Wednesday 30 June 2010

Bodyshop update

Popped into the bodyshop yesterday as I had the day off work, winding down from holiday before I go back! I needed to drop the new rear door in, and was greeted by the sight of a nearly bare metal shell! The paint work had lots of microblistering in, and we decided it would be best to bare metal most of the car just to make sure there were no nasties under the old paint.

Interesting to see how the car was built. The whole of the top of the rear wings is lead....... very careful paint removal here, don't really want to have to re-lead the whole car!
Some big dents in the bonnet. Badly filled, now tapped out and leaded and looking as good as new! Strange, a blue bonnet underneath the red paint...........secondhand original?

Sill finished and leaded........... the door shuts are PERFECT now.......... they look wrong on here because they are not bolted in, just resting on the catches!!
Detail of the repaired flared rear wheel arch....... now all metal and lead as opposed to filler and rust!
Also got to see the newly built radiator....... nice job! Brian's keeping it as he needs it to make up the missing mounting bracket for the bottom mount...... looks like Del only fitted one bracket rather than two........ bodger!

Friday 11 June 2010

Update from the bodyshop and a little trip out!

Its slow going at the bodyshop........ always knew it would be though!! This job is being fitted in around other more expensive jobs to keep the costs down. (thank god!!)

So, one side it now done. Rear arch has been rebuilt (properly, undoing the Del Lines Bodges as we go!) Now all metal and lead, rather than little metal and loads of filler!

Sill is on, just a small repair to do on the front arch where the big dent was. In an ideal world, it ought to have new front half wings. But, being as they are not available at the moment, and I can't afford it either we have elected to dig out the rot, patch and lead them up. In a few years time, they will probably want doing and by then half wings should be back available.
Also had a little time to play with the Radiator. The original car had a MKI engine and a MKI Radiator (Stag units of course) and being as I am using a MKII engine and MKII cooling system, the filler neck on this is too long and fouls the bonnet. Andy modified his bonnet, but he lent me the original radiator from Janey and it has a modified neck. Slightly shorter and over to the side a little....... so everything clears nicely.

You can only get shots like this when its up on ramps and theres no engine in....... you can see where the problem would have been. So, easy fix, we had this radiator rebuilt with a modern 4 core in is, new sides and reused the original top. Looks very nice (so I'm told, havent' actually see it yet!) and at £150 its about the same as a standard 3 core exchange rad.......... bargain!
So to the little trip. The one door on the car that is bad is the nearside rear. Estate doors don't come up very often so we were going to have to re-skin it................. that is until I found a factory original brand new estate rear door on ebay!! Had a bid and won it for £30!!! (seriously, £30!!!!) Only problem was it was a little jaunt to pick it up. So Wednesday evening saw Sam and I walking down the beach............ so come on clever people, where was I?
Fish 'n' Chips for tea................ mmmmmmmmmm.
And after lots of miles........ one brand new rust free perfect Estate rear door!!

And for those who don't know, Redditch to Brighton and back in an evening is a VERY long way!!