1968 Scimitar Coupe' Rebuild - New Updates For a new Year!

[coalnotdole]

Thought I'd start a project thread as It seems I've bought another car in bits...

I bought it on eBay where it was aptly described as the "bucket case" coupe'! It certainly filled quite a few buckets with bits and It rained buckets while we were loading it. It was bought unseen with the sellers assurance that the chassis was 80% good but needed some welding. Which turned out to be a major understatement.

The body had been removed from the chassis and the body had been dry stored on its side in a lockup garage for more than 20 years, sadly the chassis had been left outside at an angle and had been allowed to fill with water. Most of the other parts seem to be present and having been stored in the dry seem much better than expected.

The following photos are of the collection there are not many as it was pouring with rain and we were in a rush to get it done before dark.











The following morning we were in a position to get a better look at what exactly we'd bought the bodywork is pretty good, the paintwork is mostly original, its cracked and peeling but doesnt seem to have much in the way of stress crazing or osmosis. its picked up a few scars from being stored on its side which will need attention before its fitted. We'll probably replace the sill support steel, seat supports and possibly the A pillar for good measure. The filler cap has seen better days and the side window chrome could be better there's also a couple of dents in the aluminum guttering which I'm hoping will pull back into shape. The front bumper needs rechroming but the back is presentable.












Interior wise most bits seem to be there, the dash has been hacked about with a bit to replace the radio for some extra dials, someone has patched up the floor in blue fibreglass after an old outrigger repair. I was particularly taken with the cast pedals with the adjusters which have a real feel of quality about them in compared to the plain ones on the GTE.















Engine wise it may turn out to be ok its an early O port with a fibre timing gear but it doenst seem to be the original Engine. Heads off for inspection / ease of handling. With some cleaning and upgrading it might well turn out to be a decent runner.





Doors, Boot, bonnet and glass was removed to cut down on weight and the body has been put into storage until the chassis can be sorted out...! :w

[beko1987]

What a lovely jigsaw puzzle! Look forward to the progress on this.

[coalnotdole]

The following pictures show the chassis after 20 years in the rain unprotected. Warning the following post cointains scenes some shitters may find disturbing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally an assortment of other pictures:

 

 

 

 

an inital wanted list goes something like this:

 

Priority:

Another Chassis, (progress has been made here)

Petrol tank, (an old one as a sample would help)

 

Would be nice:

Petrol Cap,

Rear light base units,

[meggersdog]

That should keep you busy for a weekend or two.

Looking forward to reading it's resurrection already.

Is the chassis similar enough to fit an SE5 one ?

[Skizzer]

 

Mate, if ever anyone asks me to illustrate the fine line between heroism and madness, I'll point them to one of your resto threads!

 

These must be pretty scarce now, no? Looking forward to following progress...

[coalnotdole]

Is the chassis similar enough to fit an SE5 one ?

 

You could do that but the amount of adaption required would make it a time consuming job. I've got a couple of potential coupe chassis lined up though But in the wost case scenario we'd use the saveable bits of this one (front suspension uprights and the centre diagonals) and replace the rest. But I'm hoping it wont come to that.

 

Not sure how many are left but the total production run was only 1005 cars,

[RedSparrow]

Never seen this particular model before - I like it.

I look forward to another epic resto thread. How is the Rebel BTW?

[vulgalour]

A worthy save, no doubt about it. If you want the little dooblie above the e you press and hold the Alt Gr key (right Alt) and your desired letter simultaneously, thus: coupé. Though you might find that handy as I notice you've been using the apostrophe for want of better.

[Leyland Lawrence]

Really like those and wanted one recently but they so rarely become available. Presume Ford mechanicals?

[coalnotdole]

How is the Rebel BTW?

 

The saloon is Coming together, its got seat covers and door cards finished since I last posted pictures of it and it passed its MOT last month marking 1 Year since its return to the road. The rebel Van is a regular workhorse at the moment in regular use hauling stuff from place to place It might want some attention before the MOT at the end of December.

 

If you want the little dooblie above the e you press and hold the Alt Gr key (right Alt) and your desired letter simultaneously, thus: coupé.

 

Cheers! (learn something new everyday)

 

Presume Ford mechanicals?

 

Engine and gearbox are Ford but thats about it. Front Suspension is triumph TR4-6 based, Rear suspension is unique to the GT though GTE axle can be adapted to fit. Lots of individual components are shared with other cars of the period.

 

I've been told the seats may not be original so anyone got any ideas what they may be from?

[bigstraight6]

This is going to be a great thread to follow, lovely looking cars these

[autofive]

is that a 7ha salisbury, rather than the 4ha?

 

front seats look surprisingly good, and the centre console - at least some of difficult to find bits are useable.

 

i saw this one on ebay and liked the end price, but no the 'bucketcase' chassis 'down the side of the garage' as the seller put it.

 

a brave save

[garethj]

Awesome work! I saw this one on ebay I think, there was one grainy photo from when the car still had wheels some time in the 1980s?

 

They appear to go for top money when restored so if you're going to have the same pain as with the Rebel at least you'll end up with something worth £5k rather than 5p

[coalnotdole]

is that a 7ha salisbury, rather than the 4ha?

 

front seats look surprisingly good, and the centre console - at least some of difficult to find bits are useable.

 

i saw this one on ebay and liked the end price, but no the 'bucketcase' chassis 'down the side of the garage' as the seller put it.

 

a brave save

 

Axle pictured is the 7HA that came with the car but I may use a 4HA with LSD that I have in the garage I'll see how it goes. When I realized how misdescribed the chassis problems were I did negotiate a bit of a discounted price with the seller which took the sting out of it a bit.

[outlaw118]

Farkin' ell thats a lot of tinworm. (Shudders)....

 

Lovely shape, wish I could offer more than a "good luck old chap" message, but I R UZLESS....

[Tayne]

I do rather like these, well saved.

 

Have this one as inspiration.

Well-shod by Tayne, on Flickr

[nigel bickle]

Ace Joe -quick progress as usual.

 

Keep me posted- esp if I can help.Scrap SE6 collection this w/end -so if there's anything comparable....

 

Will you be bringing it to the pub next month?

[dollywobbler]

Moar inspirayshuns. My mate's SE4b being chased by a similarly-engined Capper.

 

You've definitely got the Reliant bug haven't you? I wonder if people still say "Princess Anne used to have one of those" if it's a coupe.

[Pete-M]

I like the Scim Coupé. Pretty things.

[coalnotdole]

You've definitely got the Reliant bug haven't you? I wonder if people still say "Princess Anne used to have one of those" if it's a coupe.

 

I think when it comes to these big project there's a tendency to stick with what you know, Between my mate Dave and myself we've now got a pretty good idea what it takes to get a 4 wheeled reliant back on the road. We've also got progressively better at budgeting for the work needed prioritizing the jobs etc. Thinking back I wasted lots of money when I did my GTE which as you do more projects you get an idea of how things can be done better and cheaper. For example I can't see myself forking out £250+ just for the sake of polybushes now.

 

Maybe when the coupé is completed I'll have a chance to branch out and try something else.

 

Will you be bringing it to the pub next month?

 

Think it might be a few months before you see it at the pub! I'm fairly sure there's not much on a 6 that I can use but I if think of anything I'll let you know.

[coalnotdole]

This is the smallest of updates really but I thought the photos might be of interest...

 

Dave and Myself spent today collecting a chassis from Stoke-on-trent. The hero of the last 12 hours is the Rebel Van which lugged the chassis back on its roof all the way home and never missed a beat. We got some funny looks as we came down the M6! The driving experience was surprisingly normal though sharp corners were taken with extra care!

 

The chassis itself is generally in good condition, I'll get the wire brush out in the next few days and see what work is required (if any.) Thanks go to cookie for letting me buy the chassis, Its gone to a very appreciative new home!

 

Loading up:

 

 

 

 

 

Stopped at the services:

 

[garethj]

That looks sharp as hell with the Rostyle wheels. Are they MG Midget ones?

[vulgalour]

Great to see more stupid stuff on top of terrific old cars, that's the way to do it

[barrett]

That's fuggin' ace man!

 

I guess the race is on to see who is gonna get their shitty blue plastic coupe to the pub first. I think the smart money is on you guys despite having about 10x more to do than me...

[RedSparrow]

Man I'm surprised there wasn't a disaster with that setup!

Fair play to you!

[coalnotdole]

Man I'm surprised there wasn't a disaster with that setup!

 

It think its a case of "looks worse than it is" I'd tested the theory with the chassis I had and was pretty happy that it was capable of handling the load. The actual amount of weight is probably not as much as you'd imagine. 2 people can just about lift it off and on! I'd like to think its an ambitious use of a vehicle rather than plain reckless...!

 

That's fuggin' ace man! I guess the race is on to see who is gonna get their shitty blue plastic coupe to the pub first. I think the smart money is on you guys despite having about 10x more to do than me...

 

I think the speed of the progress is now governed by how much money comes in in the next few months. It would be nice to see body and chassis re united before Christmas but that's not at all certain.

 

That looks sharp as hell with the Rostyle wheels. Are they MG Midget ones?

 

They are Midget wheels and look much better in the photos than they do in real life...

[AeroNautiCal]

You win the Heavy Duty Roof Rack award!

[Spiny Norman]

For bonus LULZ you could have fitted wheels to the chassis, that way if HAD tipped over you'd have kept on going, smiling nonchalantly like that was the plan all along....

[coalnotdole]

Where has the time gone? It's been nearly 3 months since the last update and I wish I had slightly more progress to report but hopefully this small update will better than nothing!

 

Progress on the Coupé has been much slower than id have liked, I could blame it on the winter weather lack of funding. But in reality spending my budget on engine bits for the 5a and the rebel van needing attention for its MOT has ensured the coupe was at the back of the Que for my time and money .

 

Still a bit of progress has been made The suspension was stripped down for inspection, cleaning and primer,

 

 

 

 

The following front suspension parts would be needed for certain: 2x Upper Fulcrums, 1x stub axle, 2x inner wheel bearings, 2x outer wheel bearings, 2x lower shock absorber mount plates and new bushes all round. The Trunnions, vertical links and wishbones turned out to be in decent condition.

 

The rear axle was also stripped down ready for cleaning and painting, The Drums look ok and all the oil seals seem surprisingly good, I've got cylinders and new shoes ready for reassembling, The U Bolts were in very poor condition and after a long afternoon trying to get the nuts to shift the slightly reckless decision was made to cut them off and find replacements. This has proved to be much harder than I imagined as few suppliers give the dimensions of their bolts most just list which cars they are intended to fit. Any suggestions on a source would be very helpful ! I'm assuming they must be the same as a more common car.... :w Of course if anyone has a good used set I'd be interested in them too .

 

 

The chassis is in pretty good condition it needs some welding on the rear boot supports where the cleanup revealed a small hole. the rest of the chassis has been stripped down and primed, Its still waiting for a top coat treatment of cavity wax to the box and tube sections

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also managed to acquire a very good condition set of original seats which given their scarcity were too good to pass up.

 

[coalnotdole]

Once cleaned up the front suspension has also been primed:

 

 

 

 

 

The steering rack waiting for checking / re-greasing

 

 

However when I took a closer look at the vertical links, hubs and stub axles it turned out that they seemed to be an uncommon variant.... as the stub axles are wider and longer than the standard ones with hubs to match, vertical links and trunnions are also of slightly different designs.

 

 

 

 

Comparison with a Standard Se5a stub.

 

 

I can only assume that this is an earlier design of hub / stub / vertical link dating back to the 4a / sabre? and when building my car reliant decided to use up some of their old parts stock, The length of the stubs is just under 7 and a half inches standard Se5a is just over 6 and a half.

 

My coupe vertical link with a 5 stub....

 

 

It seems no one supplies stub axles for this earlier suspension type anymore and they are different from the triumphs so I'm probably going to convert over to using 5a suspension. I'm assuming this simply involves substituting the lower wishbones, trunnions, vertical links, stubs and hubs and no further modification is required?

 

Hopefully I'll update with a definite wanted list and a request for input on engines....

 

Ps I'll try and correct any spelling / grammar mistakes tomorrow!