Another Cordite Is Born ...

[Paul L]

Molleur - Cheers.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing the bonnet back in place, whether it is painted or not.

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Wednesday:
A rescheduled meeting gave me a chance to get a bit more sanding done in the tent first thing this morning.

The dull areas are largely done, but some shiny bits remain and will need further sanding, but I am getting close.









The frustrating part is that because I ended up with two different shades of BRG, I will have to do this all again.

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Heading into the centre of town on the tube was the equivalent of being cooked in an oven.

Still, at least I could get a bit more done when I got home…

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For some odd reason, my car cover has become the last resting place for hordes of flies.



As I was struggling in the heat a little, I tried to find some shade to work in.



In the end, I was only able to make a start along the driver's side...





But at least it was a start.

Note: Thankfully, the white spots are reflections, not the primer underneath poking though.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[lancelot link]

Flying Ants everywhere today Paul ...definitely not an 'applying paint' day !
I agree with Molleur , step back and let it cure ...and refresh yourself ...

You are making progress , 2 steps forward , one back stylee ...but you are still moving in the right direction ...it looks so much better already ...all those coats of paint will give the car some depth to its overall look and will look far more retro than a modern 2 pack ...

[reneanglia]

Paul if you just polish the flattened paint a bit you will get a nice "patina"

[Paul L]

Gary - Cheers.

Despite my frustration at the rate of progress, I know that, overall, I am still moving forward, which is a good thing.

I must confess that I now have no idea how the car will actually turn out.

But, if I encounter any more paint problems, it will definitely go back on the road as a survivor.

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Rene: - Unfortunately, I still need to put the final coat of paint on before I can think about polish.
( Due to the second tin being a different shade of BRG from the first. )

However, I will definitely take any finish that I end up with after that final coat has been applied.

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Thursday:
I did a few more hours of sanding after work, although you can't really see much of a difference.
( Although everything looks a bit better after a bit of a clean. )





I also had a visitor inside the tent to check my progress.



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I have booked tomorrow off work so I can get the garden ready for the tree surgeon.

So until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

A cunning plan...
I'll do a full Gardener's World update tomorrow, but here are a few car related photos from today's efforts.

In a change to my previous plan, my wife suggested putting the tent back up again after the tree surgeon was done.

So the bonnet went from here.



Leaving its mark on what is left of the grass.



Before ending up in the dining room!



This is definitely a very temporary arrangement and the count down clock is already ticking.

I had to move my wheels from under the tree that is due to be trimmed and put the folded down tent there too.



Everything else ended up in the Summerhouse, which is now a complete state.



Not sure if I will get a chance to sand down more of the body shell tomorrow.

So until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Gardener's World:

So first thing yesterday morning, the garden looked like this.



Note: An old car tarpaulin is now acting as a paddling pool cover.

I had to do some trimming of one of our trees, so I could lift the fence panels out.
( Our neighbours were kind enough to allow us to use their shared driveway. )





By the end of the day, the garden was looking like this, with the tent, pool & washing lines all gone.



The previous owners of our house planted the Eucalyptus tree you can see on the right hand side and it has grown into a complete monster.
( We've already taken over 20 feet off the top in the past. )

In fact there is no way I can go back far enough to get the whole tree in the photo, so this is the view from above.



The team arrived just after 8am and before long they had made a big dent in the Eucalyptus.



With the wood chipper set up outside, there was no chance of working on the car while there were here.



By the time they had left, the garden now looked like this.



The improvements to all the trees look much better in real life compared to the various other photos I took.

So I will leave you will this view from above, where you can see how much was removed.



With a bit of luck, I will get some time to work on the car tomorrow.

Until then, take care, Paul.

[Jaguartvr]

Should have taken the whole tree out.
We had one and it grew like stink, every time you cut it back it grew twice as fast and twice as much.
In the end we chopped it down and took the stump out with a stump grinder.

[Paul L]

Jag - Our plan is to finally chop it down in a few years time, after we have planted some replacement trees first.

The problem we have is that one of ours neighbours cut down all the trees in their garden before pouring tonnes of concrete over the grass.



Which combined with another neighbour cutting down their trees to build a shed leaves one side of the garden very exposed.

The annoying thing is that if we sit on the patio and look left you can't even see another house for all the greenery in the surrounding gardens.



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Morning Chores:
I already been back out in the garden this morning putting my, patent pending, removable clothes lines back up.

I set the post holders in concrete, after modifying the internals to stop them 'gripping' the posts when fitted.





So they can be removed when required and I have some wooden caps to fill in the post holes.



Anyway, I just need to finish some more domestic chores and then the car cover can come off.

Cheers, Paul.

[Paul L]

Token Gesture:
Finally worked out how to put up the circus tent single handed.





Although I still needed my wife's help to bring the bonnet down from the dining room.



Whilst using the yoga to protect the bonnet nose seemed like a good idea…

It actually left traces of pink foam all over the place.



The driveway was a complete sweatbox for the few hours I had to sand down the body shell.

Still, at least I was able to make a decent start and, with a bit of luck, I will be able to chip away at this after work next week.







Once all the sanding has been completed, my basic plan is to paint everything at the same time.

Take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Unexpected Surprise:
Got home from work to find that Micky1Mo had sent me these for my car.



So a big thank you from me to him.

Obviously, I had to try them out for size, but just remember I haven't finished flatting back this area yet.

Thankfully, they are the same diameter as my previous lights, so they fit the plinths nicely.



But there are much thinner than my previous Land Rover lights.



I just need to add a nice coat of BRG and these should really look the part.



Apparently, many of you are more interested in the clouds overhead, than the build itself.

So I'll leave you with my excuse for going back inside, rather than starting to do any more sanding.
( Plus the fact I feel knackered. )



So until next time, take care, Paul.

[molleur]

Always looking forward to your posts. Keep at it!
Very nice from Mickey 1 Mo.

[deni]

Hi Paul,

Finally caught up with last few pages of your posts. Sorry to see you've had so many problems with the painting, but you are soooooo nearly there mate. However, even a "survivor" finish looks great in my opinion. I am sure your next layer will be ok. As always, your build is inspiring and I will definitely follow your example and paint my car with a brush and/or rollers....I will keep my fingers crossed that your final painting session goes ok. Good luck.

Cheers, Deni

[Paul L]

Molleur & Deni - Thanks gents.

Although I'm not actually convinced that I would recommend painting a car by brush.

As this approach has taken much longer than I wanted it to and I am still not finished yet.

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Slow Going:
Wednesday evening was a complete wash out.

Things have also got a bit hectic at work, which meant I was on my laptop at 5.30am this morning!

So whilst I had little energy this evening, I tried to do a bit more…

First job was to remove the pink foam from the bonnet nose.





Whilst it all came off pretty easily…



It did highlight a small 'dent' along the edge.
( Excuse the poor photo, but the light was starting to fade outside. )



But at this point in time, that dent is staying and I will call it character building.

Next I worked my way around one corner at the rear of the car.



Spend too much effort trying to smooth around the plinths and broke through the paint.



Another poor photo, but traces of a few paint wrinkles has also been uncovered by sanding down.



Either way, I will be very glad when I have finished this round of flatting back.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Another Step:
Got a bit more sanding done on the rear of the car this evening…



But that was it.

So let's see what I can get done over the weekend, although I will have to squeeze car work in around other stuff.

Cheers. Paul.

[Paul L]

Time Gentlemen Please!



Yes, I am officially calling time on the flatting back before the final coat of BRG.

Thankfully the tent was able to keep the drizzly rain out.





I've decided it is easier to paint the faces of the aero humps on the boot lid with it upside down.



I had to wait until the afternoon for the rain to stop, so I could tackle the body shell.







To be honest, I've reached the point where I'd be happy to just polish this mess and drive off.

Especially as the weather forecast for tomorrow is more drizzle, so I can't do any painting.

Still, I had a lucky escape when I spotted that the tarpaulin under the cover was full of water.
( Because I've been keeping my wooden tonneau cover off the paintwork. )



Thankfully, I was able to lift it out like a sack and tip it over the driveway.



So much for my expensive car cover being "Four Seasons".

Final job of the day was to paint the underside of the boot lid.



Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Waiting Game
Nothing to report as I now have to wait for the elusive combination of free time and dry weather.

In the meantime, I used some parcel tape to make small modifications to my wooden tonneau cover.





Hopefully, this approach will prevent the foam causing any problems with the paint.

Cheers, Paul.

[Paul L]

I Don't Believe It!
Came home from work to be told that a freak gust of really strong wind had hit the garden earlier.

Unfortunately, this resulted in the 'Circus Tent' being lifted off the ground and then thrown back down.

Obviously, seeing the boot lid on the outside of the tent was never going to be a good sign.



But it was much worse on the inside.



In one corner of the roof, one cross brace snapped in half and another was bent to the point of splitting.



But there was also knock on damage to other brackets and joints.

This meant that I couldn't get it back into position, so I just had to tape it together as best I could.



Leaving me with a sagging roofline.



The bonnet and its stand were also knocked about.



Resulting in a series of small chips on the rear edge.



And some scrapes on the inside surface too.



I've been forced to leave the tent flaps open just incase there is any more wind coming.



I wonder if I've even mentioned before that building this car without a garage was a really dumb idea?

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Delayed Deja Vu:
I've just checked the dates and, completely by chance, it was the 21st of June when the first coat of BRG went on.

So here I am, exactly one month later, still trying to get the final coat of BRG on.

Thankfully, I was able to get some time off real work, as the weekend forecast looks very wet.

In order to ensure I had a single shade of BGR for the whole car, I blended the 2nd & 3rd tins.



I also added a dash of thinner into the paint bucket (which is recommended for spraying).

Working on the driveway was hampered by high winds blowing bits all over the fresh paint.







However the wind was really playing havoc with my attempts to painting inside the 'Circus Tent'.

At one point, the whole thing lifted and moved while I was half way through painting the bonnet.
( The original tent pegs holding the legs were all lost the other day, but I've since found some more. )

But eventually I managed to get everything painted.

The headlight rims were easier to paint on the ground compared to hanging up.



You can also see the state of the structure trying to support the roof in this photo.



The boot lid.



The bonnet.



So far, < Touch Wood > I haven't noticed any of the major paint reactions that have plagued me up until now.

I am sure the fact it is much cooler has helped and the dash of thinner may also have played a part.

Unfortunately, I think I was being so careful to avoid putting on too much paint, that I didn't apply enough.

So there are lots of places where the paint hasn't settled into a smooth finish.

Still, it looks like I have enough paint left to give everything a second coat.

Although, when I will get a chance to apply that second coat is anyone's guess.

Therefore I will leave you with this photo of my favour bit of the whole car when I get the painting right.



Until next time, take care, Paul.

[molleur]

Looking good!
Give that coat a bit of time to dry thoroughly before another coat.
Color is great.

[Barber]

Keep the faith Paul, so close now.