Wot, not another '79 Targa resto thread

[PeterK]

Brilliant, thx.

I’ll try reworking what I’ve got and if that fails, prepare for a PM

[a1topdog]

For making the tight bends on the brake pipes I got a plastic bottle with a long tapered neck (like a tonic water bottle), filled it with water and clamped it in a vice. Then pulled the brake pipe around the neck of the bottle and achieved lovely tight bends every time.

[Phill]

Great progress Peter. I'm sure you know but a suitable pipe bender is less than a tenner and I know how you love to order stuff online

[PeterK]

I have a pipe bender Phill (‘cos I love spending) but it was too big to make the bends I’ve got, let alone the tighter ones

[PeterK]

Strangely, I had nothing in the diary for today, at least not after the daily 2 hour walk, so back into the man cave.

Time to complete the brake lines. I cut the end off one of the faulty rear caliper / flexible pipes, straightened it and remade the end. I then re-bent it using my breaker bar as a mandrel.



It was much better, but not good enough, as the second bend was in the wrong place, not by much but the pipe wouldn’t clear the swing arm.


Time for Plan B (or is it C now). I used the second ‘faulty’ one without shortening the overall length. I put in a bend as tight as I could, then fitted it to the caliper on the car and made up the other bends as needed to clear the swingarm. Worked quite well. Clearly made to suit worked better than copy what was there for me. So, using my last bit of pipe, I cut it to length, added the fittings and flared both ends of the pipe. I put in the first tight bend, fitted the pipe to the caliper, and bent the rest to fit.


This is the sum total of my remaining kunifer pipe.



Finally, and onto the body prep. After many hours of fun and games, cleaning off any residual paint, underseal, surface rust, etc, I had …


I’ve washed it down with RustBuster’s PhosKleen B. I also wiped the wing down after application, hoping that I won’t have a repeat of


Not sure what happened here the other week, but it looks like treated rust particles were suspended in the PhosKleen and have now been ‘varnished’ onto the surface. Wiping down seems to have worked well on the rear valances for the other day, so here’s hoping it works on the wing. That’s assuming that I haven’t wiped all of the PhosKleen off and it now rusts .

My finger tips are somewhat painful now, but hopefully they’ll be up for another session in the garage tomorrow. Might just work on the engine tinware, lower rear wings and front valance. They have less fiddly bits, unlike the wings where you have a scrap of sand paper stuck to the end of your fingers, trying to reach into crevices. At least I ‘ve done the most awkward wing now – the rhs doesn’t have the fuel filler gubbins.

[PeterK]

Went back to the NS wing first today. Broke out my spot sand blaster for the pitted and hard to reach areas of the fuel filler area.


It’s a great tool, very powerful, but as it is a wasted system (no recirculation), it does get a bit expensive on the sand front. Was also very useful on tight inside corners on the next bits of tinware, etc.

Day finished with sploshing-on of the PhosKleen B and then wiping off.


Sill covers, front valance and rear lower wings to follow ….and of course, the other front wing.





… and they did, today – I now have a pile of panels cleaned, phosphate and passivated


Along with both wings now


The mess on the OS front wing, a result I think of too much PhosKleen B left on the panel, actually came off very easily. Phew.



Next on the list is to sand the door edges and feather the epoxy ready to fix where I had to weld or accidentally hit with the grinder when doing the rear edges of the front wings.

Looking good and on track for epoxy next week

[rhd racer]

Looking good Peter.

Love the angle grinder stand... Absolute genius!

[PeterK]

Thx
It holds 4 grinders and my dremel. A set of things I can’t loose

[PeterK]

Another day with not a huge lot to show for it, but more good progress.

Blew down the tub and masked it off. The front screen was masked with paper (as was the hole where the fuel tank should be) and then the whole car was masked in plastic sheeting.



The I prep’ed the doors and scuttle ready for epoxy.



I still need to do some of the edges by hand and will also prep the rear wings. Got a couple of days before I can spray - it's expected to be quite warm on Sunday, so here’s hoping.

[PeterK]

So, Sunday is here and what’s been happening ……

I hand sanded the edges of al the panels to be re-epoxy primed, plus the door edges and scuttle area. I used Chlor-X to remove the residual salts (from the phosphating / passivating). It says to wash / wipe on the product labelling, but as I had some unsightly marks that didn’t come off with a nylon brush, I actually used a grey scotchbrite pad. The panels were then rinsed down and left to dry in the sun.


Some of the panels then appeared to flash rust within minutes


Elbow grease with the grey scotchbrite once they were dry (not too much effort needed), then a wipe down with panel wipe sorted that. I screwed a number of fasteners into the rafters to suspend the panels


I then gave every panel another wash off with panel wipe, and got ready for Sunday.


Not sure exactly when, but my compressor decided that enough was probably enough and the pressure switch manifold let go. The compressor runs and builds up pressure, but once it gets to pressure and switches off, then the manifold vents until the pressure has dropped sufficiently for the compressor to switch back on. Ordered a new switch / manifold but had to limp by today.


Today I had an extended walk (SWMBO insisted), followed by lunch in the garden and some dressing up (or undressing actually) as SWMBO had been challenged to recreate a picture hanging in some famous art gallery. Duties out of the way, and off into the garage.

Panels brought out into the sun for 421 epoxy to be applied to their undersides (see post below - should have been 121 epoxy mastic for undersides)


Quick change, and 121 to topsides (see post below - should have been 1421 epoxy primer for topsides).


and 121 onto the doors and scuttle (see post below - should have been 1421 epoxy primer for topsides).





All in all a good day, although I ran out of time to epoxy prime the engine surround tinware black, so that is waiting for my next escape to the Naughty Corner. Then onto the filling and making flat.

[Gary71]

A good days work

[sladey]

All good stuff

[jjeffries]

What a charming and delightfully English country set-up you have there. Looks like Toad and Ratty could stop by at any moment to survey your progress. Toot Toot! John

[PeterK]

It is rather pleasant thanks, except when the stream behind rose in the floods recently. Luckily, while it got a tad concerning, it never got to the top of the banks.

[PeterK]

What a plonker Rodney !

Trusting the spraygun to reach through 180’ and ensure coverage of all the nooks and crannies is a bit much, so I used a round paintbrush to touch up the inside of all of the flanges and especially around the headlight bowls and fuel filler area. As I did so I pondered that the underside paint was very grey and the outside paint was less so. Heavy clunk as the penny dropped.

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have noticed my slight b@lls up above. RustBuster’s 121 is an epoxy mastic, used for the underside of panels and their 421 is an epoxy primer which is used on top sides. Guess which dipstick had used 121 on the outside and 421 on the undersides ! (I’ve edited the post above, just in case someone is silly enough to actually read what I wrote and copy it)

Putting the 121 epoxy mastic on the top sides is not the end of the world – it will just be a smidgen harder to sand. However, the 421 will offer less protection that the 121 on the undersides. Luckily I was within the recoat window, so yesterday saw a heavy coat of 121 got applied over the 421 on the undersides. Phew, disaster averted.

Still need to paint the tin-ware, so hopefully that will magically turn black – I only have the 121 in black, not 421, so even I can’t mess that up (unless I grab the 2K black, but I think I might notice that – especially when I drop down dead from cyanide poisoning).

In better news, the replacement pressure switch for the compressor arrived, so that can also be fitted today (hopefully it will fit). In less good news, SWMBO's hand-held blender/whisking machine decided to eat its brushes. I now have bits of blender all over the kitchen table. Hope the brushes don't take too long to arrive.


Good job there’s no rush here.