Practically Classics Forum

She's airborne!

Axles/subframes removed along with steering column and steering box. It's already so convenient having it up like this and clear, well lit access to the underside.


It has been obvious from the time I looked at the car with a view to buying it that it has been at the hands of a body shop that is in love with filler. The underside had lots of clearly visible and poorly applied filler over the repairs. A little minor investigation of a rear wheel arch last night revealed what can be seen in the photo below with my index finger for scale. There's no obvious reason for it, the metal behind it looks like it was sound enough before the filler went on even though some rust has been working away underneath it since.

Work continues! I had a batch of small bits and pieces ready for blasting and painting.



The power steering box was one of them. It had always been leaking so I bought a seal kit and stripped it down.
I blocked up all the holes & blasted it along with my other brackets, suspension arms and small bits. It wasn't until I was geting it all ready for spraying that I noticed what seemed to be an oily patch on the outside of the steering box casing.




It turned out to be a hairline crack!



It also turned out that the steering box is made of cast iron which apparently doesn't take too well to welding due to differences in expansion and contraction rates in response to heat. So, I took it out to my welder friend to see what he could do. We ground out the crack and heated the whole lot to about 300 degrees Centigrade. He then TIG welded it up and we stuck it back in the oven to cool slowly overnight. Thankfully it hadn't cracked when examined in the morning!





Now it's back in the queue for blasting and will be painted up and re-assembled with new seals.

Steering box is done. painted and re-assembled with new seals:





I've also blasted and primed the home made rear subframe, fuel tank and brake servo.

I think that this project might have moved on from just being a diesel conversion project

alabbasi wrote:I think that this project might have moved on from just being a diesel conversion project

You're right Alabbasi, it's be come a "now or never" restoration too! If I put it on the road as-is, I'd never strip it all down to preserve it properly. There's some metalwork underway!!

I sprayed some satin black over the blasted bits and it's a disaster. Looks like water in my air-line, little fish-eye type dots everywhere.

An annoyance but not a disaster. Have you tried a disposable in line filter on the gun?

http://refinishsystems.com/starchem,%20 ... GwodOtEM2w

Good work, looking forward to the result

Kev

Might these fish eyes be a sign of there being silicon around the place? It doesn't take much, especially not when the paint you're trying to apply is straight onto steel. Has someone in your household been polishing anything in the vicinity of where the car stays? Either way, better to discover it now than when the final topcoat is settling on the finished car!

kevin wrote:An annoyance but not a disaster. Have you tried a disposable in line filter on the gun?

No, and I definitely should try one.

jpb wrote: Might these fish eyes be a sign of there being silicon around the place? It doesn't take much, especially not when the paint you're trying to apply is straight onto steel. Has someone in your household been polishing anything in the vicinity of where the car stays? Either way, better to discover it now than when the final topcoat is settling on the finished car!

I'm fairly sure they came from my gun as I was painting one part that was blasted and primed 6 months ago along with these bits that have only been in my shed for a week. There's been no shed activity in that week. All parts had the dots all-over them (underside included). The brake servo is the only really visible one, so the only one I'm concerned about having it reasonably smooth. The others will get further coats but keep their dimples!
This is exactly the reason that I'm currently interviewing spray painters. I couldn't face it if this kind of thing happened during an attempt at a whole car spray job!

wait until you find out someone has painted the car with hammerite

Top painting tips:

Just prior to applying the paint I would always recommend the use of a panel / spirit wipe - readily available and cheap - it can save a lot of heartache

Secondly as soon as the panel wipe has vaporised I would further recommend a takrag wipe over to remove any remaining dust on the prepared surface to be painted

And if not already undertaken - I always would recommend damping the floor within the area that you are painting - you don't need to create a swimming pool - just lightly brush a bucket of water around the floor areas - don't leave standing water has you may splash this up onto your newly painted panels with airline / your own movements

You will be surprised at what differences can be made just by spending 5 mins undertaking the above

NB - If you have a lot of paintwork to undertake it might just be worth obtaining a bottle of anti fish eye - available from all vehicle refinishing factors - if you have a fish eye problem whilst applying the paint just add a few drops of this to your next coat and as if by magic - your problem will be resolved