Ever since riding in a (at the time) brand new Vauxhall PA Cresta as a 7 year old boy I have been hooked on their charm & good looks. I didn’t realise my dream of owning a Cresta until 2002. I am now on my 2nd Cresta and enjoying every minute of it.
We
bought the car in July 2003, as you can see from the photo below she
didn’t look
too bad. The car did have some MOT left so we were able to get out to a couple of show’s. She really drove well, the car only having covered a genuine 54000 miles.
I decided I wanted to restore the Cresta to her former glory, so I took the car off the road later that year and began to strip the car to enable me to see what welding was required. The more I stripped the car down the more I realised there was plenty of work to do. I decided to farm out the welding and spraying work.
The main problem was the bulkhead, the water tray under the dashboard had rotted away and in turn rotted the bulkhead panel.
I was able to source a good second hand bulkhead panel, thankfully the welder was able to make a great job of fitting it.
John
used a plasma cutter to remove the old panel, one half at a time. This was
really the turning point of the restoration, I seriously thought that this
would be a job too far.
The rest of the welding was to the floor, rear wheel arches, inner & outer sills, front chassis.
Once
all the welding had been done, it was the turn of the painters. During all
this work I was given access on a daily basis to take as many photographs
as I wanted. I had made the decision to keep the same colours as original,
I did wonder at one stage if I ought to spray her pink, but thankfully
thought better of it.
During
the time all the work was being done i was kept busy with all the parts
that I had removed from the car. Engine wise I decided not to go for a
full strip down. The main reasons for this were the genuine 54000 miles,
& the fact I had run the car I knew it ran well and didn’t use any
oil. I cleaned the engine down, removed the sump to check oil pump, fitted
a new timing chain & seal. Other than that I fitted new core plugs and
painted the block. I checked the inlet & exhaust manifolds, cleaned
& painted them up. It was the same for all the other components,
distributor, carburettor, wiper motor etc, all was checked, cleaned.
The leather seats were taken to an upholsterer and panels were sewn in where necessary, they really look nice. A new carpet set was fitted which has fished off the interior nicely. I had removed the headlining & was able to clean it, repair a couple of small tear’s and apply a special paint which has bought it back to the original colour.
Happy Motoring