What did you do today?

[Gavin McArdle]

Hi Ian, yes you are well stuck in now, keep it up!.
While you are poking around under the rear wing and the cill areas it would be a good time to check for rust. You say the car has visited Dr Phil so these items may have been replaced but looking at the door catch probably not!
Both the inverted L's that the door catches and the top seat belt mountings are fixed to were left open ended by the factory so they rust from the inside as well as outside. Also the rail high above the rear axle that the top of the s/abs bolt to was also left open ended and also rusts from the inside.
While there is no paint to crack, drill out the pop rivets along the bottom edge of the cill pull the edges out a bit and examine the cill ladder sections.
Gavin

[R_D_Olivaw]

Not the most exciting of days, but I didn't find too many more jobs to do along the way. Though I do have some fibre glass to sand down where I found some splits.

Although I had hoped to complete all the sanding I'm still not there. Today I focused on the boot, bonnet and doors, all of which had their little challenges.

Removing the sound proofing from the inside of the doors. Every Gilbern owner should own a chisel.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p901sopydng2oux/IMG_2518.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xapsunuyp4ebu01/IMG_2519.JPG?dl=0

I have something to replace it.

Tidying up the underside of the bonnet.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wyuvau9l9cu2lfg/IMG_2520.JPG?dl=0

It looks a lot better but I forgot to take a picture.

The boot is going to be a challenge, and that may end up being a work in progress that I do in parallel to the rest of the work.

[R_D_Olivaw]

I popped into my local metal fabricator and dropped off my rusty L bracket.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q57iaql2ao1vz72/IMG_2500.JPG?dl=0

They'll make me up a new set and they should be ready a week today.

[lennyb72]

Fitted new disc`s on ERP 80K today. Back in the garage tomorrow to fit replacement inlet manifold new carb,w block and engine mount`s.
Kevin.

[R_D_Olivaw]

It's been a while, but I promise you I have been busy, but as someone correctly pointed out before I started this, it's going to take you longer than you think (thanks Mike).

So let's start off with a little competition of spot the difference. I now have my new 'L' brackets back from the fabricators.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ixbe79nx8076sgn/IMG_2533.JPG?dl=0

@Mr. McArdle - One more piece for the puzzle to keep the archaeologists wondering what the shiny objects are surrounded by the brown powder.

Preparing the body for paint has proven to be time consuming. The doors, boot and bonnet are all prepared and I'm slowly working on the body, but the more I sand, the more I find, and it's amazing all the little cracks that were hiding under the paint. It seems that I'm going over the same area multiple times because I'm not happy with the results. Having said that I do appear to be making progress and I've decided that my rear windows will open, just haven't quite figured out exactly how, but I suspect I'll be adding some Mini window catches, once I've got the metal fabricator to modify them for me.

So the car looks like this now and yes, the windscreens are still on my dining room floor. Luckily we don't use it too much so my wife hasn't moved "me" to the garage yet.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w852qiiax1ks51a/IMG_2525.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sxqzyw8ks5eebyq/IMG_2529.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8e2p66qrndp03kn/IMG_2530.JPG?dl=0

Getting the contours right on the back of the car is a little challenging, but the more I redo it, the closer it's getting to looking right.

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

A couple of thoughts.

You will need to strengthen the 'C' posts for the window catches, otherwise they will twist without pulling the window in firmly. To fix them to the windows, I made small U brackets from stainless and glued them to the window; I know this sounds a bit crude, bit I was'nt happy drilling and riveting to the window frame. Plus I was able to make them easily detachable from the catches so the window can be swung out and removed.
If Mini catches a hard to find, try MGB GT ones, they are easy to get and readily available.

Keep up the good work-I know what its like, many years ago I stripped my car completely with Nitromors before a respray; it took a lot of hours plus some gallons of stripper.

Tony

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi Tony,

I'm going to get my local fabricator to do exactly as you said regarding the U brackets as I didn't fancy dismantling the window frame. Thanks for the tip about the 'C' post. I knew I had to do something, but hadn't given it too much thought. I just knew I wouldn't be able to screw into the fibre glass as it isn't thick enough. I'll probably get an off cut from the fabricator and fibre glass it into the roof.

The catches have already been ordered so no problem with sourcing them. I just hope they modify easily. Once in place I'll use some glue to keep them in place.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Not too much of an update today, despite spending around eight hours solid working on the car.

The goal was to finish off all the 240 & 320 grit sanding today, but the more I sanded, the more problems I kept finding which needed correction.

As I plan to have opening rear windows I needed to make sure the window sill was perfect so I needed to tidy up areas that have been hidden for over 45 years. Sanding, followed by a light skim of filler did the trick. I also managed to find an another broken piece of fibre glass so that needed attending to, along with the fuel cap area, wheel arches and rear panel between the exhaust pipes.

Assuming I don't find any more bits, which I think is now a little unlikely I should finish all the sanding tomorrow, then it's out with the paint sprayer and lesson one of how to paint a car.

The neighbours also seem to be away and no rain is forecast, so that's a result.

[R_D_Olivaw]

I achieved two major milestones today, even if I am about two weeks late in getting there.

The sanding on the car in preparation for the painting is complete and I tried my paint sprayer for the first time. I would like to say the painting went well, but the instructions I was given with the paint were either wrong or I misunderstood them. The upshot is that when I did my first practice the paint came out like candy floss. Eventually I came to the conclusion I needed to thin it, and after that it worked a dream. I then applied a coat of primer over the top and that came out a treat too. As it was getting late I cleaned everything up and put everything back in the garage for another day.

Based on how long it took me to paint my test bonnet I think I could prime the car in an evening and possible do the doors, boot and bonnet too.

[cminvader2]

Progress! After too many years using the car as a shelf in the garage, then many years pulling it apart, actually attaching parts to the chassis now. Picture attached with rebuilt front suspension.

Colin

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi Colin,

I take my hat off to you and wish you all the best. At least you'll know that the car is perfect underneath when you put it back together.

Out of curiosity what is it?

[R_D_Olivaw]

I must admit that when I look back at last week's post I was obviously in a very optimistic mood, but the events of the past seven days have well and truly brought me back down to earth.

With summer rapidly turning into autumn I knew I didn't have too many good days ahead of me if I wanted to paint the car outside in the gazebo I'd bought for the job. To say things went from bad to worse would be an understatement. Having successful erected the gazebo around the car it rapidly became obvious (no laughing Mr. McArdle) that the only thing keeping it there was the car. It would appear that trying to paint a car in 40 mph winds is not a good idea. Then came the painting of the etching primer, which I had had to dilute when I did my practising the weekend before. Well that was a disaster too as I put too much thinner in and it was coming out all over the place. Luckily not too much went on the car, but I did have to do a little extra sanding to remove the over spray.

Further test sprays (read disasters) have proved to me that this is a bit of an exact science, so I'll need to start recording the mixture rates and sprayer setting to work out what's going to work best. Needless to say nothing is going to happen until next week at the earliest, when the weather is expected to get a little better.

[cminvader2]

Ian, meant to respond earlier, the car is a Mark 2 Invader. I remember spraying a new Spitfire body tub (new old stock) outside in the early 80's (during one summer) it actually went fairly well, changed the tub over on the car, and within a week the neighbour had come round to look at it, and knocked a footpump of the wall in the garage, which fell on the rear wing, not only removing the paint, but also denting the panel. Sometimes fate is just not on your side!
Best of luck with the spraying, Colin

[R_D_Olivaw]

It has been a very eventful weekend and I've finally made some progress in the painting department, though I still have a lot to learn before I lay down the base coat and lacquer.

I ran into the usual newbie problems of paint runs, paint reactions, fish eyes and the odd fly (though surprising few), but I came away from the experience a lot more positive than I had been for the past couple of weeks, and with the understanding that I'll need to perfect my spraying technique to avoid the roughness that I have in the primer. For primer it's not a problem as it will be sanded with 400 grit wet and dry before the base coat goes down, but I suspect the paint is drying too fast, hence the practice.

Following Saturday's paintathon I spent Sunday going around the car with knifing putty attending to all the little imperfections the primer highlighted, and then put some etching primer on the doors, boot and bonnet. The latter was more to finish off the paint and highlight any problems which I can tackle in the garage. Not surprisingly I encountered another paint reaction and have concluded it's been caused by some paint I used to cover up some fibre glassing I'd done in May. Oddly enough the paint was quite hard to remove with the sander, but thinners seem to work wonders when it comes to upsetting it.

Here are a few photos from yesterday. I must say it looks good in white, or whatever colour the grey primer is supposed to turn when dry.

Before (taken a few weeks ago)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w852qiiax1ks51a/IMG_2525.JPG?dl=0

During

Etching primer going on.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3sti95zkygfbcko/IMG_2547.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hbyi1yy01rbbndb/IMG_2553.JPG?dl=0

After

White/Grey primer now applied

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ysjd5g95aepr1iv/IMG_2557.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2xb2ia4i3u48vkx/IMG_2563.JPG?dl=0

My driveway is starting to look like Picasso came to visit.

With visitors coming next weekend I'll be lucky to get my hands on the car again for another two weeks, so I'm not forecasting any updates for a while.

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

Its gone very quiet at your end. You are getting us all worried!
Also you know the saying-when it goes quiet, the Indians attack!! (thats what happened in all the Western cowboy and Indian movies when I was young).

Any progress??

Tony