More Paint

After a slow start this weekend due to way to much beer I started on the remainder of the car, I washed the bonnet, doors and sills then used my keyer pad followed by some 600 grit then another wash and masked up.

Doing the front was quite straigh forward, I decided to do the bonnet in 3 sections so did the sides with the doors and sills as there was a natural swage line the I could mask to.

And here she is after I removed the masking and sheeting.

Not a bad finish straight out of the gun. All I need to do now is flatten with some 2000 grit then mop it up and hopefully I will have a nice shiny car again :)

Paint time

Last weekend I made a start on the new coat of paint. I decided to tackle it in sections, starting with the rear.

My 1st attempt saw loads and I mean loads of runs on both wings, my friend Stem helped me rescue the job on the Sunday and after an initial buffing the rear end now looks like this.

Carb fuel pipe

The carbs were connected by a black rubber fuel pipe, I did not like this and preferred something more in line with what would have originally been used so I removed it and cut it up, then added some nice shiny copper fuel pipe.

Before

After

Dash refit

I decided to remove and repaint the heater control panel as it looked quite poor. I was please to see that the lettered strip was seperate clear plastic. After a good wash I gave the black part a coat of paint.
Here it is before painting.

And here it is painted and back in place.

Re-sealing the windscreen capping

Last Sunday I got quite wet, to the point it looked as though I had wet my pants.
Water was coming through under the capping.
I was going to just silicone the leading edge but decided that removal and refit was a more long term soution, this involved drilling out the 8 or 9 rivets to release the capping, I then cleaned both the capping and screen top with turps followed by paint thinners. A good line of industrial sealant was applied to the capping and this was then riveted back in place. I have a spare capping should I need to remove this one in the future.

cappng removed

And back in place

Dashboard refurb

Here is the dash before I started

I took off the vent covers and tonneu rittings, rubbed them down then painted them, I did not do the ashtray, as this was done weeks ago due to it being to tatty to look at.

I then fitted the new dash cover and put everything back in, this turned out to be a pig of a job but I got there eventually :)

I love paint me

Got some black vinyl paint the other day, so far have painted the door cards and door capping. Abby is starting to look much nicer already. :)
Also bought a brand new dash cover to replace the cracked on. will do this tomorrow.

Sorting the SoftTop out

Since a previous owner felt that the hood should be totally removable my hood was missing a plate that bolts on to the rear. I obtained one for £9 second hand. Took a flap disc to it to remove the crud, then primed and painted it.

Once this had been done I removed the 3 rear press studs then fitted new one through the hood and plate, the plate was then bolted onto the tub.
I can now fit both my hood cover and full tonnau cover whilst the hood remains attached as was designed.

Sunvisors

Got some new sunvisors during my visit to Newcastle, they look so much better than the old tatty ones.

Thermostat

Lots of heat issues had me puzzled, having totally flushed the cooling system and back flushing the rad, I took out the thermostat and it was not opening.
With the innards of the stat removed I drove upto to Newcastle to get a new one.

More Seats

Driver Seat

Passenger Seat

The yellow piping is an issue, I could get vynal paint or I could unpick and sew in red or black piping, or I could be really lazy and get a permenant black marker out.

Not sure which handles to use though

Dashboard

Here is my current one in place

Made a start on my new dashboard this is it after I stripped the veneer off.
Now I just need to decide what veneer to get, I really like walnut burr.
My options are
original black dash.
orginal teak
or walnut burr
but I have also seen laminate from formica amberwood burl looks similar to walnut but quite lighter and you can tell it aint wood.

Update for June

I got some seats from eBay last weekend. They are from a later 1500 as they had the wires for the seatbelt sensor. Sadly I didn't wind the headrests and the seller is keeping the sliding frame so I will need to find frames by the time they are ready to fit.
They are in pretty poor shape but for less than £5 I am well happy with them.
Here they are after I removed the foams and covers, I think I can re-use the foams (just) but the covers although real leather, are just to far gone.
I will unpick the stiching and use the pieces as templates.
The passenger fram was bent out of true and the horizontal bar accross the back rest had also come away on one side.
With a little inginuity, the 4 post ramp and my weight I was able to rectify this and a club member was on hand to do a little gas weld for me. :)