A favour to ask - can you take a pic for me please....

[Omerta]

I am doing a restoration / rebuild of a Cerbera here in New Zealand that was extensively fire damaged (see other thread). The steel roll hoop has long since been removed and I now need to have a new one fabricated. Can someone please take a pic or three of how this looks from where it bolts through the floor, up the A-pillars and across the roof /headlining and post here or email to me direct if that's easier targ@[e-mail] (first @ is an a).

Many thanks to whoever might be bothered.

Cheers.

[Omerta]

Never mind, we've managed without it.... this place sure ain't what it used to be.

[sixor8]

I've owned a Cerbera, as have quite a few on here no doubt, but the majority won't have stripped out the carpets, headlining and trim to have access to what you were after. Only another full restoration job, and they probably didn't take photos. Glad you have sorted it.

[Omerta]

Thanks mate, I obviously needed to explain this better than I did, but I was wanting pics of those areas just as they look in a standard car. I've got most of what I was after from some for sale ad photos but if there's any specifically of the door hinge area that would still be awesome.

[notaping]

Only got this of the bottom bracket. You can just see the mount for the bottom door support.

[notaping]

I found some more. I've PM'd you.

Gordon

[Robscim]

Omerta said:

Thanks mate, I obviously needed to explain this better than I did, but I was wanting pics of those areas just as they look in a standard car. I've got most of what I was after from some for sale ad photos but if there's any specifically of the door hinge area that would still be awesome.

I misunderstood too!

If you need any pictures of a standard car as it is now, just shout and I'll nip out to the garage with the phone camera!!

It's about the height of my technical ability!!

Rob

[Omerta]

notaping said:

Only got this of the bottom bracket. You can just see the mount for the bottom door support.

Awesome that is useful - thank you! And for the ones you've emailed, also really helpful.

[Omerta]

Robscim said:

I misunderstood too!

If you need any pictures of a standard car as it is now, just shout and I'll nip out to the garage with the phone camera!!

It's about the height of my technical ability!!

Rob

Thanks Rob, I'll let you know

[Omerta]

notaping said:

I found some more. I've PM'd you.

Gordon

Gordon, going through your Flickr photos I see you recoloured the interior, or is it actually retrimmed? Looks like it came out very nicely. I am going to need to do the same turning a flint green and grey fabric into something else - probably dark grey or black. I would appreciate any advice you've got from your experience.

Thanks
Don

[Byker28i]

Omerta said:

Robscim said:

I misunderstood too!

If you need any pictures of a standard car as it is now, just shout and I'll nip out to the garage with the phone camera!!

It's about the height of my technical ability!!

Rob

Thanks Rob, I'll let you know

Happy to do the same if it helps, I've an early car 1996 if theres any differences.

[notaping]

Don, My car was all vinyl and my plan was always to re-upholster the seats in leather but at the time that wasn't in the budget - so first thing was to search for a leather in a colour I liked, then search for leather dye in the same colour. I used Gliptone - Scuffmaster. To apply it evenly and sparingly I decided to spray it on so I bought a small hobby airbrush and compressor. The dye was water based and easy to thin down to get a fine spray.

Then it was just breaking everything down - all dash switches and accessories out etc. Removing gear and handbrake gaiters, dismantling the seats etc. Some bits couldn't be removed from the car - eg. the rear seat sides are glued on. Most of the roll cage padding can be removed, even the 'A' pillar padding - if the windscreen is removed, which mine was.

To prepare the vinyl/leather - scrub (soft brush) with soap and water many times paying most attention to the crevasses. Dry off with a hair dryer. The wipe down with a pre paint and lint free cloth to make sure the surface has no finger prints etc. Then start spraying. This was a very long process - taking 1 month of evenings and weekends. You can only apply a dusting of paint with each pass, otherwise it will run. So I probably made about 20 passes on each piece of vinyl. Again, dry with hair dryer. When you consider the miniscule size of reservoir on a hobby airbrush you can understand why it took so long - constantly refilling every few minutes.

I think it was worth the effort. Even when I eventually took the seats to be re-upholstered in leather the upholsterer praised the recolouring job.

Things I used: syringe for mixing dye with water (I think it was a 50/50 mix - experiment to get a fine spray), hobby air brush and compressor, U-POL Fast Solvent Degreaser, lint free cloths. Dye - I used 2 colours, I think it was about 4 litres in total.

Scuffmaster doesn't need to be sealed and it's held up well. The only place that it began to wear thin was the drivers seat - after a couple of years the base began to show faint traces of the original grey. I could easily have resprayed it at this point, but by then I had the budget to change to leather - which matched exactly.

Everything you see on flickr is recoloured - the seats haven't been re-upholstered at this point.

Also, before committing to a particular colour it's worth using PhotoShop and a picture of a Cerb interior to change colours and get an idea of what it will look like. You don't want to go through all this and then dislike the result.

G.

[Omerta]

Thanks Gordon, sounds like a meticulous effort! I suspect that, like you, I might end up with leather, so perhaps my first step will be to get a quote for leather retrimming and decide from there whether to dye or retrim.

My favourite pic from your Flickr library:

[notaping]

Cheers. I'd just got the air boxes back from the painter and was impatient to see what it looked like. Nothing's fixed together and it all came apart again to button up the engine. But compared to the first engine pic on flickr - it's just not the same car