in order to strengthen it and to provide a suitable mounting for the seats. When we removed the seats and carpets from the car this was found to be missing from both sides of the car and the floor had many perforations, severely compromising the integrity of the floor area and the seat location.
Inspecting the chassis, it was obvious that substantial sections would have to be replaced; the outriggers, the front facing hollow sections and the perforated mounting plates on each side of the gearbox. Dimensioned drawings do exist of the A110 chassis but because of the manner of construction there are inevitably detailed variations from car to car. After some discussion we decided that in order to ensure a good fit for each of the replacement elements we would partly release the chassis from the body, remove the corroded bits and tack in the new ones for final welding when the chassis was completely removed.
This was duly done and also the front top wishbones were finally removed (one of which took a whole morning involving heat, brute force, drilling and tapping the retaining bolt and cutting into three pieces). The chassis was then in a suitable state for shot blasting and painting.
Attention then turned to the floor section of the bodyshell. The condition of this was totally unforeseen and unexpected not to say outright dangerous. The passenger side was laminated and beyond repair, each layer of fibreglass could just be peeled away. Milton made a new flat floor section from scratch and this and the corresponding floor section were cut to size and the new section bonded in. On the driver’s side the floor was cleaned up and reinforced with further layers of fibreglass externally. We also took the opportunity to repair other parts of the bodyshell where damage previously existed or was incurred when we removed the chassis. We painted areas of the underside as and when we could.
It was time to take the chassis, rear crossmember, wishbones, radius arms and springs to be shot blasted and painted and what a difference they looked like when they came back. This was a key psychological moment because at this point we had turned the corner and were now in a position to start reassembling the car rather than dismantling it.
The front wishbones were rebuilt with new bushes and ball joints and the front brake discs were refaced on a friends lathe, the rear discs showed little sign of wear. The front callipers were dismantled and rebuilt with new pistons and seals and the bearings and oil seals replaced in the front hubs.
The newly refurbished chassis was then put back in the car and new mounting brackets fabricated and welded in, inside the front wheel arches and beside the gearbox. After satisfying ourselves that everything fitted OK we then re-bonded the chassis to the bodyshell in all the correct locations.
This then meant that we could install the cables and pipes which run in and around the chassis. New heavy duty power cables were run from the battery location, together with new throttle and clutch cables and heater hoses. The existing rusty mild steel coolant pipes were replaced with copper pipes and fittings and silicon hoses were used throughout. The rear cross member was loosely fitted at this stage to ensure that key clearances were maintained. At the front end, as access was easy, the pedals and shafts were re-bushed and fitted, the steering rack was installed (with non standard adjustable steering arms) and also the anti-roll bar.
Another milestone was then reached, it was time to turn NAL back up the right way. A call was made to our friends again and the group gathered to return the shell to the trolley we had constructed early on to enable us to be able to move the car around after removing the suspension.
Inside the car, the missing plywood reinforcements in the floor were glassed in and new seat belt anchorages were fabricated, giving us the confidence that the seats when installed would be safely located. Attention was given to replacing the mechanical components at the front end; the lower wishbones, hubs, springs and shock absorbers. The brake lines and front callipers were also fitted at this stage.
It was now time to assemble the rear transaxle. Paul assured us that the gearbox was working perfectly prior to the fire but he supplied a Quaife limited slip differential with a request that we take the opportunity to fit this before we continued with the assembly. Having reassembled the gearbox complete with swing axles, brakes and suspension, these were duly fitted to the rear cross member and the whole arrangement lifted into position and bolted into the shell. It was starting to look like a real car again!
It was time to return to the bodywork to create the fuel filler arrangements, which involved cutting out the required area of off side rear wing to form the access flap and boxing this out on the inside to ensure that no fuel could spill into the passenger compartment when refuelling. Milton had previously made up a dummy fuel tank in cardboard and this was taken to our friendly sheet metal fabricator (also a Club member) to be made in aluminium. This was initially just tacked together so that we could check the final fit and also confirm the locations for the filler, outlet and sender unit. Away it then went for final completion of the fabrication.
We had now reached the point where the car was a complete rolling shell. We had previously discussed with Paul how he wanted the car painted. Originally, when the project appeared to be just the repair of the fire damage, it would only have been necessary to paint the new panels and the rear quarters and possibly the roof, matching the predominantly Alpine Blue paintwork. As the decision had been made to totally restore the car, it made sense to review how the car should be repainted.
Pauls request was that the car should be painted in a colour scheme which represented the works cars in the early 1970s rally seasons, predominantly yellow with a red roof, black and white stripes on the sides and a black bonnet with a white surround. Our problem was finding examples of this, we managed to locate a couple of photos and a 1/43rd scale model for reference! A long standing friend whose work we knew well was commissioned to paint the car. He was quite looking forward to painting something different rather than the usual run of the mill modern tinware.
While the car was having its initial prep work and priming, Milton and I had to sort out the colour scheme, in particular the black and white stripes on the flanks. We trialled a number of these in brown paper on my A110 and then we spent some considerable time with the painter transferring these ideas onto NAL and sorting out the logistics of the masking. The final outcome was very pleasing.
We refitted the doors, a heated windscreen, and the rear opening quarterlights. We left the rear window out for a while until the new fuel tank and filler were installed and Milton had fabricated and fixed the firewalls around the tank to prevent any fuel or fumes entering the passenger compartment.
With the car resplendent in its new suit of clothes, it was time to discuss the future plan with Paul. Originally the intention was that he would do the final commissioning but that changed and Milton and I were asked to complete the job. Paul had provided us with the engine, carburettors and other ancillaries. The engine itself hadn’t suffered during the fire but as would be expected the rest of the bits and pieces were a mess. The engine was cleaned and the cylinder block painted but otherwise it was untouched and reinstalled in the car. The alternator was in a sorry state and was reconditioned locally. The carburettors were bead blasted in one piece to remove the fire deposits and returned looking like new. They were then fully dismantled and reassembled with new reconditioning kits.
At some stage in its life the car had been prepared for rallying and was equipped with a rear roll cage and rally timing gear. It had also been completely rewired with multiple relays and fuses resulting in a pretty complicated wiring loom. The fire damage was restricted to the cabling in the engine compartment and so we decided to crop the loom inside the passenger area, attach suitable connecting blocks and try to replicate the burnt part of the loom. This was easier said than done, thanks to the incomprehensible colour code used. Suffice to say after many hours head scratching, armed with a test instrument, we were able to rationalise and reconstruct the rear end of the loom.
When we initially dismantled the car the front mounted radiator was in poor condition and had a poorly made entry duct from the orifice in the front valance. Milton made a new one in fibreglass and we had a new radiator made in aluminium to the original pattern complete with suitable mounting lugs for new modern fans. This was duly fitted and piped up.
We were now reaching the final stages of recommissioning the car. We had had the wheels chemically stripped and powder coated. Milton made new fibreglass bumpers and over-riders. All the external lights were fitted front and rear, together with the various components in the engine compartment; carburettors and linkages, starter motor and the rebuilt alternator. We fitted a new distributor cap because of the damage to the old one and it is here that Magnecor deserve a pat on the back. Obviously the plug leads felt the full force of the fire but apart from being very dirty, they responded to cleaning with thinners and were otherwise undamaged and were refitted. Our new wiring could then be put to the test and thankfully it worked perfectly. We had previously had the exhaust manifold shot blasted and metal sprayed and we constructed a new silencer arrangement slung across and underneath the rear of the car.
The brakes were finally piped up in flexible stainless (we did have a problem eliminating a leak in one of the rear callipers) and the system bled after a number of unsuccessful attempts and more head scratching. We had reconditioned the master cylinder and this problem is apparently quite common with the modified “big brake” setup fitted to this car. The doors, door glass, front and rear screens were fitted. The fitting of new carpets, remade door cards and new coverings for the transmission tunnel and petrol tank, refitting the seats and seatbelts completed the interior work.
And so the day of reckoning rapidly approached. May 11th 2010 saw us take NAL to our local (friendly) MOT station where in due course an MOT certificate was issued – JOB DONE. Looking back in the diary, Paul had brought his car up to Wombourne on 14th March 2009, the fire having taken place on 18th October 2008. It was taken returned home to Brighton on 13th May 2010, by hopefully a satisfied owner.
The project would not have been possible without the help of a number of local service companies and suppliers. It was quite interesting to compare the situations prevailing now to those 19 years ago when I restored my car. The core trades we needed and the small engineering companies are still around but you have to look much harder to find them. Motor factors are now largely conglomerates with computer controlled stock systems and are no longer geared up to deal with older cars. Finding parts to allow reconditioning of components rather than replacement is problematic. We were lucky in having an old acquaintance working in a local factors who helped us using his own grapevine of contacts.
Looking back, did we foresee the job being as extensive as it turned out to be? No. Did we enjoy it? Yes, the final result was very satisfying. Would we do it again? I think we would pass on that!
Peter Whitehouse October 2010
A footnote from the Sponsor
I am so grateful to the Alpine Frères (Pete and Milt) for their dedication, commitment and patience, not to mention the sheer hard work that has been utilised by the barrow load to get this mammoth task completed. Their collective skill, knowledge and experience must now place them as the foremost Alpine restorers in England, if not the whole universe. So, as I am not known for exaggeration, over sentimentality, nor awarding lavish praise, you will know what I mean when I say how pleased I am with the result. To emerge after only 14 months in their ‘spare time’ (MOT’d as well!) must be a record for a total chassis off rebuild. Not something that most professionals can match, certainly not to this quality. Splendid fellows those chaps at Wombourne Restorations.
The original colour of this French built Berlinette was yellow, which is why I took the opportunity to create my own ‘Custurd Motorsport’ livery after the famous Works rally colours of the 1970s. Yellow and red may not be to everyone’s taste but it beats the ubiquitous Alpine Blue and sure gets it noticed.
Now before you all rush to Wombourne Restorations you need to know that there is a waiting list – my 1600S is there at the moment being returned to its original orange. A full order book too but options can be purchased to join the queue, via the UK agent (Custurd Motorsport).
A bientôt. – Paul Godfrey