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Aug 12, 2010 23:20:21 GMT
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Perfectionism is a bad thing with a car, because it means you're never finished. I get things to be nearly perfect because that's good enough and I know I can always go back and make things properly perfect at a later date.
Before finding the RR forum and being offered the workspace (not to mention being nagged that I should get on the road already) by my friend really helps more than anything else. Seeing what other people are building and reading comments like yours are what keeps me moving with this project.
It's tough when most of your friends and peers don't get the car thing and think it's all a bit bonkers (though they're happy to play Magic The Gathering and go to LARP weekends). Happily, there's the local RR meet where I can meet awesome people.
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dw1603
Part of things
Posts: 591
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Aug 12, 2010 23:52:56 GMT
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Perfectionism is a bad thing with a car, because it means you're never finished. I get things to be nearly perfect because that's good enough and I know I can always go back and make things properly perfect at a later date.
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I'm more than impressed with your project and your total disregard of convention, the paint job in particular. Coach painting is an art, so to dive into it, without previous experience is brave. Re upholstering the seats is not something most people would attempt either. I'm sure that despite adversity, you will achieve your goal, and that the finished result will be outstanding. I look forward to seeing it one day. Never ever too late to start a project car and it looks like you've got a number of favours you can pull in from helping all those folks out over the years. People like you are invaluable when it comes to keeping the hobby moving, you introduce people to the mysteries of the car who might never have thought to look. Coach paint and reupholstering isn't so brave a move as you might think. For several years I've worked with paint (admittedly on a much smaller scale) and fabric so I was already comfortable with both. With the internet at my fingers, and again advice from the people here on RR, I could get a feel for what to expect from the coach paint too. That and the fact that there's not many jobs I'm shy of jumping feet first into, of course. Unfortunately I just discovered it's likely to tip it down all weekend, so I'm just hoping the spare barn isn't full of quad bikes, tractors and farm machinery this visit :/
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Last Edit: Aug 13, 2010 0:01:26 GMT by Deleted
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Aug 15, 2010 21:42:16 GMT
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Another visit to the farm and this time a massively productive one, in no small part due to there being three of us to do the work. Lots of pictures, hopefully I've still got enough bandwidth on Photobucket to show them so you can see what we got up to. First off we arrived at the workspace in Adam's (mechanic friend) Sierra. I took a fancy schamcy Retro Rides photograph. We initially were going to work out of doors, but the weather was being typically British so Adam's Dad kindly cleared some space in the barn, we slapped some wheels on the car and pushed it in so work could continue under cover. My friends were eagerly poking around doing something I can't recall while I was still fannying about with the camera. Took a little time assessing what needed doing and set Hazel (formerly Friend-who-is-just-getting-into-cars-and-wants-a-Capri) to work with a wire brush on a drill. Best thing about friends that don't mind doing tedious work is that they do tedious work for you. However, he did discover a few bits of metal that will need welding further down the line. For now he cleaned the rust patches back to bare metal and I later treated and painted them. I'm aware of them, but they're all in places I plan to do some minor body modification anyway so I'm not too worried about fixing them at the moment. Front valance was quite solid, surprisingly. Then it was my job, keying back the good rear quarter, roof and bad rear quarter and then slapping paint on. Driver's side is rough because I wanted it waterproof and I'll go back and finish that properly when I make my next visit. Adam works at an MG specialist garage (they work on other classics and some modern cars too) so he's a bit of a legend when it comes to mechanical stuffs. He removed the front struts to replace the worn out old strut top bushes which it failed the MoT on last time (we couldn't replace them at the time, annoyingly). Spring compressors, doing a sterling job of preventing the springs from killing people. Needed new brakes on all four corners, the old discs were a bit scary looking, and curse word. New ones look lovely, it's a shame I have to have a wheel obscuring them. I served as a second pair of hands to help Adam reconnect the brake pipes and calipers. Then Adam sorted out the rear drums and the corroded original steel brake line. Really like the look of the shiny copper and the steel drum, though I'll probably paint the drum red in the future. After this was done it was back to me again. On the first day I'd applied one coat of paint and Adam had done the rear drums and wheel bearings. Hazel had been an enormous help with panel preparation, being an extra pair of hands and generally just being jolly useful. Second coat of paint on the roof. Front wings fitted (finally!) Really beginning to look more finished now. I sort of like the wheels like this, but I still think they're going red with a black star. The rough side. This will be redone later, but for now I just wanted it waterproof since I shan't be at the workspace for a while. I remembered to put my detailed rear view mirror back in too. Next visit (in three weeks time) will hopefully see tailgate, passenger door and bonnet fitted providing I've painted them all, the wing mirrors attached, the brake pipe properly bled (it was being awkward and not bleeding properly, Adam has a tool at work to do the job better, apparently). Will also paint the front and rear valances, get the carburettor cleaned up and possibly get a bit of cleaning done in the engine bay. I might even have time to finish sewing the seat covers together and get them fitted. We're racing along with this now. My ultimate aim is to attend the RR Meadowhall gathering in October or November.
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Last Edit: Aug 17, 2010 19:46:09 GMT by Deleted
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carmad
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,000
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Aug 16, 2010 19:55:30 GMT
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Cracking wee project first I have saw this
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You've never looked here before? I'm not surprised, the base car isn't too interesting, it's what I'm doing to it that's interesting. So far the car is *almost* living up to my vision... but then it is only *almost* finished.
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Chris™
Part of things
This is clearly filler material.
Posts: 519
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Awesome, coming along in leaps and bounds now! ;D I'm really interested to see how this paint will turn out once it's finished and polished too. This car is getting some fantastic details too, looking forward to reading more updates!
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1989 Volvo 340 1986 Suzuki SJ413 2000 BMW 318ti 2006 Lexus IS250
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dw1603
Part of things
Posts: 591
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Aug 17, 2010 18:05:44 GMT
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I wondered if you'd get much done because of the weather. Glad to see you found some cover and that you are making real progress. Well done! DW
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carmad
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,000
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Aug 17, 2010 19:10:59 GMT
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You've never looked here before? I'm not surprised, the base car isn't too interesting, it's what I'm doing to it that's interesting. So far the car is *almost* living up to my vision... but then it is only *almost* finished. well here is some mojo. I like what your doing I used to have several polos and the only gripe I have Is the rear section off the exhaust goes under the rear axel and if you lower it a lot you will be replacing the back box every few days lol
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Aug 17, 2010 21:16:43 GMT
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@dw - Yeah, was a nice surprise being able to get in the barn, though the rafters sprinkling the roof with dust wasn't something I wanted of course. At least dust polishes out. carmad - exhaust not a problem if I can get the lakes pipes on when I lower the car Lowering is a way off yet, though if insurance wasn't such an issue it would definitely be done along with a number of other non-performance modifications.
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Perhaps not as exciting an update as the previous one since nothing in this one is finished, but we shall see. First of all, a while ago I started work on the sunvisors. I'm still working on the covers so they've stalled for a bit and since the body panels are more important they're very much on the back burner along with the seats and door cards. Stripped, waiting to be cleaned. After washing as much of the glue and foam off as I could, I tackled the remaining bits and flashing with a hand file. Took a while, but you'll see why this was done later in the build. Surprised at how big these visors are, each one requiring an A3 sized amount of material to cover them. Trimmed the pattern and checking fit. Then it was on to the next sunvisor. This one was completely finished but because of the change to the interior there wasn't much point keeping it this way. It's a shame really, my partner spent ages hand sewing the edges of this visor to finish it off properly (and yes, I was duly berated for undoing hours of finger bleeding work). Top visor is the one above stripped. Peculiarly the visor skeletons were not the same colour plastic, but since I want them black anyway it means I only have to spray one of them. Next job was to tackle the aluminium lattice beauty rings I got from here (sorry, I've forgotten the name of the person I got them from!). One was in really bad shape. Before I straighten anything out, I get my trusty Sugar Soap. Need to buy more of this, I've been going through it like I'm addicted to it. Bottom rings almost completely clean, top two not touched. With more time I'll get all the grot off but for now I just wanted to remove the loose stuff so I could see what I was doing. It was getting late, so I didn't manage to finish straightening out that bad ring. Resorted to seeing how easy it was to polish with Brasso and discovered that I need to get something a bit tougher on it first to get the metal back to something like. I don't think the lattice trims are beyond saving, but they're certainly going to give me a lot of work. I only hope they work on the car since it would be a shame to do all this work and find out they don't fit.
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The wheel trims and visors were effectively from yesterday, so here's the update for today. Yesterday I stripped the bonnet down to find no rust but one new dent (not sure where that's from) and primed the bonnet and the tailgate ready for today. First job was to apply the first coat of red paint this morning. Pesky dent. After the red was touch dry I could get the masking tape on the nice straight edges and apply the black paint. Took me a while to work out what it reminded me of until I realised it was the Lucky Strike colours... tempting. After the black was done, which seemed to take a lot less time than usual, I pulled off the tape and was really pleased with the colour split. I must be getting the hang of these paints because I'm getting less and less problems. This week should see the bonnet and tailgate finished front and back. I'll be squidging the rear window back in and refitting all the bits and bobs once I've cleaned them up. All being well next week I'll get both front doors finished since I have space to work on those in tandem and that should leave me a week to work on interior stuff. I only wish my driving lessons went as smoothly as this!
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This may have already been said but it looks like you paint was nowhere near thinned down enough. I Know hot weather aint perfect for coach paint but it should still self level. Have you tried a mini gloss roller and the paint a consistency if milk?
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1970 Porsche 911E 2002 Porsche Boxster S 2002 Peugeot Partner 1.9sdi
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Aug 19, 2010 13:23:51 GMT
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The black is about the consistency of milk, it's almost like painting with neat oil. The red tends to be too thick unless it's stirred quite a lot beforehand and then it goes on generally better than the black. I think it's less the paint and more my inexperience that means I'm not getting that perfect finish first try. My conditions are less than ideal after all. At the moment I want a good finish to get the car in one piece and then later I can go back and get an excellent finish with some final cutting and polishing to remove the minor blemishes. The big panels like the bonnet and the rear quarter (passenger side) are actually levelling out really well without any help from me, so that's promising. It also helps that I've got the hang of the primer now even when it's hot outside, and that's going on almost smooth straight off. Practice, I think, is what I need
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Lawsy
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,615
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Aug 19, 2010 13:49:48 GMT
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looking good, coming on in chunks now..
you not filling and smoothing that dink in the bonnet, it'd drive me ad having cool paint and finished car with that dink..
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Aug 19, 2010 14:38:20 GMT
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I'm going to get the bonnet, tailgate and doors painted and do all the dents when the panels are on the car since it's going to be easier to spend one day fixing dents than doing it a bit at a time. It's a bit about face, but it does make sense.
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Aug 19, 2010 19:41:21 GMT
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Cool mate, I'm going to be doing this soon to my MX5. I'm going with a roller though, any reason you went with a brush? Also where did you get your paint from? Cheers
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Current retro - 1996 Alfa Romeo GTV / Daily - 2016 Nissan Qashqai Previous retros - Prelude, Integra, XR2s, XR3s, Orions, CRXs, Sylvia S12, S13, Pulsar, ZX 16v, 205 Gti, MX5, MR2 etc
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Aug 19, 2010 19:54:52 GMT
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I don't like using rollers because of splatter and all the cleaning and I'm comfortable with a brush. However, having seen people work with rollers I would say that's probably the better option, especially on large panels like the roof.
For the paint, as per page 2 of the build thread: Including VAT I paid £40 for: 2.5 litres of black coach paint 1 litre of post office red coach paint 2.5 litres of red oxide primer 3" fine quality brush 1" fine quality brush 6p in the charity box
I bought it from: Dacrylate Paints 42-44 Infirmary Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S6 3DD Tel: 0114 272 4952
You probably only need a 2.5 litre tin to do an MX5 since it's less bodywork than mine, especially if it's a soft top and this stuff just seems to go for miles. Best of all, no top coat needed!
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Last Edit: Aug 19, 2010 19:55:33 GMT by Deleted
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dw1603
Part of things
Posts: 591
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Aug 19, 2010 22:45:29 GMT
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I don't think the lattice trims are beyond saving, but they're certainly going to give me a lot of work. I only hope they work on the car since it would be a shame to do all this work and find out they don't fit. I really think you should try them for fit before expending anymore time and energy on refurbing the trims. They are meant to fit something like a Cortina or Viva or similar where the centre (nave) of the wheel is pretty much level with the outer face of the rim, then they are held in place by the hubcap. It looks to me that they may fail on a couple of counts. Sorry 'bout that. I am giving some thought to your fender skirts though, and if I come up with anything, I'll be in touch. Regards, DW
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Aug 19, 2010 23:10:11 GMT
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I doubt I'll get them refurbished before my next visit, but I've got a number of other non-car uses for them if they don't fit so they are worth refurbishing. I'll probably take the best one with me when I go up to the workspace next to give them a try and if they don't fit, they don't fit. Thanks for thinking about the project, extra brainpower is always welcome
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