NZ A90 Atlantic restoration inches towards finish...

Our recent Level 4 and 3 Covid Delta lockdowns have allowed Lew Eustace to stay at home from his busy other job, to make a big push with the final sectioning, fitment, flattening out and painting of the front panels of the Atlantic.

Hundreds of hours have been put into sorting these stretched and battered panels back to their correct increments, to give the car back its beautiful, curvaceous lines again. As someone said recently: "It's

finally looking nice and round again."

The boot, bonnet, both doors and rear seat base have now had their final coats of paint, with the front panels to follow shortly, plus the final repaint of the rear section. The outside chrome and stainless accessories can then go back in place, along with guard welting, etc.

Once this is done the convertible hood and its workings can be rebuilt and fitted, leaving the final job of a brand new interior to be put in. The interior will be a bright, mid-blue (similar to the colour of the new engine) and white.

Still a way to go yet, but it is a joy to see the car emerging from the pile of rusty, battered pieces it was when delivered to Lew a couple of years ago.

We would once again like to thank AMVCQ member Kev Airton, for supplying valuable photographs and information from his own Atlantic Convertible, that we were unable to find reference to through other sources, such as workshop manuals or internet sources. There were times we were completely "stuck" on issues that Kev was able to sort out for us.

This conundrum we were in at times, was mainly caused by parts for the car being completely missing. These parts either have, or will be remanufactured. An example of this was the huge elation felt when the missing steering wheel was finally found, underneath a house in Invercargill. An extremely hard item to find a replacement for these days. This is what can happen when a rare car is pulled to pieces and left lying around in different places for 25 years.