247: Saturday 20th Aprl 2013

So on with the bodywork. The weather was good all day and I got a lot done today.

I finished up the filling of the holes and smoothing off. I had also painted the rear tailgate. It really shows up the pinkness of the rest of the paintwork. Even though this paint work is only temporary, it looks so much better than before.

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I masked off the surrounding area to prevent over spray going on the trim or anywhere else then sprayed the repaired parts so when the side skirt goes back on then it can stay on.

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After the preparation yesterday, I came out to a freshly primed side skirt today. I gave it a good rub all over to flatten out the finish. Then on with the red paint. It took a good few coats to get it all covered as there are quite a lot of details on this panel.

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Fitting the side panel was challenging. I had filled over one of the holes for a screw in the body, but I was able to drill it through from behind. I had to drill some fresh holes in the front and back under the wheel arches. One of the screws was cut off too short, so it would not reach the body and I could not pull the panel in tight. I also removed the styling line from the side. This gave me a sore thumb as it was fixed on with foam double-sided tape. The easiest way to remove this was to roll it off and this hurt even with leather palmed gloves.

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I put a paint scraper between the body and the screw and hammered a socket over the screw head to push it through the filler I had used to hide the screw head. I forgot there was a nut on the back and that came through too. So now I had a bigger hole than the screw. I got a bigger screw, but the head was now too big and would stick out, so I put the screw in my pillar drill and filed the head to a counter sunk cross section. Once this was fitted the panel pulled in nice and tight to the body.

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Finally I put some fibre glass over the screw head so it would be dry for tomorrow and I can sand it down and fill it and paint it etc. There were also another couple nicks where I caught the side skirt that need touching up.

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Tomorrow I need to track down some more red paint as I bought the last tin from my local shop. Then I can paint the rear quarter and start on the door. Loads of holes to fill in where the clips for the old panel was removed. Then repairs to the rear bumper before starting the other side skirt.

246: Thursday 18th April 2013

I managed to get a few sessions recently to get the side skirts mountings sorted out. I decided to put some extra screws through the rear bumper to secure it better as well. The fibre glass fixings 'popped' off when I caught a speed bump, but they were weak anyway and needed improvement. I used M4 brass countersunk head screws, drilled holes through and countersunk them. I have made the holes and loose fitted the the screws, but I went back to the side skirt fixings as I had good weather. Using the same technique of screwing through, I made a few fixing points and drilled the holes for the other fixings then took it off again. Now the clocks have changed and I get some time after work and the weather is holding up a bit I can get the side skirt finished and painted. Yesterday I mounted the screws with nuts on the back of the fibre glass and then put fibre glass over the screw heads. I also ground back some rust spots on the car body and applied Jenolyte rust treatment, then primed the treated areas. Today I put some body filler on the treated areas and rubbed them down when set and primed them again. Now the rusty areas have gone. I also rubbed down the fibreglass over the screw heads and applied filler and rubbed down smooth. I painted these with primer. They are also invisible now. I shall fibreglass the side skirts to the body eventually before the last coat of temporary paint. While I was doing these repairs etc I also fixed a rusty patch on the rear tailgate. There isn't much rust on the car considering how old it is, I am impressed. I now need to give the side skirt a complete rub over, re prime and paint red. I need to take the rear bumper off, secure the screws and fibre glass it back together, then I need to hide the screws and repaint the areas where they were drilled in. Then I can think about fitting the other side skirt and finally the front bumper. Lastly a new paint job all over.