Body Work Drivers wing

Hi

Home again for 2 weeks and have started as I hope to carry on, although Lynne has taken another weeks leave so it may not be as much as I was hoping for.

My plans are to get the drivers side wings fitted and the step made, so today I started by removing the rear wing I had attached using the Cleco knurled pins (called skin pins) and got to work on the corrosion where the wing flange met the body.

There was already an area filled by Joe when he was showing me the ropes, I used the DA sander to remove the corrosion and to feather in the paintwork.

 Once all sanded down I mixed a batch of filler and spread on.

Once dry I rubbed it down and re-fitted the wing, it still needs a lot of work before priming but is good enough for the wings to test fit.

This photo shows the size of the gap at the bottom of the wing and the body,  I  measured it at 6mm which I shall fill and blend in.

Next job was to cut the profile from the original step and get that in place.

I used an air saw to cut the section off then with the air file smoothed the edges down and with the 120 grit rubbed down ready for the primer and put in place

I managed to get the wing out of the loft without damaging it and gave it a good inspection.

I was very pleased with the lack of damage to the wing, only a few problems with corrosion around the support bracket 

and under the indicator (which I had to drill out). The area I thought was the worse section was under the headlight

It looked like the aluminium had corroded and split apart but after grinding off the paint and cleaning I found that the Aluminium was fine and that the separation was above and below the skin. The paint and the fibre glass had separated  probably due to water ingress.

I gave the wing a good clean especialy the underside as this was pretty bad, I wanted to check the wing for fit before starting the repairs so the wing supports came out of storage and bolted in place.

I'd had these powder coated and they look great.

While away I had an ebay search for more Cleco skin pins and managed to find a pack of 25 for around £15 inc p+p this should be eneogh to fit the wings, these are the spring type and require a pair of special pliers to compress them before fitting.

The wing was easy to fit with the support to hold it up.

The skin pins where fitted and they held surprisingly well.

The wing fit great, once I am ready to measure up for the step I shall place  spacer's between the wing and the body to take the place of the wing piping but for now I shall fill and sand then maybe a coat of primer. The body where the front wing was is in far better condition than the rear, the only bad sections are where the rivets went through the body.

The side light and headlamp hole got sanded down to bare metal and feathered in, I shall fill and spray next.

I used the DA with a 120 grit disk and keyed the rest of the wing.

That was eneogh work for the first day and shall progress tomorrow. hopefully.

see ya Paul

Body Work: Step

Hi

Not much done yesterday, Lynne surprised me with a flexi day off so we went to see the new James Bond movie Skyfall and very good it was to.

When I got home I did a bit more work finishing off the rear wing 

which I have realised was a bit of a waste of time as when I got the step out to start preparing for primer I found that it is in such a bad condition that it will have some serious work and a fair bit of modification done to it.

 I knew the frame work would have to be re-made and have already bought the 40x3mm angle iron for this.

It may not look to bad from this photo but water has got under the top plate and rust has swelled it out of shape.

Unfortunately the same trapped water that swelled the steel also deformed the ally and rotted out the step flanges.

It looks ok in this shot but when the rubber is removed you can see the swelling.

Not to mention the corrosion

Both side are the same.

I started out by cutting out the rotten section and was going to make the new frame to suit but just a little wider to take up the difference of the cut out pieces

I have fitted the rear wing in position and used Clico fasteners I bought of ebay quite a while ago as I new I would need them for the fitting of the wings.

These are used in the aircraft industry for holding sections before riveting, you put your 2 sections together then push the Cleco end through the hole and turn the knurled nut. This brings the sliding section up and it tightens on a tapper action locking the panels together, you then just undo and remove when riveting.

I then fitted the step.

This is where it was a waste of time finishing the wing to 800 grit as it will no doubt get plenty of scratches before I'm finished.

I found on fitting that there are a couple of rather large gaps that will need some work, this is maybe where the water got through originally.

You can make it out between the edge of the wing and the body, it is around a 6mm gap which I shall fill.

The other is in the cut out, if I push it to touch then it is out of line at the front so the gap will have to be at the back, a few taps with the hammer will sort this, also the front of the step does not match up with the wing.

So what to do;

Well my idea from the beginning has been when re-fitting the wings to use a rubber or leather wing piping between the bodywork and the wings, both for the look of it and the sealing properties. But I had a problem of where the step comes out from the body, this would mean that I would have to cut the piping and start again after the step, breaking the black line that would run all of the way. So my plan is to cut out the existing aluminium step and have a polished stainless steel cover in it place, running over the new step and bent up both wings, a bit difficult to explain but the idea is to fold the stainless to slide over the frame and cover the step then to cut the outside fold before and after the step section and shape to run up the front and rear wing. This will allow the piping to run all the way along the wing, fitted behind the step and up the other wing in one continuous run.

To this end I am going to cut off the existing aluminium step only leaving the inner door fold.

You can see the dotted line where the cut will be, the door fold will be prepped and primed then riveted and sealed in place to become a fixed part of the body. I shall then clean and fit the front wing leaving a gap where the step will go, I can then make the angle iron frame to the exact measurements and cap flush with a piece of 1.5mm steel plate. Once made I shall have it powder coated to hopefully give it another 26 years.

Everything will become clear, honest.

So I have left it there for the time being and shall carry on in 2 weeks as I am off to work on Monday  with a very early flight to Schipol.

see ya then Paul

Body Work Wings

Hi

Checked over the paint work on the bonnet this morning and I'm quite pleased the way it turned out, I shall fit a section of sound proofing over the center section where the fibre glass looks rough and it will look great.

I started on the wings today, the driver's rear wing was nearest to hand so that got the first shot.

It's amazing that after 26 years they are in such good condition, a few dings and a lot of pitting around where the bolts and rivets where but nothing a bit of filler couldn't sort.

The wing was stuck on with double sided rubberized tape and when I removed them I needed a knife to slide between the wing and the body to seperate, bit of a job.

Once scrapped off you could see all of the pitting on both sides, I used a sanding pad on my grinder to remove all of the oxide.

The step flanges received the same treatment

 

Before I ground out the oxides I had to straighten the flange areas especially where the rivets and bolts had been, these areas had been pulled out of shape by the rivet and bolt tightness pulling the metal into the rubber, so out with my tapping hammer and the anvil section on my vise. When straightened I checked the alignment to the car body as the flange is bent to the curve of the body and not at 90 degs.

There was only one ding and that was on the outside edge and was a straight line knock which deformed the shape a little.

You can see it where it has pushed the side in a little, again out with the tapping hammer and anvil and I got it as back into shape as possible before sanding and feathering the paint off ready for the filler.

I had to apply two coats of filler between sands to get it pretty good.

The inside had a lot of years of road dirt hiding away so it was out with the scrubbing brush and I gave it a good clean, I shall use stone chip on the insides of all of the wings.

Once everything was filled and sanded I mixed up the primer and gave it its first coat.

I went back to the small spray gun for this wing and it came out nice and even, I gave it a shadow coat of matt black when dry and got to work with the sand paper.

I have learnt my lesson about starting with the finer grits and got started with the 220. This quickly removes the primer and takes down the high spots before I smoothed down with the finer grits.

Lots of high spots to take down but when I had everything rubbed down I cleaned with paint prep then tack ragged and got another coat on.

I shall leave it to dry overnight before giving it another blocking, only 3 wings to go.

see ya Paul

 

 

Body Work bonnet 2

Hi
Mostly have the bonnet finished, although it has taken a lot of elbow grease to get it nice and smooth.

I started with 600 wet & dry on the large block and after around an hour of rubbing I still wasn't happy with the finish as I had areas of orange peel, I guess this is because of using the larger spray gun laying down more paint. I never had this problem with the smaller gun but no problem just a change of tactics required.

I kept to the finer grade of 500 but used the DA sander with plenty of water which worked great on the paint but myself, the garage floor and the walls got covers in a wet spray of powdered paint, out with the pressure washer again.

The gloss finish is from the water used to wash off all of the residue and the reflection shows the smoothness of the primer. Even after using the DA sander I had minimal rub through, you can just see a little on the front and the air scoop edges are a little rubbed through, but that's the top finished.

The inside of the bonnet needed finishing and it was something that I could do myself instead of the paint shop, I must admit if I had not been going for a special candy finish I would have got more practice in and attempted to spray the car myself. No doubt I would have made a compete mess so best to lay out the money and have a pro do it.

The inside of the bonnet was rubbed down yesterday and all that was needed was a clean with the paint prep and tack ragged ready for the finish.

I was going to use VHT paint, not so much because of any high temps involved but to copy the original matt finish, on checking the tin I realised that I had no where near eneogh to spray the whole bonnet. The only other paint with any temp resistance was the tin of engine enamel I had bought for the cylinder heads unfortunatly this was a gloss finish but what the hell it may look even better.

I set everything up, mixed the paint with thinners and started spraying, I had never sprayed thinned gloss before and soon realised that I was starting to get runs, I should of lain the bonnet down and sprayed flat and very quickly that is what I did.

I raised the wide edge of the bonnet up on blocks of wood to allow the runs to fall back and carried on spraying; guess I still have a lot to learn. Slowly the runs receded and it looks pretty good if a little bright.

I have it stood up now and gave it a good look at and apart from a few small runs it looks pretty good, I guess the glossiness will lose a bit of its shine once it dries properly.

The bubble wrap I ordered has arrived so all of my hard work will get wrapped and protected and put away somewhere safe.

see ya Paul