Race Engine Forum UK

Hello all. I'd like to introduce you to my restoration project and will ask for some help at the bottom of this post. I have owned my spider since 1998 and drove over 200.000 km's across all of Europe with it. It has a 1608 BS-1 engine installed which I overhauled some 110.000 km's ago. April last year I stripped it for, what I thought at that time, two new doors and a simple re-paint. After stripping I found severe corrosion on the footwells and some spots on the sills. Though I would have liked to do the welding myself I decided to outsource this due to time constraints being in a new job. In the end it ended up in over 300 hours spend on welding, panel work and painting:
* New mid and outer sills
* New footwells
* Because the beam attached to the A post under the left front wing had to be repaired also the left front wing and front valance had to be replaced
* Rear panel restored to AS rear lights as the previous owner had installed BS lights
Below some pictures of the past period
I collected the car 2 weeks ago. Bit of a windy drive without the front screen!
Last weekend I installed the front screen but I have difficulties to install the bottom stainless steel trim. I have done this before without difficulties some 10 years ago. The screen is new but I checked the dimensions and it's the same as the old one. Also the rubber is new. Procedure I followed before and now:
1: Fit rubber around screen
2: Fit screen and rubber in frame
3: Fit rope in rubber lip on bottom part of rubber
4: Fit frame and screen on car (flange in front of the dashboard (which I have removed) and fit bolts
5: Pull rubber lip across the flange with the rope

Any tip or trick would be appreciated to help fitting the stainless steel strip.

Regards,

Charles

I take it there is a stainless or chrome trim which goes along the bottom of the windscreen?
If there is, please excuse me now but i had troubles fitting one of these to our E-Type. In the end we resorted to covering everything with a smear of washing up liquid and lots of pieces of plastic etc to help fold the rubber trim back, then pushed in from one side of the car and kept lubricating it so we could push along the lip.
I not sure if it does help you but its the only experience i have had, maybe of some use???
Good luck
It looks like a fantastic project and i am very jealous you got someone in to do your welding, i had to do all mine myself which has taken a very long time, it is nowhere near as good as the work you have done. I am sure you will have a great car when finished.
Will

Yes indeed it is stainless steel trim along the bottom. I have been using diluted soap as a lubricant but I did not "slide" it in. I will try this weekend and see how it goes. Thanks for the tip.
The man who did the welding actually did a lot more than described before. He's a fanatic about details and for instance minimized the gap between doors and body by welding 3 mm rod on the lip of the door skins. I was very pleased that he was available.
Regards,

Charles