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.