What did you do today?

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi Dan,

I've sent you a PM.

I'll post more progress updates when I can.

[R_D_Olivaw]

I had a little play today with the upholstery on the doors, in particular the door caps. When I stripped my doors down I found the foam had seem better days, the internal weather strip was in a poor state and the wood had snapped. Yes, there is wood in the doors, just in case you didn't know that.

Here are two images, showing the old door capping material and the new one I am making.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqw4fwkcfd3d5qs/IMG_3110.JPG?dl=0

It's easier to see how it's made up from the reverse side.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e0enrq6yobwhucj/IMG_3109.JPG?dl=0

I think all I need to do now is to cut out the hole for the door release; add a little backing foam; secure it in place on the door, then stand back and work out why it doesn't look right.

[R_D_Olivaw]

The saga continues, but probably not fast enough to get everything ready by the end of June and National Day.

Yesterday evening my new best buddy and I took the car to Andy Robinson Race Cars (http://www.robinson-race-cars.co - no it doesn't have .uk on the end) to get the roll bar fitted, a K60 style according to the MSA blue book. Andy the owner, showed John and I around his works explaining the work his team were doing to the various cars they had, and there were several. Some were having full roll cages installed like the Jaguar XKR, which was being readied for Britcar; a 650 BHP Plymouth Prowler that had just had a v8 crate engine installed and other exotica in the dragster group of cars which were in various states of repair. When you drive a car with 3000 bhp (I think that's what Andy said) that can go 240 mph, I guess you live or die by the quality of your work.

What surprised me or maybe impressed me most was their craftsmanship and the fact that this innocuous building which is past by hundreds if not thousands of motorists a day, without them knowing, hides a very interesting secret.

The work he'll do on my Gilbern pales into comparison to the work, for example that was undertaken on the Jag, which sat there for three weeks while Andy worked out how he was going to install a bespoke roll cage into a car he couldn't weld to, due to it being aluminium and having many sections inaccessible from the other side. Just getting the roll bars to mimic the curvature of the roof must have been a feat in itself, yet alone how they managed to weld the top of the bar in situ.

I hope to get the car back a week Friday, depending on the powder coater and then I'll have another go at painting it, if the weather is kind.

Sunday's painting, which only consisted of putting base coat on the boot went well, but I ran out of time to apply the lacquer. On a positive note I did manage to get the temperature up to 23/24 degrees in the garage, which in theory is warm enough. I'll find out this coming Saturday when I apply the lacquer, if I've finally figured out how to paint a car. If all goes well I'll try to do both the doors as well. That would just leave the rest of the car to do, again!

So on my list of things to do I have:
1. Finish painting car.
2. Finish applying sound proofing to interior of car.
3. Trim doors and rear parcel shelf. I have started both, so hopefully not a big deal.
4. Get car sent back to Jim the trims.
5. Get parts of the exhaust replaced as they've rotted.
6. Put the car all back together and get it MOTed.
7. Install some music.

I don't think you'll be seeing it at National Day this year.

[R_D_Olivaw]

The therapy sessions after my last effort to paint the boot took a lot longer to get through than I had anticipated. Things did not go well.

Temperature wise everything was fine, but something went wrong, I forget now what it was, but it may have been a paint reaction and I needed to remove the paint again. What I discovered was the base coat had gone gooey again! I know the base coat was dry to the touch and I had let each coat flash off between sprays, so I'm a little baffled at the moment. I will be speaking with my local paint provider to see if they can throw some light on it. As my family won't be disappearing until mid-July I've got time to figure it all out, and yes I know I'm a gluten for punishment.

The car came back from Andy Robinson Racing and when I get some time I'll post some pictures. I am very pleased with the work. I have unbolted the roll cage and am in the process of fibre glassing around the mounting brackets to fill in the gaps. I'm also having to tidy up the fibre glass on the rear parcel shelf as the last person to do it, didn't do a good job in places.

Good to see the Pandora charms and trainer people are back.

[Dan]

Sounds like your really making progress Ian. Good work

Dan

[R_D_Olivaw]

Very slow progress.

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

Looks like the Pandora charm you got isn't working very well!! Or it might be you need new trainers-plenty of choice here.

Won't be at National Day either, getting too old to drive that far, about 340 miles from here.
Also still got bits to change-new upper wishbones to increase the castor angle and aluminium uprights and hubs to fit.

Regards
Tony

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi Tony,

Sorry to hear you won't be going. I had hoped to have a chat about our cars and show you my new trainers and not so lucky charm.

I can understand you not wanting to drive the 340 miles on one of the hottest days of the year. As mine is still lacking a few essentials like window and doors we're going in my wife's car and that has air con.

Hopefully it will be a bit closer next year.

[R_D_Olivaw]

It's amazing how time flies when you're banging your head against a wall and not getting anywhere, which just about sums up my painting experiences to date; however, things maybe about to change.

I was getting a little tired (understatement of the week), painting panels and then sanding it all off again when it didn't work, even on the bonnet I bought for practising. The solution was to buy around 30 sheets of A4 acetate, like the ones for overhead projectors, to perform my tests on. The advantage is that it's double sided and I don't have to sand it off afterwards. I just bin it, which actually saves me a lot in time and sanding pads.

I also made one significant change, I'm now using 2K lacquer.

So this is how it goes.
1. I prepare the panel for painting, de-grease it and wipe it down with panel wipe and tack cloth.
2. With my LPG space heater I get the garage up to around 26 - 30 degrees, depending on how warm it is outside.
3. I lay down two coats of quite wet base coat (water based) and give it around 20 minutes to flash off with the heater on. Safety note here, I never have the space heater on when I'm painting, and after painting I have a fan that draws in cool air from outside and pushes it past my panel and towards the slightly open garage door.
4. I lay down two coats of clear coat (lacquer) and perform the same process above to dry it.

It takes a surprising long time to paint a panel, or in my case the boot and I ended up doing it over two days. Before each coat I perform a test on my sheets of acetate to make sure it looks okay, as it's easy to move the controls on the gun.

This is by far my most successful attempt, and I think I won't need to re-do this. There is a little orange peel, which you can just about see, but it's probably acceptable. I'll just need to play around a bit before I start on the car again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kz3dt69yq49ea7d/IMG_3792.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1xe8zx4ymj4vhwl/IMG_3791.jpg?dl=0

These were taken about an hour after the second coat of lacquer. I haven't done anything to it.

With regards the car itself I don't think much has changed. I've finished fibre glassing in the roll-cage and the seats are still at Jim the Trims. I have started preparing the car again, by sanding the bits I painted last time and filling in some scratches, but that's about it.

[JayeM]

Ian,
I'm continually impressed by your dedication and the results you're achieving - every time I get frustrated with a problem on mine I have a read of what you're managing to do and it puts it in perspective!
Great job - keep it going!

All the best, John

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi John,

What you're really thinking is "things could be a lot worse, at least I'm not trying to paint a car like Ian".

I'm sure this could have been a lot less painful if I'd had someone to tell me what I needed to do, instead of working it out along the way.

On the plus side the boot I just sprayed is a lot flatter than it was the first time I tried spraying it, and the second and third times come to think of it. Every time I remove the paint I also remove the imperfections that can be so obvious once the paint is on it.

I just need to convince my wife to let me have some time in the garage over the next couple of weeks to finish it. I really would like it out of the garage in time for winter.

If I do manage to paint it, it just need to remember where all the parts I took off go.

[JayeM]

At least you took your bits off - mine came unlabelled in a box in the back of the car

John

[R_D_Olivaw]

I've been painting again, well it seemed rude not to, with such lovely weather.

Here's a quick update.

1. I ran into some problems last time I painted because the car had been sitting in the sun and it was too hot to paint. Consequently I had to sand the lacquer back to smooth it out. It didn't need a repaint, but I was planning to lay down another coat of lacquer on top.
2. I can't remember what happened to the front of the car, but I sanded that down as well over the past few weekends.

The plan for today was to re-lacquer the front third of the car and if that looked reasonable I'd do the roof and surrounding area.

I probably should have taken some before pictures, but I'm sure I had loads of pictures of the car looking bad around the house.

I'm actually quite pleased with my efforts. I have a run on the other side that I will remove with my new nibbing tool, but beyond giving it a gently sand with 2000 & 2500 grit paper followed by a polish, I think it's finished.

The colour is ligher than it looks in the pictures and has a nice metallic look to it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/raxjkcr1pnho3k4/IMG_4040.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0hsjh7c6ux34sb/IMG_4042.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3f3k552vj9rfn1j/IMG_4041.jpg?dl=0

I'm not going to win any competitions with my painting, but it's good enough for me. Using 2k lacquer has made all the difference.

My boot has already been sanded with 2000 grit wet and dry, so that just needs a going over with 2500 grit before I polish it.

Whilst I haven't enjoyed sanding down all my mistakes, I must say the boot is a lot flatter than it's ever been since I've owned it, and the same can be said for other parts of the car too, so it hasn't been all wasted time.

I also painted one of the doors, but I need to have a good look at that to see if it's good enough.

When I told my wife I'd have he car painted by the end of September she asked me if I was going to pay someone to do it!

All being well these are the only bits that now need painting:
One door
The rear quarters
The rear.

All the area around the boot has already been painted, so maybe I will have it finished before the end of September.

[R_D_Olivaw]

I don't wish to tempt fate by posting this, but there is a possibility that I have finished painting the car. I know I've been here in the past but the latest results look far more promising. I know the roof will more sanding and polishing than I would like to do (painting the roof has always been a problem for me), but the rest looks pretty good. As I couldn't paint the car in one go, there will be joins, so I'll have to see how they turn out.

Although the car looks shiny I will still go over it with 2000 & 2500 grit paper to improve the final finish, but for now it's in the garage letting the lacquer go as hard as possible. Due to business commitments I won't be able to touch it for several weeks, which will be a good thing.

I'm looking forward to putting it all back together as my garage is a tip.

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

You can't give up painting yet; painting has become part of your life-you will be lost without it. Surely there must be other things you can paint-like the front end of my car, I will otherwise have to pay someone to do it!!!
What about the garden fence, the house, the garden, the garage, the drive????

Seriously, well done, hope to see you at next years GOC annual; for once, its near me!!!
All I have to do now is get my spare (original) engine to Ric Wood for a serious makeover, and the gearbox to BGH in Kent for serious uprating, so not much!!!

Regards

Tony