Somewhere over the Rainbow.

[Blackpopracing]

I've been asked by a lot of people why I have not put this thread on the NSRA forum (as it's on another forum) as I'm an NSRA member & should post on this site.

Fair comment, so here we go

This all started back in Early February, My mate Phil wanted a quick respray on his car so I offered to do it. When it arrived I said my terms for payment would be .....free as long as I could do it how I wanted to.
Phil quickly agreed before I could change my mind!!!

Ther text in the thread will seem a little off as I will copy it over so the timeframes may seem a bit weird until it gets up to date.

It rolled up looking like this, having been at a rodshop for a lot of metalwork & wiring repairs.





And tucked up in its new home for the next few weeks.........errr.....months!!



Phil will bring over the wings, bonnet and a few other items in the next few days.

We had a poke around and found a few extra holes that will need welding up but in general it's fairly sound.

I'm off out to spend the first chunk of his money on sandpaper and other items now.

[Happydaze]

Subscribed! Please do include full details of all materials used! Will be watching that closely!!

Chris

[Blackpopracing]

Cheers Chris, will try to.

Next installment.

Soooooo, went out to local paint factors to get a load of supplies and they are closed for the forseeable due to Covid curse word.

Looks like I'll have to search for mail order supplies then.

I do have some supplies so I made a start, first 3 hours on it produced these results.

The bodyline around the bootlid hump on Phil's car had been blended in when it was first built back in the 80's but Phil wanted it restored. Its all covered in filler here;





So, out with the hammer and a blunt chisel and start to chisel the filler off, top done here;



And then the sides;







A LOT of sanding later got the top of the hump looking like this. I'm not sure what it was painted with back in the day, but the basecoat is like concrete!! I'd be tempted to leave it but there is surface rust under it so I want to treat the metal before I put any paint on it.



I then applied a coat of Hydrate 80 to kill the rust, this will be sanded back prior to primer.



And we have a body seam again



And the amount of filler removed just from that area;



One of the unexpected areas of rust is here - I can get to play with my new welder at least

[Blackpopracing]

Not such a lot of progress today, did my stint at the vaccine centre then did shopping on way home.
Mid afternoon Phip came over with the 4 wings and the bonnet. All the wings are fibreglass so in general they will not need too much work. Fronts need a bit of reinforcing under the light fitting area as this is thin and has cracks around them. Some minor work on the front edges where the gelcoat has chipped but hopefully that is it for those.

Rear wings are in good shape - except I will be chopping them up so they fit over the tyres properly - detailed coverage of this in future updates.

The bonnet appears to be perfect! no rot at all along the central hinge (they all rot there normally) and no cracks on the curved edges where they normally split. There might be one tiny crack, or it might just be a crack in the paint as it does not appear to be on the inside of the metal. Excellent news as these should only need taking back to bare steel & painting hopefully.

I continued to work on the rear hump while Phil swept the inside of the car out and removed the front sheet metal. All Covid safe as we had the door open and the extractor fan running and were at opposite ends of the car. We have also both had our first vaccine jabs.

Further investigation of the rotten A post reveals its a little worse than we thought - when the car was first rodded it had fibreglass covered on the inside of the scallops - sadly the water collected in the scallop and was trapped behind the glass, so it rotted through.

You can see the fibreglass on the passenger side in this photo;



With a bit of heat from the heat gun the glass went soft and popped off fairly easily - this is the offending piece. You can see where all the rust is from the stains.



and the A post where it was stuck to;



Chopped most of the rust out here - but more metal will have to go to get rid of all of the rot.



Interior is pretty sound but the floor needs rust treatment;



And it has suffered a bit over the years from many seat changes and placements, so a multitude of holes to weld up.



There are many more holes in the bulkhead and other areas that will need either welding or some stainless bolts put in to make a feature of the hole if access to weld is not practical.

Car looking a bit naked with front metal removed now



The front grill shell is also in very good shape, needing only a little panel beating to dress a couple of dings out of it.



I really need more supplies to do much more work on it so work may have to wait a few days for those to arrive.

In the meantime I'll try to photo & document more of the car and panels so you can all see what work will be required over the next few weeks.

Progress on the rear hump for today was this section, no nasty surprises thank goodness. It has has a new rear valence under the bootlid a few years ago - this appears to have been done very neatly with very flat welds - so that's good to see.

[jaymin]

nice updates, keep them coming

[Blackpopracing]

You all might wonder about the thread title, but it will become clear soon. This car was in Custom car a couple of months ago in the letters section as Phil has owned it for over 30 years.
When I told Phil I wanted to do it how I wanted I had bigger plans then he ever dreamed of

The reason is I've been bored without a car to build but I dont have space for a second car, nor the desire to own 2 rods. So if I can build another that I can give back (and it won't cost me anything) then it's a win for both of us.

I will start documenting the hours later in the thread as it will be interesting to see how much work is involved in a restoration.

[Blackpopracing]

Only a quick update - got in from work & did an hour on it. I've discovered what the white concrete layer is now - P38 filler.

All the surface rust is under this filler - this is why I maintain water should never go near bodywork until a gloss coat is applied. This was obviously wet sanded years ago and rust has set in from that. To be fair - it's lasted 30 years or so, but as you can see from the photos its perfect steel where no filler went on.





and how it looked 30 mins later.



The front wings are currently on the hardstanding, walking past tonight I spotted a few stress cracks along the wing bead - I think I will end up laying a couple of extra layers of mat over the entire surface of the inside of the wings to stiffen them up a bit as the glass is fairly thin.



Maybe more later after I've had dinner.

[Blackpopracing]

We are at the beginning of March here;

Another 2 hours in tonight, I dressed the dings in the front grill back, the big one needs a bit more planishing but its fairly straight now.



More rubbing down on the rear hump has this area bare metalled and treated with hydrate 80 on the rusty areas



There is a ding in the rear valence which has also split the return, difficult to get behind it to dress it out and I'll have to weld the split back up.



And because I like to jump around a bit on stuff I had a go at the bulkhead to see quite how many holes there are to fill. Stripped a bit back to bare metal & treated it, found some horrors in the wiring that I'll have to chat with Phil about, hes had a lot of it re-wired by the chap that did the repairs but I'm not very happy with it, its a bit of a mess.

[Blackpopracing]

Things that arrived today were,

sheet steel
primer & sealant
fibreglass resin & Acetone
DA Sander.

Unfortunately the suppliers missed 1 litre of high build & activator out of the box, emailed them tonight, so hopefully they will rectify that tomorrow.
Primers;



Sheet steel - I cut this at work on the guillotine into useful sizes so it will be less cutting at home.



And punched a load of discs out of it for welding up all the holes in the car.



DA Sander, I have a cheapo one from Lidl that I picked up a while back, but it was struggling so I thought I'd treat myself to a proper professional one. Arrived next day and boy does it work well! Quieter, less vibration and strips the paint about 20 times faster. Happy bunny



It only took a few minutes to strip this bit back with a blunt pad (waiting on new pads to arrive)



And the lower valence is now in bare metal.







sanding back for the area to be welded reveals the 'Rainbow Pop' paint scheme from the 90's. I'll get Phil to send me some photos of it showing how it used to look. Hole is getting trimmed out more for welding.




And the big hole is now welded up. I decided on a rear plate rather than a flush panel as it's in a tricky area to grind smooth so it's easier to weld in a backing plate and put a skim of filler over which will be far easier to sand to the correct contour. There is still the smaller hole to the left of it that needs repairing as well. I'm very happy with my new welder - it made welding this thinner metal an absolute breeze, really controllable, far easier than my old welder. The extra line of weld on the left is because I should have had my glasses on, lol!




Stripping ther bulkhead back a bit more has revealed many, many, many more holes under the filler The 4 big holes were filled with filler only. I see a lot of welding in this area in the future!




So far, 11 hours of work. I'll add the hours at the end of each post as it will be interesting to keep track of how many it will take.

Feel free to ask questions or comment.

[Blackpopracing]

More parcels arrived today, 25 litres of gunwash and some polystrip discs.
Polystrip discs make light work of removing the paint, but it's a bit noisy with the angle grinder so I'll have to be careful with the neighbours.

Could not resist having a quick go with the polystrip discs on the bulkhead, they rip the paint & filler off pretty fast. The results look like this...........not sure there should be all those holes there though.............



Oh dear



I think I'll cut the whole panel out above the swage line near the base and all around the curve at the top. It will be less work to replace the entire panel than try to fill the holes and get it flat again.

Had a chat with Phil tonight and he is going to go for the replacement roof insert, good call as it will stop all leaks forever and save the gutter repairs needing to be done. It will just need a really good clean back and rust treatment now. He was also ok with replacing the wiring loom, this will make life easier for repairs with all the wiring gone and also mean completely trouble free motoring when it's finished.

[Blackpopracing]

With the new polystrip discs removing the paint is now pretty fast. First though, as a favour to Phil as he wanted to see the old paint job again I carefully sanded just the top layers of paint off the door and wiped it down with a bit of thinners. This is how it got the nickname the Rainbow Pop.








Cracked on with the rear 3/4 panel tonight. Stripped some of the wing mounting flange which 'appears' to be in excellent condition. They usually rot like a 'child of unwed parents' here so I was quite suprised this one looks rust free. Hmmmm.........quite a lot of filler in there with more braze.......hopefully it's sound but just lumpy metal under the filler.



The B post repair panels done by the rod shop before it came to me look tidy and should only need a skim of filler over them.



The hatched area is what I think I will replace, I'll cut the blank at work tomorrow on the guillotine and put a fold in it on our folder, then it will just need trimming when I have it at home.



Well Phil, too late to change you mind now






Looking at the loom more closely after chatting to Phil, it may be salvagable as the fuseboard is a good one so I might just get Phil to strip it out of the car completely and then maybe just go through the cables and splice new wires in properly where needed, and then re-route it all with proper sheathing and terminals.


We can make a judgement once it's removed from the car.


13.5 hours

[Blackpopracing]

Got a few photos of it back in it's heydays, as it was first done back in 1979;



And then in 87 Phil had it repainted in the rainbow scheme;

[Blackpopracing]

Bulkhead steel cut roughly to size and folded to match the original;



Probably have a night off tonight as my hands are suffering badly with chapped skin and some abrasions from sharp metal & polystrip disc. It removes skin faster than paint - just in case anyone was wondering

[Blackpopracing]

Phil popped over again today and dropped off some parts. The main one was the new roof insert which he had collected today;



I then gave him a list of tasks to do, removing the door glass in both doors, stripping the wiring loom out of the car, removing the electric fan from the radiator as it had just about chafed through the fins ( I hate through rad fixings and will make a proper frame for it) and we discussed several ideas about battery relocation,3rd brakelights and foglights, and some interior ideas about the dashboard.

I stripped out the wiper motor as we are going to relocate this inside the car so we can have a clean bulkhead area. I also decided we would take the engine & gearbox out as it will be less work to clean & paint the bulkhead, and easier to mask up the car. It will also make it easier to clean & paint the engine.

Car is pretty bare now the loom is removed, it will make working on it a lot easier.



Now there is only one hole in the bulkhead



I made the gaps a bit too big around the panel, so it will be a challenge to weld it in it's tacked so far but my welding helmet is not working properly - it's fractionally too slow to auto darken so I had to stop as I was getting blinded by it. I split the casing open & I think it needs new batteries - I'll try replacing them tomorrow but otherwise I'll buy a new helmet.



Bulkhead is mostly stripped of paint now, the rest will have to be done by hand as I cant get any machines in the corners.

I stripped a bit of the A post and the bottom corner of the door - this looked like it needed a new corner to the door as the paint was bubbled and its a common rust point on Pops - but it's all good steel under the thin layer of filler - suprising but in a good way!





20 hours.

[Blackpopracing]

Only a few hours today as I was doing my stint at the vaccine centre again in the morning. After lunch it was time to see why my welding helmet was playing silly bu55ers. I bought a couple of batteries and this is the insides with one battery removed. They were spot welded to the tabs on the circuit board so I had to solder some fine wires to the new batteries to connect them.



Forgot to take more photos but pleased to say helmet now works perfectly again, repaired for £4.00

So......3 hours of welding & grinding & sanding later the bulkhead now looks like this;



Still got some holes to weld up and the square in the corner needs filling in, but I'm pretty pleased with that, a little skim of filler here and there and it should look pretty straight.

better than this at least!



As it was a welder day I welded some 8mm nuts to some penny washers, these will be welded into the rear wings to replace the captive nuts which are an odd thread and also quite a few are missing. We will bolt the wings on and when positioned correctly I can weld the washer part to the body again. Only had 22 of them to do





24.5 hours

[Blackpopracing]

The fan on the radiator was mounted through the fins on Phil's car. This is a terrible way of mounting fans (even though the fan suppliers supply the kits) as the road vibration makes the fixings saw through the fins and cause rad failure.

We caught this one just in time, the vanes are quite damaged but the water fins are thankfully undamaged. I'll dress the vanes out as best I can before final reassembly.



To fix this I started by making these side plates and fitted some 6mm studs.



And this is how it will be mounted from now on;



Some strong tack welds (I'll weld it fully later) and it's done.




25 hours

[Blackpopracing]

I stripped the paint off the door tonight, it really is remarkable condition for a 68 year old car. No rust at all!





After that I straightened out the rear parcel shelf and made some repair pieces for where the speaker holes had been cut right through. The speakers won't be going back but its not worth filling in the entire hole as it is covered with trim. It was very floppy before but it's pretty good now - aided by the fact the factory weld on one side had come undone, so that was welded up as well. Braced here during welding.



And welded - needs welds scurfing back yet.



After that I welded 7 of the holes up in the bulkhead - only about 30 more to go, lol!

27.5 hours

[Blackpopracing]

Night off tonight, but more steel arrived today - 1.2mm this as I want to beat a shape in it to match the firewall.

Also a shrinker stretcher arrived, Phil kindly agreed to pay for it as I'm doing his car and I will need one for the bootlid gutter repairs. Thanks Phil



Back on it tomorrow.

[Blackpopracing]

More welding work tonight.

Hmmm thats a bit of a mess.



So, cut the hole a bit bigger & make up a replacement panel complete with a bead hammered into it.

And tack it in.

As you can see from the tacks - the metal is thin and not easy to weld.





Lots more welding & filling holes later and it looks a (bit) better. You will notice I also did some pinhole chasing on the bigger panel, welding from the inside.




I need some new flap wheels and Roloc discs, but they are still on route to me so the best I could do with some worn out wheels was this, but it's an impossible task without some new sharp discs.



Another job that I've started on is the door wedges. I did ask Phil if he wanted to convert to modern bearclaw latches but he preferred to keep to the original latch. The doors locate with alignment wedges - except they don't align! The wedges force the door upwards and make it difficult to close.

I have a bit of a plan for this though, so the original fixings were drilled out and the holes opened up to the limit of the dimpled recess. More to come on this in a future update.



30 hours.

[Blackpopracing]

Thought I'd give the neighbours a break tonight & do a bit more welding.

Floor panels resemble swiss cheese!



And some considerable time later they now don't Well, this side doesen't - the other side & the gearbox tunnel still do!



Had a break half way through & stripped the paint over the rear window;



Then spent some time trying to see where the door interferes with the A post. Think I've worked it out now, Phil had new lower A post sections welded in, but the guy has welded them a bit too far outwards so the door is pressing directly onto metal at the bottom front corner.

I'll photo the issue over the weekend, but I think the solution is to slice the A post open to create about a 5mm gap, then close it up and weld it back together.

32 hours