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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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