Rear end refurb.

[RaceDiagnostics]

The petrol cap cover flap was a bit cruddy inside.

Into hot citric acid.

PH ~ 1

After a couple of hours and a clean up with a brush.

Filled the damage on the soft top cover.

Primed and waiting to cure for flatting.

 

[MG David]

You are making great progress with the warm weather. I am struggling to decide if I want to do some paint work on my car this summer or just carry on driving it!

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I had hoped that I would have the car back on the road this weekend, but it looks like I will not be able to paint tomorrow as it will be pretty windy here. To be honest the job has taken twice as long as I had expected, but it is the first time I have tried painting a car.

Primed up the petrol cap cover.

Got the basecoat on nicely.

This time I used a slower high solids clear and the results are much better than with the fast clear which went on with a lot of orange peel, the downside is there is more time for dust and bugs to get stuck in it.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I tried out the cheepo (£2 or £3) ebay amplified radio antenna today, I am not convinced it will work any better than a length of wire but I have it now. With the car in the garage it seemed to work well in this position, will experiment a bit more one I get the car back on the road.

I also managed to get into the back of the repair panel I welded in by removing the rear seat side panel and got some epoxy on to the welds. I will also blast this area with some sort of wax when the painting is complete.

Next I trimmed a bit of leather off of the bottom of one of the rear seats to make a new cover for the soft top crank as the original vinyl is pretty worn and cracked.

Now looking a lot better.

I am also on the look out for some red leather on ebay to replace the vinyl section of the soft top cover, you can see that this is pretty faded after 36 years.

The alternative will be to try to paint the original section, has anyone had any success painting flexible vinyl like this?

 

[ajlelectronics]

You need Vinylkote. Aerosol or tins and they will match to a sample.

 

[marlinspike]

Can't believe how fast you are pushing on with this. What paint and clear are you using? You look to be getting a really good finish.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

You need Vinylkote. Aerosol or tins and they will match to a sample.

I used Vinylkote on my centre console back in 2010 and it still looks good, just not sure how well it will work on soft vinyl parts.

Before.

... and after.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Can't believe how fast you are pushing on with this. What paint and clear are you using? You look to be getting a really good finish.

Base coat is Octoral from the Netherlands and the clear is Genrock 6000 HS from Beirut, it just happens to be what my local paint supplier offered.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I bid for a rivnut tool on ebay and won this one, it doesn't do rivbolts but I can't complain for £21 all in.

Fitted and sealed with some Upol tiger seal.

 

[Bristolbulldog]

dont use gel and acids to remove rust, especially in areas you cannot access. cci will prevent most of the corrossion you have been dealing with (especially the arches etc) from coming back.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I've been away for a couple of days but got back to it this afternoon.

After giving it a bit of though I decided to take the new paint up to the inner edge so took off the door catch and rubber seal, I should have though about this a bit earlier.

I had some of this glue remover which worked really well on the seals....

.... and the car.

Then did some denibbing on the soft top cover.

The weather looks bad for the next few days again so likely wont get the car painted anytime soon.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Its been raining again so I volunteered to repaint the kitchen but I was able to sneak out to pick up some leather. It is not a perfect colour match and it has a matt finish rather than a semi gloss but the texture is very close.

I think if I can find a way to give it a gloss finish then the colour match will be much closer.

You can see by the close up that a bit of spit makes it match much better, need to find a more permanent solution.

Any spit alternative suggestions?

 

[keithski122]

The old leather is shiny because it is old and polished, it should have a matt finish.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Furniture Clinic and other companies can supply leather dye to a sample.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

The old leather is shiny because it is old and polished, it should have a matt finish.

Yes but it needs to match the rest of the car which is not matt, in fact the underside of the seats have a semi gloss finish too.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Furniture Clinic and other companies can supply leather dye to a sample.

Just ordered some of their gloss finish. http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Finish.php#!prettyPhoto

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

The bad weather is giving me time to get on with a few jobs that were needing to be done anyway.

Best to sort out the inner wheel arches before painting.

Gave the whole area a good angle grinder wire brush.

Then painted with epoxy chassis paint.

This needs to be fixed properly but I will need to leave it till later
.

Wire brushed it.

Epoxy'ed it.

Both sides now done, tomorrow I will apply some seam sealer the paint again.

 

[MG David]

Your car looks as if it has had sill work in the past. Do you think it was done properly? Perhaps they just slapped a new one on top.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

You are correct , it is a botch job, new sill slapped on top of the old one! It was done at a VW garage (Whites Ltd in Aldershot) by a previous owner, I have the receipt for the job showing it was done in 2002, they charged £1128 for the job.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Seems like the work will expand to fill the time till the weather gets better.

Not sure if these are zinc coated and may rust after cleaning.

I tried with a cloth and metal polish with no success so used a soft/abrasive fibre pad attachment on a drill with the metal polish.

If it rusts I'll clean it again and give it a clear coat.