Painting... mostly, but not watching it dry

Greetings!

It's been another busy week in the workshop, managed to spend a few evenings and all weekend - achieved quite a lot as well, which I'm pleased about. Really starting to come together now.

First job early in the week was to put the front suspension together, all went well, although as I was advised by GKD there was lots of swearing and cursing with the rubber bushes!! With lashings of fairy liquid they went in fine, but once you undid the vice, even though they were 99% in, they slowly squirmed back out again!! It was very perculiar. I got round it by using some stud bar and a socket, which had the effect of pulling them in and squishing up either end, which centred them nicely.

Front suspension, lower wishbone and spring/damper on, upper wishbone just about to go on

Next was to install the steering rack, which was easy enough; although where I'd positioned my front chassis stands, I couldn't do the clamping bolts up - so had to lift the front up temporarily

Do you even lift? Yes, yes I do.

At this point I wanted to check the panels and the nosecone for fit, and fit the headlamp bracket; and generally make sure nothing was fouling. Plus, nice rewarding picture to quickly lineup a few goodies and make it look a bit closer to a finished car...

Basically finished now...

Over the next couple of evenings I decided to bring the rear brake calipers up to the correct colour scheme. The VW golf calipers supplied by GKD are silver, and I wanted them to match the fronts which I had painted some time ago.

First - etch primer

Then topcoat

Checking paint match against front ones (in my left hand)

In the evenings after work, it wasn't worth rigging up the compressor and mixing up a pot of paint only to have to clean it up again, so I had a rattle can made up from the local automotive paint place. Delighted with the colour match, just took a bolt from the caliper in and they found the correct colour. The result is excellent, very happy.

When the weekend rolled around, the big job was to get the aluminium panels painted (well about half of them). First I deburred all the panels and filed the edges I'd trimmed, next was to key up the aluminium with 400 grit glass paper

Panels keyed up ready for primer

Close up

Then, add primer - 2 pack epoxy, PR143 - very nice to work with, easy to apply, rubs down nicely

After 2 coats of PR143

I managed a reasonable job, quite happy with the result. A few runs and one or two defects, most of which appear on the backs of panels so wasn't too fussed on repairing them, especially as there is a risk you can make it worse and have to start again! One of the big runs on the front of the panel I rubbed down and salvaged, which was good.

In between coats and whilst waiting for stuff to dry (have you ever watched paint dry...?) I tackled a few other odd jobs that have been building up and sat on the to-do list on the whiteboard for way too long. First up, lift up the engine, take the O/S mount off, and recover a broken bolt. For quite possibly the first time ever, I had success with the easy-out tool, which was an absolute mircale and saved loads of time.

Right-angled drill to make a hole, gentle application of the blowtorch, and out popped the broken bolt. Ideal.

Also tackled the propshaft - very pleasing milestone, as now the engine is connected to the wheels. Verified that by putting it in 5th gear and turning the crank bolt with a ratchet - pleasing to see the wheels turning!!

Prop now fitted - had to grind down a 6mm allen key to get to some of the adaptor bolts, quite tricky but managed it easy enough with the home-made tool

Torqued up the prop and now the wheels are fully connected to the engine. I was able to torque the driveshaft bolts as well, another job on the list for many months which has been ticked off

 Meanwhile, back to the painting. First couple of panels with their first coats of orange... now you can start to see the final colour and what the car will eventually look like. Exciting times!

After 2 coats...

After 3 coats - lookin' kinda shiny! Nice gloss starting to appear

4th and final coat

Can even see my reflection... must be good then

And that was enough work for one week!! So time to pack up, come home, have a cup of tea and write on the blog.

I'm quite chuffed with the paint finish - it's not too bad at all for an amateur; clearly it wouldn't pass muster as a professional job, it's a little bit orange peely, but for my project I'm quite happy with the result.

Also done this week but not pictured are: exhaust manifold gasket and carefully salvaging the M7 copper nuts, hub nuts (although note to self, not torqued yet), found a battery that was on offer for £18 plus vat at the local car parts wholesalers (even if it's ultimately no good e.g. too heavy or not enough cold cranking amps, worth a punt for that kind of money), handbrake cables and got some rear pads for when I start building up the rear brakes.

 I've also been looking at various options for dashboards - quite like the idea of an all-in-one digital dash, and open to suggestions if anyone has any advice. Just to get the through engine start I'll use the standard BMW clocks in case I introduce any weird electrical gremlins; but I won't cut the scuttle until I settle on a choice of digi-dash.

Thanks for reading, hoping to get the remaining bits from GKD this week, and drilled and grooved brakes I've ordered off eBay - the next milestone I'm charging towards is putting all 4 wheels on the ground.

Cheers!
Steve