Ends cut off napoleon's hat and swapped over ready to be welded back on. Made a jig to hammer the ridges into my chassis spine repair piece.
Got the hinges painted in primer today. Painted the inside of the doors: and the outsides of them too.
Got the nose of the bonnet repainted after i scratched the new paint. Painted the insides of the doors too while i had the gun out. Just the outsides and the hinges to paint tomorrow.
Did the outsides this morning. A few little flaws in them but they should colour sand and polish up OK. Painted the hinges. Touched up a couple of marks on the top of the engine lid and bonnet while i had paint in the gun too. Looks like i never did manage to get the slight dent out of the double skinned section.
Made this panel today to replace the rot under the chassis spine. Its getting stonechipped underneath so not too bothered about how smooth it is. Also welded on the ends of the napoleons hat chassis section so its now fit for RHD use.
Bodyshell paintwork is all done now. Still waiting for cutting discs to arrive in the post so i can start chopping rust out of the chassis. 48 hour delivery has turned into 10 days so far. Reckon theres about a week or so work to do on the chassis as a few bits will need to be fabbed as i'm not willing to pay for a panel to only end up using a 1/4 of it. Bit in the rear corners of the floorpan seem easy enough to make and i can use the passengers side front floor thats rotten along the edge to repair the drivers side where the pedals fell though the floor. Still not decided on which wheels to use yet. I keep seeing 5.5" wide EMPI 8 spokes like this for sale cheap on facebook but they're always at the opposite end of the country. The stock wheels are only 4" wide so only 155/15 tyres fit and they're bloody expensive.
Got all the hinges bolted on today using stainless steel countersunk bolts and nylocs. Scratched the hell outta my hands doing it though.
Painted the shift rod as it was nice and sunny. Made a start chopping off the bottom plate of the framehead. Front end of the chassis had silt/mud in it so the bottom of the spine ended up all pinholed once it was wirebrushed with a grinder. Gonna have to make another plate to replace this. Back end didn't so the bottom is still solid. Bottom inch or so of the front face is rotten though. Rot spreads a little way up the spine but atleast its simple to fix and easy to get to once the framehead bottom plate is all cut off. Rot hidden by the napoleons hat section. Its not as bad as i was expecting so far and all the bits that need repairing are easy to get to once the remains of the bottom plate and napoleons hat are cut off.
Bit more rot chopped out today. A few other areas marked out. Remains of the napoleon's nat section removed. Little more rot to chop out. Should be fun trying to rebuild the bottom of this.
Made up a patch to fill one of the holes in the chassis spine. The 2 klokkerholm panels fit together nicely. Not sure if they'll fit the chassis as well though. Rescued the pedal reinforcement plate from the old bit of scrap floorpan and gave it a coat of paint.
Received a cheap ex MGB rev counter in the post this morning. Fits nicely in the speaker grill. It needs either a new bezel in chrome or a fettling with some metal polish. Kamei front spoiler. I've wanted one of there pretty much ever since i bought my bug in 1996.
Front bumper looks a little sad for itself. The rear one is only slightly better and the genuine one i had stored in my dads shed was missing all its chrome. Number plate is kapput too.
Welded new steel into the bottom of the spine. Other side done too. Chopped a bit of rot out of the front face and welded some 2mm steel in. Found a bit of scaffy bar (which is nearly the same diameter as a bug beam) to bend the steel around to repair the bits of rot behind where the beam mount. Not tried to bend 2mm steel yet.
Not easy bending 2mm steel cold, though managed to make these two bits for the front of the framehead using a scaffy bar, a BFH (big funkin hammer) and a vise. Need to make up a bit of a jig to ensure they end up welded in the correct place.
Made a start welding the bits i made into the framehead today after i made a jig from some steel angle and a chunk of scaffy bar. Small repair let into the side. Need to dig out a different grinder disc (or use a dremel) as the flap discs just shred themselves when asked to grind down welds in a corner. Welded one side of the front face up where the beam sits against. Needs the bottom edge shaping but i'll wait until the framehead bottom is on to get the correct(ish) sort of shape. Gonna paint it with grey oxide then a skim of seam sealer followed by some gravitex then chassis black.
Made a couple of repair bits for the ends of the rear floorpan crossmembers. Still need to weld up this one. Hole still needs drilling in each for the body mounting bolt.
Weather has been carp up here lately so been just doing a few bits in the garage. Stuck some silent coat to the inside panels on the shell, fitted the bonnet and gave the rev counter a quick coat of silver paint to tidy it up. Did the same with an old smiths volt meter i found. Old VDO gauge to fill a spare hole. No sender for this one though.
