Post 16: Inner body paint completed. Right hand drive conversion brake & clutch pipes

26th November 2017:  Almost the end of November, inner body paint completed and happy with the result, in fact I thought it would be worse than it is but I was only really interested in the underside and engine bay as everything else is covered later.  At least the car has a good coat of paint on it, in fact several from the etch primer, stone-chip , primer, and finally the top coat.  here it is!

Finished topcoat

So, in my head I thought that Christmas would be the point when I reached the inner body paint - I am about 5 weeks ahead of that - true I haven't done the front and rear shroud yet but I have a plan for them - they are pretty poor so it is going to be interesting to see if I can salvage them - I hope so!.

I need to get the car to a built state to move it to Beaulieu to get the new hardtop fitted.  To do this I need it on its wheels, with the shrouds, engine and window installed.  Why because each roof is made to order and it has to be fitted so on then. . . .

This weekend the last in November I decided to start the climb from the body to this built state so target for the weekend was to refit the brakes lines, fuel lines and battery cable.  Nothing is easy so started with the brake lines. Brake lines take a while as you cant just put them back on they have to be cleaned and painted black!

As I am converting from LHD to RHD this isn't as easy as refitting I had to modify them.  I couldn't find any decent images of how the RHD car was setup so have used some poetic license to re-create the lines.  Was straight forward, had to move the reservoir too, but took ages to get it all aligned.  I have included images here for reference.

Re-working of the clutch & brake master cylinder pipes

Re-working of the clutch & brake master cylinder pipes

Re-working of the clutch & brake master cylinder pipes

As a function of re-routing the brake and clutch pipes I also had to temporarily fit the steering box, also a new one as it needed to be converted, and the throttle linkage, the throttle linkage is fun - will detail that next time,  and battery cable as they are all in near contact with each other.  I also installed the overdrive kick-down switch and the heat shields - enough to be going on with - sorry fuel pipe.

Some progress - heat shielding, steering column & brake piipes

New heat shields installed

Close up of brake pipes



All together a worthwhile weekend.  Also fitted the front dampers and bump stops as Mike brought then around after cleaning and painting them.

Front suspension dampers going in

Post 15: Body in Paint - Top coat final spray

22 November 2017:  Well it did not take long from the primed state to get to a painted body so not much to say really - I just sprayed!  Here are the pictures and yes it is Navy Blue although to be fair I am having difficulty sometimes to distinguish it from black but I guess that's my eyes!

 

Post 14: Body in main primer

17 November 2017:  Still November, working hard to get the body completed for Christmas.  A little more sanding today and then on to the priming stage.


Decided to do the whole body in one go.  Got a bit messy with the paint again, maybe should have done it in stages but it has come out alright I think. 

 

Post 13: Body in base etch primer

12 November 2017:  November now and it is starting to get close to my original estimate that I might be finished the inner body by Christmas 2017, so time for an assessment against that target:

• Inner body is now welded, sure I have a small job to do on the left front shotgun but I can do that until I get the body off the jig.  Welding has been a real trial, learned a lot from it, hope that I have got the all the panels aligned sufficiently to make it all work later.  Wings and doors did actually all fit a few weeks ago so there is hope.

• From that point cleaning the body was really hard, especially the engine bay, really hard work!! but done as much as I can - think it is OK.

• Next was to spray the bare panels with primer - this was fun and new.  First time with a spray gun too - how do you get paint out of the tin without creating a mess is beyond me!!

• I felt I should put some stone chip protection under the floors and sills, in fact every where it might get chipped from road debris.  I bought ready mixed Gravitex and used the spray gun again - I think the paint needed thinning a bit to do that but I got away with it.

So, as you can see below in the images I am getting close to finishing the inner body.  All of the suspension parts are dismantled and sent away for powder coating - looking forward to getting them back and getting some paint on the body.


Hope to get some of the under mechanicals back on before Christmas but lets see how far I get. Enjoy the images.

View of engine bay

From the front

Underside of the car after e-primer - from front

  

Underside of the car after e-primer - from rear

 

A look at the engine bay - difficult to paint this!

 

Underside again but showing the stone chip - I may have gone overboard!