We got talking about cars, and I showed him the 912 as it stood in the garage. Turns out he was a bodywork guy by trade.
He said I wasn't putting enough filler on the car and that the patchiness on the roof where metal was showing through (high spots, from block-sanding) would definitely show on the final finish.
Perhaps not on a satin paint job, but I want the car to look as best I can get it, so after he had gone I re-fillered and re-block-sanded the roof. It's a lot less patchy now, although there's more filler in it. I just hated the thought of this, but I've now fully come to terms with the fact that it's a necessary evil when restoring a 50-year-old monocoque.
When I collected the car from Barry, he said the only way to get a truly arrow-straight finish down the side of the car was to do what the old-school coachbuilders do, and trowel-on a 1/8th" thick skin of bog all the way down the car, including covering all the door gaps, then block sand and block sand and block sand the thing (bog, then high-build primer filler with guide coat) until it looks like a giant pebble.Once the block-sanding is complete, you can get a hacksaw blade and carefully cut the door gaps out.
Sounds mental, but I had seen it being done whilst shooting some workshop stuff a shop that does immense restorations. So with that in mind, I went to my local auto paint supplier, bought a 3L tub of Upol Fantastic, and slapped it all over the car like a disgusting animal.
Whilst I'm on the subject of filler, I found the local supplier was about 25% cheaper than buying on eBay, which is what I've been doing up till now. I've also found that, having tried both, Upol Fantastic is a bit easier to work with than Upol Top Stop Gold.
Here's the car as it stands now - no door gaps, petrol filler gaps. I've finished blocking the driver side and half the rear decklid, now I need to do the whole of the passenger side and the over half of the rear decklid. I've decided not to fill across the front decklid as the transition from the severe curve on inside of the front wing to the flat of the bonnet might be beyond my capabilities.
I hope to finish the passenger side today. After that, I'm not really sure how to proceed. I have high-build primer ready to go, but the isocyanate thing worries me - I live close by to other houses and there are kids and other people about. It's just not fair to have that stuff blowing out of my garage as it dries.
The guy I want to paint the car still has to move units and won't be able to touch it till June. I want to keep this moving though, so I will look into renting a proper spray booth. I wonder if I've now done all I can do in a home garage?
And I'm still having the work / play dilemma. It's a lovely day, I have a hedge to plant, motorcycle to collect from its service, and an aeroplane that's grounded till I do some repair work on a wobbly gear leg. The garage is like a giant box of dust, and everything that was in it is currently under the stairs in the house - lawn mower, bike bits, boxes of 912 bits. In an ideal world I'd love to get the shell out of the garage and into more qualified hands.
