The 1957 Series 1 Sunbem Rapier

The Rapier was an impulse purchase. 
My Californian was all nice and shiny and needed no work so I was looking around for a project.
It looked OK so paid out the asking price and brought it home.
Here it is in what used to be the office for my medical equipment repair business.

 As can be seen it was a sad little baby, Several previous owners had dismantled and attempted (very badly) to fix the rust problem. 
The history I obtained suggested that an older person had bought it, carefully dismantled some parts which came to be in decaying plastic bags with faded labels that may have indicated where they belonged. This person had passed away and at least one other dreamer had it before it was obtained by a dealer who on sold it to me. This was around 2001.

This is what it should look like.

 

 

I will just insert a few pictures of what was found.

 

 

All too much rust, this was back in 2003 according to date on the pictures.
Moved out to a rural location around that time and thought there would be plenty of time to work on it.
Fast forward 20 odd years and now retired finally getting to attend to these tasks.
The short version is that there is rust in every panel, even the roof. 
Seaside suburbs are not a good home for anything ferrous :-)

Stay tuned as it gets transported back to the city and a new workshop for another try.
For more pictures of intensive rust. The only plus of its stay in inland Australia is the low humidity did not cause any more rust.