Manalishis Mk 1a 827 Vitesse (manual)

[scoobyh123]

Fingers crossed for you Henrik - should be good once it's done!

[Manalishi]

Right side welded but needs some more work. The other side is actually worse so will need some magic there to get the shape right.

[Manalishi]

Oh dear, I finally re routed the wiring of the stereo and it sounds terrible, like the speakers are blown. Very low on the priority list, but it was very disappointing!

At least I think we solved the problem with it draining the battery. It has had a totally flat battery the last two days, and Marcus noticed that the tiny reader lamp was on in the rear seat. So probably some result!

No welding tomorrow but maybe cutting out the sill. It is a lot worse on that side!

[scoobyh123]

Great work there Henrik and well done Marcus for spotting the reading lamp being on! Would be enough to fatten the battery in time.

[Nuts4my827]

Now I can put a forum name to a facebook name again

[Manalishi]

Now I can put a forum name to a facebook name again

[Fastback]

Remember Henrik, if you need them, I do have sills available. As everybody who has used them will testify, they are perfect. Could save a lot of time and effort. We don't profit a fortune from them, it's more of a philanthropic thing and if your welding yourself, very cost effective. I sent mine to a chap and it cost £300, one side.

[Manalishi]

Remember Henrik, if you need them, I do have sills available. As everybody who has used them will testify, they are perfect. Could save a lot of time and effort. We don't profit a fortune from them, it's more of a philanthropic thing and if your welding yourself, very cost effective. I sent mine to a chap and it cost £300, one side.

Thanks Mark, it should really definately be something worth considering but I can’t put the cash into it. For the time being it’s ok to patch them up with some sheet metal and It’s the lower part of the sill that is affected, some 70-90cm from the rear and that area is actually quite simple to do from scratch. The most tedious part is cutting the fresh sheet metal as I’m weaker now than I was 15years ago (cutting the sheet with shears) and my compressor isn’t here where I have the nibbler cutting tool...

The right side took some 3hours to do. I think the left will be maybe an hour or two more. Not excellent and fun but bearable. The result might not be as good as fabricated sills but I have to balance the cash going into it. If I could, I would give it to a professional for a full restoration and paintjob, but the funds aren’t there.

I have done a few full restorations back in the days including paintwork, but the endurance isn’t there anymore unfortunately.

So next step now is the left sill. After that the priority is the handbrake, but that’s only a matter of adjusting really.

And then I’ve started to look at the extra drivers door. I’ve stripped the spare one and hope to paint the inside of it as soon as possible.

I have no working locks on the car so I ordered new locks from Rimmers. It was quite Interesting the other day as the battery went flat, with the car locked. (The fob and central locking works!) It ended up with Marcus putting a crowbar between door frame and B-pillar and I lifting the latch with a thin metal bar. Interesting!

Anyway, this was in the mail today! Priority!!

[Manalishi]

Todays little project.

As the new Pioneer rear speakers were blown I decided to take a different route. I still have my old rear speakers for the coupe and had some handy mdf in the garage. The cloth is actually a bed cover I found. The colour and texture is ridiculously correct! A true strike of luck!

The original shelf will be stored away and this fitted. The plan is to hook up the original wiring to an RCA Female mounted in the inner rear sides, then a cable to the speaker on each side. Easy to disconnect if I want to fold the seats. This will make it look fairly original and the plusside is larger speakers in the rear. The downside is the flat surface compared to the original shape.

[scoobyh123]

That looks really good Henrik! If you really wanted to recreate the shapes in the original (really only there to increase the strength of the OE shelf) you could use MDF mouldings and then cover it.

That said as you don't need the surface anything other than flat and that looks so good, why bother?

Not sure on the acoustic properties of bed linen but if it works then it's all good!

[Manalishi]

Yes I was considering putting som ”moulded shape” in the mdf but I think it could be a problem to get it to cover properly. I’m not sure spray glue will work on this fabric, it’s very soft and ”airy” so not like other fabric or cloth. And I think it looks really really good too! Perfect colour and the same texture as the rest of the interior.

[scoobyh123]

I'd leave it as it is Henrik, it looks good and the speakers are hidden.

[Fastback]

Nice touch that the speakers are hidden. I made a replacement MDF shelf for my MG Maestro and had a large 'MG' logo printed on fabric so it could be seen throught the rear window. However after some time it did sag under its own weight, never mind having speakers in it. I would suggest that you screw a piece of angle bar or similar across the shelf (underneath) to give it some lateral strength, as MDF has no strength of its own.

How's it improved the sound of the stereo?

[Manalishi]

Mark, actually this mdf is quite rigid. It’s 18mm thick and very sturdy. It’s not a thick masonite. But I’ll keep an eye on it! The board itself weighs a lot compared to the original shelf so putting strings to lift it up with the hatch might be problematic.

Actually I haven’t tried the sound yet. I need to reroute the wiring from the original position but I hope to get that done tonight.

As the original speakers were totally scrapped and the new ones were blown, I hope to have somekind of result regarding the sound. Still a bit angry about the pioneers, but I threw away the reciept and the box so can’t go back to the store. £30 down the drain!

By the way. These are the originals. I am considering having them re coned in the future but it’s not cheap enough for now.

[scoobyh123]

Henrik - a very sill thought crossed my mind - you haven't got the fader set all the way to the front have you?