MadaboutKitcars

Today is my birthday, so I took the day off. :-)

Thanks for the good wishes guys!

Well, apart from the cars roof, which I have not made yet, the build is almost finished. I have front inner wheel arches to make to stop water ingress to the headlights and the rear battery box.
and that is all the fabrication done. Everything has been made, I just have to resist the (very strong) temptation to paint the car now, but I MUST NOT, until I am sure the surface is flat and true with no ripples in the body. At present, it is not good enough, so I have to carry on the rubbing down, however long it takes.
That way, it won't have to be done again at a later stage.

Monday

Mick, Jones and Gary, thanks for the comments! Much appreciated.

Another full day on the body work, bonnet and doors.
Flatting, stoppering, primer-ing and more flatting, but it is coming together, each day sees an improvement.

I have reached the stage when I am past caring WHEN its finished, just as long as I get it finished looking RIGHT.

It well may not be in time for Stoneleigh, but it will be in time for me to enjoy the car all summer.

My priority was to get it done for the show, but that has now changed,

and the priority now is to get it looking right, body work and paint wise.

I do not want to do this all again later, some people I know, have gone that route, but I don't want to.

Nothing much to show, but here are some pics:

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I am using both Jones, the orbital sander to get the filler roughly
flush, then do the rest by hand, wet and dry, 250, 400 then 600 for the final finish.
Slow process, and like you say, the car will be judged by its finish, which basically is the paint job first, followed up by a look at the interior.
The interior is as good as I can get it, so its all down to the paint job now.

Each day it improves, and one day I will be happy to chuck top coat at it!

Its mainly paint Danny, I still have to make inner wheel arches for the front, but that's straight forward, (providing I don't drive in the wet, I'll be okay, and I have no roof yet!) I will do it though, but right now its not a priority.
I need to pipe the drain holes in the boot rain channel out of the floor, again a short easy job.

I don't have a list as such, but I think that's about it really.

As regards the paint, I am not a professional, and probably taking longer than one would, and perhaps not even doing it right,
but I am doing my best, and eventually it will get its paint on hopefully, straight even panels, which right now is taking so much labour to get right.

Yes you are right Danny, how bloody naive must I have been to have thought I could get it to Stoneleigh last year!!

I have seen so many cars at the show, spoiled by sub standard
paint jobs because the owners tried so hard to finish and get it there, promising themselves they would do it again later.

As you say, I want the finish I'm looking for first time.
This prep is so difficult for me, I do not want to go though it again.

Hey WCA, I thought you had it re-done by a pro? Remember when you rubbed it all down and it looked like a leopard?

Sorry to hear that Landmannnn, how come it was incompatible?

Another days labour, but as ever, there is a lot of improvement.

pics:

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Wednesday

I put in an awful lot of work today, but have been well rewarded for the effort.

Before I started to wet and dry the body, I had to put pipes on the two drain holes in the boot area, or the boot would get wet.

I can report that the drain holes work well!

I rubbed all the body down,then I decided to chuck some paint on it..

I am well pleased with the paint I chose for lots of reasons.
I like the colour, but basically it is an industrial paint, I chose it because it is fast drying, easy to apply, easy to polish, hard wearing, and has a very glossy finish. (I just sound like I have shares in the company!)

I intended to put on a "guide coat" to see what more work was required, and sort of got carried away.

When I saw how good the finish was, I chucked on the whole litre of paint,and did doors bonnet, the lot.

None of it is perfect, but fairly acceptable I think.

I will get another litre of paint tomorrow, and the good bit is, its cheap at only £25 for a litre.

I am certain that the "prophets of doom" will slag me off for using this type of paint, but look at the results, and judge for yourself.

If I'm brutally honest, the front half of the car needs a little more work to make it as good as the arse end, so I will sort it out.

Pics:


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Later Wed

Well, it seems my paint job has impressed more than just me!!

I am not very skilled at spraying, but this paint is amazing stuff.

To answer Mr Towed, no it is not cellulose, it is one-pack nitro-acrylic high gloss topcoat.

And yes, it came straight out of the gun like that.

And for anyone else interested, here are the details: it is made by Lechler,

and they say it is for restoring "old cars"

I bought my paint locally, at £20 plus vat per litre, but other companies seem to be charging £30 plus vat.

Here is a link : http://www.alloycoatings.co.uk/paintpainting-products-lechler-paint-lechler-mac-macrofan-topcoat-p-102.html

I think this stuff is way better than cellulose, and will use it again.

Like I said though, my car will need more work, as now I can see where I need more flatting, but I am looking forward to chucking more paint at it if it comes out like it did this time!

Nice one Paul!

In answer to your question yesterday, I was busy painting and got to the point when I would have to go out and buy etch primer at about four times the cost that I get it online, when the courier arrived with the stuff I'd ordered! And that was how I was able to do so much.

Seeing as the paint created so much interest, I have been doing a bit of digging, and it seems that the company that makes the paint, created it especially for people like us that prefer cellulose.
This is a modern equivalent, and they sure have hit the button there, I would never go back to celly now.

Thursday

Thanks for that Paul, I'll have a peek.

WCA, I have posted a couple of pics of my compressor and spray gun for you to see.
I have worked a bit on my headlight bowls, but don't really think the extra work is justified. How come your bowls upset you so much?

Mr Towed, that website is not my local supplier, it was just one that I found that sold the paint online.

Yes I think you do need to know what colour you want, I went to this local chap and looked at colour swatches, chose Connaught green, and he mixed it up for me in that acrylic stuff. As far as I know they can do any colour.

The name of my supplier is Border Automotive, and they are on 01432 265305. The guy's name is Phil, and he is very helpful, give him a call.

Today I rubbed down the one run I had on the bonnet, and also some more bonnet patches, but mainly I worked on the back half of the car.

I rubbed it down with G3, then T cut, as there were a few slight orange peely bits. It now does not have that "just painted" look, and almost looks like it could be the original 1950's paint. I have not polished it yet, that will come later.

The back half of the car is now finished, it is not perfect and there are a few small marks, and insect imprints etc. But you'd have to look hard to see them, and I can live with that. The overall impression is okay.

So I put all the lights and bumpers back on, and was pleased with the result.

The main difference between my car's rear and a real one, is around three million quid...........

So its just the front half now........

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I expect the thread will continue Ed, I've got to make a roof yet and all sorts of little tweaks and mods still to do.
I've only been here for 18 months, it'll go on a bit longer I'm sure!

Thanks for the support Mistrale!

Well it will look better when all the trim is in and its up and running with the right wheels etc, watch this space.........

Thanks for the comments Paul!

And Mr Towed! Well, shame on you for having such awful thoughts!
I never doubted myself for one second. :-)

Friday

Today was another prep day, working on the front half of the car which was not up to standard. It is now, and its painted, so are the doors and bonnet with yet another coat.

It could not have been a fluke the first time round, as its come out even better this time, it must be the paint!

I will always use this stuff for everything in the future.

One thing I have learnt over the last few days, is that it is fairly straight forward and simple to spray paint, but incredibly difficult to get a smooth even surface on a panel to receive that paint.

Pics:

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Thanks for the link Mick, I downloaded it, but have'nt had time to watch it yet!

Carnoob thank you for your kind words I seem to have inspired several people along the way, and in turn, others on this site have inspired me.

That is a good thing, and shows how this site was intended to function I guess.

Hello Paul and Ed, I just found your posts.

Paul, in answer to your question about the panels:
I did not have to actually cut any panels for serious mods like you did, apart from chopping out the offside head light mounting and re-doing it at the right angle, and of course, I re-designed the boot to my liking.
The rear end of the car was fairly good, a couple of flash lines each side which were an absolute bitch to get rid of, each time I had "finished" it and put a guide coat on, I realised they were still there, I lost count of how many times that happened.

As for the front, that was not so easy, there were lots of "bubbles" that needed grinding out and filling, there were two flash lines on the sides and one across the rear of the front by the windscreen, which was as troublesome as the rear to get rid of.
The drivers "wing" is at least and inch wider than the near side one, but It is not noticeable, without a measuring tape, so I just left it.

There were lots of bumps and hollows, which were sanded down or filled in.

I am happy with how it is now, but really, it is not perfect, but good enough to live with the imperfections, as they are not noticeable or obvious.

Ed, yes It is a shame about the Jaguar engine not being suitable for my car, as I happen to have a 4.2 E Type triple carb engine totally re-built with 6 new pistons etc. etc!

Unfortunately, such an engine and gearbox, weighs in at just over 600 lbs or around 280 kilos.

280 kilos will be roughly half the weight of my finished car I would guess!

So as you say, it really is not feasable, although I believe some americans do put huge engines in their Spitfires.

Mr Towed, I bet their words were music to your ears!
What exactly did you do to get the "patina" they noticed?
Did you mop it by machine, or do it by hand, and what grades of cutting paste did you use?

As I said before about painting, its not so much the paint finish. but what is underneath the paint that counts.

After three days of hardening, there are some places on my cars front end that have sunk a little and under critical light, (strip lighting) some of the patch edges are visible.
From 5 feet away its not noticeable, but up close it looks a mess to me.
I know why it has happened too, due to my bloody impatience to get the car to Stoneleigh, I have not allowed the primer over the repaired areas to dry properly, and the top coat has reacted to the uncured primer edges.

So I will have to do it again. The rear end of the car has no such problems, and the front must be the same I'm afraid, so with a heavy heart, its back to the wet and dry yet again...........

This, I suppose is the difference between a professional and me!

I will get it right though, otherwise it will never leave my driveway :-)