1973 GT6 Restoration

[Josef]

I’m slowly getting to the point of being able to paint my Herald’s bulkhead. Really looking forward to it and your photos are only making me more impatient!

[DJB350Z]

First coat underneath all done. Took a few sessions but it's worth it to finally see something 'made good'! Looks beautiful once dry.

[DJB350Z]

[DJB350Z]

Amongst the parts that came with my car was a badge that reads 2.5L and to go with it 3 holes in the middle of the tailgate area on the tub. The 3rd hole was extra - no measuring twice!

I guess PO wanted to advertise the engine swap 🤷‍♂️

Had a friend from up the road bring over his MIG welder and put it right for me.

And with the beads ground back, its back to relative normality. Very happy.

Edited June 10, 2023 by DJB350Z

[DJB350Z]

Over the last few days I've been taking my time prepping for paint. Firstly putting up some plastic sheeting for the garage itself. I added a sheet to the rafters above the car to prevent dust 'raining' down, a sheet over the chassis, and then a couple others to stop overspray getting over tools and parts, and to cover a large section of the floor to stop dust kicking up (despite hours of vacuuming). There was one wall of shelving I didn't cover since I kept needing access to it and it was annoying to slither behind the sheet all the time.

I bought 3no 2x4m clear sheets quite cheaply from Amazon and then also used some DPM membrane I had left over from my garage extension.

Then, I masked the tub up using a roll of paper mainly to keep the freshly painted underside safe. This was a lot more annoying than I anticipated, and the recent hot weather didn't help much.

A more 'fun' job was going over the bare metal with panel wipe. In my case I tried 2 products. The first was acetone, but I found this flashed off so quickly I was just smearing the contaminates around so I switched to using thinner. The thinner flashed off less quickly and I was able to lift off the dirt and grease much more effectively. All in all I probably did 3 thorough passes cleaning the panels and it took a session each, the last of which was today.

I was feeling brave and decided to commit to laying down the epoxy primer so next up for the panel prep was to finish off with a tac rag to pick up any remaining lint and dust.

After having watched lots of Youtube videos to get up to speed on painting setup and technique I setup my clarke spray gun, mixed up the HB Body P981 epoxy with the 740 Acryl and did some test spraying to get the spray pattern right. Once I was happy it was time to go... no turning back!

All in all, I'm so happy with how it's turned out. It feels like such a reward to just be able to see the tub all in one colour!

Something that I forgot on the account of being a newbie was to use my airline to blast air into the cavities around the dashboard/bulkhead. Unfortunately there was one hole on the bulkhead that when I sprayed over it some red sanding dust blew out. It'll be fine, and luckily it was just this section but I will know for next time.

I concentrated on the tub today, but I will soon turn my attention to the other panels that are removable; tailgate, doors, bonnet etc. I'm feeling pretty tired after today's efforts so I'll take a rest and get back to it soon.

 

[DJB350Z]

When I painted the tub I wore a JSP Force 8 half mask and I could smell paint. I figure if I can smell it, it's going to my lungs. 

So I bought a Dräger Mask X-plore 3300 half mask and used it today to paint the bonnet.

The difference is night and day. I literally could not smell any paint through the filters and is just as comfortable. This mask gets mine and my lungs vote!

[Jase1969]

Honestly I wouldn't go near this without an airfed mask and appropriate filters or just use cellulose. You only have one set of lungs.

[Josef]

21 hours ago, Jase1969 said:

Honestly I wouldn't go near this without an airfed mask and appropriate filters or just use cellulose. You only have one set of lungs.

I have been considering spraying myself and had assumed a good face mask was sufficient. The HSE disagrees it turns out. I am a former chemist, and as soon as I saw we’re talking about isocyanates, well, I’ve changed my mind about the diy approach! Could go cellulose I suppose but seems daft given half the car is already in 2k.

[DJB350Z]

My plan is to avoid 2 pack paints because of the requirement for an air fed mask.

I double checked the data sheets for my primers and there's no mention of isocyanates (compared to the 2 pack equivalents which do so) so I should be ok with my new half mask/better class filters.

Still learning though, so it doesn't hurt to check, and check again.

[GrahamB]

Many, many years ago I worked for the HSE on the development of an air fed visor for use when spraying of 2 pack paints.  If I remember correctly, the active ingredient was TDI, toluene di-isocyanate.  You had to make sure that the compressor was sufficiently remote or it would draw in all the vapours and feed them back into the breathing zone.

I was told more recently that a half mask fitted with the appropriate type A filters was acceptable provided that you changed the filters every day as the vapours had insufficient warning properties to let you know that the filters were approaching the end of life.  However, I have not checked this information.  The main thing to check with any half mask fitted with filters is that you can obtain a good seal against the face, no facial hair.

[GrahamB]

2 hours ago, DJB350Z said:

My plan is to avoid 2 pack paints because of the requirement for an air fed mask.

I double checked the data sheets for my primers and there's no mention of isocyanates (compared to the 2 pack equivalents which do so) so I should be ok with my new half mask/better class filters.

Still learning though, so it doesn't hurt to check, and check again.

I was mis-informed.  The HSE still states air fed respiratory protection  should be used for any reactive paint, which includes those containing isocyanates, even for small areas.  Half masks with filters are only acceptable for solvent based paints such as cellulose.  If your primer does not contain isocyanates then your mask and filters may be suitable.

[Jase1969]

21 hours ago, GrahamB said:

I was mis-informed.  The HSE still states air fed respiratory protection  should be used for any reactive paint, which includes those containing isocyanates, even for small areas.  Half masks with filters are only acceptable for solvent based paints such as cellulose.  If your primer does not contain isocyanates then your mask and filters may be suitable.

It's just not worth taking the risk, keep it safe.

 

[DJB350Z]

So.. summer came and went. Work got busy and my eldest was off for school holidays so progress understandably stalled.

Before the break I'd managed to take all the removable parts from the tub, doors, boot, headlamp bowls etc. and prep them for paint. Doors were a nightmare... full of THICK body filler. Plooms of dust everywhere. But now I can see what's going on with them I can hopefully skim them with a little less filler and make a nice job of it, although it's not a task I'm looking forward to given the amount of dinks and creases in them.

Then, I strung them up on a make shift washing line and gave them all a covering of epoxy.

This week I've got back into the swing of things and laid down 3 coats of P980 primer to the tub. Rookie mistake was using a primer the same colour as the epoxy, so I had to do a guide coat or two. 

For the tub only, I've used 1.5 litres so far. I guess that's fairly thin, but I'm unsure really how much primer I need. I have 2.5 litres left, and I still have the doors and bonnet etc. to do.

Amongst the primer work I've been taking care of some imperfections, mainly the rear tailgate section. The rear valance looks to have been replaced and some distortion in the metal needed to be smoothed out. Not perfect, but getting there micron by micron.

 

 

[DJB350Z]

Attempted to tackle the worst of my doors. I pushed out the crease as much as I could given the poor access from the other side, then applied some Upol Fantastic body filler. It probably still looks like a lot of filler but was nothing compared to what was there before. Tiny bit more effort required on it and then I'll be happy with the outcome. 

I've got some 1k Upol Dolphin stopper on order. I'm hoping I can use this premixed filler to sort out the pin holes.

[JohnD]

DBJ,

You did very well with the filler, but a Hammer & Dolly technique might have got the crease out further!  Hammer on the outside, so you can swing it, dolly inside the door.  This site shows you how, but many others online: Maintaining and applying metal finishing skills | Vehicle Service Pros

JOhn

[DJB350Z]

Thanks for the link. Read the first part and looks handy. Will look at the rest and see if I can apply some of that knowhow to the other door!

[JohnD]

Glad you think it useful.   The idea is that the hammer provides impetus, but the dolly strikes the door!

If that makes sense.

Edited October 11, 2023 by JohnD

[DJB350Z]

I tried it out on the other door today after also watching a few Youtube videos on the subject. I can say it definitely helped lessen the dents - there was one crease in particular that I managed to iron out perfectly so was really happy about that.

I was quite cautious in my approach, and I probably could have done with a wider selection of tools so I did still end up using some filler but yeah, it was fun trying a new technique.