Cracking on with more body shaping and epoxy primer, this time it’s the sliding door. Bare metalled: In hindsight it would have been easier to fit the larger repair panel as under the paint was probably nearly 1/2″ of filler about 2 inches above where I’d put the repair. It’s difficult to see here but there were three large dents in the door: I can’t really apply filler over this: So I spent an evening with a hammer and dolly trying to even out the panel. I’m no panel beater but I managed to get it into a much better shape. It’ll still need filler but hopefully nowhere near as much: Door all shaped up. I still need to resist the temptation to think the high spots won’t show through the paint as having painted the door it needs more refinement (but isn’t far off): And all epoxy primed: It’s not far off. I’ve put fine filler over the rough areas and have blocked it back and it’s looking closer (no picture yet). I’ll give it another coat of epoxy when I do the front arches and B pillars.
In between waiting for filler to set I’ve been repairing the rear tin for the engine. The inner part of mine was damaged on the left around the pre-heat pipe mount, which would be tricky to repair. The front part has one hole that needs repairing. Lucky for me Wayne was chucking his old tin as it had rusted out along the edge of the outer part, but the inner part was fine (mine is the bottom one in this pic): So I repaired the hole in the outer part of mine, and drilled out the spot welds on both tins to separate the inner and outer parts. I could then use the good inner section from Wayne’s, and the original outer section of mine to make one decent tin: Pinned together: And all welded up. It’s saved me forking out £150 for a repro tin too!
Front arches, B pillars and door surrounds into epoxy today. I also re-epoxied the sliding door after correcting some highs and lows with fine filler.
Stripped the O/S panel tonight. Aside from a deep dent on the left that needs hammering out it’s pretty straight.
James, doing some repairs to my rear arches, have replaced the outer arches complete and now fabricating some repair panels to the inner arch, does the inner arch follow the same profile as the outer and follow it to the bottom of the arch? cheers john
Hi mate. Yes pretty much. If you search this thread for arch you should find the pics of when I did it. I trial fitted the outer, then made up the inner repairs to fill in the gap. I used a second outer arch to make the repairs from. Here’s a few. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Large side panel shaped and epoxied. I think this is the first panel I’ve primed that I’ve been nearly happy with! I’ve also wet sanded the primer on the engine lid, which is pretty much ready for top coat now. In between jobs I’ve also stripped down the engine to get the tinware off to the powder coaters.
@JamesLey im not quite at the painting stage but I’m curious about this epoxy primer, do you need an air fed mask to spray it or is it non toxic?
Hi mate. There’s no isocynates in it so no need for an air fed mask. I wear a standard 3M cartridge jobby. My coats on top of this will need air fed though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That's good to know, any recommendations on which brand paint to go for? I'm probably going to top coat in cellulose, I'm guessing that won't react with epoxy primer?
Nothing I can recommend in particular. I just went to my local paint supplier and got 4 litres of it. The brand I got was Alcea. I’m then using lechlar high build primer over that and lechlar top coat. I think it’s fine with most paints over top but your paint shop should be able to help. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The past week I’ve been focusing on the N/S rear quarter. First off back to bare metal to see what we’ve got. There’s a bit of a dent towards the back of the panel but on the whole it’s not too bad. I found a few sections around the sliding door seal channel which needed fresh metal letting in, so I made up some repairs in my folder: Followed by days and days of filler work (must be close to 20hrs to get to this point, even though it doesn’t look like much!): And finally today I got it all epoxied. I’m really happy with this panel!
I also re painted the bottom of the corner, having reshaped the area where the battery tray welds were visible: Onto the O/S rear quarter this week, the final panel!
Cheers mate! Very kind of you. Hoping I’ll have it all painted in the next 2 months or so. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hi James, you have done an excellent job on that panel below the door track. It is the worst one on mine and will also need lots of filler and prep.
