Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 11:18 pm
So it's been officially too hot to do much here this last couple of days. It was 32C in our lounge at one point today.
I used to love the hot weather in years gone by until I was put on medication which basically turned the acceptable temperature envelope for me down by about 20C. It's a royal pain in the tail in the summer I tell you that. Anything beyond about 25C ambient and I progressively just start to stop functioning.
Think Star has had the right idea, she's spent most of the day as a fluffy little pancake in front of the AC.
The high temperature though has well suited one job: paintwork.
I've made a decision regarding paint. I'm sticking with the light blue Ford colour I've been using (Bermuda Light Blue if you wondered). I just personally prefer it...I realise that the greener shade is probably closer to how it left the factory but I'm not so keen on it and the paint I've had just hasn't gone on well. The Ford colour I can get relatively inexpensively in cellulose (not enamel which I'd got in my head from somewhere), which should spray nicely with the equipment I've got here.
My plan here is to get the car painted all one colour and with a half reasonable shine on it, then I'm going to step back and try to leave the bodywork alone for the most part and just concentrate on using, enjoying and functionally improving the car for a bit. Next year I'll maybe look to get it into a body shop to be properly stripped back to bare fibreglass and to have a couple of my repairs tidied up by someone who actually knows what they're doing.
My trip over to the Festival of the Unexceptional was quite a revealing experience for me, being the first properly real drive in the car rather than just trundling around town. That showed me how well she actually drives...even with a drive belt in need of adjustment, a thoroughly bodged throttle cable and more rattles than you can shake a stick at. Oh, and a carb which periodically still plays up for a few seconds now and then.
I'm really looking forward to getting some proper miles covered and un-bodging some of my bodges.
For now though I figured that taking advantage of the warm weather to get a few bits painted made sense. Figured I still had about enough paint in stock to get the engine cover done before I go to get my next stock of paint in next week.
The engine cover aside from a bit of pitting in a few places wasn't all that bad and I figured would look all right with fresh paint on.
Didn't come out half bad actually.
Annoyingly I did get one run when my concentration wandered at one point. Luckily it will be covered by the number plate, so I'm not too worried about it.
The lock is also totally seized so will need to be changed which is why I didn't bother masking it off.
I quite like the fact that some of the surface fractures are still visible through the paint as I think it suits the honesty of the appearance of the car.
Given the weather forecast for tomorrow I can't see me leaving the house to be honest!
I used to love the hot weather in years gone by until I was put on medication which basically turned the acceptable temperature envelope for me down by about 20C. It's a royal pain in the tail in the summer I tell you that. Anything beyond about 25C ambient and I progressively just start to stop functioning.
Think Star has had the right idea, she's spent most of the day as a fluffy little pancake in front of the AC.
The high temperature though has well suited one job: paintwork.
I've made a decision regarding paint. I'm sticking with the light blue Ford colour I've been using (Bermuda Light Blue if you wondered). I just personally prefer it...I realise that the greener shade is probably closer to how it left the factory but I'm not so keen on it and the paint I've had just hasn't gone on well. The Ford colour I can get relatively inexpensively in cellulose (not enamel which I'd got in my head from somewhere), which should spray nicely with the equipment I've got here.
My plan here is to get the car painted all one colour and with a half reasonable shine on it, then I'm going to step back and try to leave the bodywork alone for the most part and just concentrate on using, enjoying and functionally improving the car for a bit. Next year I'll maybe look to get it into a body shop to be properly stripped back to bare fibreglass and to have a couple of my repairs tidied up by someone who actually knows what they're doing.
My trip over to the Festival of the Unexceptional was quite a revealing experience for me, being the first properly real drive in the car rather than just trundling around town. That showed me how well she actually drives...even with a drive belt in need of adjustment, a thoroughly bodged throttle cable and more rattles than you can shake a stick at. Oh, and a carb which periodically still plays up for a few seconds now and then.
I'm really looking forward to getting some proper miles covered and un-bodging some of my bodges.
For now though I figured that taking advantage of the warm weather to get a few bits painted made sense. Figured I still had about enough paint in stock to get the engine cover done before I go to get my next stock of paint in next week.
The engine cover aside from a bit of pitting in a few places wasn't all that bad and I figured would look all right with fresh paint on.
Didn't come out half bad actually.
Annoyingly I did get one run when my concentration wandered at one point. Luckily it will be covered by the number plate, so I'm not too worried about it.
The lock is also totally seized so will need to be changed which is why I didn't bother masking it off.
I quite like the fact that some of the surface fractures are still visible through the paint as I think it suits the honesty of the appearance of the car.
Given the weather forecast for tomorrow I can't see me leaving the house to be honest!