In September of 2016 I began the process of an engine out service and restoration which took approximately 6 months. The pages in this category describe what I did and how I did it.

My car has been in my possession for almost 14 years now, and during that time it has had appropriate maintenance performed on it but never had any form of 'restoration' work done. It is starting to get to that age where things no longer look as new as they once did, so I decided it was time to do some work on it before things get too far gone. The car was perfectly serviceable and driveable, and mechanically sound, it was just that certain things were starting to look a bit 'old'. You know the sort of thing - surface rust appearing on components that were originally yellow passivated, or paint having peeled off the aluminium hub carriers.

All of the disassembly work was done by myself. All of the restoration work was also done by myself with the exception of powder coating of major components or re-plating of components. It was done using a single garage, which is no mean feat and thus required a bit of planning to work out how I would manage it.

The process I went through was as follows;

• Buy and install lift (there is a method to get the engine out with a pair of high lift jacks but this can't be done in a single garage)
• Build engine dolly
• Drain fluids, disconnect ancillaries 
• Unbolt the cradle and raise vehicle away from it
• Disassemble all rear suspension, hubs, drive shafts etc
• Remove the frame from the engine
• Change cambelt
• Repaint / powdercoat / replate everything as needed
• Rebuild and reinstall everything - renew components as needed such as suspension bushes.
• Lower the vehicle back over the engine, bolt the cradle into place
• Reconnect ancillaries
• Replace fluids
• Start engine!

I took over 1,400 photographs of the entire process. Partly as a record of the work done but also as a reminder of how everything goes back together. The whole story is now complete so read on and see how it went...