Aceca doors

[AE 501]

After 15 years of restauration effort time has come to get my Aceca AE 501 back on the road. She's now back on her first colour scheme "maroon" and one years work on the 60 years old leather has ended in usable Interieur with that special patina you can't buy for money. I think, this may be the only 3 seater in the market? First owner Ken Rudd decided to give her a little bench instead of a co-drivers seat [8D].
   
   One of the last problems to solve is the flush closing of the doors. After fitting the new door seals, both doors come out about 5 mm when closed. The big sprockets on the doors show no signs of extensive wear, but after the "click" they come back just this little amount. The next "click" is too far away because of the new seals. What would you prefer to do???
   
   By the way - if anyone of the readers has any information about the history of AE 501 or AEX 201 (my Ace) please don't hesitate to tell me even the smallest thing.
   
   Hoping to get some usefull hints - happy motoring for all,
   Chris
   
   P.S. if someone tells me how to put some pics in, I'll try my very best!

[AE 501]

[AE 501]

[AE 501]

long,long way to go......
   
   
   
   
   
   

[Klassik Metall]

Hello Chris,
   
   Congratulations on your restoration work and the car looks great in that colour.
   I posted some information about repairing the wear in the door lock mechanism on this earlier thread. http://www.acownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2629
   
   If you read down to my post you will find a link to a web album detailing some of the process.
   The slight wear in the locks could be enough to cause the problem you are experiencing with the new  door seals.
   
   I don't have any info about AE501 but it's sister car AE503 now lives with me here in Austria.
   
   Regards Luke.

[AE 501]

Thanks a lot for your very useful help, Luke! As soon as I have some time I will try your hints.
   
   Perhaps the day will come, we have to manage a "sisters meeting"? But what about the car between us - AE 502?
   
   Chris

[nikbj68]

Welcome to the forum, Chris, and thanks for the photos, Looking fabulous!
   AE502 was last known of in the USA, so maybe only 2 of the triplets will meet anytime soon.
   Keep up the good work, and look forward to seeing road trip photos too!
   Nik.

[10kph]

Hi,
       Just browsing and recognised your chassis number.I owned the car from 1984 for a few years and won club concourse  and cometed at goodwood and ragley hillclimb .The cars first owner was Ken Rudds and had a 2 seater bench seat for a child sat overthe geartunnel.I still have photos of the car when i purchased it in maroon colour with bright red trim.I remember stripping all the paint and repairing the RH gutter trim and top of the c post which had ben damaged. The original colour was possibly black, or that was a guide coat,then a metalic silver green, then I think blue and maroon.I painted the cor jaguar carmen red.I registration was wpl 740 and I have a photo of it alongside my friends car vpl 441 the motor show prototype.
     Regards Tony Northern club ac

[AE 501]

Tony, you made may day !!
   Thank you so much for your posting! I was looking for previous owners over the last years, but was'nt very succesful. I bought this lovely car on the Techno Classica fair in Essen in 1999. Nearly everythig was damaged exept of the gearbox. Few years ago I was able to meet Ken Rudd at the Goodwood Revival and we had a long talk about this car. He remebered it very well because of the small bench and told me this was a work of his own company. Asked for the reason he smiled and said: I loved the panic in the eyes of my co-drivers when they tried to tighten themselves during cornering! And yes, the bench is still in place! It took me nearly one year of work, to get the original leather soft and to do all the needlework on broken piping. Together with the car came the green log book, wich shows maroon as it's first colour. So I decided to bring her back to original specification. Hope you like my work so far......and the colour is really great, I think!
   And perhaps you can imagine how much I'm interested in every picture, letter, invoice or just remebering any details from the time you owned the car. Perhaps you know as well your previous owner and to whom you gave the car at least? If you are willing to,please send copies of all the stuff to my email adress: gies@berosafe.de and perhaps we will met some day personally.
   I'm somewhat nervous now and awaiting your answer!
   Thank you very much again,
   With kindest regards
   Chris

[AE 501]

Just to pull this up to daylight - still hoping for any answer or contact to Tony. Regrettingly there was nothing after his friendly words from 9.9.14. Could anyone of you give him a push if possible?
   Thanks a lot
   Chris

[Klassik Metall]

Hello Chris,
   
   were you able to get your doors to fit any better in the end?
   
   Regards Luke.

[dkp_cobra]

Can anybody help Christoph with this cross-tie:
   
   
   
   It's an original AC part to be used to enforce the orginal steering box (as far as I understood). Has anybody a picture showing the assembled position?

[AC Ace Bristol]

Christoph
   
   I will try to photograph the steering box stabiliser unit fitted to My Ace Bristol BEX333 this weekend. Please note they are handed
   LH  & RH.
   
   Keith

[dkp_cobra]

Thank you Keith,
   
   Christoph has a RHS car.
   
   Kind regards,
   
   Peter

[AE 501]

Hi Luke,
   
   leider haben mich diverse Erkrankungen weit zurück geworfen. Erst zum letzten Wochenende habe ich die Arbeiten an meiner Aceca wieder aufnehmen können. Nun, ich habe beide Türen wieder zerlegt und die Schlösser ausgebaut. Das Spiel zwischen den Zahnrädern ist allerdings ausgesprochen gering (< 1mm), so dass ich unsicher bin, ob und wie ich weiter vorgehen soll. Könntest Du ggf. die Schlösser für mich überholen? (natürlich gegen Entgeld). Ich würde gerne mit anderen Arbeiten weitermachen, da ich im Moment nicht weiß, wieviel Zeit mir noch bleibt (2. und3. August OP Prostatatumor)
   
   Gerne kannst Du mich unter gies@berosafe.de direkt kontaktieren - oder auch per WhatsApp oder telefonisch unter 0172-2512881.
   
   Ich würde mich freuen, von Dir zu hören,
   mit besten Grüßen
   Chris