The restoration begins!!

Its been a while since buying the Frogeye a restoration project so with the spring well under way it was time to get things moving again. The first job was to start the unenvieable task of stripping down the very rotten car to salvage the parts i wanted to keep or sell on. I decided to start at the front of the car and work my way backwards so the first job was jacking up the front and remove the wheels. This sounds like an easy job but when the car is so rotten that there isn't much left to use as a jacking point it makes life abit more difficult. After finding some solid steel the front was sitting on blocks.
The wire wheels were next to come off and with some coaxing with a hammer they were stacked up ready to clean up later.
The suspension arms and front hubs were the next challenge. When a car has been sat for 20 odd years things get very rusty and don't like to come apart. I found one of the most invaluable tools was a nut splitter. The decision was made to keep the upgraded discs on the front for 2 reasons: to give better braking and to keep the wire wheel conversion kit.
The engine was the next part to come out. This was quite tricky as i couldn't get to the gearbox mounts so the engine needed to be split from the gearbox. After much knuckle scrapping the bolts connecting the 2 parts were off. Using a large pole, some rope and alot of brute force the engine was out. It became very apparent that the move to replace the engine was definately the right one.


With the engine bay looking very bare it was time to move on to the interior. There wasn't much left in the interior so it wasn't going to take too long. The seats just lifted out as the runners were completely rotten. The aluminium trim was abit tricky to get out as the screws had rusted, however with a drill and abit of patience it was soon off. The gauges were also abit reluctant to come out but with an array of tools at hand they were soon on the bench.

After a hard days work it was time to admire the work that I had done and think about the next job.


The only things left to strip off the car is the rear axle, prop shaft and gearbox once I get the back wheels off.

After browsing that well know auction site again I can across another engine and gearbox that was going cheap so I had to buy them. I can use parts off both engines and gearboxes to hopefully make a complete working set.

The second engine

To help raise funds for the big restoration the decision was made to sell one of the hardtops. With the funds I am now the proud owner of a new sealey shot blasting cabinet. I am now obsessed with cleaning any rusty part that will fit inside it.

New blasting cabinet

After assessing the state of the engine currently in the Frogeye it became very aparent that a replacement was needed, so after a browse on a very well know auction site I came across a perfect 948cc replacement. After some last minute bidding I became the proud owner of a new engine and the seller also had a gearbox to match that I was more than happy to take off his hands.

The replacement engine

The "new" arrival

Today I picked up the car. Julie is a bit shocked as to how many bits it is in. I'm just trying to think of it as a giant Meccano project. There is the original car and a spare shell, plus two hard tops, a soft top, lots of other auto jumble and a set of original seats in perfect condition.

One of the original owners obviously thought he was James Bond, judging by some of the buttons on the dash... They havn't shown up well on the photo, but included ejector seat, laser, fire cannon!

The rest of the car(s)

The inspiration

On our wedding day on the 2nd of June 2007 we hired this beauty, and this is where my love affair begun. The car went down really well with the guests and I'm sure it was photographed more than us! I never realised a classic car could be so much fun to drive. From then on I set upon finding a car for a restoration project. So here is my project. Needs some serious work, but should be fun.