So what did I actually achieve today?
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.
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.
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 was thinking of a bit of welding around the fuel tank...
... what could possibly go wrong?
Should I add highlights?
Not sure I like the Maser badge on the grille. I have run out of money for chrome but am thinking of adding some painted highlights in white/off white. Possibly a few bits of text along the front wings or across the tail
I decided to fix the screen wash this weekend so I glued half a screen wash pipe connector to the snapped bit
To make it easier to fit and reduce the risk of snapping again I added a short connector. The heat gun made the cold pipe all warm and flexible
and fitted
Clearly after such an extensive piece of work I needed to take it for a shake down run. Off to Lyndhurst to see what the rest of the world is driving
Must paint the remaining wheels black
and sort out the proper grille
Does it look out of place?
Quick look around the New Forest
I decided the paint could be improved. Well, after my last spraying I don't think it could get worse.
First, duck tape some wet and dry to a cheap polisher, then sand/polish the bonnet, then realise you will need another sheet of wet and dry
It doesn't get rid of the blotchyness caused by my terrible thin paint spraying but there is definately the potential to shine
That is enough encouragement for me to take the time to give it another coat of paint and try to do it properly this time.
This afternoon has been largely frustrating.
I decided to paint the two back wheels black to match the fronts. I put the wooden spanner on the spinners and twisted. Nothing. Twisted harder. Nothing. Tapped with a hammer. Nothing. Harder tap. The wooden spanner split.
I found an old window sill I could use to recreate the spanner. I got my trusty old jigsaw down from the shelf and managed to cut nearly half an inch before the blade snapped.
Finally managed to shape the thing to fit the spinner ears and removed the wheel. Primer and paint were both too cold so I put them in warm water for a while. Painted the wheel (badly) and put it back on. Went to remove the other wheel and my home made spanner split. I guess the spinners tighten up with use.
Sat in the drivers seat for a rest. Decided to squirt the windscreen wash only to find it didn't work. Popped the bonnet and discovered the carefully glued pipe and unglued itself and dumped all the screen wash.
Three hours work and the some result - I managed to tighten the drivers side wing mirror.
I am now going for a bath with a car magazine and a few beers. I may be some time...
Today I found time to fit the side repeaters.
First I had to find the original wiring and bulbs. I took Chris's advice, turned on the hazards and then stuck my head under the bonnet and tried to find the flashing lights. Easy!*
I then had to decide where to position the repeaters on the side of the car. They couldn't go on the bonnet piece as that lifted and was awkward for wiring. They couldn't go on the door for similar reasons so they had to go on the little wing panel. Decision made. Easy!*
Now where on the panel? There are lots of vent cut into it which makes positioning dificult but after 30 minutes of blu-tac and standing staring I decided they would be least bad at the front top of the wings. Easy!*
I used the rubber gasket as a template to cut out the hole for the light to fit into. The light units are push fit with a little metal spring holding them in place so I had to make the hole a good fit. After faffing with a drill, dremel and hammer the holes were in place and the light unit fitted. Easy!*
Refit the front wings to the car after pushing the bulbs in place and the jobs done. Easy!*
*After the waste of time that my efforts were yesterday I thought I would record every little step of success today to cheer me up. ;-)
Still would rather not have the repeaters fitted though :-(
at the rear of the pane - Tried that initially but they looked worse
hiding them either in one or more of the vents - Falls fould of the angles of visibility laws
fit them in front of the wheels - The whole of the front lifts with the bonnet
in the chassis holes - angles of visibility prevent this too but now I am wondering about getting a light big enough to fill the first hole completely and protrude just enough to be legal
I will spend some time trying to work out what I can do but they can stay there while I think about it
I could wirte them in front og the wheel arches if I cut them into the main indicator circuit. The main indicators are behind the perspex headlight covers. But I quite like the idea of filling the first chassis hole.
No photo update but I fitted a radio ariel into the boot. The exhausts sound great but tomorrow I am driving up to Stevenage and back so want something else to listen too. Especially when sat stationary on the M25. Last time I had 1.5 hours of Sheryl Crowes greatest hits for 5 hours of driving.
Yes, I have considered covering up the sills. In fact I am still considering it.
When we uncovered them I thought 'Great! A nice styling feature' but I am getting less and less convinced.
I just need to decide for certain that I want to lose them and then if I do, how I want to do it. If you have any suggestions then please share.
Please feel free to question / criticise what every I do that you don't agree with. I don't get offended and I do appreciate other peoples input.
They are the standard Z3 sills. The Z3 has a plastic trim stuck over them. I am concerned that if I just fill them the holes will sink back over time. If I put a panel over the top it will stand proud of the doors.
Early days and still deciding
So the two options are to simply fill the holes or to add a flase sill. I am still tempted to on bolt back on the side exhausts which probably makes the extended sills less appealling. The pipes were only taken off for painting. I can't find a good side shot witht he pipes fitted but here is one with the holes filled in.
In terms of what I need to do - Advice Please
I need to clean the paint off the sill which is easy enough with an angle grider and wire brush.
To fill the holes I think Scotties idea about glassing over the hols and then filling should work but what is the process. I have a load of glass fibre, I have the resin that you add to it. Do I just clean the sill back to bare metal and let the resin hold the glass in place or do I need some special bonding stuff? If so, what?
Once I have glassed over the holes I plan to level the hole sill with body filler as there are a fair few dents and imperfections along its length. I assume I can just mix the filler and skim along the length of the sill. I then plan to sand back to a smooth finish with a flat bed sander so things stay reasonably flat and level. High build filler, sand, paint, wet and dry and then paint.
Does this sound like to will work?
My main concern is the glass finre and filler falling out of the holes. Any advice or reassurance on that part in partiucular is welcome.
WCA, can you lower the rear end a bit? - Already scraping the exhausts on the bumps, perhaps bigger tyres?
access to the back of the holes - No real access as it is basically a box girsder. I can poke sticky tape through the holes and try to get it to stick but that is about as good as it gets.
P40 - If I get the tape stuck to the back of the holes and then fill with P40 is there much likelyhood of the P40 shrinking back or working loose over time?
rivet a piece of thin Ally - Possible but I would prefer to simply fill the holes rather than cladding it and then trying to blend the edges and hoping the panel doesn't work loose.
I would have thought the ally skin would be the easist. Personally I would go to a local sheet metalworker and get them to make up a simple sheet with a return lip at the bottom edge
Unfortunately the side of the car isn't straight so there would need to be a slight curve along the length (not fixed radius) and there is a diagonal kink near the front.
The side profile also starts vertical and then bends under at around 40 degrees before flattening across the bottom. This means the return lip would need to be about 5cm.
I think getting a flat plate to fit that would be possible with enough clamps to hold it in place while it stuck but to do this with a sheet with a deep return would be more difficult.
Also, P40 and sandpaper keeps the price down and hides the receipts from MrsWCA ;-)
zagmad - link? or is it one of the ones I found on Page 2 or this thread?
Back to the filling the holes question - Any reason not to simply use patches of glass matt and resin bonded to the cleaned metal rather than P40? The holes are set back into the sill a bit so I could cut cirlces of matting slightly larger than the holes and then slap the resin on them to bond them in place.
Hoping to get some of this done tomorrow so much advice welcome
[edit]
This picture?
Photos tomorrow...
...Regret never!
I will also post pictures of my passenger side wing mirror adoption that works on the motorway