Rear end refurb.

[RaceDiagnostics]

Finally a break in the weather!

Masked up again.

1.2l of base coat.

1.2l of clear.

Unfortunately a lot of flys died in the making of this production, I will need to wait and see if the will polish out.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I picked the vinyl apart to cut out the leather but it was impossible to keep flattened on the leather, so I ironed it and the put some weights on it to flatten it.

Seems to have done the trick, I should be able to cut out the shapes fairly easily.

Has anyone tried sewing leather, any tips?

 

[ajlelectronics]

It is what I am doing a ce moment! You need a VERY good machine as domestics will not be any good generally speaking.

https://www.facebook.com/Reliantupholstery

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

All I've got is my Mrs old domestic machine, I give it a try on some offcuts but since its just two small simple seems it should be cheapish at an upholsterer.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

On to cutting out the parts.

I just dropped into a local "alterations shop" who said they could easily sew up the parts for £15, so I have done that rather than try it myself.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

This is a fly grave, and I have quite a few to deal with!

I have found that it is easy to deal with dust in the clearcoat, just denib and polish out, but the flys are a different matter.

I will try to spot on a bit of clearcoat and wait for it to harden and then denib and polish again.

Any other suggestions? If the worst comes to the worst I can sand it all back and repaint with the car the other way round in the garage.

 

[steveo3002]

yeah id touch that in carefully and then flat it , doubt it will notice much once polished up

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I was due to go out and wet sand the car today after doing all the denibbing, but its so cold I cant face a day of freezing hands in a bucket of water. It was 11degC when I went out to the garage this morning.

Thought you would like this pic, it was the worst of the flys.

 

[pedrobedro]

I picked the vinyl apart to cut out the leather but it was impossible to keep flattened on the leather, so I ironed it and the put some weights on it to flatten it.





Seems to have done the trick, I should be able to cut out the shapes fairly easily.

Has anyone tried sewing leather, any tips?

I bought an old Newhome sewing machine on a flea market for £5 and with the right needles for leather it will easily sew upholstery. The needles are triangular at the point not round so they pierce the leather easily. My wife banned me from using her posh machine for my shed projects. I've sewn dog collars and watch straps with it as well as vinyl covers.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I wet sanded the paint today to get rid of the orange peel, 1200 then 2000.

The big fly after sanding.

One of the fly graves right down to the primer, I will put a spot of base colour and then clear over these.

Then the first stage of polish, final stage tomorrow.

The big fly after polish, I think I will put on a couple of layers of clear over this with an air brush.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I did a final polish this morning, the gloss came up nicely.

Next I started on the soft top cover seal, I decided to use Tiger Seal rather than contact glue as I wasn't that confident to use contact glue single handed.

Both the soft top and boot seal in place, I added lots of tape to ensure it did not move.

The lock plate was a bit dull so I gave it a polish.

That looks better.

I got the leather back from the sewing shop so moved on to spraying it with a semi gloss finish.

All dried and looking good. I also found some foam sheeting in the garage to will do for the padding under the leather.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Thanks for all your help and suggestions, the car is now finally all back together.

 

[MG David]

It looks great. Lets hope you get some nice weather to enjoy it.

 

[richie00boy]

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.

Did you use a totally different clear, or just switch to the normal hardener rather than fast hardener? Looks a nice result.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I started off with Genrock 5000 super fast clear the moved to Genrock 6000 HS clear, so related.

A few days later I ran into problems putting the soft top back on, its never simple with old cars is it. All was going well till I tried to remove the bolt that retains the near side spring, unfortunately the stud sheared off.

I cut off the remainder to ease removal.

So this is what I have got.

The good news is replacement parts are available, the bad news is the price, due to a new arm being introduced two parts are needed.

A1077700541 - £20.50+VAT
A1077700914 - £108 + VAT

Right I needed an alternative solution.

Drilled and taped the link.

Put a bolt in and cut off the head.

Welded it up and filed it down.

Cut the bolt to length and fitted it back together with a nyloc nut

Job done.