Back in beige

[jamie]

Arminius - thanks for this. The shrinking disc is very interesting. Never heard of it, so I just watched a demo video on YouTube.

Unfortunately, or perhaps really fortunately, I'm past this stage now. I farmed the bodywork bit out to the enigma that is Barry Carter - a man with a well-used slap-stick, and the wrist-action to match. The shell is as dent-free as I could wish for. I'm just tidying up the last quarter-mm here and there*

The bonnet and hood are still dented at the edges, where the frame prevents access to the rear of the panel. Barry had a method for working these dents which was very clever. He got them from 3mm-ish to perhaps 0.5mm. That's fine for me. Unfortunately, again, well past my abilities to go any further, and past my budget** to have Barry fettle them to extinction.

Thanks for the info though - is fascinating. Would love to see what you've been working on today.

Mark - I bought dry guide coat. Not sure if that makes a difference, but I'll take what you say into account and keep it separated from the filler. I think the main part of the body is done now anyway - time to get the high-build laid down***

* except the roof, which has taken quite a pounding - more on this later.

** I never set a budget, and I throw all my receipts into a folder which I will never, ever open.

*** I bought 2k high build with isocyanate hardener, so I need to work out how to do this safely. If I wasn't an idiot, I would have bought isocyanate-free 2k.

[jamie]

Hier ist meine neuerst bogwerk:

Before I sent the shell to Enviro-Strip, I cut my lower rear wings off. Barry later told me, in a fit of despair, that I had cut them in the wrong place. Either way, he did a very nice job of cleaning-up the join. On the driver's side, it needed a very thin skim to make it (as good as I can get it to) perfectly flat.



Similar on the passenger side:



This is the passenger-side rear quarter where the 1968-only reflector was attached. I removed the reflectors and welded up the holes.



In truth, I didn't really remove the reflectors so much as kick them off the car. It was the day I bought it in California - I was with John Glynn and we were looking at all the rust holes and detritus and the general crazy dilapidated state of this POS 912 that I had decided was a good idea to buy, and in the excitement of the moment we took it in turns to boot the reflectors off the car, one by one. They were probably the cleanest thing on the whole car, but they were ugly federalisation shite, so they had to go.

About 6 months later I was back in the US, this time in a warehouse in Detroit, shooting a 50th anniversary of the 911 feature for Car and Driver magazine. One of the three early 911s in the shoot was a 1968 - I could tell, because of the reflectors. I mentioned it to owner and he said yeah - when he got it the reflectors were missing. He had a hell of a time finding an original set, and in the end he had to pay $600 for these ones. They weren't anywhere near as nice as the ones I had booted off my car. That was a sad moment in my life.

OK, this one is a F****** dent. I'm sorry.



And this... this is the roof.



There's a bit of back-story with this car, that I think I may have mentioned in this thread already. According to the previous owner, the owner before him had been given the car, or left it in a will. It sat in her garden, and her kids used it as a climbing-frame. You can imagine - hyperactive kids, slamming all over this cheap brown Porsche like its a bouncy castle. As a result, when I got the car, the roof looked like a Real McCoy. Barry managed to shrink / slap / whatever the horrible ridges out of the centre of it, but there was so much damage that it would have been another week or two's work to get it looking like new. And my wallet was already in absolute tatters.

In this photo, there's a lot of filler still on there, and it still needs to be sanded back a lot. I've hit it with a sheet of 36 grit wrapped around a piece of baton, but it really needs my longest Dura-Block and a few hours of concentration. At present, to the top right of the picture it's so thin it's almost translucent, and to the bottom left it's thicker, taking up the little ridge left where the panel, fully inverted under the force of a jumping child, has made contact with the inner frame of the roof structure. You can clearly see the curve of the ridge in the photo.

If you run your hand over the roof, the dents are hardly noticeable since they are so shallow and large. I estimate the thickest bit of filler will be less than a mm, but still it makes me feel itchy thinking about it. Nothing I can really do here other than channel my inner Dean Jeffries, make it as good as I can, and move on.

I'll post a photo of the result when it's done...

[911hillclimber]

This thread so takes me back to my car in 1988 sitting in a one car garage with the Porter book and nothing else, no specialists I knew of or the wonderful Internet.

The car was evil in so many places and it was only 15 years old.

Prepping the body was so difficult, and painting it in that garage DIY in cellulose after high build filler and a ghost of a guide coat from a mat black rattle can from Halfords.

It was my 4th car 'restoration' (meaning rebuild to get it road worthy) and not the hardest but I wanted it to be my best to date so much.

My skills were or are NEVER Barry Level, but you have to do things to your best ability and know when that is enough.

Great job you are doing, smashing reporting and sound DIY rather than extensive cheque signing, 10/10 to you.

Still have it, same paint, a lot of patina from a lot of adventures and immense fun. I've added more dents than I removed in '88....

Your quote:

Nothing I can really do here other than channel my inner Dean Jeffries, make it as good as I can, and move on.

[Darren65]

Way to go Jamie

[KS]

Inspiring...

[jamie]

I did the whole guide coat thing but didn't sand it all off and ended up putting more filler on top of paint - you end up with problems later such as cracks in the paint, as the paint and filler dry at different rates, I believe. So no filler on top of paint

Got it now - thanks. Yes, I think what might have happened here is due to the different types of paint, rather than the drying rate. The stuff out of a can is different to 2K or whatever you were using to primer-build the car, and there's a reaction going on.

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I've definitely read that once you're into this stage, rattle cans should be kept away from the process.

I have, of course, already used a rattle can (Simoniz Tough Black - my favourite) on my dash. Arses.

[hot66]

loving this Jamie

Have I missed anything, or are you still heading for silver ?

[Bruce M]

From what I understand, because rattle can one-pack paint doesn't have a hardener, subsequent layers of solvent heavy filler or 2-pack paint can soften the 1-pack underneath. You can get sealer coats.

Cue Darren for the more accurate (or actually correct) story.

[911hillclimber]

I was just reflecting on my experiences (cellulose etc), not giving advice/ instructions.

Heavens knows what chemistry was being used in 1988 compared to today!

The 'Green Issue' was not in the Dictionary then....

Best advice is to go to one supplier and use the combo he gives you, chances are it will all be chemically compatable.
Even I did that back then, and before too.

[DustyM]

Rattle can Matt black is fine as a guide coat, it is only a dusting there should be no build up to cause problems later and you should be rubbing it all off anyway. Any left in small depressions will cause no harm if you have to fill it or prime over it again because it is too deep to rub out.

[911hillclimber]

Yep, that's how I did mine, just a ghost of a dusting over.

[jamie]

loving this Jamie

Have I missed anything, or are you still heading for silver ?

Still on satin silver, although I'm wavering a bit after putting all this work into getting the panels flat! You won't really see the benefit with satin paint.

I finally found the paint that I was thinking of all along - it's called Shadow Chrome and it's the paint BMW used on E92 M3 wheels. It was also used to paint a few concept cars, including a 6-Series concept that I shot in Germany back in 2010. It was BMW flame surfacing turned up to 11, and the paint picked up the lines like crazy. Lovely.

Unfortunately I lost my images of this car in a hard drive crash in 2013. Here's one of the BMW marketing shots. As ever, it has been airbrushed so heavily that you can't really see the full effect of the paint, but at least you can kind of get the idea...



This paint isn't actually satin, although it's behaves so weirdly that it's difficult to see anything reflected in it. It would probably look cooler in satin.

I just realised, I think Bentley use a similar paint on Continental wheels, and I have shot lots of those. Here's one:





This one is for Gary...



Application appears to be very tricky - first, the the object is painted black, then a light coat of a special silver/chrome paint applied over the top. OK on a wheel, not so easy to get that fine coat to sit nicely across a whole car, I imagine. Dunno. Also, if I ever needed to do a patch repair, it'd be one of those things where the whole car has to be repainted. Like a concept car (things I hear again and again in my work: 'Be careful not to scratch it - it's a 16-layer finish made out of crushed meteorite and crystalised caterpillar eyes. If it gets scratched, the WHOLE CAR needs to be repainted').

The more realistic option would be something from the Hot Rod Flatz paint range. Sterling Silver looks about right, although they want 60 quid to post a sample, so I'm going to see if I can find photos of cars painted in that colour first.

It would be much easier to just paint the thing Sand Beige (which I still like). I could even probably do that myself. Badly.

[jamie]

Re-painted the front trunk area with Dinitrol 447 (was painted in 445)



Seam sealed the wings yesterday. Gave the insides another coat of epoxy earlier today. Coated the insides with Dinitrol 445 this evening and hung them on the car.





Also coated the inside of the hood with Dinitrol.



I wore my 3M respirator with 6051 filters. Couldn't smell a thing for about an hour, then the filter elements either conked-out or it breached somewhere, and I could start to smell fumes, so I finished-up and exited the garage.

I went back in for 2 minutes without a mask to take these pictures, and it made me dizzy in seconds. It's insane stuff.

Next stages:

1. Mount the front and rear decklids and doors (plus latches)
2. Paint the inside of the cabin again. Going to try home-made Lizard Skin once again, plus some sound-deadening material.
3. Mask the cabin.
4. High build, block sand, high build, block sand etc.
5. Primer seal
6. Send for paint. Somewhere. Not sure where.

[jamie]

Quick question to anyone that may know (Darren?)...

When the wings are attached to the car for the last time, do you seam-seal the gap between the top of the wing and the inner wing (the bit where the rubber seal sits)?

It's just that it looks like an obvious water trap.

Also, do you seal the mating surface (just in front of the A-pillar) to the rear of the wing?

Also, how thick is the rubber bead that goes between the wing and the scuttle panel? Barry spaced this with cardboard when he was setting the gaps, but I didn't make a note of how much.

[DustyM]

Quick question to anyone that may know (Darren?)...

When the wings are attached to the car for the last time, do you seam-seal the gap between the top of the wing and the inner wing (the bit where the rubber seal sits)?

It's just that it looks like an obvious water trap.

Also, do you seal the mating surface (just in front of the A-pillar) to the rear of the wing?

Also, how thick is the rubber bead that goes between the wing and the scuttle panel? Barry spaced this with cardboard when he was setting the gaps, but I didn't make a note of how much.

Use this on the wing mounting flanges.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teroson-sealing ... B00BZRENLO