DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Last weekend a chap came around to my house to collect some old Renault bits I had sold on eBay.

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.

Nice stuff Jamie. Filler isn't rocket science but it's surprising how much there is to it - always good to have advice of an experienced body shop guy

Don't bother opening the door cracks Jamie - keep it dukes of hazard and climb in through the windows

This technique is common practice in the USA for high end cars and those with huge panel areas. The results are fantastic, the people involved must be nearly dead with the huge effort, usually manual.
Have you tack welded the doors etc in an optimal position to the wings?

I look forward to seeing the end result and credit to you to try it and work so hard to see it through.

jamie wrote:https://youtu.be/wT37apmGdLY

Missed abit Jaime

Brilliant stuff

How long was that in real time? Was there a tea break in there somewhere?

Car is looking good!

Cheers. At about 24 seconds in, my girlfriend appears to ask if I want a bacon sandwich. Easy to answer a question like that. I stopped the timelapse when it arrived. I think the whole thing was 30-45 mins total.

I spent about 8 hours blocking and filling yesterday. No idea how long it has taken so far. A lot of hours.

When I was getting quotes for this, I was being quoted £5k for a quick job, £7k for a decent job, up to £12k for perfection. I couldn't deal with spending 12k on something that would get chipped and scratched (have I mentioned that I ruin everything I own?), so opted for 'decent' instead.

Then the guy that was going to do it found out he had to move premises, and so I started doing it myself. I never meant to do this.

Since I started this, 12k has started to sound a lot more reasonable!

Same hours of elbow grease needed, free in your time and you get a free Bacon Buttie.. Beats £40/hour + refreshments.

When this is all done and you get the first chip you will be so pleased you did it all!

I'm sure it's going to look lovely but I don't want to be around when you're putting it all back together again and drop a spanner on the bodywork for the first time!

C>

I've rationalised that event in my head already - it's going to happen. There are a thousand proverbs to help deal with it.



OK - I've finished blocking the car. Feels very smooth, looks smooth. Probably isn't, but WTF I'm bored out of my brain now.

There are (high) areas where I've gone right back to bare metal, and the high-build primer that I've bought won't stick to that, so I need to etch-prime the car before I move to the next stage.



Luckily, I have some PPG / Next Autocolor primer in the garage already, so I'll just use that. Reading the MSDS, it would appear there's no isos in it either, which is nice.

I swept the garage today as it was submerging deeper and deeper into a hellish pit of filler dust. For the sake of experiment, put the big pile of dust back into an empty 3-litre can of filler. In doing this, I estimate there was around five litres of dust on the floor, plus lots on everything else in the garage, in my lungs, clothes, house, van, etc. So there's perhaps a litre on the car. Or to put it another way, I spent 120 quid on filler, and threw 100 quid of it on the floor.



I've started to wonder if I might paint the car myself. Sort of seesawing on this issue somewhat - I'd love to do it, but I don't want to fall on my face at the last hurdle.

If I did paint it myself, I am also not sure I'd do the satin silver thing since it's would appear that this finish isn't easy, or cheap, to get looking good.

So if it's not silver, it's blue. I've found one that was available on 356s that I really like. I've never seen it before.

Looking good Jamie.

If you are thinking of going blue I quite like special order 'Pastell Blau' - Max sold one recently
http://www.revival-cars.com/stock-list#!__car-1

Can I ask which rotisserie you are using ( or did you make it yourself )?

Andrew

jamie wrote:Thanks Jos. Yours must be nearly finished by now?

OK - updates from today:

Searched for info on re-chroming this lot:

Looks like one SWB and one LWB horn grill

It's looking great Jamie and not surprised after all your hours of toil and attention to detail. Looking forward to seeing it up close some time soon.

Great video by the way and goes some way to show what's involved in producing a quality finish.

Regards

Cheers guys.

Andrew - the colour I was looking at is Aetna Blue. It's a little more muted than Pastel blue, a bit weightier than Crystal blue (which I also love). I'll probably change my mind again and go for yellow. Or back to satin silver if I can find the right shade and someone to lay it down right.

The rotisserie I bought from Handling Solutions. They sell them both ready-to go, and as a weld-yourself kit. I bought mine already built to save time. I plan to sell it once I've finished blocking the car (pretty soon, I hope). Then the car will go on the dolly so I can move it around more easily.

I'm really impressed with this jig. It's easy to use, sturdy, and feels like good value for money. You can work any part of the car at normal standing height and thus save ruining your back. I've put hours and hours of sanding and painting in with zero aches or pains (yet).

Nick - it does. I think (hope) it's the camera(phone) lying. It looks like there were two matching SWB grilles on the car the day I bought it...



I'm in Paris at the moment, so impossible to check!