XRT 487G - 'Maggie'

[HARBER07]

Welcome to 'Maggie' or 'Margaret' as I like to call her, amongst other more offensive names on occasion.

We acquired her about a year ago in 2024 with the view to carry out a complete rebuild and restoration, as I had just about finished works on my previous project car. With Vickys approval, and a dream to have a classic car in the fleet to use as our wedding car, Margaret fitted the bill perfectly.



Sat for 33 years on the previous keepers driveway, we knew we had work to do, however the car seemed to be very complete in terms of parts despite being partially stripped down. Sadly no paperwork or documentation has survived but Margaret already has her own story....



Roof nearly flew off on the way home, but we made it.

[HARBER07]

Having had minis & old Vauxhalls in my younger years and rebuilding my brothers '76 bay window camper a few years back, I am no stranger to rust at all. Margaret however was on a slightly different level!.

Once we got her home, we started to take a good look at whats what.










So yeah not ideal. But I like a project. Unloved for 33 years, previous dodgy repairs, no V5c...... what could possibly go wrong.


I don't find these things daunting at all though, and just work through systematically one thing at a time. After her being sat on our patio for 9 months waiting for us to finish other projects we then made a start and got stuck in.

[HARBER07]

I needed something to test out my new Lincoln Speedtec on, so repaired the gearbox cover first.

The general aim with Margaret is to save as much of the original car as possible, within realistic practicalities anyway, whilst removing all previous patches and botched repairs. My goal with cars has always been - it has to look like it was built that way from factory, no bad repairs allowed.

[HARBER07]

So with my other car now out of the garage..



And the parts sifted and sorted



Margaret now had free reign of the garage for her major operation

[HARBER07]

Got the fuel tank cleaned up ok inside and out



Then started hacking to bits.

[HARBER07]

It has been a challenge to stop the car folding in half as so much of it was rotten and needed replacing. Adding a lot of bracing and taking many many measurements, along with a fair few assumptions we are slowly getting some strength back in the car.

[HARBER07]

[HARBER07]

I've found that the majority of repair panels are available thankfully, however there are a few things I've learned along the way.

There is no surprise that pattern panels don't fit very well, which isn't really a problem for me. But some panels are not made the same way as the originals are. In most of these instances I've either decided to manufacture panels by hand, or modify the pattern panels to assemble together the same way as the originals are. Where panels are not available to purchase I decided just to make the panels to be as correct as practicable rather than chop random panels about to fit.


To date I think I'm at around 24 hand made panels ranging from floor sections to small repair sections to the arch lip, even down to new spot welded tabs on the rear floor panel that hold the wiring loom in position. It all takes time.

[HARBER07]

That very brief overview takes us right up till about now.

[HARBER07]

Both half floors are now in, both rear arches are repaired, all spring hangers are in and square (N/S Front was 1/2" out from factory). There is a little bit of tidying up to do around the rear crossmember area, then we are ready to drop it back on its axle and turn around for front end repairs.

[HARBER07]

[les]

You’re back, welcome again, we thought you were leaving the forum !

[HARBER07]

We’re here for as long as old Maggie needs surgery. Hopefully I can be of some use to the forum and community, classics are a dying breed these days.

I’m an electrical engineer with a small machine shop, happy to help out if anyone needs odd things machining or replicating

[les]

Your resto will bring back many memories for a lot of us, some good, some not so ! No more for me ———-well maybe a Lambretta !