@AndrewA thankfully everyone involved are all okay, thank you for asking.

Unfortunately the Porsche will have to undergo major bodywork surgery but again main thing is that no one was seriously injured.

Absolutely yes back onto the 405 !

Hope you and the cars are all keeping well ?

Best
H

a quick jubilee update !

hope everyone is having a lovely weekend !

best,

h

quick update !

can see the light at the end of the tunnel

Is it moving away from you or towards you :D !!
Wow - it's moved on a lot - hopefully not too many unexpected surprises.

Best
A

Thank you Andrew !

Hahhaha yes which one of the two ?!

Yes - been slaving away at it with every spare second I get !

I polished the front nose this evening - take a look at the results, i cannot wait for the whole car to look like that !

How are you Andrew, you and the motors keeping well ?

Best
h

That looks smart!

If you have the courage to do it, then polish the whole car.! It will look more expensive than it is!

Hiya Raymond !

Hope you are keeping well.

Thank you very much ! I will be doing the whole car !
And my other 3 Bristols to match !

best
h

You have four Bristols?

No wonder they are getting rare...you have them all!!

(No worries...Bristols should always come in pairs!)

indeed sir !

405,407,408 and a 411s3 !

I got bitten by the bug !

best
h

Car looks great and polished section excellent .
All quiet with my cars - just occasional drives. Am doing up a house and that's consuming almost all my time at the moment.
Best wishes
Andrew

Thanks so much Andrew ! Really appreciate it !

Oh thats nice to hear - hows the Bristol running ?

Yes i can imagine so ! House renovation is very time consuming, hopefully you
will be over it all soon.

Take care sir,

best
h

Bristol in good health but not getting as much use as it deserves at the moment but will hopefully that will improve.
From the photos of your car you don't appear to have uncovered any historical bodgery/excessive use of filler or accident damage - which is always a relief.
Best
Andrew

Evening Andrew,

Always great to hear she is in good health !
Try and get her out for a blast in this glorious weather !

Indeed - the car hasn't had much filler at all, or any major dings !

Managed to get the front bumper off and also finished the drivers door !

"H" ,
I noticed in your recent photos you placed a number plate "7SHM" on the dash.
Is that the last registered number or "405GMT" ??

Have you used paint stripper to remove the majority of paint before using sandpaper?

The alloy body looks very straight .
Will you fit a Bristol engine & gearbox/overdrive ?

Geoff

Hiya Geoff,

Thanks for the message.

I may put "7SHM" on the 405 once finished but your correct at the moment 405GMT is currently registered to the car.

I did try paint stripper on a few panels - but i found it clogged up my sanding discs when i came to sand.

So 90% i just sanded without any stripper.

Yes the car is very straight which i'm so happy about !

And maybe yes - i'm in talks with R Hackett as he has found me an engine & gearbox

all the best

H

p.s - both bumpers are now off !

"H",
I have stripped the paint off many Bristol's over the years and found paint stripper and scraper works the best . Sometimes it needs three applications and the final one needs to be finished with various grades of wet and dry sandpaper with plenty of water.
Your method sounds quite slow and therefore time consuming .
But you have most of it off the external body skin now .
Are you planning the strip the paint off the door , boot and bonnet openings/frames? If so this will have to be done with paint stripper , scraper and wet and dry sandpaper.

There are plenty of Bristol engines and gearboxes available but prices vary a lot depending on type and condition. I have heard the family of the late Brian May could have at least ten engines and fifteen gearboxes that would all be for sale .
Condition of any Bristol 6 cylinder motor or gearbox is most important as the rebuild cost could be more than the purchase price.
What is the saying "Buyer beware"

Regards
Geoff

Evening Geoff,

Ahhh i see, i only applied one heavy layer then covered it in industrial cling-film, ill give it another shot and yes all the places you mentioned i will also strip the paint. Thanks for the tip !

Oh really - thats great news ill call his daughter Fiona sometime soon and ask her whats available.

And absolutely agree, its all about the condition that matters most hence why i've not bought anything straight away without assessing all the ones available !

best,
h

I'm curious to know if anyone has recently found a paint stripper that works. I did half a job with an old can of Nitromors that I had on the shelf and then bought a new can of a modern replacement. It really didn't work very well.
The active ingredient in the older stuff has been outlawed and there doesn't seem to be a very effective replacement yet.

I have found quite good results can be achieved by careful use of an electric hot air gun. Just remember to keep the heat away from rubber parts.

I say careful, because too much heat could cause distortion of aluminium... but you would need to be pretty brutal to do any damage.!!

Assuming the paint is nitro cellulose, quite a good way to remove what is left after scraping it would be to wipe it over with thinners.

Nitrocellulose? I hope not!

So forgive me ... but what do you think they painted cars with in the 1950s?

My apologies Raymond. I only know nitrocellulose as an explosive. I didn't realise that it was also a component of cellulose paint, albeit with a lower percentage of nitrogen than the explosive version.

Well H
You're either making so much progress you're too busy to post anything or perhaps you've got a new hobby!?
Either way be great to have an update.
Happy New Year.
Andrew

Dear Andrew !

Many thanks for your kind wishes !

Happy late Christmas and a happy new year to you too sir !

Nooo new hobby for me ! Just cars cars cars !

The weather has been very wet and dark up here in Cheshire recently so not much done, also my industrial compressor is on the blink, so i've sent it back to the manufacturers who are currently servicing it !

The car is still with me and still pretty much in the same state it was in since we last spoke, have started to contact a few local woodworking companies near me to come and view the Ash frame - as I need/would like this to be re-made as the original is in a sorry state.

How are you keeping ? Hope you had a wonderful Christmas !
Great to hear from you buddy !

Best
hass

Been building house but that all (almost) done.
410 going in for gearbox overhaul in a few weeks so that'll be out of my hair for a while so will turn attention to Speedster which needs a steering box overhaul IMHO !
For a variety of reasons it's got a Mk 2 Transit steering box and parts for that are rare - really rare so if it's too far gone we're into bespoke engineering....great!
Catch you later.
Cheers
Andrew

Hi all,

I hope you are all well.

Does anyone have the dimensions ( L, W & H ) of the 2L Bristol engine fitted in the 405 model ?

Many thanks,

h

started to strip down the interior of the 405 this weekend.

the cars Ash timber frame has unfortunately suffered a great of degradation over the past years.

Is there anyway i can repair this ? Any tips or things i should do before hand.

Please see the pics

best

h

That has always been a huge issue with the 405. My father was a very capable woodworker and liked a challenge but that was a job too far for him. He sold the 405 and bought a 406.

Not a very helpful reply so far, but stay tuned.

I bought the Woody 400 planning to do the frame myself but the more research I did the more I realised there is a lot to learn. Nothing desperately complicated but there are different ways of building wooden structures when they are regularly going to be bounced up and down. Bits of it are more of a mechanism than a structure.

Eventually I found Clanfield Coachworks near Oxford. They replaced much of the lower part of the frame for a very fair price. I was originally optimistic that the work could be done without disturbing the aluminium but it very soon became obvious that this wasn't realistic. The roof was carefully cut off and subsequently reinstated at Mitchell Motors.

You may get lucky local to you but I have found that most outfits that are good at this work have a long waiting list. If you can find someone to do the job book them ASAP while you are getting on with the other jobs.

If you decide to do it yourself I suggest you source your timber from somewhere that repairs Morris Travellers or similar. Once you are giving them at least a bit of business you have a chance of asking them for some advice. Hopefully the timber will be suitably seasoned. Ask about which screws - stainless (probably not) brass, plated steel or steel. Which glues to use etc.

Best of luck!

Hello all

Hope you are well

My woodworker has some spare time so time to start on the ash frame on the 405

does any one have templates of the frame so that he can replicate them and replace my rotten ash.


Does anyone know if SLJ or the Bristol Club have any templates ?

Please let me know !

Thanks all

Hesketh

Hi Hesketh,

Having just acquired 405 C/N0: 4012 Regn: PCD 405 I also need to repair / replace all the woodwork.
Did you manage to find any template or suchlike for your woodworker to refer to?
I'm just starting to remove the old paintwork to bring back to bare aluminium. I plan to use combination of hot air gun / blow torch / paint stripper. Initial trials with the blow torch and stripper are promising, though I'm very scared of causing any damage to the aluminium through excessive heat.
I plan to get removable panels, such as doors, soda blasted.
Any comments / advice on these methods much appreciated!

Regards,
Chris.

405 Wooden Framing
 

Probably the best place for wooden frame repairs to a Bristol 405 would be someone in the boat builder trade. They have great experience in such wooden frame work.

Until I started work on my Woody I would also have thought a boat builder would have been a good pace to start but having dug into the subject a bit deeper I think there are more subtleties than it would first appear. I have mentioned before that some parts can be regarded more as a mechanism than a structure.
If making small repairs a competent joiner should be fine but a large repair where exact details of the original are not clear then I would suggest getting help from an experienced coachbuilder such as Clanfield Coachbuilding.

It would be good to see some drawings. On my 405 I need to do some work to the top of the a-pillar where it meets the bottom of the screen pillar. There is a lap joint there to allow the top of the car some freedom of movement, but without the drawings I am unsure of exactly how it was done.

Thanks for the suggestion David. I've found a local man, experienced in woodframing work and aluminium panelling who comes recommended to me by someone I trust. He has taken a look at it and is confident he can do it, so I will be taking the car over to him at the end of the month.

Yes indeed Joe, drawings would be very useful to me too as most of my canopy and A pillar wood needs attention. The Heritage Trust have just secured the archives, which I expect will have the drawings we need.