Why rebuild?
The “Parrot” Car was finally doing what I wanted it to do, and I was starting to feel like I was driving it, rather than it driving me.
That took a turn for the worse in the 2013 Nissan Nightmoves.
The first stage started of really well – a long straight followed by a few corners into a spectator point where I clipped the apex nicely with a good amount of speed, up the road – right left and then there was a “Y” junction…
We were navigating on a map, which didn’t show this junction!
“Which way?”, was my question…
“I don’t know!” was the answer!
By the time I picked left, I was in the loose stuff – couldn’t catch it and hit the bank – hard.
On the night, it didn’t look “too” bad – the wheel had moved back into the wheel well, and there appeared to be only cosmetic damage to guards, bumper bar and a few things underneath.
Possible to fix? – Probably…
Plan A was put into action!
However!
In 2014, the Classic Outback Trial was going to be held. And I wanted to be part of it.
For this I would need a strong car.
On closer inspection, I found the “Parrot” was getting very tired. Cracks were appearing where they shouldn’t be and repairing to a standard for the COT, would really mean a total rebuild.
Maybe it would be better to “reshell”.
Here’s some of the fatigue/damage that was found when the “Parrot” was stripped…
LH A pillar. Cracked!
LH A pillar. You can see at the base of the windscreen there’s are large crack. This is fatigue, not due to the crash.
LH sill – smashed and bashed from many events
LH sill – toward the rear of the car
rust eating its way through the rear window.
rear rail – the spot wells are corroded
and are not holding together
like they’re supposed to!
Lots of remedial work would have been required
Many years of rallying has put
a strain on the floor
LH wheel well – impact damage and cracking
would need a large amount
of remedial work.
LH wheel well – exterior
LH wheel well – interior – you can see the cage supports have moved!
I had purchased another KE55 hardtop some time back for “spares”, and this had been sitting in the driveway for way too long.
Plan B was born – let’s reshell using the “purple car”…
To be continued!
