Progress to date: Robert's Roadster

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

The first paint has been applied. I now have a nice bright yellow nose cone.

The preparation is hard work, the engine sides and bonnet are nearly ready and should be painted tomorrow. I had to resort to a large blow lamp and wire brush to remove the paint.

The bonnet has 'war wounds' where a falling tree landed across the car one day. The bonnet was the only real casualty and was 'straightened' with a large hammer, you can see the marks from every blow! I will smooth it a bit but I think it adds character...

I have finally decided on dark green for the body, lighter mid green for the wings and yellow for the nose cone. I was going to paint the wings yellow but I though it might look a bit gaudy.

Pix to follow, I was too tired to take any today.



# 3725

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Today I have removed the paint from almost all the panels, just a bit left on one front wing and the inner wing/valances.

I have started painting the engine side panels.

This morning I fitted the freshly painted nose cone and took a couple of pix.

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[gary.price]

Re: Progress to date

Looking like a car well done. Do yourself a favour and take the tree magnets out of wings. Iv done both in in 18 months lol. I was best overall performer on sunday trialing and won it by 70 points! Marlins amazing!

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Progress to date

would cycle wings be better for trialling Steven? Not as magnetic I would have thought?

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Good point Steven, I will try to give them a wide berth, I have considered cycle wings, and for the next sub build I may well go that route.

I just noticed, 4000 views!!! Wow, I never expected so many people to find an interest in my modest project. I am having the time of my life, a second childhood...


The boys are having a ball and Michael can't wait until he is 14 so he can take part in trials too.


Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read the posts and I hope it may inspire others to have a go. It really isn't that hard. If I can do it anybody can!


What I find so great about the internet is we can talk and show so easily, I am very grateful for the interest and help many of you have given, it is quite hard to do a project like this entirely on your own and although I do have a couple of friends locally a great deal of the help and encouragement has come via the club website.


I apologise for any silly questions I have asked but when I ask them they don't seem that silly, it's only when I know the answers I think, Doh! That was a silly question...


I have just loosely fitted the bonnet and engine sides in their new colours. I am about to paint the front wings this evening, I will try to get a pic tomorrow if the weather holds.

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Wet Paint!

Front and rear wings painted, I am very impressed with this Rust-olium paint. I am using a roller for the majority of the job and only using a brush for tight corners like the sidelights. I am very impressed with the finish and ease of application.

I cut the boot lid out of one of the rear tubs today, worked well, just need a pair of hinges and a catch. The rear tub can be seen in the first pic.

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[listerjp2]

Re: Progress to date

Hi Robert

Thats a very high gloss you have there.

Which of these type of paints did you use, they seem to do quite a lot of different types.

Adrian

[lizbillings]

Re: Progress to date

Hi Robert.
Think its amazing what you have achieved in the time. I also like the colours green and yellow you have chosen. To think you have done it all without a garage as well with all this rain.
Liz

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Hi Robert

Thats a very high gloss you have there.

Which of these type of paints did you use, they seem to do quite a lot of different types.

Adrian

Rust-oleum metal paint. I used a high adhesion primer which is like water thin, in 30 minutes it sets and becomes tacky, sort of dry to the touch bur still soft and tacky.

http://combicolor.co.uk/metal-paint/combicolor.html

I sourced it from a local paint store, the owner is very knowledgable and recommended the product, I had been looking at marine paints which are much more expensive but he felt the Rust-oleum products would suit my needs better.

I scraped, orbital sanded and hand sanded the old paint off, some came off in sheets because the PO hadn't rubbed the gel coat down before the original paint job. The original paint job had been a metal flake type of process, a silver flaky base coat covered with a colour coat. The metal flake layer peeled off quite easily but where the original paint had peeled of during use it had been subjected to drastic rotary sanding and the patch paint was very well stuck down.

I simply applied the high adhesion primer and followed 30 minutes later with the colour coat. The bonnet is a bit rough, sanding marks show through and the dent's look a lot worse now it's painted of course! I just used a small four inch foam roller, applied as thick as I can without going silly. Mostly in the kitchen but the front wings and tub had to be done in the front room. The paint is low odour so not too bad.

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Hi Robert.
Think its amazing what you have achieved in the time. I also like the colours green and yellow you have chosen. To think you have done it all without a garage as well with all this rain.
Liz

Thanks Liz! I don't have much else to do that REALLY interests me, so I am putting 100% into it while I get it ready for the MOT and registration. After that I can relax a bit. Although it seems to rain a lot, I try to do indoor stuff while it's wet and nip out in the brief spells when it's fine. I am lucky my neighbour has allowed me to use his private parking space for the build, I don't even have a private bit of land I could have used for the build.

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Newly painted wings loosely fitted just to see how the colours work. The back tub isn't painted yet, still working on the boot lid, so fitted spare.

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It's starting to look like a car!

I wish the rear tub was painted...

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: Progress to date

Looking good I cant wait to see it...............

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

Like Christmas here this morning with parcels of goodies arriving, new disks and pads for the front from Rimmers and rubber lined cable clips, switches and 'other electrickery things' from Beal UK limited.

It's been a tedious day, once the euphoria of opening parcels was over, I tried to trim round the boot aperture of the rear tub with new fibreglass but the resin doesn't like sub zero temperatures much, I have had to scrape some off and warm the rest with my hot air gun. I am all stuck up with the non setting resin.

I gave that up and carted the tub back into the front room where it is stinking the house out now. I think the resin is starting to gel but it's a real mess... So, NO picky today!!! Don't want the camera covered in resin anyway...

Having given up on the fibreglassing I though it would be good to use some of the newly arrived clips to attach cables to the chassis. It was very fiddly with cold fingers getting the 5mm cap-screws back in their holes without cross threading them but I did it. I also got a step closer with the windscreen lower valance, the fibreglass panel below the screen... I have finally got it to where I want it , having had a running battle with it for a while. I am going to weld on a small bracket in the middle behind the dashboard (when I make it...) to stop the screen valance moving, I have done away with most of the fibreglass panel behind the windscreen, very little of it will remain when I have finished so mine will need support where the normal ones don't.

I have discovered I forgot to strip the paint from the inner wings, so that's another job to do, probably tomorrow. I checked the temperature when I came in to make dinner and it was -5ºC, it could be a cold night tonight, first real frost of the winter.

#4336

[mark westbrookwhite]

Re: Progress to date

Hi Robert I love the cup holder but do you think this might give you some problems on the hill climbs?

[Robert in Cumbria]

Re: Progress to date

It bounced well enough this afternoon when it fell off my bench while I was sanding the inner wing panels, so it will probably be OK on a trial...

That mug goes all over the country on our jaunts and features in many pix around campsites we visit.

Hi Robert I love the cup holder but do you think this might give you some problems on the hill climbs?