My saturday, Wednesday and now Friday progress...

[thevert]

Its getting there! all in the peraration aint it! I recomend a coat of "zink 182" on the bare metal thean some "body putty" ultra high build primer. Came out realy nice on my mini once all sanded down. The zink ritch primer is a rust retardent too.

[akku]

Of course there was loads of sanding in the lower rear quarters again. Couldn't be arzed to photo that though. Another fill and they'll be done. I think I said that friday?

Oh today I got to do some wire brushing too, just for a change.

Used the Hammerite rust gell as I've seen that recommended a few places rather than my old favourite Jenolite. Seems to work well and not be such a pain to get the residue off. I need another tub already. And more filler. And I'm running low on P120 now...

End is almost in sight on this stage and I might even be buying some paint soon...

[thevert]

why do we do it? nice work, its getting there!

[Deleted]

I hate body prep. I look up to your sir!

[Nathan]

WOW a bit OT but that Black Box mug, I am sure those Mugs follow me cus where ever I am i Bloody see them AGGGHHAHHHHHH, Good work anyhow matey

[akku]

I've had the black box mug since, oh, 1991 or something? It was a "recommend a co-worker to recieve out catalgue" free gift. LOL.

Today I (wait for it) sanded the filler in the rear passenger door where the new corner been welded in. Did a little rounf the rear passenger wheel arch and basically skimmed up some low spots.

I think thats the last of the low spots. Bloody better be.

Not bad to actually get anything done on it since I also went to Xtreme Wheels and thats 120 miles away... Been busy.

[akku]

Couple more days done on it. This is getting to the point where I am about done now. Thankfully.

The door bottom now is correctly contoured, as good as its going to be, and lets be honest the factory fit of these panels was pretty dreadful anyway



Better shot of how the sill runs into the rear arch. I wish this had been done properly in the first place rather than having to go at it with filler for a week to get it something like...



Same story in the lower rear quarters. I'm now at the "accepting it will never be quite right" stage and thining thats as much effort as I can put into it without seeing any more improvement



Same story other side really



Rear scuttle is now finished. I just have a little work on the roof and front door one side and I can get priming and guide coating.

[Kris]

Great pics, keep 'em coming

[akku]

I'm at the stage where I'm wondering when to call it quits. You know how it is. Every tie you do some more you get it maybe a little better. The thing is you put three hours labour in and the net result is that you've mad e apanel 1% smoother than it was before. Theres a law of deminishing returns here somewhere. Now the cars not 100% but how close to 100% can I get it before I go out of my mind? LOL I think I'm about at that point...

I'll give it a prime and guide coat and see how far out it is. I know the scuttle has issues because the panel wasn't even staright when it left the factory. Rumpur has it that "bad" bodyshells were used to make cars which were having vinyl roofs as the vinyl covers all the wavy panels up... I think this rumour may be confusing the Jaguar story where the XJC all had vnyl roofs to cover a deformation in the roof panels common on that model.
Although 1970s quality control - you never know!

Typcially when I think I might start putting some paint on it that the temperature drops about 15 degrees!

[akku]

perhaps one of the mods could move this into the readers projects section? Probably aught to be in there?

[Mr K]

probably true about the vinyl roof, my dad scimitar had a vinyl roof by the looks of it when it left the factory (holes for edgeing ect) and when we stripped it back to bare we found the roof was full of inperfections in the fibreglass, which was probably why it had a vinyl roof.

good work! I'm likeing this car alot!

[rmad]

alistairk said:

perhaps one of the mods could move this into the readers projects section? Probably aught to be in there?

Good idea, but I feel this thread is about the work you're doing on the car - not the car itself. Feel free to stick a reader's rides thread up about the car too, but I think we'll leave this here for our own inspiration if you're OK with that.

[akku]

Fine I'll do a "precis" version for Readers Rides when I'm done maybe.

I aught to do a bit more on some of my other cars and some of the ones which got away...

[akku]

Well, todays progress could well be summed inthe words of Dave Numbers as "one step forward, two back".

I've had a final rub at the filler and then primered it.

I've hit a couple of problems though.

Firstly the primer has revealled that some areas have still got issues in that they are looking porridgy, so will require more filling and flatting to get right, bah.

Secondly the primer has reacted in a few places and caused shrinkage. This is possibly becauase there was some stopper rather than filler - this had been used because I'd already got primer on in some places so thought it better to go over just for the final neaten up with stopper. Mistake...

Also secondly I came out of the garage and there was ice all over the cars outside so its probably going to cause issues with the primer setting off. Darn it.

Anyway, the photos...

[Keefy]

it does look like you're making good progress though!
I hope i get on as well this weekend when we hit the 411 again!

[akku]

Well, how did we get on today....

Well, rubbed it back down again and found the low sots in the lower passeger rear qarter. Applied another big gob of filler after sanding as much back to bare metal as I could. Hopefully, this time, it will sand back smooth enough to guide coat it.

Rear scuttle and rear pillars looking good after I took some orange peel out and the arches had reacted but I sanded them right back and reprimed and they seem to be OK this time. Fingers crossed.

Also getting the lower sections of both back doors looking OKish.















Blimey, almost uniform...

[akku]

Saturday in pictures I guess....



dealing with low spots again







Found all this gunk about 1" deep in the front vallance, nice.



This is why I got to be thinking about stripping down the running gear and getting it blasted and powdercoated...



yuk

Dodgy door handle areas





Door taking shape



Finally working my way around the car a bit now...

[Nick]

jesus H christ man, your a bit of a weapon when it comes to filling,sanding,filling,sanding,priming,fillingsanding etc etc i'd have lost my rag doin that stuff a long time ago and gone for an accidental "rat look"

[akku]

You get that "ahhhh bum" feeling when you realise it needs another go over, but once you get into it the time flies by. I'm lookingforward to getting it in primer. You feel like you're getting some where then.

I'd thought about rat looking it, but my wife is dead against it as she can;t stand 'em, and IMO it only looks right ot have a car in satin black if the body is arrow straight anyway

[akku]

Thigs are starting to happen at the front of the car at last. If "happen" means "taking bits off" really. Started stripping out the engine bay and I want to pull the scuttle open, but it doesn't seem to come apart in the same way I remember it doing the last 6 or 7 I took off these type of cars LOL. So its still on. ANd the headlamp retainers are rusted right solid of course. Some previous owner had fitted some baffles in the wheel arches as splash guards to stop it rotting out behind the headlights on the front wing, so I dunno it I want to refit them or not, but I pulled them today. They were a damn good fit. Perhaps the factory could have learned something from them judging by the number of these with the front corners of the wings rotted...







Looks a right old mess now.

That engine is 31" from the back of the block to the nose of the fan pulley...