Luv2Wrench

Block sanding has gone very well though I sanded through to bare metal multiple times in multiple places. SPI recommended that I 80 grit the whole tub and spray another two coats of the epoxy primer, wait 18 hours and then go with 2-3 coats of the build primer. Seemed like a good idea to me and it gave me a good chance to see some reflections in the tub and check on how things looked. It isn't perfect yet but it is certainly on the way.

I dropped the chrome off today to get plated. It will take 9 weeks to get back and cost $5,000. I wasn't prepared for that. I know chrome is expensive but I found that borderline insane. I am paying more for "show quality chrome" so we'll see what that looks like. My only real alternative was to buy reproductions and the quality on those is just not that good. Probably would've been fine for a daily driver but I've put too much work into this car to cheap out on the chrome.

For real... I need me a Jane.

Crazy mad skills. Glad you woke me up by posting in the general thread. Tis a shame I've been missing out on your work before.

That's insane!!!! Thanks for heads up, will definitely be following along.

Block sand, block sand, etc, etc. I'm glad this is a small car. I'm probably doing a little more than I need to be but I will be painting it a dark green and I would like it to be as close to perfect as possible. I've spent this long on the project already so I might as well spend a few weeks getting it dead flat. I have the driver's rear quarter panel where I want it to be. The passenger's rear quarter is pretty close. The two front quarters don't need much so I haven't really done much with them yet. The scuttle is going to be the hardest part of the tub by far. I've gotten a fairly good start on it. The two ends where I had to weld patches in are done and where not a problem. The broad arc across the top along with the transition to the two raised curves in front of the driver/passenger is where the more difficult area. There were some subtle low and high spots that really didn't come out until I started using guide coat and a 30" block. Nothing tricky, just time consuming.

Looks good! I probably have the wood for the front, I'll check. If I do it is your's for the shipping.

I definitely hear what you're saying. I'm following their directions to the T. Their epoxy primer is a different than others. This epoxy does not need to be sanded if it’s primed over within 7 days. Always prime over the epoxy within 7 days. After 7 days, the epoxy should be sanded with 180 grit and recoated with epoxy for best adhesion. When spraying a polyester type primer, always let the epoxy sit for at least 48 hours.

SPI (Southern Polyurethanes Inc) makes a 2K primer that is compatible with their epoxy primer in that you have a 6 day window to shoot the 2K primer or, as you say, you must scuff the epoxy primer.

Yes, I will be doing that. In addition, the primer that is on now (black) is not the one I will be sanding. While you can sand the epoxy primer it doesn't sand well. I'll be shooting several coats of 2K primer that will fill imperfections a bit better and is easier to sand. It isn't a high build primer but it isn't as thin as the epoxy primer.

So... finally, three coats of epoxy primer on the tub. Can shoot sanding primer tomorrow. Then block sanding. I'm excited!!!

I Googled that color and came up with: I wouldn't mind that color and wouldn't mind that car.

I think stencils would look great. For the raised letters, one method I've read about is to paint the lettered area with the color of the letters first, let that dry for a week, then paint the main color and while still wet, wipe it off the tops of the raised letters. I can't tell from you pictures if the letters are sharp enough to do that, but I know that was one way it was done back then.

I started with that one, it is called Jaguar Racing Green. The narrative on it is that in the shade it gets very dark and the blue tints are very strong. I'll also be looking at the two sample sprayed out and there's no guarantee that even if the mixer follows the formula correctly that it ends up being identical to what we see online... my computer monitor isn't calibrated either... in fact, I have it set a good bit warmer than standard.

Just in case you haven't had enough of me droning on about how my goal is to get the tub off the chassis and ready for paint, here's the latest video where I mention it every 3 minutes. https://youtu.be/40R2OGhUFoQ For the record... I did finally get the tub off the chassis and on the rolling table. Tomorrow it will get epoxy primer and sanding primer on Monday. I have narrowed my choices for paint down to two paint codes: https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetail.cgi?ppg=47037 http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetail.cgi?ppg=46169 I'm leaning towards the first one, 47037 but will probably get both of them mixed and into spray cans so I can spray them out and see how they look.

Try getting disposable latex gloves around here!!! I'll be painting soon and unless I get really lucky I might be wearing my welding gloves. Beautiful work as usual Harm, really love how this project is coming together.

A foundry next door tends to change the way one works. Cattail Foundry is the one I use and it is essentially an 8 week turnaround, not that I'm complaining. Having one next door with less turnaround time is quite a treat. I love seeing your solutions to problems and can't wait to see that piece come back and get installed.

That is what I've read. They are bronze for sure and judging from looking at the internals after the one half busted in two, it appears cast. I bent them quite a bit before I knew they were cast. Once I read that they were cast I made note to be more careful at which point one promptly split into two. Upon further review I've found that the hinges are made of brass.

Quite the adventure getting the passenger's door fit. I took the hinges off and started bending the one that was most off. I heated it thoroughly to prevent it from cracking. It snapped clean in two the moment I started to bend it. Oops. I have multiple other hinges but I picked the ones I'm using because they were the best and didn't have too much play (ie; they were not worn out). Since only one half of the hinge broke I took the pin out, found another half from my stash that would match and put it back together. I was very fortunate in that the one top half I had (it must have the three mounting holes instead of two) was not worn out and matched well with the half I managed to not destroy. With a new half this was a different hinge so I had to put everything back together and test fit the door again. Fortunately this time the door's fit was very, very close. The door itself needed some tweaking where the skin did not wrap around the frame correctly. Probably another mistake by the guy that bent the hinges wrong and then snapped one in half. After another couple of hours of on/test/off/tweak/on/test/off/tweak/on/test I finally had a fit that was spot on. Which means... I'M DONE WITH THE DOORS. Hopefully I'll be able to take them off without breaking them, label everything and put things away so I can find them later. Tomorrow I will get the tub ready to be lifted off and then my son and I will lift it off and set it on a rolling work table.

Driver's door is fit and I'm happy with it. It is at least as good as original and probably better. Passenger's door is very close but will need the hinges bent. Some idiot bent them the other day to move the door in one direction and didn't notice something else was amiss. I'd really let the guy have it for screwing that up but I'm gonna cut myself some slack.

Great looking car, can't wait to follow the rest of the adventure!!

British Racing Green is the color. Pinning that down isn't easy, but I did have a headlight in the parts pile that was close. I'm using it as a start and will darken it just a touch.

I think it looks 40x better without the 40 extra holes. So here's basically the same picture I've been showing for what seems like months along with the same goal... remove the tub and prep for paint. This time, however, removing the tub and prepping for paint really is just around the corner. The doors still need to be tweaked and then that's it!!! Tub comes off, 80 grit once over, 3 coats epoxy primer, 3 coats sanding primer and then block sanding.

I just did it with filler rod. I started the puddle like normal on the right edge of the hole and just before/right at the time it gets liquid I put the filler rod in the puddle and start working left and up/down. The trick is to move a little too fast such that you're melting filler rod with torch just as much as the puddle. This keeps the puddle from getting too big and sagging. Obviously this is not what you'd do on a fusion joint which is why once you've filled the hole, you start the puddle on the right again and reflow the weld getting the puddle much bigger and working it about 1/8" or so outside the diameter of the original hole. You can use the pressure of the flame to push the puddle around a bit and get it to flatten some as well. You'll be shocked when you look at the back and it is almost dead flat and needs little grinding if any. I guess it is due to some surface tension effect or something. I'm not sure of the thickness limit this would work for but you could definitely "stack" the bits of filler rod pretty deep for repairing thicker metal. One thing to visualize, with normal Oxy/Act welding you'd be dipping the filler rod in the top of the edge of the puddle. When I'm doing this I'm sticking the rod on the edge of the leading side of the puddle, I have the rod at an extreme angle, almost horizontal. Again, this is 100% not how to do a joint, but you're going to reflow and level out the whole thing later so it works a charm. For the spare tire rack that is about 1/4" thick or more, I took a counter sink bit and made the existing hole a little angled. Then I chopped a bit of round stock off that fits in the top of the hole but doesn't go all the way through (since it is countersunk). Then basically the same procedure but now you don't have to fill the middle. Hope that helps! Now that I think about it, given the tools you have... I think taking a taper drill and putting a slight taper in the holes you have to fill, then turn a bit of bar stock at about the same taper would make an ideal plug. Put it in the hole, give it a slight tap and work the puddle around the circumference.

On the theme of welding... the PO (or someone) for some strange reason drilled a bunch of holes in random areas of the car. Maybe the were trying to lighten it One of the last tasks before being able to start prepping the tub for paint is to weld in 40 holes in the firewall. Yeah, 40 holes. Things went very smoothly and I was quite pleased with the results. I welded 4 holes at a time spaced far apart. After 4 holes I turned the torch off, grabbed a body hammer and gave the new welds a couple of good smacks. This was to offset the shrinkage that would come from the pool of molten metal cooling. While the strategy added some time to the process, it seemed to work well and I had no issue with warping. The welds cleaned up nicely and the end results exceeded my expectations. I have a hole in the bumper to do and 6 holes in the spare tire mount.