Lamborghini 400GT

A none intrusive assessment of the bodywork condition was undertaken and the following issues were highlighted. Numerous areas have very obvious corrosion and will require new panels fabricated to repair correctly. There is evidence that the body has a lot of filler aplied and untill the body is stripped of its paint and filler the damage cannot be determined.

The general condition of the engine is typical of long term storage with a number of areas with surface rust and oxidising aluminium. It appears to be all there bar a few small brackets/end caps. Worryingly the sump, timing assembly & spark plugs have been removed allowed moisture to enter the engine. Using a borascope to inspect the internals without removing any components we have found rusting and corrosion build up inside the engine which will need further investigation work as to the health of these components.

Top material is dry and at risk of cracking when removed and stored will require to be stripped and retrimmed along with the console will have the same issue.

Each individual part is being stripped off the car and catalogued. Bolts are being difficult to undo as car has been sat for so long.

Removal of underseal from front tubs, bonnet area chassis rails and front left inner arch prior to media blasting.

Assisting and application of latex revival to rear seat bases

Now calipers have been cleaned & sand blasted, work can begin separating & evaluating the assemblies. Rear calipers were fist split removing the 4 bolts followed by the retaining bolt for parking brake clamp arms. Next was the handbrake lever pin. Removal of this required drilling & extracting the split pin fitted. Attempt then made to extract pin, however, pin was severely seized requiring heating & pressing to extract. Once removed, the caliper assemblies could be seperated in two. Both pins & lever arms appear distorted & will require re shaping or replacement. Removal of the pistons was next. The pistons of which were found to be severely seized also. Outer gators were removed & exposed edge was cleaned of any left over rubber. Penetrative solution was then allowed to soak before heating the outer casing of the caliper. An additional solution was then used to cool & shrink the piston within the caliper. Vive grips could then be used to slowly work the pistons until eventually free. At this stage, both rear calipers are stripped aside from the larger piston witch is yet to be extracted

Started the mixed media blasting process.

All full restoration car receive a bare metal assessment once the vehicle has been stripped using mixed media blasting. This inspection is carried out by one of our engineers from within the quality control inspection area.

The door skin is now fully welded and tapped back into shape as pictured.New metal has been welded in position on the other door and brackets have been removed and restored ready to weld back in.

Today i have stripped the differential of the car down to inspect the internal condition. I first cleaned off the loose dirt so no excess dirt fell into the internals. The drive flanges were removed next and inspected, these items looked to be in good condition with minimal surface rust or wear. The studs in the flanges were also in good order except from one which had soke damage on the threaded section so this will need to be replaced.

After the drive flanges were removed i could remove the side of the casing to remove the differential itself.

The teeth on the crown-wheel are in good condition, they show signs of use and some slight wear but they look good and reusable.

The differential support bearings do show signs of wear and will need replacing however, these along with the pinion support bearings. Items such as seals and gaskets should be replaced and the casing will be cleaned and painted in the correct manor.

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Lots of parts coming together, assessing which part marry to the next and then tweaking and adjusting, preparing for next stages of sewing and assembly. Most leather parts are cut ready for fitting to substrate. As seen on the table there are dash parts, seat parts, door cards restored, patterned or fitted, all inner fillings for the seats are ready for new use and ready for leather going onto them.

With good access With the sill removed a lower section of the rear arch has fabricated and replaced,removing all poor quality repairs in the process

The rear quarter window aperture is now complete and after removing the lead work it highlighted how out of shape the rear quarter panel was.This has now been rectified and in doing so it has reduced the need for lead in that area.The dents all along the passenger wing and front end have been pulled out with a slide hammer then dressed using hammer & dolly.The front inner arch has been replaced with a new fabricated section due to heavy corrosion on the old one and is ready to be welded in

Fitting new leather to centre tunnel console

The pistons have now been freed after being allowed to soak in diesel before working back & forth. Once freed it was then nessesary to re intsall the crank shaft & end caps. From here the engine can now be turned in time for further measurements & assement.

Today we have continued with the restoration of internal alloy panelling and door weather strips. The process for the alloy panelling is to hand sand all the scratches and corrosion off then work down the grades of paper until it is fine enough to bee put to the polisher for a clean bright finish. The door weather strips had to be hammer and dollied to get the metal work straight enough for any additional prosses to be carried out at a later date.Time has also gone into chasing suppliers for price and availability on parts.

The prop shaft has now been stripped separating & splitting there cv joint aswell as removing the transmission mating flange. I was able to prerss & removed all bearings with no damage using heat to aid the process. On removal however, I noticed that one of the cap & needle assemblies are missing one needle. I suspect this has been like those for a long time but will investigate possibilities of a replacement needle. On the prop shaft itself there appears to be several historic repairs. Once blasted, this will reveal the true condition under & around these repaired locations.

Today i have continued to prepare the parts after epoxy primer by using 500 grit soft pads. I have also started to mask out the parts for paint.