Wing Piping

Hi

The weekend has been spent Christmas shopping but I managed to squeeze some work in.

Very pleased to say that the wing piping arrived at last but not to sure that I have bought the correct kind, what has arrived is great and is just what I want but it has a bit of a problem.

I bought 10mts of 5/16" from Woolies for around £56 inc p+p, I ordered the vinyl wrapped shinny which I thought would contrast great with the candy paint, unfortunately the damb stuff don't bend, it takes a lovely curve but refuses to ride up the back wing without crumpling. So it looks like I shall have to live with it and accept it as part of the design.

So if at any time in the future I replace it or do another car then I shall buy solid rubber piping.
Other than the crumple it looks great, I tried a test fit to see what it was like.

Which is the reason why I can't return it; as to get it to turn up the rear wing I had to snip the flange area into sections to allow for the bend.

It was rather difficult to fit the piping single handed especially in a tight garage with no room to maneuver but after a bit of swearing I managed it.

It really does look great and after a bit of work I managed to get it to bend around the rear wing, I still need to do a lot of work on the body where the wing meets the step as there is quite a gap.

Before polishing the stainless I thought I would get a little practice in with a bit of scrap.

I started with the sisal wheel and the grey bar which I have learnt is to be used when very dull and it is also possible to introduce scratches, which is what happened.

Still it brought up a bit of a shine.
Next was with the colored mop and the brown rouge which brought it up a lot more.

With a bit of perseverance.

Then onto the soft cotton wheel with the fine green rouge.

Wow what a difference, it came up great so I thought I would have a go with the stainless step.

I missed out the 1st stage with the course sisal wheel and started with the soft cloth wheel and green rouge, I did some areas with the medium wheel and brown rouge and it came out quite well although I shall spend a bit more time on it to bring out a mirror finish.

This is the area that need the filling work done but plenty of time to get it right.

I shall start on the other side tomorrow and hopefully it will fit as well as this side.

see ya Paul

 

 

Polishing machine

Hi
Not much done today as I have again been waiting for the wing piping to arrive but no such luck so I got onto other bits that need doing.

First off was the new seat mechanism covers, all these required was to be drilled and painted so I marked of the holes using the original as a template and drilled. A good coat of acid etch primer and two coats of satin black and they looked great.

I am very pleased the way the seats turned out and have given them a couple of coats of leather conditioner, one coat of the cream I bought from The Furniture Clinic and another of Meguiars Gold.  Another couple of coats and the leather will be as soft as when they where new.

Look like new, I am still a little worried that the bolsters of these seats are a little wide as they are around 2" 50mm wider than the originals and when the underlay and carpets are fitted I may have trouble moving them back and forth, not a problem with the passenger side but the drivers may prove problematic.

In preparation for the stainless steps and all of the other polished parts I bought an 8" Wolf grinder, this was around 3 months ago and got it for only £12 on eBay, great bargain.

 I bought this with the idea of converting it to a polishing machine which I have completed today, it is a simple job to do and most machines that are a bit more heavy duty than the very cheap ones you can buy will do the job, either 6" or 8". You can tell if the grinder is man enough simply, if it stops turning when a little bit of extra pressure is applied while grinding a bit of metal then starts turning again when the metal is removed is just not up to the job, I have two of these both 6" and cost very little and are ideal for the smaller jobs but not for this.

I ordered the polishing kit from a company on ebay called Perfect Polishing they sell everything required from the grinder to the polish, I bought an 8" kit for £47 inc £7 p+p.

The kit includes the all important pigtails both left and right, three polishing wheels from coarse to fine plus 3 polish sticks and ultra fine powder, the sticks run from coarse medium and fine to use with each wheel.

 

I started by stripping the end covers and wheels from the machine and with this machine I was able to remove everything back to the motor.

I gave the motor a good clean and rub down then masked off before spraying.

The pigtails are just slide onto the shafts and secured with an allen screw so its important to get the correct pigtail for your grinder, they are scrolled left and right with a long taper so you can screw the mops on and as the machine rotates they get tightly secured onto the pigtail.

It is very important to get the correct pigtail onto the correct shaft otherwise as you apply pressure the mop will spin off at a great rate of knots.

And that's the finished polisher.

I have yet to try polishing anything but have run it up and it is smoother than I thought it would be, I shall screw on a base and just clamp it to the bench before use.

I have saved quite a bit of money by building the polisher myself as it would have cost in the region of £150 for an 8" model and this cost £52 plus the fun of making it.

see ya Paul

Wings, Stainless steps

Hi

Back home again although a bit late as the transport helicopter broke down and we had to wait an extra day on board, nice to be home.

I managed to get a couple of things made when away and these where the end covers for the seats, I had these made of stainless but shall be painting them satin black, they just need the holes drilling for fitting.

I had these made by the ships welder as I have no access to the equipment and he made a great job of them.

The main jobs I hope to get done this time home are the stainless step covers and with the weather forecast due to get worse that's maybe all I'll get done. 

Last time home I cut the drivers side and that was ready for bending and thought I would get this bent and test fitted before getting on with the passenger side and am very pleased I did as the template was a little out and I had a 10mm gap where the cover rises up the rear wing.

So into the scrap bin with this one and luckily the sheet metal shop where I had the bends done had a sheet of used 1mm which just needs polishing up, so start again.

I measured the gap and added 15mm to the template this is 5mm over but I thought it best to err on the side of caution.

Once in position I scribed the excess and cut it off and it needs a little work to square of the rear top edge, I still don't have my wing piping as I changed my supplier to Woolies when my other didn't arrive. So I shall do the final cuts when that arrives.

The excess tab that was shown in my last post has been folded under the step and shall be bolted in position.

I have been trying to figure out how to attach the stainless cover to the step and the wing, I don't know how much flex is in the car when driven and I don't want any scratching of the new paintwork if the covers move back and forth. To hopefully prevent this I have bought a roll of 1.5mm neoprene to glue on the underside of the stainless and cut to shape around it.

This is a 1x1.4m sheet for £18.50p, £7.50p of this was postage as it is quite heavy.

So the plan is to bolt the cover to the step both by the treads and to the underside then use sikoflex to seal the parts of the cover that run along the wings hopefully any flexing will be absorbed by the silicon and any movement will be neoprene to paint and not stainless.

To secure to the underside I cut 3 brackets 

The brackets were welded on and cut then drilled to size.

I was going to have the steps powder coated but have decided that a couple of coats of primer then top coat will do as I shall cover the top and sides in waxoil and the underside in schutz underseal with any gap areas well sealed with sikoflex.

Once I was happy with the drivers side and the mistakes fixed I was able to draw up the template for the passenger side.

The steel was cut and tested for fit before yet another trip to the benders.

It was a bit of a worry when fitting in case I had it wrong again but it worked out to be a pretty good fit.

The piping should arrive tomorrow which will give me a distance to work from and finish the steps, I have also ordered an 8" polishing mop set to convert my grinder to polish the stainless. So lots to do.

see ya Paul

Body Work, Stainless cover

Hi

A quiet few days with not a lot done, mostly because I have been waiting for the wing piping to arrive and after calling them I found out the order had been put in the wrong pile so it wasn't processed, and the weather has been to wet and windy to get the car out of the garage. So not quite as much done as I was hoping but still a little progress.

First my apologies to the builder of my car, I said that the drivers side rear wing was badly fitted being a little shorter than the passenger side; well after going through the old paper work I found the receipt for a new rear wing.

Not only the wing but a rear bumper, tail pipe and silencer so it looks like back in 88 someone had a little ding, either rear ended or reversed into something. I must have read this when I first bought the car but completely forgot about it, So Mr Panther builder my humblest apologies. 

I carried on where I left off with the step and got the top welded on.

When the weather calmed down a little I managed to get outside to mark off the step and drill the holes.

Now that the steps are fitted I could get on with the stainless covers, I have been learning about the different types of finish you can get starting from de-scaled which is basically straight from the rollers to mirror polished at the very top end. I would have liked the mirror finish and hopefully that is what I will end up with but I intend to do the polishing myself.

I bought 2 pieces 1225 x 400mm x 1.2mm offcuts from a company called Optima Stainless who sell there offcuts on eBay and were very helpful when I called them, each piece cost £10 plus £10 courier and they arrived the next day. I bought plain un-polished and the thicknesses they sell run from 0.9 to 3mm, I picked 1.2mm as I will have to hand roll it up the rear wing and having experience with stainless I know just how stiff it is to work.

I have been waiting for the wing piping to arrive before I marked and cut the stainless but with its none arrival I have just cracked on and hope that my guesstimate is good.

I started with a piece of hardboard to draw the template, the rear wing curve had to be done separately with a piece of cardboard  and taped it onto the template.

I like the idea of the stainless running up the wing and rolled up the rear then folded under the step, a little bit more difficult but hopefully the end result will be worth it.

I placed the template on the protected side and drew around it.

I had bought a pack of 4 1/2" 1mm stainless cutting discs in preparation and they cut through easily.

The offcut is a little wider than what I need but bought it wider just in case I made a mess of the first cut.

The tab section will be cut to size when folded over the step.

The rear wing had to be removed to check for fit as I won't be able to roll it until the folds are made, these will have to be done at a sheet metal shop as I don't have a folder large enough to bend 1.2mm of this width. So next time home I shall cut the other side and have them bent to fit.

I have sourced treads to fit on the stainless and shall have 3 on each side with black rubber inserts.

Well, I managed to get the steps made this time home which was the main job so hopefully the stainless will be complete next time then its a lot of rubbing down and priming ready for the paint shop in the spring.

see ya in 2 weeks Paul

Body Work, Passenger step

Hi
Out came the rear wing for a good clean and like the front wing it is in quite good condition.

I spent the morning scrapping, sanding and washing to get it ready for primer, once all clean I gave it its first coat.

Next was the step, this was the same as the other side; pretty bad, this is due to being wrapped around the steel frame unprotected and acting as an anode.

So out with the saw.

Didn't take long with the air saw doing all of the work.

I cleaned up the cut area and sanded out all of the corrosion around the rivet holes before spraying with primer.

While the paint was drying I had a look at the wing interface, as with the other areas the corrosion was around the rivet holes and had blown out the paint, also a number of rivets needed drilling out.

This area will need grinding out and filling but for now I just drilled out the rivets and sanded down the high spots.

I fitted the step profile and it is a perfect fit, I don't know what happened when the drivers side step and wings were originally fitted but nothing fits correctly, maybe a different guy who new what he was doing fitted the passenger side. The strangest part is the fitment of the drivers side rear wing, I thought when fitting that maybe the wing should have been flush with the rear of the car instead of being an inch or so short but took it as part of the design.

On fitting the passenger side rear wing I can see that it wasn't a part of the design.

This wing fits perfect on the car profile and goes all the way back; flush with the rear of the car. 

In their day these were very very expensive cars, I remember as an apprentice drooling over Panther cars and thinking I would never be able to afford one, so you would think that a lot more care would have been put into there build.

Anyway once the rear valance is on you'll not notice the difference (hopefully), I did take the wing off and try to move it back but nothing fit correctly.

The skin pins I bought are great, I just offered up the wing and popped in a pin, no clamps required.

Now I could measure for the step only this time I took allowance for the wing piping and stepped the legs off the chassis.

I got the step mostly finished and will complete tomorrow but managed to get the frame complete. 

Again I used profile cuts instead of miter's on the joints and I took a better photo this time incase anyone wants to use them.

Much better than mitering and gives a perfect square corner when the weld is ground down.

The frame is made and all welded, all it needs is the top welded on and the holes drilled and the welding is then complete and hopefully the mess that it creates.

I have also ordered the stainless today and that should arrive tomorrow.

see ya Paul