What did you do today?

[R_D_Olivaw]

Dan,

You're one step closer to National Day.

I hope to see you there.

[Dan]

Really hope so.
Fingers crossed no major issues creep up.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi Dan,

The more you play with it, the more you'll find, so best to play with it a lot over the winter so you don't have any last minute surprises.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Spend a couple of hours this morning sanding and polishing my roof.

It looks like I'll have to do some more sanding as I still have some low points in the lacquer that need to be removed if I'm to get a good finish.

[Dan]

Hi Dan,

The more you play with it, the more you'll find, so best to play with it a lot over the winter so you don't have any last minute surprises.

Thanks, that's the plan. Really hoping to be on the road for summer next year.

Good luck with your sanding.

[R_D_Olivaw]

I put in a couple more hours sanding the roof today with 2500 and 3000 grit wet and dry. I think I am slowly removing all the imperfections.

I'll keep at it until I'm happy, and then polish and buff it, assuming I haven't sanded through the lacquer.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Not a lot of interesting progress to report, but I think I'm moving in the right direction.

Having sanded all of the roof I decided that I wasn't going to get rid of all the imperfections in the clear coat, before I ran out of clear coat to sand, so I've decided to spray on what's called a float coat, which is essentially another clear coat. As things currently stand the top part of the entire car is prepared and I'm waiting for some warmer weather to try out a new idea I have, i.e. heating up the clear coat before I spray it, as temperature may have been my problem when I first sprayed it.

The car is now booked into Jim the Trim's for the headlining at the end of March and Andy Robinson for a roll-cage in mid-April.

With my family due to disappear for half-term shortly I really need to start thinking about starting on the myriad of jobs I have ahead of me.

1. Make new door cards.
2. Re-assemble doors.
3. Have some new sill covers made.
4. Re-vinyl the centre console.
5. Start installing the heat and sound proofing.
6. Work out what I'm going to replace the old grill with.

To be honest there seem to be hundreds of jobs to do but no time or good weather to do it.

[JayeM]

Well we had the good weather here today, Ian, so I decided to wake the beast up from it's slumber in it's lockup - only to discover it had no clutch
The cylinders are only a year old, but the m/c reservoir is full, so I'm guessing the slave cyl seal has failed
The longer I have this car, the more convinced I become that it's a Lotus in disguise (Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious )

John

[R_D_Olivaw]

Quick update on progress.

I spent last weekend heating up the garage with a fan heater; masking off the bottom of the car and giving the car the "float coat" of lacquer I mentioned in my previous post. The results still aren't quite as perfect as your local body shop would produce, but it's a considerable improvement on my first attempt. Keeping the garage warm and warming up the lacquer prior to application certainly helped. The bonnet in particular came out very well. Ideally I probably need a temperature of 20 degrees and above, which is only something I'm likely to get in the summer.

Today I spent more time sanding the lacquer in preparation for the polishing, but I think I'm close to getting it where it needs to be. By the time the car if finished I'll probably have ironed out all my mistakes.

[Dan]

Been very busy at work so had over a month of not working on the car, but been back with a vengeance over the last couple of days.

Fuel tanks fully refurbished by Aaron Radiators.


I fitted them in with a new filer pipe and balance pipe thanks to Brian Gent


All boot carpets cleaned and re-stuck down and a fire extinguisher mounted to the bot side wall, also all seals changed as had perished.


Today i spent all day trying to work out why the brakes are not working. Turns out the servo had a significant amount of rust floating around in it and the rear T piece connector was completely blocked with rust. After cleaning everything out and blowing out the lines and bleeding the system, we have working brakes! Not certain if the servo is working properly yet, but it did mean today my gilbern drove its first journey (back and forward on my drive).

Big steps forward but still lots to do.

Dan

[R_D_Olivaw]

I must say I was a little intrigued to see how the petrol tanks are supposed to look in the Gilbern. Mine were removed many years ago and I now have one that sits along the back.

I'll tell you what I haven't been doing today, and that's reading through three pages of posts from someone in China. I'm sure Gilberns are really popular there too, but my Chinese isn't what it used to be. (all now removed by our lovely Admin)

It seems to be a case of one step forward and two steps back at the moment. On a positive note the car was taken down to Jim the Trim's yesterday to get its headlining fitted, and hopefully in around two weeks it will be off to get the roll bar fitted. On a slightly negative note, I'm still not happy with my painting. The roof is almost at an acceptable level, but I just can't get the rest of the car looking how I want, so I've gone back to the start and will be trying to figure out what I'm getting wrong over the coming weeks. It's not horrible, but it's not right.

In preparation for the car's trip to the trimmers I started it on Sunday. To say I was pleasantly surprised when it started first time was an understatement. I'd forgotten how loud it is, especially with no windows, doors or bonnet to quieten things down.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Sometimes it seems like time stands still with the car, where in reality time is whizzing by and it's the car that's not changing.

Whilst I have had some small successes with my painting, I've yet to make the progress I've been looking for; however, not to be disheartened I have kept going and am now optimistic that I know what's been going wrong. If my latest theory on life, the universe and my painting prove correct, I'll let you all know.

Painting aside, and cognisant of my need to get a car that has no doors, boot, bonnet, windows, seat belts, lights, etc. ready for the 30th June I have continued with some other jobs that needed doing.

As mentioned in my last post and as witnessed by Dave Burgoyne, the car was at Jim the Trims to get the headlining done, and a nice job he did.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hgjzijwb8ftqj9a/IMG_2993.JPG?dl=0

It will go back at the end of the month to get the seats done along with the carpeting. Having seen the good job Mike Evans did with his door cards I've decided to have a go at doing mine and my first practice was on the tray under the centre console, which whilst not being perfect turned out well for a first attempt.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bx09tvdmmcccbza/IMG_3057.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/on76j2ffhw6j45v/IMG_3060.JPG?dl=0

Next time I'll make sure everything is perfectly flat before applying the vinyl.

My trip to the roll-cage specialists has been put on hold as they're behind with their work, but I hope to get it there for mid-May, by which time I hope to have either re-painted the car or worked out whether my latest theory on painting cars is correct.

I have this nasty feeling this car is going to end up like an episode of CAR SOS, everything being fixed the day before National Day.

[Gavin McArdle]

Keep plodding on Ian. If the worst comes we can all bring some spanners and help finish it off at Nat Day--------as long as you can guarantee no rain!
Gavin

[R_D_Olivaw]

Thanks Gavin, but any chance you could bring some paint brushes instead?

[Dan]

Looking good Ian, that headliner looks great. I might need this guys details for carpet replacement some point in the future.