Anglia Progress

[Jonny69]

I'll sort out a fresh thread with the history on this car and tack this on the end but I've had it some time and kind of neglected to finish it when I started a major rebuild. I left it almost ready to paint just over a year ago and it hasn't moved since then. I'm losing my garage soon so first job is to get some paint on it, then I can re-assemble and get it roadworthy again.

The tyres were flat and it had become a bit of a junk store with parts for my Pop dumped all over it and a bike propped on the front. I haven't kept the garage tidy at all so this was what I was up against:



Junk everywhere and no space to move in what is actually quite a big garage! I dumped the shopping trolley out on the road "as seen in my engine build thread" and one of my busybody neighbours kindly walked it back round to the supermarket. Stuck a few things in the Pop and it was ready to drag out so I could clean the garage:



Bit by bit I managed to pile all the junk at the end out the way to make some space:



Getting there...



Much better. After hoovering the roof, walls and floor I could get on with some work and priority was getting a makeshift bench together. Two Workmates and a length of discarded worktop prove perfect for my masking and paint mixing table:



No makeshift bench would be complete without ghetto makeshift toolmaking. I bought a roll of brown paper to mask up with and figured it would be easier if it had a dispenser. I had a length of pipe the right diameter and exactly the right length to hang it between a pair of axle stands:



Now some lines marked on the bench at various lengths and a sharp 60cm steel rule to tear the paper and I'm ready to go.

I already did the engine bay so that needs to be covered up which I tackled first:



Behold how dark it is. Side windows were next but it was too dark so I'll do it in the morning followed by the doors and back window, then I'll be able to lay some primer on it.



Got nice dry weather predicted tomorrow and searing 13 degree C heat so should be ideal for a bit of priming

[Feek]

I was just reading on your blog about this car a few minutes ago so it's great to see how it's all going now.

Hint - RSS feed your blog so that I can add it to my newly discovered technology RSS reading doofer thingie

[Jonny69]

I don't know what that means

I fix old cars

[Jonny69]

Yesterday I left off with the engine bay masked up but I couldn't see to stick the side windows in. Actually the problem was there was too much junk in the car and it wouldn't accomodate me as well so I pulled it all out and set about giving it a damn good clean inside because it was full of dust, a common blight with spray jobs be they professional or er, not professional like mine.

I got some lovely mint seats and had the sense to cover them up with a sheet so it was as clean as the day I scrubbed it down in the bath when I pulled the sheet off:



A heavily patched floor well hidden with satin black paint:



I stuck the masking paper on the inside so that the outer edges of the window frames would get paint. It would have been a lot easier to go on the outside but I don't have the window rubbers yet so I don't know how much they overlap. If I'd masked on the outside there's a risk I might see an edge around where the rubber sits:



From the inside, hardest bit was near the front of the door because the steering column was in the way. Also had to take the gearstick out to stop it sticking up my bum:



And finally after papering myself in the car I had to climb out the back window which had somehow shrunk to half its normal size. Glad I lost that half stone I put on over Christmas. My view as I peered back in:



A quick re-arrange of my garage and I got the car into a position that I could get down both sides to spray it:



Damn cramped and the neighbours seem to have smelled that something exciting was happening because as soon as I popped the lid off the tin of paint they all came visiting to see what was going on. I got rid of them like this...



...and got on with a bit of this:



It's two good coats of yellow high-build primer all over. I'm going to stone-chip the sills, inner wings and back panel next then give it one more heavy coat of yellow, then it's a quick flat down to knock off the orange peel and on with some red.

[Roberta]

I bloody love this car.

[Jonny69]

Moving swifly on, next on the agenda is a dose of stonechip paint, a thick rubbery paint that dries with a texture. Its main purpose is to prevent stone chips breaking through paintwork to the metal underneath but it goes on with a texture that you can control with the thickness of the paint. This is what I'm interested in. Because I have replaced the sills, rear quarters, rear panel and heavily repaired the front quarters I want to lay on a 'distraction' line along the bottom of the car to hide any slight contour changes in my filler work or the new panels which will show up in flat gloss.

This is what I mean:



Basically this pillar is heavily repaired and I have filled the outer face smooth. It's under the flipfront and out of view most of the time but when I open it I don't want people going uuuugh when they see welding lines, so I have hidden them under the stonechip. You can still see them but it's not screaming in your face.

At the back of the sill you can't immediately see that the replacement sill isn't exactly the same shape as the original:





Once painted one colour and with a bit more primer the texture will mask that line and you won't notice it. Same at the back:





This is underneath the back panel so you won't see it at all, I guess I got bored and wanted to waste precious paint:



Finally while I had the mask out I doused the exhaust manifold wrapping in VHT (very high temperature) paint. I put enough on there to soak in well to give the wrap some added support and strength and hold the fibres down.



If it works, great. If it doesn't, meh

[Feek]

That's fascinating!

Do you fancy pulling my bonnet off and respraying it that nice fire engine red after giving it a good coating of stonechip paint? 220k miles mostly up and down the A12 is taking it's toll and there are a LOT of chips!

[Jonny69]

A new set of flexible sanders has been ordered and plenty of paper

Their site seems to have gone down as soon as I wanted to shamelessly hotlink a picture though

[Jonny69]

These are the beasties:



4.5", 6" and 15" megaboard. These are the ones you pull the steel rods out to make them more flexible and use the 2.75" wide Klingspor sanding paper on.

I've managed to get a bit further than I thought I would this week already. The body is now primed up and doesn't need any more, just a quick knock back to take off the orange peel and then the top coat can go on. I also got a quick coat on the back panel since I had some paint left in the gun. The temperature has dropped a bit so I won't do the topcoat this week, but I'll get the doors and bootlid done in primer and maybe look at starting the flipfront. As long as it stays dry I'll be fine because I can poke the car out the back of the garage while I spray the other bits.

Anyway, watch this space because tomorrow I'll have some more pics of the other bits licked in yellow creamy goodness

[Jonny69]

Tonight I would have got more done if my stomach hadn't got the better of me. I was literally running on fumes and by 8pm I was forced to pack up and go hunting instead.

I dragged the car outside to make some space in the garage because I wanted to mask up and put some paint on the doors. Fear the power of the flash on my camera:



Then I set about masking the windows in the doors and ran into my first problem which was where to spray them. It's not my garage so I can't just go and spray and not worry about the paint on the floor or walls so I had a re-arrange of my comedy oversize boxes and propped one behind the doors so I could spray against the wall:



The bootlid was easier because it could just sit on the spare workmate, it just meant I lost the bench I use for the keeping the spraygun on and cleaning up afterwards. That went bang smack in the middle, looks randomly placed but I actually orientated it so that when I was spraying I'd have light reflecting off it so I could see how much paint I was putting on:



Don't ask what's sprayed on the inside of the lid, it was before I owned it...

Mixed up about 260ml of paint and sprayed the inside of the doors and a good coat inside the bootlid. The reason I did the inside first was I can flip it over and I don't need to worry about overspray getting on it when I do the other side because you won't see the insides. It's interesting how far the paint goes, would a 300ml rattle can have gone this far?





It was at this point my stomach was rumbling so much there was risk I'd disturb the dust in the rafters so I knocked it on the head, cleaned down, showered and headed to Kebab Ye for a shish kebab and chips with a few glasses of red. Yep you've guessed it, she's out tonight