Twin Plenum Vitesse restoration

[LanceRS]

Amazing, outstanding, well done. Enjoy the fruits of your labour. having lost my Dad recently I can understand the motivation but my God what a task.
Always had a soft spot for these, as a child my best friend's Dad had a few of them, secretly wished my Dad would get one, they were so much cooler than the Jags and Mercs he used to buy.
As a side note, my Uncle worked as a mechanic for the Bastos team out on South Africa in the early 80s, I used to had a load of team stickers, wonder where they went?

[Duke Thrust]

Little video of it starting up for the first time, plenty of warm up time in the edit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN7df0QPReM

[Shadow R1]

Great job.

[bstark]

Sounds very nice!

[slippery]

[Duke Thrust]

Managed a few hours at the weekend and got a few things sorted:

Cleaned up air con fans and shrouds:





Painted and assembled onto the condenser:



Mounting brackets cleaned, painted and bolted to body:





Whole lot fitted along with a hastily fabricated top bar to hold it all in place including the non-standard alloy radiator.



You'll notice the lights are back in too. Spent a few hours going over the electrical system, got all the things needed for an MOT working now. Things to sort:

- Central locking
- Rear wiper
- Temp gauge reading high (actual temp is fine)

The engine was a bit lumpy and wouldn't idle particularly well, I think it needs a good run and then a proper set up when warmed thoroughly.

[tdm34]

Duke Thrust said:

Needs sounds for full experience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN7df0QPReM&fea...

Video was taken over quite some time and edited, plenty of time to warm up and allowing for initial cam bedding in.

Brilliant stuff!!!

check this period A-R promo video for Vitesse's in full cry!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvl3lLguUuY

[TuxMan]

Great stuff Duke , following thread with interest :-)

[Duke Thrust]

Got some time at the weekend and sorted:

Central locking
HVAC blowers
Interior lights
Oil level sensor
Rear wiper
Temp sensor

In addition to making a bracket to hold the water bottle for the head light washer system. The original had rusted to nothing so made a stout repayment from some old alloy plate, not pretty but it's completely hidden and won't suffer the same fate as the previous one.



In place:



Under tray back on, the pipe you can see leads to the washer jets in the front bumper. The tray has twisted a bit over time but as it's also hidden it's of no consequence:



Front spoiler back on. As I'm running wider tyres the rubbed on the inner edges so they had to be relived a little, also needs a good clean after being in the sheds for so long:





It was at this point I realised that the bumper mounts need to go back on before under tray and spoiler, so they had to come off again...

But, once done then the bumper back on:

[Morningside]

tdm34 said:

Duke Thrust said:

Needs sounds for full experience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN7df0QPReM&fea...

Video was taken over quite some time and edited, plenty of time to warm up and allowing for initial cam bedding in.

Brilliant stuff!!!

check this period A-R promo video for Vitesse's in full cry!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvl3lLguUuY

That is a great video.

[lexspace]

Brilliant job on this Duke Thrust , I've had 7 sd1's , 2 of them vitesse's and had some great times with them , plenty of frustrating times with them too, they are (slightly flawed) great cars and just about everybody has been in one/knew someone who had one/has a story about one , looking forward to seeing this one complete again

[Duke Thrust]

lexspace said:

Brilliant job on this Duke Thrust , I've had 7 sd1's , 2 of them vitesse's and had some great times with them , plenty of frustrating times with them too, they are (slightly flawed) great cars and just about everybody has been in one/knew someone who had one/has a story about one , looking forward to seeing this one complete again

Thanks! I suspected you had and SD1 at some point when I notced the wheel chock in one of your recent build photos.

[Duke Thrust]

A bit more progress:

Front finisher/grill mounts cleaned up and painted:



Fitted (which meant taking the bumper off again...)





Then the finisher in place:



This meant the bonnet could go back on and a quick wash to get years of dust off the paint since the re-spray:

[GreatGranny]

That 3/4 view is fantastic.

Great looking car.

[treetops]

Simply awesome!

Great back story too.

[slippery]

It's looking mega.

[CR6ZZ]

Brilliant effort. Well done. Loved my Vitesse when I had it.

[miniman]

[Duke Thrust]

Putting the side strips back on has been a complete pain as removing the old sticky stuff takes forever. Finally got the last one done:



New sticky stuff:



Then masked a line done the side of the car (the funny camera angle distorts the picture and the rear tyres look ridiculously narrow)



Then aligned the strips:



Then used more tape to create a hinge:



Then remove backing tape and stick down:



All done which is a massive relief:



Badge and plate back one:



Under bonnet lights back on and wired up:



Then the air con components go back in, not much clearence for the compressor, but it's enough:

[SPT28]

Simply stunning work - well done OP, there's some serious dedication gone into this - almost there!