Wot, not another '79 Targa resto thread

[Gary71]

Looks good. Lots of hours in there!

[Darren65]

Way to go Peter

[The Garage Bitch]

Golf Tango Foxtrot India

Well done mate

[PeterK]

More flatting, but at last the LHS is also done. Removed old masking, cleaned up garage floor (loads of expensive dust !), and remasked, ready for more priming.



Too cool for painting today, so while waiting for SWMBO to get ready to drag me out for another 6 mile “it’s good for you” morning walk, I snuck into the man-cave and ‘washed’ the shell with panel wipe, ready for better painting weather tomorrow. Noticed that I had forgotten to mask off the fresh air intake, just below the scuttle – that could have been embarrassing !.
As there’s no painting playtime today, SWMBO, out of the kindness of her heart, let me rub down shed No.3 and re-stain. Great – more sanding !



Warmer day today, so snuck into the garage. A prep splash of filler primer over any areas that I had rubbed through when flatting, then a thick followed by a thinned coat of filler primer and we got to here


Pleased how this rear quarter looks now – stripping revealed a huge dent, over an inch deep and 15” long, right on the top curve of the quarter. Metal bashing, a skim of filler and lots of smoothing later …


A quick looksee late evening revealed, 1) that I had left the lights on in the garage, 2), two flys had loved the smell of wet paint and got their feet stuck, and unfortunately, 3) that I managed to get a couple of sags in the flat section on the scuttle, between the washer jets. Other than that, overall, I’m well pleased (subject to the cruel flatting to follow, that will show any sins), especially how shiny and smooth the filler primer came out with the extra thinning I used for the last coat.


So, today was flatting (again) day. Started by sorting the scuttle sags and a couple of dirt nibs. Then flatted the shell with 320 and various blocks, then used a 320 Scotchbrite to do the edges and hard to reach (and not so critical) areas. Managed to rub through at the bottom edge of the LHS rear wing, just in front of the tail lights. Also found a chunk of masking tape above the windscreen hoop that I had missed and painted over, so sorted and spot primed both areas. Washed the shell down with panel wipe and swept the garage (again).
Sorted out the DeVilbiss spray gun, approximately adjusted it (using thinners for now) all ready for the main event, coming to a resto-blog soon. That didn’t take long to write but took about 3 hours in the real world. So, looking nicely flat….



Another 2 hours today, but we’re white again



5 sags, ranging from mostly very minor to yuk and some dirt in the paint in a few places, so I guess colour sanding is coming once the paint has properly dried / hardened.
First time using my DeVilbiss ProLite and it performed night and day better than the cheap LVLP guns I was using before. Four coats, and a lovely shine straight for the gun and no discernible orange peel (at least until I get it into sunlight, anyway).

Pleased at the finish from the gun, but disappointed at the dirt. I am using a fan to blow air into the garage. It isn’t filtered, so possibly it was picking up dust from the passing (not a lot) traffic and the wind blowing about. I have a spare outlet (sucky, sucky) fan filter, so maybe I need to place that across the inlet of the blowy, blowy fan.

On gardening duties for a few days now, so that will give the paint time to properly harden.

[911hillclimber]

You are the only person I know who rubs a shed down before paint. Don't you just splosh it on and be thankful for another 3 years?

Great real progress on the car.
I garage-sprayed my 911 back in '89 using a simple gun and cellulose but no fans or such like, so very little air movement except for me and the gun. Just a thought.

Cellulose had a magnetic attraction for insects in the garage, but most landed feet first and stayed upright so died and were wiped-off after still leaving their mark....

All that you are doing is nothing to the tedium of painting my house.

Full colour, hardening by end of this week coming?

[PeterK]

Shed was in such a very poor state, it needed rubbing down for the paint / stain to stick

Using 2K, so ensuring plenty of ventilation, despite the air fed mask. I used no fans when I sprayed my Lotus with Cellie - life was so much easier then. Ordered some more fine grade sandpaper, so colour sanding the shell within the next 2 weeks. Got a pair of door, wings and 2 lids to paint in the meantime.

[Gary71]

Looking great Peter. Finished before the end of lockdown?

[PeterK]

Not a lot of visible progress now that the temperatures have dropped. SWMBO has had me doing ‘chores’, but I have managed to sneak away a few times.

Making use of the ‘waiting for the warmer weather’, I have been preparing the rear winglets, cill covers and the engine & froot lids. Lots of faffing, preparing and sanding, then a couple of coats of 421 epoxy primer later




I also broke out the whale tail and mounted it on the engine lid. I had a fibreglass 3.2 tea-tray lookalike on when I bought the car, but have acquired a genuine Porsche whale. It’s a mid-80’s whale, with the big rubber lip protruding upwards, unlike the 3.2 of the era, which has a flatter rubber. Other than being orange, it is in reasonable condition – a few dings on the fibreglass and some attention needed to the mounting holes on the rubber.
The mounting holes at the top (furthest away from the back of the car) are in a different location to the previous spoiler, so I had welded up the old holes on the engine lid and now needed to add new ones. I marked a centreline on the engine lid, guided by a laser light and, with brave pants pulled up tightly, I drilled the required holes.
I rubbed it down and ladled on some filler whilst I had a small batch made up


Primer filler, stone chip on the underside of some panels next and then wait for the warm weather.

[911hillclimber]

Next Wednesday, going to be the right temperature for..
Paint.

[The Garage Bitch]

Ooooooooooh, grey-y grey-y.

The very welcome pre-cursor to shiney shiney

[PeterK]

That’s my target

Just need a few good days to get both the top and undersides of the panels coated, but limited in how many panels I can do at any one time. The epoxy could go on outside whereas the 2k needs to be in the garage with the filtered exhaust fan. I’ve got a sheet over it but the shell still takes up sooooo much space.

[PeterK]

Good news is the weather improved but less good news was man down. SWMBO noticed a few tall weeds – will only take 10 minutes to pull them up she said. They were well stuck so out came the fork - it was like trying to stick the fork into concrete. Despite this, mucho huffing, puffing and general heroics later, most of them were removed. Went to stand upright and though golly gosh, maybe I should have stopped half an hour ago.
That put paid to garaging for a while.

By going for early morning walks again, and trying not to wince in public, I could sneak into the garage without too much earache from SWMBO soon though.

I rearranged the garage, pushing the shell to one side and created more room so that I could paint more panels at one time. First came the front wings, front and rear valances and the rear winglets. These were treated to a couple of coats of Gravitex underseal / stonechip. The underside of the froot will not (well I hope not anyway, and if so, then I have bigger issues) get stone chips, but the Gravitex should offer a degree of sound insulation / anti-drumming protection.


The following day the masking was stripped off, given a quick scuffing with the 320 grit scotchbrite


followed by 2 coats of primer filler (included the smugglers box lid here)


The next day, following another gentle scuffing (not absolutely necessary but it de-nibs the primer) on went 2 coats of Grand Prix Weiss (white to you and me)


It is taking between 90 minutes and 2 hours to move the cars away from the garage, get the small compressor from the shed and connect it to the bigger one, scuff the paint, mix and apply a couple of coats of the colour of the day, clean the spray gun, put away the small compressor and then park the cars back by the garage. That’s all I can do in a day, as I then need to let the paint dry. I’ve fallen foul of ‘just while it dries’ activity before – it always ends in tear (mine) and gives me rework, so I’m not happy about it but forcing myself to be patient. I reckon on another 11 days to complete the painting, excepting the bumpers (which still need stripping). Good job the weather appears to be set fair.



As an aside, I wanted to pull the door mirrors apart for painting the housings – rather than try to mask off the black rubbery / plastic areas. I failed to find anything online (probably poor search terms) and Bentley just says … after the glass is removed…. Very helpful (not). So, as a public service announcement, on a SC the mirror glass is held in by 3 spring clips and pops out with a little persuasion.

Oh, and this is what the retaining bolt looks like (so I have a reference photo when putting it back on)


Undo the 3 off M8 bolts


… and the mechanism and rubbery plastic parts all come away as a unit.

[The Garage Bitch]

Well done matey. For the getting those weeds out

On a serious note, well done too for the mirror de-construct. I usually have to dig out my brown corduroy overalls when it comes to levering and jemmying blind

[PeterK]

Not much difference, but lots of effort (in the small timeframes between literally waiting for paint to dry).

Anyway, onto the inside of the doors, engine lid & cover sills. I included the spoiler with priming, but as I was unsure whether I had enough paint in a single tin, I’ve been using one tin for inside and underneath areas and a second tin for the external & topsides. The spoiler will be top-coated with the engine lid.

First primer


Then topcoat


Outsides now, and onto the front wings and doors for primer


And surprise, surprise, white


Needed somewhere to safely store them, so I’ve temporarily hid them behind one of the sofas in the ‘Oak Room’ that we tend not to use very often.


I’m still breathing, so I guess that SWMBO hasn’t noticed yet, but if this blog stops suddenly, you’ll have a good inkling maybe of why….

And then the froot, engine lid, rear winglets and spoiler went grey and then white



Paint stripping of the bumpers starts tomorrow (probably).

[Phill]

Awesome, you'll be out driving by next weekend!