RESTORATION PROJECT - 3
February 2007
So paint stripping then became the order of the day and this was mostly done with
Nitromors although I did use a heat gun for some but this proved much slower than
Nitromors. What a tedious job getting into all the nooks and crannies; if I ever do this
again I would probably bite the bullet and pay for the acid(?) bath treatment. Anyway
many hours of toil and here it is just about completely stripped; you can also see the
new frame strut that has been welded in place, plus the new and the old legshields. I
did also strip the primer off the new bodywork parts, legshields, rear and front
mudguards.
Having read about other peoples restorations I noticed it is always advisable to
assemble the bodywork to ensure it all fits and carry out any mods necessary before
painting is started, so this was done and it's surprising how much 'fitting' is required, but
well worth the effort.
Next I set about preparing the body work for spraying, applying rust treatment and
filling where required. You soon come to appreciate the skills a professional bodywork
specialist has when you attempt this type of work; fortunately there was not too much.
Although I had used a rust treatment I also elected to start off with a rust inhibiting
primer called 'Bonda Rust Primer'; this was very easy to use and sprayed on to a nice
even finish on all the bodywork, and pretty much everything else in my garage for that
matter
As you have probably guessed this is going to be a cellulose paint job and after making
some improvements to the filling in places and reapplication of Bonda Rust Primer the
next stage was to apply a white high build primer. This again went on very well and in
fact everything actually got at least two coats..
July 2007
So now everything in my garage is white. Time-wise it's well into summer 2007 and I
need to get all the spraying finished before the end of the summer, or at least before the
temperature drops too much and I will then run into other difficulties.
Time to get on with the final finishing colour and this again went very well, it was good
to see everything changing to a brilliant orange.
September 2007
As you will have guessed, everything in my garage is now orange. I used Rubbing
Compound to complete the job and bring the finish to a nice shine. All paint was bought
from Express Paints Ltd in Portsmouth who also happily supplied much needed advice,
thank you very much; highly recommended.
Ok, it must be time to have a look at the engine!
