The Elegant Thirsty Dinosaur

Hi all

I have been busy lurking and asking the odd question over the last year or so since I introduced myself.

I though I`d give an update on progress. The car is a 75 3500. Assembled in Nelson, NZ, it was first registered to a company director then spent many years registered to his wife. I bought it in 2002, and it went off the road in 2004 when the kids arrived. It sat in my carport until 2010, when I moved house and had to make a decision. I decided to restore the car.

So far I have had the gearbox reconditioned, the rear axle and brake calipers rebuilt. The main task now is to stop the corrosion (which was light but extensive) and repaint the car.

I have restored a couple of cars before, a 1971 Land Rover and a 1980 Spitfire 1500. I resprayed the Spit myself and decided to the Rover.

Over the last couple of months I hae upped the pace a bit. I have to say, the thread by DamianZ28 with the story of his Monza Red car has been an inspiration. You have done a superb job - I note your comments about the dust being like the 9/11 dust cloud and know exactly what you mean.

So here`s where I`m at.

This shot shows the roof (partially flatted back after priming) and the last remaining untreated door - you can see the 'dust rust' that covered the whole car.


Took this shot when I got one side of the car rust free. Currently various layers of primer.


There was a big scrape down the rear pass. side door and I had to replace the rear pass. side wing as a result of the same injury. I beat and filled the door and am pretty chuffed with the result.



Last weekend saw my biggest single batch of spraying. The boot has been etch primed and all have been 1200 grit wet-sanded to get rid of the stinking dust lumps.


Finally one of the boot - I was a bit nervous about the aluminium stripping process but it has turned about to be the best panel so far.


Incidentally, the pattern of dents behind the number plate carrier intrigue me. I though it must be where someone had clumsily screwed the number plate on with long screws and deformed the usually hidden boot skin. However, on another posting recently I saw the exact same pattern on another S2 car. Anyone know what those holes are for?

I am finally getting close to being in a position to lay down some top coat. The car was originally Artic White but I am going to respray in Davos White, simply because the local auto paint supplier couldn`t mix Artic in 1K , only 2K. However, he had no problem finding the codes for a 1K mix of Davos White, which I think is a nicer colour anyway.

One the bodywork is done, the glareshield has a big split in it so will need to be recovered, the engine is leaking oil from both front and back seals (not intolerably but noticeably) so I will service the crankcase breather and replace the timing cover / front seals.

This forum has really inspired me - thanks to you all and keep it up. At the rate I`m going now I might just get the car finished before the oil runs out!

Cheers

James
 

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Looks splendid so far, James. You're getting quite a pace on!

For us sun starved northern hemispere folks; what's a glare shield?

Chris
 
rottenlungs said:
Hi all




Incidentally, the pattern of dents behind the number plate carrier intrigue me. I though it must be where someone had clumsily screwed the number plate on with long screws and deformed the usually hidden boot skin. However, on another posting recently I saw the exact same pattern on another S2 car. Anyone know what those holes are for?


Cheers

James
I don't know what those little dents are, but my car has them too (1971 S2)
 
Looking excellent. I wish I was brave enough to paint my car :oops:

The dents on the bootlid are where they fixed the struts on the back (I think) and didn't bother filling them because they are hidden by the number plate plinth.

What's the base unit like?

Richard
 
Thanks guys.

Chris, I`m not sure if glareshield is the right term, but I`m talking about the top of the dashboard. I think they`re called glareshields. I`m from Brizzle really (moved to NZ 10 years ago) and I remember a mate back home calling it a glareshield on his Pontiac Firebird ( a 74 Formula 400 - 350 BHP at the flywheel and no limited slip diff - it was a flippin` handful on slippery Wiltshire roads!).

Richard - that makes sense about the dents - they are not quite symmetrical which would be consistent with a human with a spot welder, and like you say, no need to fill them because they`re hidden.

Graeme, I`m in Lower Hutt.

Richard, the base unit is really sound, as is the interior and most of the running gear. Most of the underbody seal is in good shape - I water blasted the rear while I had all the wings off and it came back to solid white paint underneath. Thank god NZ doesn`t use salt on the roads. That (and sentimental value) made me choose to restore it. Having done a couple of cars before I`m realistic about cost vs value - especially as the P6 is an undervalued machine at the best of times.

Amateur spraying is interesting. Like most things it`s all about prep. The other day I spent 31/2 hours preparing for about 20 minutes with the spray gun. The Rover is a good choice because the panels come off. In fact the roof is the panel that is going to be the hardest - as far as I can tell it can`t be removed, and even if it could I would be very reluctant to disturb the headlining. My current plan is to get a solid if uninspiring finish on the roof and give it a vinyl top.

1K paint (or cellulose paint I guess but I can`t seem to get that in NZ ) is pretty tolerant in as much as minor mistakes can be sanded out and remedied; from what I have heard, with the 2K cyanate stuff once it cures its over - if you screw up you have to strip right back and start again. I do have to be mindful of the compressor - if I spray continuously it doesn`t quite keep up pressure. It had no problem doing all the panels in the photo I showed in one go though. The tooling for the job has cost be about $400, another $200 of sanding discs / paintstripper and another $400 of rustproofer, primer and topcoat. This compares to quotes of $8 - 10K for a professional respray. Sure I`ve ballsed up a few things along the way but half the fun is learning, right? I still remember dropping a gear selector mounting bolt into the bell-housing of my land rover - I learnt how to remove a gearbox after that, not until after I had spent hours with a magnetic wand thingy swearing like a docker and getting nowhere!

Cheers

James
 
Hi James. :) Good update and glad you decided to restore your P6. Regarding the roof, it should come off if it makes painting easier. I've never take one off, so will leave it to the experts to tell you how to best go about it.
 
I hope the roof comes off, as I am removing Sparky's soon to replace the vinyl :shock:

Seriously though, yes it comes off.

Remove the headlining and it will all become clear.

My main problem with respraying is that I would spend a load of time preparing only to balls up the application. But that's me 8)

Richard
 
JVY said:
My main problem with respraying is that I would spend a load of time preparing only to balls up the application. But that's me

I hear ya...but...I am noticing something with my spraying. (please remember I am new at this, so i may be stating the obvious to others)
If I am spraying something, I do thorough prep work (a given), primer (given), but then I lay down a few very light coats of matt black (if the top coat is black).
This stuff is very forgiving, and I just keep layering it until it is uniform in coverage...no more or it will run.
Let it dry.
Wet sand with 800 or higher.
Lay down more light coats until again solid coverage.
Wet sand with 1000 or higher.
Lay down top coat the same way.
Wet sand 1000 or higher.
Keep going until you get "the coat".
Wet sand 1500 or higher.
Rub back with SONAX no 2 polish...this stuff is BRILLIANT...pink, and leaves no 'ingrained whiteness".
I have tried professional products, but happened upon this Sonax stuff by accident. BETTER the Meguirs, 3m, Mothers. Leaves them for dead
 
rottenlungs said:
I would be very reluctant to disturb the headlining. James

The headlining is not as it appears... :) It looks as though it's vinyl held on with wire ribs, but it is in fact a one-piece job that can be removed (relatively) easily.

However, as far as I remember, you can unscrew the roof without disturbing the headlining - now that's magic..! :D
 
Phil Robson said:
However, as far as I remember, you can unscrew the roof without disturbing the headlining - now that's magic..! :D

You can get at the sides, and the front, (by just removing the front section of the headlining), but I thought the rest of the headlining had to come out to get at the screws across the back.
 
When the headlining came out of a P6B that I was involved in dismantling, the roof stayed on till the lining was released, then the roof came off.

Ron.
 
Interesting about the roof - I didn`t know it came off. At this stage I`m quite keen on the vinyl top and will probably not disturb the roof.

I do like the way the glass just drops out. On my Spitfire me and my Dad cracked the screen trying to remove it. We then paid autoglass to refit it, and they snapped two more in the process!

I will check out Sonax - I`ve never heard of it and have no idea if it is available in NZ or not.

Family permitting, I hope to have some topcoat applied next weekend - I will post another update next week.

Cheers all.
 
Question - do I need to remove the windscreen prior to taking the roof off? The rear screen is already out.

I`m just a bit worried about storing the screens while they`re off the car.

Cheers
 
Thanks Kiwirover - that thread confirms what I was worried about - a lot of additional dismantling of the interior which I am loathe to do. I think I`ll leave the roof on and find a way of reaching high enough to spray the roof in situ.

Cheers

James
 
Dammit spraying topcoat is hard!

Having got reasonably good at laying primer with my cheapo suction fed gun, I thought I`d treat myself to a hvlp gun for the topcoat.

Unfortunately, I just can`t get the settings right. The overspray forms a kind of candy floss / lint type effect ahead of where I have the gun pointed. This 'lint' then gets buried in the paint when I come to spray that area and completely screws up the finish, causing extreme roughness. It actually sands out OK but I would love to have a better finish from the gun.

I though I would revert to my suction gun and see if it made a difference. It did - it made the roughness even worse! Very frustrating indeed.

Very frustrating. I`ll post some pics in the next day or two - any suggestions from other sprayers out there would be much appreciated.

Paint is thinned to the thin end of range what the data sheet says for Dulon 1K - air was set to 3 bar. It is like the paint dries in the air and then gathers into 'lint' on contact with the panel.

Oh well, its all part of the learning process!
 
You could try reducing the pressure a bit, also narrow the fan slightly so there's less overspray.

Another tip I've seen is not to thin the material too much, HVLP guns are designed to spray heavy materials, so try it with much less thinners, this will help prevent it drying mid-air.

The whole point of HVLP is that there is less overspray, so something isn't quite right.
 
Apparently the modern guns don't require anything special, they effectively convert HPLV into HVLP in the gun itself, saving you from changing the rest of your kit. I read somewhere that you run about 40psi to the gun and it drops to about 5-12psi at the nozzle.
 
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