Canadian 404C restoration

[Mike Tippett]

The last two weeks of November and the first days of December 2016, I took my 404 C apart at my home garage in anticipation of getting the restoration underway. The restoration is being done by Coachwerks in Victoria BC, a shop that does excellent work: Coachwerks | Classic Car Restoration in Victoria BC. They are world-renowned restorers of Mercedes 300 SL car, and they do all the bodywork for | Rudi & Co..

Later in December, the car was at the media blasting shop in Sidney BC, mounted on its cart. I also have a lot of NOS 404C panels cleaned there too. After the shell and NOS parts returned to the restorer in Victoria, the restoration began.


Note the KF2 Injection engine, now on the stand in the photo


The NOS panels being dropped off at the blasting shop a couple of weeks ago


The car is on its cart at Coachwerks December 10th


In good company: a P1800 under plastic, a 914/6, an Austin Healey 3000, a 911 and a 300 SL


On the flatbed, taking a ride to the quick strip facility in Sidney BC, December 10th 2016

[Mike Tippett]

On January 6, 2017 I dropped a payment off at the shop and had a look. Progress was restricted by the slowness of the stripper doing the replacement panels, specifically those for the the floor and chassis bits. Now they're all there and the work has begun, the first step being a cutting away of the floor elements. In about three weeks the lower portions should be done.


NOS panels on the shop floor - the other half of the new floor is behind the photo field of view.



Cut away floors



The original floors on their way to recycling!



404C on its cart....300 SL behind.

[Mike Tippett]

I stopped by the shop on January 13th to drop off a new front crossmember and rear jack mount I just got this week from Joern Haarmann, in case they are needed.


Left front floor partially reconstructed, rocker panel/sill on this side is being made in the shop because I only have one in NOS for the other side of the car.


Front left detail of floor under reconstruction


The car seen from the front


Reconstruction of the left floor (work in progress) seen from inside the car.

[Mike Tippett]

Rear view

[Mike Tippett]

I have been doing the mechanical work myself at home. Front suspension arms and Panhard rod mount are ready to go. All new hardware is available and new bushings are in as well.

[Mike Tippett]

The work continued over the past two weeks. Excellent progress has been made: the floors and sills are complete, the rear wing skins have been drilled off and the new ones readied, with work underneath in progress. I haven't been this excited for years! It is fantastic to see!


The shop decided to use the new fender (wing) skins after all. Since my spares were for a Cabriolet, they were separated at the peak of the fender/wing and the Cabriolet part was discarded. (That's a switch, usually Coupé parts are used for Cabriolets.) Here, the new fender skin is clamped with Vise-Grips.


View of the same thing from behind.


Front view again, but now the fender skin has been unclamped and you can see some of the work they have been doing.


Detail for left rear fender inner area.


The new Peugeot floors I bought in 1988 (the last pair in Europe, I was told, who knows....) are now in the car.


View from below.

[RondeB]

Nice job !

[Mockenrue]

Excellent report on your project !

[Mockenrue]

Does your coupe have the Nardi floor shifter ? I have always wondered whether Peugeot already prepared a hole for the Nardi kit in the 404C chassis.

[Mike Tippett]

Yes all Canadian market 404C cars had the Nardi. Even my US 1963 sedan had this removable plate.

[jacqabe]

Great job!!!

[A.B.203]

Very nice welding works, you are not afraid !

[Mike Tippett]

The new right rear fender/wing is welded onto the car.  The rear jack mount and part of the inner fender were just rebuilt.  Looking good!  This fender/wing was severely rusted before the transplant. I found the rear fenders/wings from a Peugeot service point in Williamsburg, Ontario in 2004.  Under $500 CAD each, cheap!

[Mike Tippett]

The new left rear fender is now welded on, as of February 8th, after the inner fender work was completed.

[Mike Tippett]

Wiper frame is de-rusted and repainted in Rust-oleum and the two new wiper spindles (unique design for the 404C so I was lucky to get a pair) are remounted.  The wiper motor drive axle is the original but after flushing it with Würth HHS it was as smooth as butter.  Greased it up and mounted it back together.


The cover of the AEG fuel pump was rusty and needed a good quality of hard paint because it's clamped on by a wire that uses friction and sits in the dimple of the cover.  So I bought some silver POR-15 and applied it by brush. with only 83,000 miles on the car, the electrical part of the pump is in good condition.  I will take the hydraulic part apart and regrease it. 


The framework of the AEG/Kugelfischer pump was also very rusty but now looks better and is painted in silver POR-15 applied by brush.

[tomtom]

WAUW! What a great total restoration. I'm wondering why you had all those panels for so long and never used them? The 404 coupe is a car which can be bought quite "easy" isn't it? Keep up the good work and keep us posted !

[Mike Tippett]

Here in North America there are 7 404 Coupés and no, it's not easy to buy one. I know the full history of my car and in fact I am in contact with the sons of the dealer who sold this car when new: Kalsbeek Motors in Bramalea Ontario. The Kalsbeek brothers remember this car well as it is the only C model their small family owned dealer ever sold. With a history like that...

Plus the full body restoration is the best way to be certain of the condition. The panels were saved for this car for many years.

[tomtom]

That's a nice heritage! I love to see more of the restoration work.....because I love the 404 coupe more than the convertible

[Mike Tippett]

Me too! I have driven a Cabriolet 404 and it's nice, but for me the Coupé is the one to own.

The Kalsbeek family emigrated from NL to Canada in 1952 so that's another point of interest here on the Dutch forum! One of the sons of the dealer that sold my car when it was new will visit this June and see the car for the first time since 1967!

[tomtom]

That will be very special I presume.....I wasn't even born in 1967 ! But you can of course also own a cabriolet AND a coupe. One for very sunny & warm days and one for less sunny. Although.....sunny is enough for me; 3 degrees and sun=driving with the top down (today)!

[Mike Tippett]

True: for the sunny days (not now!) I have a smart BRABUS Tailor Made cabriolet.

[Mike Tippett]

These photos were taken Friday around 5 PM.  Major front end surgery is underway!

Front fenders are cut off!



Detail of cowl panel, not rusty at all inside.



Inner fender panel was not in that bad of a condition, some repair was required near the bottom.



Dashboard with three rectangular holes gone and one round hole for the new - original type - wiper/washer switch!



Taillights fit, good!



Drilled out spot welds and removed outer McPherson strut tower skin.



Repair panels welded into the nose panel on both sides.



Interesting perspective!

[b.bles]

Thank you for this great picturama... publish it maybe??



Bob Bles AL-96-17 404 sedan 1968

[Mike Tippett]

I made a visit to Coachwerks on Friday:







for detailed photos of the work done in the past two weeks, go here: Update 2

[Mike Tippett]

Friday afternoon I visited Coachwerks.



The new front crossmember is on, some significant repairs were needed on the driver's side inner fender and that fender is now tacked in place, with fine-tuning and possible future adjustments to follow. Next week I have to take the rubber seals down for panel alignment purposes, as well as the grille.





The old front crossmember didn't look all that bad but when it was off, the bodyman in the photo above showed it to me and shook it, and it sounded just like a Maraca :O

They will be painting the front brake drum backing plates, the Hydrovac vacuum tank and the air inlet grille. I will repaint the brake drums myself in manifold paint.  I had them blasted at Blast-it in Victoria today and I even did the vacuum tank blasting myself!