Project A Red Rebel Restoration - UPDATED: 14 months of (non)progress

[binhoker668]

Absolutely tip-top work and thread. Have been following this every step.

FULL of admiration for your skillz Sir!

Very much looking forward to the next set, and hopefully seeing it in the flesh sometime!

[wackywacerwill]

Great news and a enjoyable read. Well done sir.

 

Dare I say I kind of like it ''finished'' as is, like my shite crusty me.

[baldrickthecunning]

It was so subtle that it has taken me a day to realise - but the picture with the sign for the local greasy spoon....

[theorganist]

Well done, excellent work. You are an inspiration!!

[Skizzer]

Awesome, just awesome, what you've done in basically a few weeks. The stuff of legends.

 

This is such a beautiful photograph:

[Craig the Princess]

This has got to be thread of the year! That Rebel is the business and to get it sorted so quickly is the stuff of legend. It takes me three years to badly paint a bonnet!

[coalnotdole]

With the Rebel up and running we have been working towards fitting the Interior and getting the outside ready for paint.

 

Before fitting a new headlining etc, we needed to make a fibreglass moulding to cover the new rollover bar. We decided it would be best to bring it over to the Isle of wight (its future Home,) as the workshop facilities were better than they were in my garage! This meant I had to drive the relatively unproven Rebel from Littlehampton to Portsmouth to catch a ferry!

 

The journey to Portsmouth went well and I pulled over just off the A27 to check everything was ok, grabbing a few photos at the same time.

 

 

 

 

The boot was full and back of the car were quite heavily laden down

 

 

 

Waiting for the ferry.

 

 

 

Onboard.

 

 

 

Arrival in Newport IOW.

 

 

 

More on mould making to follow...

[coalnotdole]

With the car on the Island we made moulds for the B-Pillar trims,

 

 

First attempt at moulding our own trim panels,

 

 

We also made moulds for new heater blowers,

 

 

Random shot of Dave driving the Rebel,

 

 

 

Trial fitting,

 

 

 

Happy with the side sections we moved on to making the difficult curved piece.

 

 

The female mould was made out of Ply and timber.

 

 

Imperfections was faired in filler, so that the fibreglass would not stick to the mould special release wax and PVA was used.

 

 

 

Applying Gel Coat,

 

 

 

 

 

Finished moulding awaiting trimming,

 

 

 

 

Trimmed down and trial fitted,

 

 

 

Random cat photo...

 

[rml2345]

This thread is su-bloody-perb. Top work!

Did you get many queer looks on the ferry driving a Rebel with basically no paint?

[RedSparrow]

This is great.

Thread of the year.

[PatrickMcRebel]

As I said over on the R3W, Fantastic work Joe. I wish I had the get up and go to sort my Rebel out! I'd love to do a chassis off rebuild but I have too many excuses .

 

On the subject of disc brakes this Rebel nicknamed 'GUS' now owned by R3W Forum member Mark Taylor has had the disc brake conversion and the previous owner (Forum Member JPB) will probably tell you all you need to know about the conversion and anything else about Rebels!

 

GUS uses Hillman Imp wheels to make room for the conversion.

[outlaw118]

May I echo the sentiments of everyone else, top job, and I reckon some of the photo's within the tread need to be considered for the AS calender.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I've just spent the last 30 minutes reading this entire thread. Amazing save and rapid work too - I can't believe you managed to do all that work in such a short space of time! Hats off to you! As for the Rostyles, they look great and I reckon you should keep 'em. Also, is it just me, or does the Rebel look a bit Fiat 127 from the rear corner?

[Cavcraft]

What everyone else said. This really is a fantastic thread and the work you have put into the car is nothing short of amazing.

[Wilko220]

Agree - amazing. What an absolutely top job.

[baldrickthecunning]

You two could easily make a tidy packet if you went into car restoration as a business. As I keep saying, well done!

[coalnotdole]

It would be easy to think that the Rebel Saloon was loosing out with the current efforts being put into the van but we've still found time to do some work on it.

 

These are a few photos last year when we were sanding, filling and faring the bodywork and repairing stress cracks before paint.

 

 

 

 

 

More recently we trial fitted the original doors. One had a major chunk removed where the scrapyard had broken into it. The other was cracked around the mounting holes for the hinges and on both the joins between inner and outer moldings was weak. Repairing the original doors was preferable to keeping the regal ones as they have different door card styles and would always have looked a bit wrong, the regal ones were also not that good a fit and required lots of shimming to get them to sit right.

 

 

 

 

The door frames have also been repaired. Dave spent long hours welding up good ones from sections cut out of several rusty spare sets. The ones that came with the Rebel were very rotten and were preventing free movement of the window glass.

 

We have removed the opening quaterlight windows, this a compromise as the seals are no longer available and leaving them would have meant that the car would leak ruining the new carpets (still to be fitted.) As its a car that will be used regularly practicality is over-ruling originality here!

 

Repaired frames

 

 

Coparison between old and new style quaterlights:

 

 

 

The new quarter lights will now use larger panes bedded in on silicone, We've used this in the past on the Scimitar rear hatch and it works very well.

 

The frame section at the bottom unbolts to allow the Quaterlight pane to be fitted from below, before the frame is dropped onto the door moulding

 

Trial fitting:

 

 

 

 

We are hoping that the top frames should be a decent fit and when painted up should be at least as good as the standard that reliant managed, if not hopefully a bit better.

 

The plan now is to move the Red Rebel back to the Isle of Wight for painting when the weather has improved...

[coalnotdole]

This weekend saw a bit of progress on the rebel saloon, we dug it out of hibernation in the lockup garage where it has been since the start of the year . Dave (who is buying the rebel off me) has just passed his driving test and so It seemed like a good opportunity to revive the rebel and for it to be transferred over to him to drive it to the Isle of wight where he rebel can get it prepped and painted.

 

It only took some water for the cooling system and a fresh battery to get the rebel going again. £60 was blown at peter pikey's part worn tyres getting a set of the original steel wheels fitted with new(ish) tyres.

 

Insurance was sorted for a very reasonable £340 (not bad for a new driver Age 23 with the car insured in their own name.) and Dave was then able to test the full potential of the 600cc rebel on the open road... It was a slightly different experience to the driving instructors 11 plate fiesta!

 

The test drives highlighted an ongoing issue with the clutch snatching in first, When the clutch is released in first there is a violent series of judders before the gear engages. Its a fairly common issue on Reliant cars using the gearbox with no synchro on first gear. But the exact cause can be attributed to dozens of different sources... Worn Clutch, Worn Primary motion shaft, engine and gearbox movement... etc! In the end most of Saturday was spent removing the engine and swapping the clutch over for a new one and the engine stay bar was adjusted (designed to limit engine and gearbox movement) this resulted in a much better gear change in first.

 

 

The Rebel has also been temporarily fitted with a set door mirrors... when driving the car last year it was decided that the original long stalk wing mirrors were too prone too movement to be practical for regular use. The decision was taken to swap them for a set of Tex door mirrors as soon as the budget allowed. The Tex mirriors never quite got ordered and in the end we have fitted a set of mirriors I was intending to fit the the rebel van. I bought them at a car boot sale for £1.50...! bonus points to anyone who can tell me which car they were originally fitted too.

 

 

 

The rebel was then driven the 45 mile trip over to the Isle of Wight. It made it despite an issue developing with the voltage regulator not putting out enough power to charge the battery. Some bump starting later and the rebel made it to the tent in where it will be prepped and painted.

 

 

 

 

 

Some time was also spent working out how much money had been spent in total so far... Which even if you discount the spending on race engines still amounts to a substantial amount.

 

Hopefully I can update soon with some progress on paint and engine building...!

[RedSparrow]

Glad to see it's all going well. This is one of my favourite threads ever.

[jakebullet]

Fiesta mk1 mirrors?

 

Threads like this give me feelings of shame for not doing owt with my sheds.

[coalnotdole]

Fiesta mk1 mirrors?

 

Nope, but thats about the right era.

[coalnotdole]

With the Rebel undergoing prep for painting we've started to think about building up a decent engine. This is no small task, During the last 8 months numerous engines (at least 12) and countless parts have been acquired with the intention of building a "tuned" 750cc motor, Unfortunately other than spending a impressive amount of cash we hadn't actually made any progress on this front until recently...

 

The following photos show some of the parts we've been procrastinating over. The first set of photos show a Brand New 750cc engine block with balanced crank and flywheel, polished con-rods and strapped center main bearing. Its in its original packing case destined for Export and has no serial number.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next three show a ex 750 Formula Race engine. Fitted with a Ford Kent oil-pump on a custom cast Ali timing cover driven off the front of the camshaft, Polished rods, strapped center main, lightened rockers, high lift cam and non vacuum distributor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We bought this Early 600cc engine last year, Modified for 750 formula use it came with the following - All 3 main bearings strapped, High lift cam, fully lightened and polished crank and rods, hepolite pistons, ported head and lightened rockers and a full flow oilfilter conversion instead of the original bypass arrangement. The intention had been to use this engine but once we stripped it down it needed a fair amount of work, The block has cracked across where the center head stud thread is located (a common problem with reliant's), the crank was badly scored and the liners were badly pitted on the outside where they're exposed to the water-jacket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rather than use one of those engines I've decided to spend even more money on modifying the original 600cc engine that came with the car (the only reason i can come up with to justify this is that it has the right serial number on the side) The block has now been modified to take 750/850 liners and the current plan is to use a 750cc crankshaft rather than a longer throw 850 one to reduce piston speed and make it a bit more responsive on the rev front. The next stage will be to get the center head stud Tig welded up, steam clean the block and strap the center main bearing and modify the oil system to give better flow to the main bearings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the next post I'll share some of the options for ancillaries, heads, cranks, valve-train etc!.

 

Anyone want to buy some race engines?

 

Dave

[coalnotdole]

These first few photos show some of the Head's that might end up on the finished engine and the other photos show a few of the other bits and pieces that are lying around. The top photo shows a unused DARVI Big Valve 750 formula race head that's had the inlet valves enlarged pretty much as far as you can go with the reliant head - the valve seat inserts are actually pocketed into the side of the combustion chamber to get them to fit, It just needs skimming down to whatever compression ratio is desired, it also requires the use of special head gaskets as the combustion chamber is larger than the aperture of a standard reliant gasket.

 

 

 

 

 

Comparison between the big-valve head (top) and a early 750 formula head at the bottom with standard valves.

 

 

 

A couple of photos showing a ex 750 Formula Head, Exhaust ports flowed out to suit tubular manifold, double valve springs and lightened retaining washers.

 

 

 

 

 

I have countless sets of lightened rocker gear and solid steel rockershaft turrets (the standard ones are die cast alloy and liable to flex and distortion)

 

 

 

Another nice bit of kit which I'll almost certainly never use is this DARVI 750 Formula Dry Sump Setup - Inc Custom cast alloy sump pan, Camshaft driven oil pressure and scavenge pump and remote reservoir/swirl pot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lightweight alloy engine front-plates rather than the heavy standard steel ones:

 

 

 

Assorted Toothed belt water-pumps and pulleys:

 

 

Polished and lightened crankshaft (needs regrinding)

 

 

Brand new Crankshaft in Reliant Box with matched bearings.

 

I've also got a fair old collection of carburetors - Weber ICH, Dellorto FZD, Zenith, SU etc. Dick Harvey Headgaskets, Solid Copper Headgaskets, New Headstuds, dizzy drives etc. The problem is deciding what to use!

 

Dave

[pompei]

This is all very impressive!

 

What sort of power output are you expecting to get by using any of these combinations of blocks/heads/etc?

[garethj]

There's no doubt that when I'm a millionaire I'm going to commission you to build me a Rebel.

 

A bloke was telling me that the old Fiat FIRE engine was a common upgrade instead of the Reliant motors, or the 1 litre from (I think) a Talbot Samba? What do the 750 Motor Club use nowadays?

[coalnotdole]

I think the standing joke here is that we'd like to see 45+ bhp (thats a total figure not an increase!) We don't actually know what the limit is on getting power out of a standard reliant block, so we are sort of guessing. We will always be limited by what the gearbox and axle can deal with, also as its a car to use every day on the road we don't want to go too nuts...

 

Whatever engine we go for will probably have a custom made tubular exhaust manifold, polished and ported inlet manifold, Better carb, ported head and probably oversize valves. The oil pump and filter will be altered too and the crank will be strapped. Hopefully we can improve on Reliant effort a bit. The power from the rebel's 598cc block was originally 28 bhp. There was and extra 4 bhp compared to the regal engine as Reliant modified the combustion chambers and altered the valve size and compression ratio for use on the Rebel. A standard 750cc Reliant engine should have around 35bhp so anything more than that is a bonus really.

 

750 racer wise Some Reliant blocks can rev to 9,000 rpm but we are not aiming that high as I'm not sure how useful it would be on the road, The 750cc Racers now have various classes with differing sets of rules. In one class they still use the reliant blocks, but now also race with a modern fiat panda engine with EFI which is now part of a mid engined setup.

 

Next stage with this engine will be getting the crack on the center stud tig'd up then surfaced off and then making some decisions on cranks...

 

PS The mirrors they actually came off a 1977 Datsun FII 120A, I only found out by looking up the part numbers!

[coalnotdole]

Dave's been prepping the Rebel for paint, working around his other commitments its taken 2 weeks of repetitive work: Priming with a roller, flatting back. priming again, filling, sanding off, swearing, spray priming, flatting back with wet and dry.... but as of today the rebel has now had the final flat off with 800 wet and dry and is now awaiting top coat!

 

Sorry I've only got one crap phone pic but I thought I'd share It anyway.

 

[pompei]

Brilliant! Hope it's going to be satin black

[coalnotdole]

Brilliant! Hope it's going to be satin black

 

I wouldn't bet on it....!

 

 

Sorry only one phone photo for the moment... but its now red again!

[coalnotdole]

I've recently got back form the Isle of wight where I've been assisting Dave fitting out the Rebels interior... I thought this was going to be a fairly nice job but the dire weather left the tent where we were working half full water. It made it interesting trying to keep things clean and dry!

 

Outside the bumpers and badges have been fitted and the boot trial fitted (still needs work on the hinges to get it quite right and the rubber gaskets need trimming to get a better fit. The windows have also gone back and are now just waiting for some new chrome infill to finish them off.

 

Inside the Insulation, carpet and vynide have been fitted as has the vinyl covering for the roll bar and a new headlining has been made.

 

Pictures:

 

Some better post spray job photos now with bumpers and badges on:

 

 

 

 

The boot, The seal will need changing for a different type as this one is a bad fit when its closed

 

 

The locking filler neck, still needs a pipe sorting to connect it to the tank though!

 

 

New British made Chrome hinges and New old stock badge. The taillights desperately need replacing the chrome is poor and a couple of the lenses have small cracks. Ideally we are looking for some that are new old stock or very good used.

 

 

The following pictures show the Jute underlay being cut and fitted, we've used more of this than Reliant did so hope for a reduction in road and engine noise. The underlay was fixed into place with High temperature contact adhesive

 

 

 

Rear seat armrests were sanded town to give a surface as smooth as possible to fit the vynide to, its very thin so imperfections show up really easily.

 

 

Footwell carpets in, gearbox tunnel carpet being trial fitted,

 

 

First vynide bits in.

 

 

 

Gearbox tunnel carpet fitted,

 

 

The headlining and rollbar cover, This is our first attempt at making a headlining from scratch its not bad but has some small rucks at the ends which could be improved on in future. The general affect with the rollbar seems so work it ties in well enough to look like its standard fit.

 

 

B Pillar vynide / vinyll join

 

 

For the c-pillar and a-pillar trims we recovered the original aluminium

 

 

 

The Rebel shortly before leaving to catch a 2:30 am ferry...

 

 

The next stage will be another hit to get the doors built up and fitted ( they are currently waiting for the hinges and frames to be grit blasted and then sprayed.) Then the over carpets need edging and the seats need new covers made. There are lots of other odd jobs to tackle like the dashboard, door cards, etc

 

 

Sorry about any spelling and grammatical errors I'll try and sort them out tomorrow!