Lawrence of Arizona

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:44 am Post subject: Lawrence of Arizona

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This is a dream come true for me. I've been hankering after one of these things for a few years now. As you can imagine, they don't come up very often and things have worked out for me. I'm a very lucky man, and I know it.

Where to begin? First a few thank yous.

Rich - Thank you mate. Thank you for selling me you '60 Vert and then being soooo understanding when I turn around a few weeks later and say 'I've bought another car!'. Thank you for receiving an endless stream of parcels, photographing them, and then storing them away. Thank you for taking delivery of the Rom, looking after it and even swapping out a tire for me. Thank you for buying the haulage guy breakfast.

Q - Thank you for taking time out of your day to go to the seller's house, talk to him, take pictures and then report back to me. It made the process much less stressful. Your visit put the sellers minds at rest, as I think they nervous about selling to someone outside the U.S.

James - For pointing me towards the Ebay listing. After years of looking and trying to do deals I'd given up on a Lawrence. Thanks mate.

Gav, Ben, Deano, Foxy and Andy for advice, support, and giving me the confidence to do the work myself.

Greg, for supply some choice front suspension parts and generally being a good guy.

All the Rebel Alliance guys and girls for general inspiration. Together we continue to push things forward, keep it fresh.

Last but not least, Ant, who has spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in the garage with me, putting the thing back together. I couldn't have done it without you mate.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:48 am Post subject:

Without further ado, here are some pictures of the car which appeared on eBay late 2011. It was in Arizona.

These pics are courtesy of Q, who went down to have look for me.

First up. A very old Title.

Just over 7,000 on the clock Wink

Pan is rotten. The car had been outside, filling with water.

Look at the tunnel. Even that is rotten, with holes all the way along.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:51 am Post subject:

No rear screen.

The original front screen has been replaced by a three pieces of glass. A very poor job.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:53 am Post subject:

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:59 am Post subject:

I was lucky to get my hands on this car. The auction sniper I set up to bid on the car miss-fired and the auction ended with no bids. I was beside myself with worry for a week trying to secure the car and do the deal.

A big thank you to Patrick for helping e broker the deal.

So, with the deal done it went Rich's house. A big thanks to him and Jackie.

Rich loaded it up with parts.

He bought this guy breakfast, while he went off to buy a tarp to stop the car filling up with water.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:09 am Post subject:

After a sea voyage it arrived in the UK. December 2011.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:18 am Post subject:

A donor pan was sourced courtesy of Gav.

The pan was in pretty bad shape. Far better than the one with the Rom. New outriggers required.

New pans.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:21 am Post subject:

I thought it best to replace the rusted out fuel line. I managed to get the whole thing out. It just fell apart at the rear end.

A new stainless line goes in...

...and out the other end.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:23 am Post subject:

Having access to the tunnel internals allowed me to secure the fuel line properly. Firstly I wanted to make sure it didn't foul on the clutch assay.

Then a tab in the centre section to stop it rattling around.

Fuel line in, time to put the tunnel back. Welded in.

Ground back.

empigav · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:26 am Post subject:

About time Ad Wink

Keep those pics coming!
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adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:27 am Post subject:

Next up was the Air Ride set-up. It's the very latest kit from Pete at Airkewld. It's a lot more efficient than the old kit.

Here's the plate work tacked in. I need to seam it and test it. It needed a lot of fettling and I have had to have a special 'spacer' machined to sit between the lower control arms and the bottom of the bag - like giant fender washer.

I have done this so that the car on full drop stays off the ground.

The car will drive and turn at 0 psi.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:31 am Post subject:

These were picked up. Just the drums. They will be re-drilled and placed as spacers over standard VW drums. Just like on Greg's 11G.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:32 am Post subject:

Welded in.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:34 am Post subject:

So me and Ant hooked up the air bags to my compressor and gave the rear suspension a test.

Link

All good.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:39 am Post subject:

Gav travelled down from Cornwall and brought me seats, tyres, beam parts and his expertise. Ant spent another day in my freezing garage helping out. Ben had beam ends cut for me and a special order on shock towers.

Big up to Trailer Queen restorations and Evil Ben's.

Gav couldn't wait to start work. It was a real education to watch a pro at work - he goes ten times quicker than I can go. A real eye-opener.

He was helping me mock up the front end and giving me a comprehensive A to Z on what to do when making a beam. As soon as he saw the Rom he was poking around the front end. He saw that there were these recessed box sections where the stock beam sits. He suggested that we could replicate these box sections but make them deeper and taller.

Here's a pic of the OG inner wing and a fabricated replacement box section. A good deal deeper than the OG box.

Here's the beam mocked up with Ben's super banana shock towers. Cool

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:40 am Post subject:

We all do this right?

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:43 am Post subject:

With Gav gone, I pushed on with the box sections

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:46 am Post subject:

Whilst this was happening the pan and rear running gear was powder coated.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:55 am Post subject:

Whilst the beam tubes were at the engineers I turned my attention to the Rom body.

When doing a proper restoration of these cars you MUST remove the aluminium outer skin to reveal ALL of the steel and wood. Especially in notorious problem areas such as the sills and A and B posts.

The car will, in two years or so, go through this process.

The metal I could see was a lot worse than I first thought.

Starting with the best bit. This is the Driver's Side front heater channel. You can see the front bulkhead. This is the only salvageable part.

Compare that to the Passenger's Side.

adamtownley · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:55 am Post subject:

It gets worse. Here's a couple of photos along the DS heater channel from the front of the car to the back of the car.

The middle section, under the driver's door.

The rear section, also under the door up to the jam.


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Lawrence of Arizona
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