Sting Ray's '89 90 - Complete Restoration

Beautiful chassis what paint treatment did you use.

Thanks guys.

The adaptor plates were manufactured by a local engineering firm; I gave them one of the caliper brackets as a template.

The chassis was painted with etch primer, stonechip, then 2k satin black.

The head and block were taken away yesterday - the guy who came out said that the bore may just need a re-hone as the scores are very light, so we'll try that first, which would be considerably cheaper than reboreand rehone on all four. I also fitted the OME shocks yesterday, however as there's barely any weight on the suspension, I haven't been able to do the nuts up on the rears yet. I'm hoping they perform better than the dreadful finish on them - the paint is microscopically thin :-(

The bulkhead has also begun disassembly, which is nice.

The block needs boring and honing...ah well.

New (complete) head ordered from Turner Engineering as mine was bowed beyond skimmable range.

I should be able to start reassembling the block on Sunday. I'll paint it after that, probably opting for a bag standard black.

I've hit a snag with the underseat tank, which fouls on the brackets that attach the 'toe panel gusset bracket' between the B posts to the chassis. Something will need to be modified, or I'll have to fit the auxiliary tank that is designed for the CSW, rather than trying to be necky and make the standard 90 one fit. That said, the CSW aux tank isn't available from any suppliers, so a Series one would have to be fitted instead. If I do retain the 90 tank however, I'll need to modify the offisde brackets and the gusset bracket without compromising the rigidity of the bodywork.

It's nice to share some photos that show reassembly again

Very satisfying when you start the rebuild ..

Paul D said:

Very satisfying when you start the rebuild ..

Click to expand...

Indeed, but very slow!!!

I started to paint the engine block yesterday and will set about finishing the reassembly at the weekend.

We rushed mine, had to be done quickly for a Green laning weekend in the Lake District, so only cleaned the insides and fitted new bits and stuff ..

One of these days (says me) I'm gonna do a full on strip and rebuild of the whole thing, but that'll be when I have a decent chassis to go under it.

I wonder if I could road register an ORA Offender chassis ...

http://www.offroad-armory.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=93&product_id=115

It turns out that a 10mm drill bit is the perfect implement for locking the fuel pump in position.

The photos are a bit arse about face IYKWIM, but I'm sure you get the picture.

The waterpump housing will need to come off once the new core plug arrives as I negated to order the correct amount

Quite a few odds and sods were ordered this morning too, which will help to complete the assembly.

It turns out I need a zero hole HG too - glad I measured it with a DIAL GAUGE and feelers to be certain.

I'll take a look at the exhaust manifold today, which will need cleaning up and a snapped stud extracting; the seat box need the paint stripping and new end plates riveting too. As the seat box is for a 110, and I have installed an underseat tank, the necessary panels were removed to accommodate; it feels a bit flimsy now though, so I will look into adding some reinforcement.

I may as well look at ordering a variable turbo too

Doing up those head bolts brought on a bit of a sweat!!!

A little more progress was made earlier



Going to need a crank locking tool to do the bolt up properly though.

Injectors, glow plugs, aux belt are turbo are probably the last things I need to buy for the engine, although I may fit an EGT sensor too.

Most of the engine is in:

I hope to have a couple of deliveries to collect later today, including injectors, glow plugs, hoses, and clutch. A friend and I are due to fit the gearbox and transfer box tomorrow, so I'll need to assemble the back end, including the infamous rear crank oil seal. I have, of course, opted for a genuine one, and will be extremely careful in how it is fitted.

Unsurprisingly, the flywheel corroded a bit over the last few months in the workshop, so I gave it a buzz with a wire wheel and it now looks as good as new

The bulkhead has just about been repaired as well, so I'll get that to the paint shop ASAP.

I started to remove the sticky tape that was on the B Posts - unfortunately this revealed some sub-optimal repairs at the base of the B and C posts, which will need to be sorted properly before they can get painted too.

Here's the bulkhead - quite different compared to how it arrived!

Clutch and flywheel etc. fitted today, as well as the gearbox and transfer box.

Update:

The engine ancillaries/life support are nearly all fitted, Allisport intercooler ordered, the new rad is in its powdercoated frame and the shroud has been degreased.

New PAS pipes, heater matrix pipes and oil cooler pipe O rings are to be fitted later this week when they arrive, along with a few other odds and sods that have been ordered, including a drop arm as the old one would not go back on, no matter how clean I got the splines.

The B/C posts are currently being shot blasted in preparation for repairs if required and new inner sills.

The rear tub received some attention over the last couple of days as I decided to remove the old underseal in preparation for a fresh coat. This was a particularly messy job however, involving much white spirit and 4 rolls of toilet paper; the wire wheel attachment on the grinder was extremely effective too, but, in case you’re thinking of having a go at yours, should be used sparingly as it flings the liquefied underseal everywhere. I’m pretty happy with the results. The bearers were of course removed, and will be brushed back to bare metal before being refitted.


I desperately need to get the bulkhead painted ASAP as there are quite a few things that can go onto it now, including brake servo and MC, clutch MC, pedals etc...

Both axles and boxes now have oil in, and the running in oil will be arriving from Turners this week. The diff lock linkage was also fine tuned.

I managed to source a 300tdi front prop, which has been stripped back to bare metal and will be painted up before new UJs are fitted. The 19J rear prop is too short by a couple of inches – what are the thoughts on using spacers? I appreciate the prop angle will be slightly sharper.

The seatbox is ready to have the paint stripped – I found a product called Starchem Synstryp which, by all accounts, will make the job very easy. It does have a very nasty active ingredient though, so will need to applied with much caution and PPE.

I applied Raptor to the transmission tunnel at the weekend, and was able to get quite a fine finish with the HVLP rather than the typical orange peel you see with a Schutz gun – I’ll use the same stuff for the seatbox, inside the rear tub, second row kickboard, and floors. The floors are a bit battered however so I’ll get new ones made out of thicker material and Raptor those as well – it’s really easy to work with, but I remain to be convinced how tough it is – guess I’ll find out soon enough!