June 2015 and the body has now been stripped. It is fastened to the chassis by a few bolts in the boot and cabin which predictably were so corroded they snapped clean off or required the use of an angle grinder. It was also obvious that when the chassis was replaced the bolt holes in the body had to be re drilled. More on that later !
The plan was to move the body off the chassis and sit it on some old tyres. I assembled some helping hands.
Removing the body proved problematic and caused some of the repairs to give way. A rear end shunt seemed to have bent one part of the rear spar so the tumble home required some trimming and prising to get the body free.
With the chassis now free the remaining strip down can get under way so the frame can go for shot blasting.
When gathering vehicle documentation I came across a letter which proved the original chassis was replaced in 1974. The VIN plate states the number of the original chassis. the old V5 showed a different number. The chassis number was located stamped into the mounting for the steering box. This matches what is on the V5 and proves that the chassis was indeed replaced and luckily the documentation promptly amended by official means. It is unclear as to where this chassis came from but it is quite likely that it was recovered from another, slightly later, Regal 3/25 saloon and possibly fitted at Two Strokes Ltd. Gathering information was a key element to the process of reclaiming the registration.
Cleaning the underside of the body was required to assess the couple of old repair patches on the floor pan. In order to protect the GRP it was also planned to apply some sort of covering. I elected to use Raptor truck bed liner. But first hand fulls of road dirt mixed with engine and gearbox oil had to be removed !
One area in need of strengthening from behind was the rear bumper. The rear end shunt repairs were somewhat flakey and since the rear spar occupies this area, the back was inaccessible. With everything cleaned out marine grade GRP is used to provide some depth to the area.
GRP repairs were made to the inside areas of the wings, bumpers and floor pan before a thorough coating of truck bed liner. This is a resin which requires a hardener. It took a couple of coats due to the rough factory finish of the GRP.
With the body now done for now, it had to be left under cover outside. This did not stop condensation however & I had grave concerns about drying the GRP out before painting. For now the chassis strip down continues.