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WCA . YOu can change the model to anything that's not branded ,copywrite or offensive. so that's thast idea scupered . they got it all covered my darling. how about a Triberati or M4 Serati 300 ?
WCA . YOu can change the model to anything that's not branded ,copywrite or offensive. so that's thast idea scupered . they got it all covered my darling. how about a Triberati or M4 Serati 300 ?
Has to stick with the correct manufacturer so I am going for:
BMW Z300S prototipo
No photos as I was doing bits and pieces between work commitments and then suddenly it was dark.
After my quick previous attempt at painting the car I decided to try and improve the whole paint finish so rubbed the front and rear with 300 wet and dry and then again with 600 which left me with a scratched paint finish but a few of the worse bumps removed. It also highlighted the deeper scratches around the head lights and side vents. I covered the worse of these with primer. I then sprayed the back of the car which now looks reasonably smooth and even. I will need to run it over with some very fine (2000 grit) paper and buff with a cutting paste to get it to shine but it looks better than the patches of undercoat.
My wire wheel weren't fitting because of the bolts standing proud of the adaptor by too much. These have been shaved back a couple of mm and fit nicely. All four of the original wheels with the good tyres fitted are now on the car and are fine. Chris said he thought the splines might be worn on them as there was a terrible knocking when he drove it 200 yards. I can only assume that this was caused by the bolts preventing a secure fit. Anyway, I am happy that they are safe. It does mean I have a spare set of wires and a spare set of the original alloys piled up in the garage now.
I removed the side pipes so I could jack the car up while fitting the wire wheels. I will take advantage of this and paint the side sills to match the body when I spray the front of the car. I am also thinking that I will do the windscreen surround. If it looks okay I can keep it body coloured. If I don't like it I can get it chrome wrapped anyway. I will also give the side pipes and extra coat of paint while they are off.
When I thought my original wire wheels were knackered I cleaned and resprayed black the extra set I bought. I think these look better than the flat silver of the original set. The original set have had new tyres fitted though. Now I face the choice of getting the tyres swapped over or painting the original set. I am going to repaint the original set which means taking them back off, cleaning and prepping them ready for a respray.
So in summary - the car it up and running. It looks great and will look a whole lot greater after I have spent too much time this weekend with a compressor and paint gun.
It sounds like you are enjoying yourself Nick. I'm glad to hear your wheels are sorted now. Let me know if you want to sell the spare set of wheels. Must send you that invoice.....
No work on the car at all but great day driving. The weather was clear and sunny this morning so I went for a quick blast out the New Forest
How good does this look already. It will be even better when the rest of the primer is painted and the wheels are all black.
Worth a closer look I reckon
Popped into the Beaulieu garage where they always have a few interesting cars. I had just taken this picture while parked on the forecourt when the owner came marching out to me. "What was I doing parked there?!?, What was the car and why wasn't I parked on the other side of the forecourt where the sun was shining?" I then had a 20 minute interogation about what it was, who built it (mentioned Tribute) and he took a load of pictures for hi website.
I took a quick pic of the cockpit on the e-type he had in the showroom
I was about to head back home when I thought it was a nice day so I should drive 60 miles up to see mum. She liked the car but was obviously worried she might get a bit cold
Great day! I might do some of the required work tomorrow...
Beaulieu Garage, not Beaulieu house unfortunately.
Nice guy all the same. Likes his classics but is not precious about replicas. From memory he used to be an agent for c-type replicas. He was the guy who put me in touch with the guy I bought the Scimitar that was going to be the base for my G46.
Decided to try the painting today. The aim was not a final coat, or even near to that, but rather to cover the undercoat and try the sills in body colour.
First put the car up on the home made ramps and sand off the sills
on both sides
Spot water dripping out from under the car and trace it to a leaking screen wash bottle. (did you drop it Chris?)
Now spend an hour masking up the car with bin bag liners. Simply cut the bottom off and slit one side and you have a nice big sheet of plastic rather than faffing with lots of newspaper
I have watched lots of YouTube videos and how to build a spray booth and the importance of preparation in car painting. The way I see it, if they can explain how to be an expert in a 6 minute video, how hard can it be?
I didn't bother with a spray booth but my preparation did extend as far as adding a carrier bag where the bin bag didn't quite cover.
The paint went on slowly. it was a lot faster when I realised there was some sludgy paint skin sat at the bottom of the paint feeder
The end result was one of those really expensive and popular (with some) totally matt paint finish.
I do prefer the screen surround and sills body coloured and am now wondering if I want to refit the side pipes.
Big improvement WCA. Looks so much better all one colour.
Reference sludge in the bottom of a rattle can?
I usually, (especially in winter) stick the can in a jug of boiled water for 5 minutes or so, it makes the paint atomise much better, it comes out of the can with more pressure. In the 30 odd years I have never had a can burst or any downsides at all.
Obviously for health and safety reasons I cannot recommend this to any one else, but its what I have done for years, and it has always worked well!
(Sometimes the can is too hot to hold, and I have to wear gloves!)
It was a gravity fed paint gun on a cheap compressor but I reckon the tip about warming the paint still stands up. I think this was the main problem.
Quick Cautionary Tale
I was admiring the car on the drive and thought I still had time to whip off at least one of the back wheels and get it ready for spraying. Rather than roll the car down to the flatter bit of the drive in front of the garage I decided to do it where it was.
I stuck a spare wheel in front of the front wheel and cranked the car up on the trolley jack. being a sensible bloke I put the axle stand under the sill and lowered the car onto it. All safe and secure.
I started removing the wheel and gave it a wiggle and the car rolled forward less than an inch before it stopped against the chocks. Unfortunately this was just enough to tilt the axle stand and make it collapse.
Fortunately I had moved both of my legs from underneath the car a few moments earlier so I could wiggle the wheel more easily. Otherwise I would have been pinned under the car which would have been irritating.
I guess that raising one side of the back also raised the other side a bit so the handbrake and gearbox were only holding the back wheels to is could roll.
Anyway, the moral is if you are going to do something, do it properly and don't cut corners.
Heating the paint is definately the way forward, years ago when I left the army I worked part time in an old boys garage in order to learn the ropes.
There was a guy who did the spraying, and he stood the 2 litres tin of paint in an old twin tub washing machine, which would boil the water, when the paint was at boiling point he would chuck it in the gun, and always had superb results. He did this even in summer.
Reference the axle stand tipping over, I once had a car up on two axle stands, and was under it . A friend came round and leaned on the car to speak to me, I heared the groaning noise as the whole car slowly went sideways off both stands.
I was able to wriggle out REALLY fast.
After that, I got two steel wheels. mounted them them one on top of the other and welded them together. They were wide wheels so I had about 12 inches of solid steel.
If I use axle stands, these wheels go under the car next to me,
and the peace of mind this gives you is priceless!
The wqheel I had choking up the front was taken from under the car because I had put the other one back in the garage along with the proper wheel chock and I was in a hurry. Who wants to walk 10 feet to get the proper bits...
I once reversed my slammed beetle up a pair of ramps in a communal car park where I was living to fiddle with the rear drum adjusters in situ. I crawled underneath, feet first, and made the adjustment with the handbrake off so that I could get the shoes to the point where they weren't quite touching the drums. Then I reached up, grabbed the rear bumper and pulled to drag myself out from under the car. I didn't move a millimetre, but the car fecked off into the middle distance with a surprising turn of speed as I hadn't chocked the front wheels. The (rusty) rear valance skimmed my nose at it accelerated down the ramps but I came away unscathed but wiser. Thankfully it came to a stop after about 100 yards without hitting anything, but then started reversing back towards me at an equally alarming rate of knots.
You live and learn.
Sills look so much better in body colour paint btw, or is that blood?
