Luv2Wrench

@Bloo yep, the panels are attached with staple/nails through the hidem. @John_Mereness I pulled the cording out on the ends and wrapped it around the back using contact cement to keep everything in place. It all turned out just fine. Thanks for the extra info and tips!

Here's a picture to help explain. The rear piece (on right) needs to have the hidem follow the curve and then magically attach to the front piece of hidem. Where and how are not described in any instructions. I think from what @chistec is saying I'd overlap the two on the front piece (left side), cut them to make a butt joint and then sew them together. I think at that point they will be mostly hidden by the carpet and seat. Possibly completely hidden. Now that I look at the picture of my own car... it seems blindingly obvious that the area in question will be 100% hidden by the carpet and the seat. I think I'll still do the technique @chistech suggested

Perfect, thanks!!

Piping arrived!! Installed right side and center section along with a temporary install of the dash to check the placement of the piping. Test fit the front and rear panels on the passenger's side and they look pretty good. I did have to remove the leather from the wood and trim a bit here and there to get it exact but the initial fit was very acceptable. I think the rear panel is probably in for good once I resolve how the back corner will work. Moss provides very little information on the install, basically says to get the Horst Schach book and follow those instructions. I do have that book and it has been helpful but it glosses over the details of how the back corners work. Internet searches have returned all kinds of poor implementations. I have some "unrestored pictures" and I think I see how it fits together so I'll be working through that next. Once resolved it should be a rather straightforward job of fixing the panels in place. One other thing to resolve is how to join two pieces of hidem. Where the front and rear panels meet the hidem needs to be joined. I'm not real sure how this is supposed to be done. My guess is to angle cut them flush and staple on both side. Any thoughts?

Really nice, absolutely love the attention to detail with the tight joinery and slotted screws.

That's really impressive work and some good looking ash as well.

I'm pretty sure your cat knew you needed to upgrade to an SSD and just forced the issue... you should be thankful for the intervention. As always, many thanks for taking the time to share your story with us!

You'll get it right and then you'll be able to enjoy it forever. If not too inconvenient you might paint a small panel just to go through the process and see the results. I mentioned this before but the edges... oh my goodness the edges... lol, make sure those edges are smooth and no high spots on the edge. If you have a sharp edge and/or it is high you'll sand through it in a heart beat when wet sanded and/or buffing. I think I had one trouble are that wasn't on an edge, everything else was right around an edge.

It looks good right out of the solution. I think it might look a little better after light buffering. I think the nickel plating is a lot easier than the zinc plating.

I just started nickel plating some small parts. I am not using Caswell as my experience with their Zinc plating kit was not positive nor was their attempt at support. I found a zinc plating formula online and I've been using that for a couple years now. For the nickel plating I looked online as well. I filled up a 5 quart bucket with white vinegar, used nickel welding rods as anodes, applied electricity and added salt until it was pulling about 3 amps at 20 volts. I let that run overnight and the next morning I had a nice green nickel acetate solution to plate with. I'm using a constant current power supply and set it for about 80ma per square inch that I'm plating. The parts I've done were brass and they polished up to a mirror finish. You can buy nickel acetate online but it seems a bit pricey.

Finished bumper support bars as well as a pretty long list of little stuff. Had to take the transmission cover back off as well as remove the passenger's side floor board. I missed 2 screws when I was putting down the floor board. Unfortunately they're covered by the transmission cover so that had to come out. Then I realized the screws wouldn't fit anyway because the floor was a little too far towards center... so out it came and I trimmed a bit off the side. I eventually got every back together and I'm very happy with how solid it is. This is the first time I've had all of the pieces 100% connected. I built a battery tray, nickel plated the body/chassis ID plates and other small tasks. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow or next week.

I may be missing something but if I put in bushings on my wood wheels I wouldn't need to be concerned with them popping out as they're sandwiched between the hub plates, right? I would think your's are the same. Maybe you guys are talking about a different problem?

While frustrating, it is a lot cheaper than painting the car multiple times which is basically what I ended up doing. I don't really think there's any way around it. You can't see what you can't see. You need someone to show you what you can't see and/or paint the dang thing and then have to paint it again (and possibly again). I think my biggest lesson learned was that little "hope" you have that some area will be OK or it won't be that noticeable is just yourself being tired and trying to ignore the obvious. Having your friend go over it is a great help and in the long run it will save you a lot of time and money.

You certificate is in the mail.

I don't know what you financial situation is, but if you've got $5K then drop the claim and fix the car. In this case Hagerty "won" but you get to keep your car with same title. If you want to save money then disassemble the car, find both fenders, reassemble everything to make sure it all fits correct and then take that to a body shop for paint. If you're not going to pay for blended paint, then you might just take the fenders for paint (assuming that is all that is damaged). I did this twice with my daughter's car though the second time I did the paint myself. The first time I worked with the adjuster, in person, to suggest lower prices on parts, suggest something might just be left as is, etc, etc. They paid me cash to then get the car fixed. I then bought the replacement panels, prepped them for paint, made sure they fit correctly and took them to a body shop for paint. With the second accident I didn't even bother with an insurance claim as I knew I could get the parts and do the job for less than they'd increase my rates. Or... start shopping for a new old car!!

I tweaked the hinges on the passenger's door again and I'm now happy with the fit. I'm still waiting on the piping so there's not much more I can do interior wise. In addition to a bunch of small tasks, I installed the transmission cover with its 12 screws in unreachable locations. The transmission cover adds a bit of stability to the entire cockpit area. It ties the floor boards together and to the firewall. This car is really a sum of its parts. Unfortunately I'm really getting to the point that I can't do anything else until I get the piping. The area under the dash is tiny and very difficult to work in... unfortunately a bunch of stuff happens there. Both front interior panels terminate in there. There is a foot rest in the passenger's side. There is a panel that covers the area underneath the dash. All of those things need to be squared away before the dash goes in and they all depend on the two interior panels which, of course, can't go on until I have the piping. I have some welding to do on the bumper support bar so I can do that and I couple of other things in the engine bay. After that... I'm idle until the piping gets here.

I had issues with dry primer and SPI recommend their urethane retarder which worked great. Adding reducer did not work for me and I kinda feel like it made it worse. They recommended it for over 80 degrees. They also said if I didn't get the retarder to mix less and shoot faster.

The past few days I've been working on getting the interior doors panels on, along with the handle/latch mechanism. Tedious nightmare would be a nice way of describing the process. The basic challenge with these cars is that they were "built" one by one. Aside from the engine and suspension components, there are no "hard" dimensions. They built a wood frame, bent sheet metal around it, hung the doors and ran bolts/screws in place. At least half of the fasteners are wood screws which, really, can screw in any old place. I spent about 4 hours getting the door latch mechanism in place, got the door shutting nicely, everything nice and aligned, interior panel in place, etc, etc. I had to take it all back apart because the exterior door handle can only be in one place as it has two screws that go through the metal skin. That dictates the angle and location of the latch mechanism on the inside. As I found out... you have to put that on first, then get everything else to fit. Anyway.. the doors are on, driver's side is just about perfect, passenger's side is close and probably as close as it will ever get. I really like the look of the chrome on the dark green. Very happy with the color.

I have bought a couple of things from Abingdon Spares and I've been happy with I bought. I do have a growing list of things that I'll need to complete the car and I'm definitely in the mood to send money somewhere else at this point.

In keeping with the failure theme for spray adhesives... I ended up having to pull the arch covers off again. I had switched to using contact cement for the other pieces I was working on so I did the same for putting the arch covers back on. They went on smoothly without a hitch. I should've just done that to start with. I talked to Moss about the piping issue. They acknowledged that the kit was incorrect and that I had the wrong piping but the "warranty" had expired on the kit. They would be happy to sell my 3 yards of it for just under $50 delivered. It is clear that their customer service is just as crappy as the parts they sell and then take forever to get delivered. The piping is special order and will take "around 4 weeks" because of COVID. What COVID has to do with piping that is on a 300' roll in a warehouse somewhere is beyond me. As such there's nothing else I can do on the interior until it gets here. There are 2 British sports cars for sale near me that I'd love to have, but there's no way in heck that I'd ever buy a British sports car because I'd be relying on Moss Motors for parts. Sorry for the rant, I feel better now. I did manage to get all the other pieces that required gluing completed. I'm very happy with how it all turned out and/or I'm delusional from breathing contact cement fumes for 8 hours. There are some other small tasks I can get done while I'm waiting so I'll be working on those next. Welding up the bumper supports is one task that I'll probably do tomorrow.

It is looking great! Getting in time during the week is an awesome way to keep and build momentum. I like to save a thing or two that I'm dreading and get that done during the weekdays. Seems like a double win.

I love the color and it will sit wonderfully in the Arizona landscape.

Finally had a week and weekend that I was able to get some work done. The passenger's door needed a bit of a lift and to get that the factory support bar needed to become shorter. The common solution for that is to replace the bar with a turnbuckle. There's a couple different ways to do that, cables, all thread, solid bar, etc. I felt like the best solution for me was to cut a section out of the original support bar and weld a small turnbuckle in place. It worked great and both doors are now installed. Getting more comfortable with the torch has definitely helped. I wouldn't say I'm very good yet but I'm thinking of it as a tool for a solution rather than avoiding it. Next up is covering a few pieces with vinyl for the rear half of the interior. I covered the wheel arches and I'm pretty pissed with how it turned out. I spent hours and hours getting the fit just right and it look absolutely fantastic when I got finished. Unfortunately when I came out the next morning a few wrinkles appeared. The 3M 77 adhesive spray is garbage now after the formula change. It may be more environmentally friendly but it doesn't do its job anymore. I've switched to contact cement going forward. As much as I hate the wrinkles I'm not willing to risk trying to pull the covers off and redo them so I'll have to live with it. The truth is the seat back covers that area so you want see it but I'll always know it is there. This is the door to the side curtain box. The car actually came with this piece and only this piece... but if you only had one piece... this is the one you'd want. It was super helpful to have it. It even has the original "Made in England" hinges. I plated them and they look great. It gets vinyl on the front and then felt on the back. The inside of the box is also felt and was pretty challenging to measure, cut and install. Here is a shot with the rear quarter panels stuck in place as well as the side curtain box "top" sitting loosely in place. The top will also be covered with vinyl. I changed the original top a bit by splitting it length wise and installing a piano hinge. That way in addition to the door opening, you can raise the top to make it easier to get the side curtains out. I've also run into another roadblock. The interior kit comes with 3 lengths of piping. 2 long ones and 1 short one. Mine came with 1 long one and 2 shorts ones... Unfortunately I ordered this 3.5 years ago and just now noticed it. I'm hoping Moss will be able to help me out. They don't sell the piping separately... so I'd need to buy another $600 interior panel kit.

Outstanding!!! Nice work, that's going to be one helluva beautiful car!!

Yes, however if you have the ground connected and that checked out then it is not likely line and neutral are reversed. If ground isn't connected and thus isn't connected to the frame of the motor then it would be possible for line/neutral to be switched with line touching the frame. If your ground is connected to the motor frame then it would blow a fuse if line was leaking into the frame.