WILL’S WORLD
Workshop tips and shed experience
1 My first success
‘I was pleased with the fit of the new sills,’ says Will. When fitted in the factory, Alpine sills curved slightly from front to back, in addition to the obvious curvature round from the door shut to meet the floor pan. Many restorers expect this panel to be a straight run from the front to the back wheel arch, and try to ‘correct’ the curve by straightening it. Will is delighted to have got this subtle panel shape spot on, just another example of how his Alpine is correct to every last detail.
2 My biggest fail
Will does admit to some naivety before starting the project: ‘I got the car home straight after buying it. Never having done a major restoration, I looked at it and thought I can fix that up quickly and have it back on the road in 12 months’. Once he realised how long it could take to restore the Alpine to his high standards, a big re-think about timing was on the cards.
3 My best bodge
Asked about bodges, Will frowns: ‘If something’s not right first time, I can’t accept that and have to do the job again.’ There are numerous examples of this. He spent hours removing and refitting the covers on the seat bases until they were perfectly smooth and found the chrome trim around the rear window was tricky to fit. He remembers problems with the trim panels in the rear seat area: ‘the vinyl just wouldn’t follow the correct contour. I learned to stretch the vinyl over the foam underlay and apply glue in some places not others until the panels were perfect.’
4 My favourite tool
‘As the bottom half of the car of the car was completely rotten, welding was by far the biggest part of my resto,’ says Will. His MIG welder with a big bottle of shielding gas was high on his list of essential tools, as was a huge collection of clamps in various shapes and sizes. The further his welding odyssey progressed, the more he found his batterypowered grinder was essential: ‘The battery grinder is so much more controllable than a mains grinder, and easier to use for delicate cutting.’
5 My best advice
Will got busy with his camera, taking plenty of photos before he started the stripdown and advises all restorers do the same. ‘Take photos before you touch the car and take more as you take things apart,’ he says. ‘Then as you strip your car, keep the parts you remove in labelled bags, for example all the bolts from each door should go in a single bag. That way, when time comes to reassemble it years later, you won’t struggle to remember what goes where.’