My 404 Coupé Injection

[MikeT 744]

 

Three coats of colour, off-gassing at the moment.  Wet sanding to come next week, then three coats of clear and more wet sanding...

[MikeT 744]

Thursday I borrowed my friend Rob Conway's truck and brought the suspension down to Victoria.  The car was outside on its cart, looking mirror smooth everywhere.  The work is really impeccable.  Amazing, worth every dollar.

 

So I helped Pat Higgins, the metal worker who did the body reconstruction, mount the suspension under the 404C.  It was a bit of an operation and we used the car's original jack mounts to help us lift the body high enough to get the suspension underneath.  She looks good sitting on her wheels and XAS tires now.

 

Friday she gets a final polish and final touches and either Friday PM or Saturday she should be coming home on the flatbed.

 

I loaded the photos at a different site this time, so click on the image to see it in full size.

 

[lebikerboy 96]

Looks awesome Mike!!!

[MikeT 744]

She came home to me today:

[lebikerboy 96]

So, we can expect completion by Christmas?

[MikeT 744]

Definitely not!  I have to get the engine rebuilt and pay for a reupholstery job first, but the piggy bank is empty when I attempt to rattle it.  But reassembly will begin.

[MikeT 744]

I got the last of the painted parts back from the restoration shop: under bumper spoiler/air deflector (semi-matt black), front bumper filler panel (dark blue), grille for fresh air intake (dark blue), body number (painted blue tag with stencil numbers)

 

 

 

Plated parts (main batch) are back. Bumpers are not plated but rather are stainless steel. They are now straightened and polished beautifully. Door handles are rechromed pot metal, and perfect. Taillight bezels are also rechromed pot metal and although the plater was apologizing for their finish, it's very, very good - 9/10 - and excellent considering the bad starting condition. The grille surround was rechromed too because the chrome on the upper lip was getting grainy. 

 

All the silver-looking stuff is plated in cadmium as it was when it was new (silver, not the greenish version).

 

 

 

 

[MikeT 744]

 

 

Installed a few of the plated items.  Very bright!

[MikeT 744]

I decided to do the grille today.  The bars are anodized aluminium and have some patina from road debris over the years.  All other marks were polished off by hand, not damaging the anodizing.  I then reassembled the five bars and put the brand new Peugeot crest that I bought in Sochaux in 2014 on (it came attached to a mid-sixties 403 grille).  Then I reassembled it with the newly rechromed grille frame.

 

 

[MikeT 744]

Really?  Cool!  Do you know if his car still exists?  Please, tell me more!

[MikeT 744]

Where was he located?  Can she say where the owner is located and maybe his name?

[MikeT 744]

Round two of plated hardware:

 

Replated taillights that I got a couple of weeks ago, this time  reassembled.  One of the turn signal bulb bases had to be replated due to corrosion and all of the lens screws were replated too. 

 

6 months ago I was desperate to find one of these.  Instead I found an earlier version with the same threading that had to be turned down on a lathe to make it fit.  Then a couple weeks ago, I found this.....in the same box where I found the others.  So I had it replated for future considerations.....

[MikeT 744]

I was away in Prince George last weekend with Sandy but on the way we managed to squeeze some 404 action in: I stopped by John Coltman's house in Barriere BC and he gave me a bunch of NOS 404 parts, plus some old KF2 injection parts and lots of spare fasteners and hardware.

 

 

On the way back home I bought a huge sheet of rubber for making the pedal box gasket and inner fender rubber seals.  

 

Tonight I took 15 minutes to make a new gasket, took about 15 minutes.  It's on the car already, on the studs in the footwell waiting for the pedal box to be mounted (months from now, I don't want the pedals in the way early on in the reassembly process).

 

 

Old one on right, my replica on the left.

[MikeT 744]

Slow progress to report....

 

Dashboard's Pininfarina sign has been replated :

 

....and mounted on the dashboard's stainless steel trim panel.  Note the stainless trim to the left of the instrument cluster, it's not original but I like it.

 

Water pump pulleys.  The one with red insulation is the one I propose to use, because it's in better condition than the original with the cracked insulation.  I painted both anyway.  The old one still works fine.

Edited November 19, 2017 by MikeT

[MikeT 744]

Got new remanufactured bumper irons (for the side front bumper mounts) for my Coupé, made by Richard Gretau in Bordeaux :

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by MikeT

[MikeT 744]

I've been rather unambitious these last few weeks but a few parts have still trickled in.  Waiting for a care package from France with the washer nozzle seals before I can get too far with the reassembly under the dash.

 

New plugs for the 404C doors that accept the upholstered panel clips, an ovoid plug for the hole in the new front crossmember (which the original one didn't have) and ten trim clips for the stainless steel rear fender trims.

 

New NOS fuel sending unit, not the cheapo version sold on eBay etc.

[MikeT 744]

A little bit of progress...

 

Wiring harness is in.

 

She has her smile back!

 

Fuel tank is mounted again, with 3M mastic/non-drying caulking between the body and tank.

[MikeT 744]

Front bumper mounted, slight adjustments required

 

Under bumper spoiler that was fitted to 1962-1966 404C models

 

Rear bumper mounted, license plate light, fuel filler, plus I improved the hood release cable, mounted the battery buffers and found the missing hardware for the windshield washers

[MikeT 744]

Ready for a drive in 2019/2020.  I'll drive her to California one November soon after she's sorted out for the Italian and French car show in LA.

[MikeT 744]

 

Tail lights are mounted with 3M non-drying putty in behind the vinyl gasket to keep water out of the trunk/rear fenders.  I also put new cage nuts in the rear side bumper mounts, sealed them also with 3M putty so they won't leak and temporarily installed the trunk lid seal, which is perfect!

[smartzuuk 167]

Sweet!

[MikeT 744]

Painted the steering column today.  Looks pretty decent now.  It was rusty in the lower engine compartment area.

[MikeT 744]

Today I didn't do much for the car, but I did manage to take the steering shaft out of the column for a thorough cleaning and lubrication.  Between the shaft and the column in the photo, you can see the upper rubber coated bronze bushing that provides location for the shaft.  All parts are in great condition so after a coating of thick grease, it's all back together.  

 

[Willys 747]

Excellent build sir....excellent!    Brings back some fantastic memories doing a few rebuilds of my own......back in the day before the environmentally insane police were in full force we used chemical stripping.....wonderfull stuff which brought it back to just pressed steel to work with without all the blasting.......those days are long gone now!   Love to see a vehicle in the stages of rebuilding, especially when done correctly.  Mine weren't as beautiful as your choice of vehicle but we still went through the same hoops, vintage Jeeps.....and we off-roaded them as they were meant to be driven....lol...Thinking back now, we were frig'in nuts!  To drop back then $20K into a Jeep and then drive the trails is insane!

Keep up the great work, it will be a treasure when done for sure!   I know nothing of the engine but just looking at it it somewhat resembles the smalrt engine.....lol     I am very new to the Smart world and only have seen one out of the car on a bench ...so have very little to go on...but I bet the power will be close...lol

Again thanks for the trip down memory lane....

 

[MikeT 744]

 

After ordering a second set of copper rivets from Hong Kong, I finally found the perfect replicas for the solid headed rivets that originally held this body number plate in place.  Mounted it today with Sandy's help and painted the rivet heads in the special dark blue paint!  I'll probably give the plate a coating of thick clearcoat to match the shine of the inner fender.