South African Mk3

If you think that you workshop/garage looks a mess then you will think mine is a tip

The car looks well BTW!

I think as soon as she is back on four wheels a good clean up is in order

I'm having to take off stone chip type stuff that's gone all brittle and is falling off from inside the wheel arches etc.

Right, so I haven't updated in a while. I sort of lost interest at one stage, but I am getting back into it. In the past two months I managed to source a 7.5 inch disc setup, which I will be refurbishing and putting onto the awaiting subframe. The only problem with this is that all parts have to be imported. If bought locally, a huge premium is added onto the price, so I can import a lot more and more of what I want and still pay less than locally.

Right, so I haven't really done much of late. I've managed to remove some of the old stone chip that had started to flake off in the wheel wells. I cleaned up the lower section of the firewall as well. The stone chip wasn't flaking off everywhere, so I didn't need to remove all of it. Here are some pictures :





The beauty of living in South Africa where rust isn't a big problem - behind the shock mounts, still fresh metal :



These areas were then painted in red oxide, before they will be coated with the following :



The plates that go on either side in the boot also received the treatment. This first picture shows how they were upon coming out of the car, with glue stains, light blue overspray and surface rust all over it :





And as they are now, ready to be sanded and resprayed in black :

i also have a mk3. any idea what colors they came in?

british racing green with a white roof sound right?

(for a 1970 car, i think its right on - but it is the color every one changing to when they respray so)

As far as I know, these cars were never available in British racing green. I have seen a picture though of cars ready to be shipped after production. There are some green ones with white roofs, but it isn't quite British racing green. From the pictures of your car, it looks to have been resprayed in that colour scheme.

i think it was a green car to begin with but may very well have been a different green.

i know the UK body numbers indicate original color? nothing like that on the SA plates?

would lopve to see the pictures of the MK3s ready to ship!!

As far as I know, the SA cars never got those type of body plates, but a good place to look for possible original colour is behind the back seat, there was often an abbreviation of the colour written there in permanent marker.

I'll put that picture up this weekend.

Jared, you are quite the expert. Where are you finding all this information?

I wouldn't quite say expert, but I've picked up a few things over the years by looking at various cars or reading stuff and also from my dad and his past experiences. I love these little cars and learning and knowing things about them is something I enjoy.

I managed to get a 7.5inch disc setup from a guy here in SA, needing a refurb. As below :



The calipers are going to be fully rebuilt. Pistons out :



The pistons aren't in bad condition, just need a good clean up. They'll be perfect as a spare set :



The other caliper, as you can see, still has the pistons in it. The one is stuck, while the other came out fairly easily. Also, the mounting "bracket" on this caliper has been broken at some stage. This will also be repaired by a local engineer.



As the hubs look now - fully cleaned up and repainted, new balljoints fitted all round, ready and waiting for new bearings :

Looking great  

Right, well, I managed to get the calipers cleaned up from all of the grease and dirt and gumph that was on. They still need the soft wire brush on them to get the last bit off, but here they are :





As you can see, the one mounting "ear" on the above caliper was broken off at some stage. I got that repaired :

I stripped the master cylinders to redo them nicely, and found this :



Brake seal on the left, clutch on the right. Thank goodness I did this.  

I finally managed to get the calipers painted up. I was originally considering black or red, but since those colours weren't available at the time, I got the silver paint on kit. I must say, the colour does look good in hand and I was able to put about 4 or 5 coats on, giving them good coverage and protection. Here they are :



I also did the master cylinders. The finish is also just as good, just one or two areas that need touching up and I'm good to go. Still need to fit the kits to them, but they do look a LOT better. Again, here they are :

looking good - disc brakes always a good upgrade  

Clean and refreshed parts always make me smile - just one less thing to do!  

I must say I think that your restoration work to date looks really professional.
I like the finish you have got on your Lockheed brake & clutch master cylinders.
It's purely a personal observation, but those Lockheed brake calipers would look even better in a more authentic black (satin finish - not matt).
Keep up the good work & send us some sunshine - it has been raining here in Dublin for the past 12 hours !
David2010

Thanks for that compliment, it's much appreciated. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist with most things, so I'll do it until I feel it's good enough. Regarding the calipers, my original idea was to in fact do them in black, but the only colour available for oder at the time was the silver. Mind you, in hand, they look quite neat - I also used the same paint to do the master cylinders in. Also, because the paint is brush on, it filled up some of the pitting marks on the tin, while still giving that clean and smooth finish.

Here's some sunshine from the other day :

Eastern side of town :



Western side of town :



These pictures were taken a few seconds apart, so it's nice to see the contrast in colours.

You've some lovely sunsets in SA. These two are from my visit last month. Cape Town and Kruger.

That picture of Cape Town is just beautiful.

Thanks. Beautiful place.

After quite a while (thanks to studying and work), I finally managed to complete the calipers with new pistons, seal kits, bleed nipples, pipes and washers. They just need a touch up here and there with silver and then are ready to go. I realise they're silver and not black, but I don't think they look too bad. Here's a picture :

They look like new ones. Nice work.