Great guide for wiring these on the SuperRon's YouTube channel.  Ep18 of his GBS chassis build series, well worth a look.

According to posts here from longboarder, these should match with the GBS loom diagram for later negative switched stalks.

 

 

Portable Garage Tent up, but need to borrow an SDS drill to get the pegs down through the base under the block paving, but ratchet straps are ready to go.

 

I could probably have managed with the 3.3x4.7m, but 6m will allow lots of free workshop space to play in.

Lights are in and power run in and otherwise looks pretty good

 

Shoulders of Giants - Just following Richards blogs from 2011-12 about building the scuttle and dash - fantastic site and lots of extremely useful information for my Gen 1:

Richard's GBS Zero

Everything in now, except for the rolling chassis, which is being picked up and delivered for me early on Thursday morning - a trip of about 1.5 miles from it's current home.

I will need to setup a workbench for some panel bashing and, hopeful I can find some better wheels for the engine crane as it is a bit rough and sticky on the floor.  Very happy with my cheap ebay led strip lights - perfect size and decent working lights.

I managed to get a good look through all of my body panels - they have survived very well given almost 18 years in storage and the move(s).   There's a slight kink in the rear panel and a couple of minor bends, but nothing a little tough love can't solve.

Scuttle Assembly - two dashboard panels?

I have laid out the scuttle and firewall panels today and started deburring the edges from the laser cut.   These panels are all stainless steel on my and the edges take some filing - fortunately no bad nicks or cuts today, but looks inevitable and will look my gloves out before I get started in earnest.

I have the firewall and scuttle and was following Richards guide from the link above, but think I have something slightly different:

Is the middle dash panel an earlier version of the dashboard support panel?   In the builds I have seen this is just a just a 1" contoured strip with tabs.

The bottom dash panel looks to reach down to the tunnel and has a cut out for the steering column, but no clue what I should do with the rest.   It has no tabs along the top, so must screw/rivnut into the dash support panel.  Does anyone have any previous experience or bright ideas?

 

Quick conversation with Steve @ GBS today to query the dash panels.   These are apparently old school and will apparently not pass IVA now.    New dash support panel, fibreglass dash and stainless gauge surround now on order.    

 

Met a very nice gent with a recovery truck today.  Car now back at home, lifted on to trestles and the wheels off.

Tent is looking a bit small now.

 

 

Disks and calipers removed from all corners.  There was quite a lot of surface rust on the discs, but this cleaned up with light Emery cloth on the lathe.

A few bolts cleaned up in evaporust and now blacked and oiled.   None of the bolts had anti-seeze and no evidence of torquing tight or paint marking.I have decided to strip back to chassis, repaint and reassemble so I know all is good.   Hand brake cable gaiters are perished, so will need new cable.

I will remove wishbones, steering rods and drive shafts for powder coating.   The chassis I will repaint any recommendations for a black low gloss brush paint and suitable etch primer?

One I reassemble the body panels I will probably look for a spray paint - steep curve, but would like to try this and can.

Plenty to do!

 

That's annoying!  Both rear wishbones were bolted in before rear panel and there is insufficient space to remove the bolts.  It's hacksaw time!

 

 

Reminds me of the Morris Minor master cylinder. Fitted in chassis section from on top and bolted through from underneath  then the front torsion bar fitted across the bolt heads  blocking in the bolts. And that was done in the factory to every production car.

Starting to look more like a naked chassis.   All suspension wishbones and components now removed and dropped off for blasting and coating.   Many of the bushes were in pretty poor shape and looked worse after removing.   Although these are a simple top hat profile and I could easily turn them from HDPE, the bushes are around a couple of quid each from KitSpares, I brought another 30 and discarded all that were chewed up.

Full set is:

44 x HDPE spacers

20 x 14mm od, 10mm id steel tube x 45mm length

2 x 14mm od, 10mm id steel tube x 70mm length

 

Next steps are removing the side panels, painting the chassis and then refitting.   

I will hand paint the chassis and internals - any recommendations on a hand paint I can use with minimal surface prep, satin black seems a sensible choice.   Also after a silver paint to touch up the hubs, control rods and prop shafts - again brush is probably fine.   Anything better than hammerite smooth?

First side removed.  Down the sides was some 1/4 x 1" steel bar strips, that rivet through the skin into the chassis, so will probably need some longer 3.2 x 16mm rivets to refix these in place.

.. sanded and primed

Have to admit to being a little mystified how the panels were so poorly fitted before, with a good 1/4"-5/16" gap between the bars and skin.   Everything is nicely flush and should fit nicely with around a 1/16" bead of sikaflex.    Guess it is possible it was done in the cold or a little slowly and the Sikaflex was stiff?

I will try and refit with some strap clamps to try and keep everything tight.  Open to suggestions, but keen to avoid rivets along the sides.

Previous gap:

On 6/12/2025 at 9:10 PM, Jake Gully said:

I will hand paint the chassis and internals - any recommendations on a hand paint I can use with minimal surface prep, satin black seems a sensible choice.

It might be a bit late now you’ve started painting, but I had good results with Frosts Extreme Chassis Paint in satin black. I used it to brush paint my wishbones and hubs 3 years ago and still looks good now.

I was put off using hammerite smooth as reviews suggested it chipped easily and came off in flakes.

10 hours ago, AndyW said:

It might be a bit late now you’ve started painting, but I had good results with Frosts Extreme Chassis Paint in satin black. I used it to brush paint my wishbones and hubs 3 years ago and still looks good now.

I was put off using hammerite smooth as reviews suggested it chipped easily and came off in flakes.

Thanks very much Andy, I will take a look!

In for a penny...

Wiring loom, rear brake lines, fuel lines, fuel pumps, swirl pot and handbrake removed - think I may as well go all out now and take the diff and steering off to get back to bare chassis and then sand back and spray paint it.  This would effectively be a clean start and chance to re-build from the ground up.

I will also strip and repaint the front wheel hubs and strip and rebuild the rear disc brakes as the calipers have split - might as well replace all seals and gaiters on the car while I do the rebuilding.   I will also turn some proper spacers for the diff and top hats to centre the steering column.

I'm definitely getting the feeling that this will not be a quick build!