It’s almost 4 month’s to the day, and Murphy has moved indoors for completion of strip-down to bare metal.

The boot skin is off, and the doors will follow soon.

The Autumn is upon us, and it’s time to start the strip-down. Angle grinders and dust masks to the ready… here we go!

There a good few layers of paint to get through here, from the green which was applied in the 90’s, to the red from 1973, and the original glacier white from 1972. That’s a lot of paint dust!

A few delays have been experienced over the last few weeks, both personally due to work issues, and on Chris’s side too, but nothing of any major concern.

The good news, as you can see, is that the offside rebuild is coming along nicely. My next update will be in about three weeks time, due to family commitments & annual leave. Have a nice summer break folks!

Murphy’s up on his side, and work is again progressing nicely on the offside rebuild. Despite the nastiness of the rust involved, Chris has worked his magic, and bit by bit, the bad is getting thrown out, and replaced by the good.

The last two months have flown by, but the good news is that Murphy is back on his wheels again, but only for a short while, before work begins properly on the offside.

The area under the offside front wing has been rebuilt, and is looking good. Also, the floor is looking OK too, with no holes or issues to worry about, which is always good news. Next time, back on it’s side…

It’s roll over to the offside, which looking at the state of it should really be called the darkside! This is nasty, really nasty!

Chris has his work cut out here, and cutting out is exactly what he’ll be doing!

Be warned, these images are not for the faint-hearted…

The underneath of the nearside is pretty much there, and is looking really good.

Ignore the rusty doors, as the door skins will be replaced later, but you can definitely see the shape coming back. I’m literally in awe of how Chris has managed this!

The rear rusty area by the exhaust has also been rebuilt, so soon we should be looking at the offside.

It’s been a week since the last update, and the nearside rebuild is really coming along well. As you can see, Chris and his guys have a real skill here, and some serious expertise to boot. I can’t describe how robust this work is, but it is really solid! Nothing’s been left to chance!

Ignore the oxidisation that looks like rust… it’s only on the surface due to being outside, and won’t be an issue going forward.

The rear area near the exhaust is also going to need some work… what can you do!

Work began on the 15th of May on the major bodywork restoration of Murphy, the most massive piece of work undertaken to date, and a job like to take some months. This essentially involves chopping out and replacing any rusty bodywork, and stripping him back to bare metal, before getting prepared for a respray later in the year.

It’s an exciting piece of work, and nothing like I’ve ever had undertaken before, so it’s going to be really interesting seeing how this goes. What I do know is come the end of it, a new lease of life will be breathed into Murphy, which will make it all worthwhile.

As you can see, it’s two weeks in and Murphy is up on his side, with work progressing nicely on the rebuilding of the nearside. Some areas down there were not in good shape at all!

After getting a strong whiff of fuel inside the car recently, it turns out that the old fuel tank was rusty beyond belief and fumes were leaking out from the rust holes into the car 😛 I had a feeling this would happen sooner or later, as the old fuel tank has never looked great. Once again, time for a replacement!

I knew what I was getting into when I got this car, and the challenges I would likely face, which is why I chose to do this. So, I maintain my position that this is less about “Murphy the Money Pit”, (albeit this does cost money to chip away at), and more about, wait and see, because it will be worth it… stick with me readers, you’ll see!

Here’s the old tank:

…and here’s the shiny new one: