1843 replies to this topic

[Ben_O]

That was a bit of luck with the shot blasting Pete!

 

What's the next stage on the shell?

 

Ben

[Steve220]

Just spent the good part of a day reading this thread. I take my hat off to anyone that goes to the length of doing a job properly first time. Yours will definitely still be rust free in years to come!

[Petrol]

Having the subby blasted saved me hours of work. It just needed a quick wire brush in places. I think your right Rally 515, I'm going to leave the strengthening at just the turret tops

Thanks Steve220 but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. I might end up using this car as a daily drive so it won't take long to find out.

 

Next job on the shell whilst it's still upside down, is to sort the spot welds underneath the gutter.

 

 

First I masked up the interior and underneath

 

 

 

Then sprayed a good few heavy coats on, I don't want to totally get rid of them, just make them less visible

 

 

 

Also primed the front subframe with Electrox

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pete

[Petrol]

Change of plan with the spot welds on the gutter - Decided to get rid of them completely.

 

 

 

The plan is to get the gutter good enough so I don't have to use the plastic trim. Next I have to fill the spot welds on the top side

 

 

I'm filling with paint but it's worth a mention you can't keep spraying paint on. You have to allow enough time for the solvents to evaporate. Spraying over soft paint can lead to all sorts of problems like crazing. The rule of thumb here is respect the solvents

 

Pete.

 

 

[exuptoy]

I look forward to your updates Pete. Best thread on here by a long chalk!

[Ben_O]

Wise choice Pete

[jpw1275]

Superb Pete..... I'm glad your bringing your car to the same standard of the carbs....:0)

Cheers james

[evansisgreat]

I'm glad you're paying such detailed attention to the gutters. I also want to ditch the gutter trim. I think this is a great detail on early minis; well worth the extra effort.
I'll pay extra attention to this lesson Mr teacher.

[FAZ]

what paint are you using? cellulose?

[Petrol]

Thanks guys,

 

I'm not using celly on this build at all, in fact I haven't used it for years.  I don't think it would be wise to attempt to fill spot welds & imperfections with a 1K type air drying product due to shrinkage / cracking problems.

 

 

First job is to mask up. This rolling technique with the masking tape avoids steps in paint. I also don't want any more paint on the underside of the gutter as that's now sorted and not fully cured.

 

 

Then sprayed some 2K high build on the roof spot welds & gutter

 

 

To flat the paint down inside of the gutter, I made these sanding blocks

 

First one is a piece of foam glued to a filler spreader. I used this one for the sides

 

 

Like this

 

 

Then this one for the front and back as the profile is different

 

 

 

 

Bit awkward to sand in here

 

 

After quite a bit of wet sanding, I got rid of the spot weld indentations

 

 

Now it's time to move on to the gutter itself. Not done much on this but flatted it back ready for more work

 

 

Sorry for the poor pic. I will try to take some better ones as I sort the gutters out. This kind of work needs a lot of patience and like I mentioned earlier, it's important to make sure you allow the solvents to fully evaporate before applying more paint. I have a feeling this gutter fettling is going to take some time

 

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ben_O]

You have the patients of a saint Pete.

 

This is why this is going to be the most sorted mini on the road

Edited by Ben_O, 04 September 2014 - 10:58 PM.

[Badboytunes]

^^^^ I cant wait to see it finished !!

[exuptoy]

Pete, amazing as usual, but can you give some idea as to how long the paint does take to cure? I mean how long did you leave between laying it on and starting sanding and how long before you can lay more paint on now it's sanded? 

 

Also say you were happy with what you've just done and the gutter was now ready, what does the final coat of primer before paint require? Would it now just be a case of gunning on one more coat of primer, a quick flat with say 1200 then the top coat?

[Petrol]

Drying times depend on lots of things - Temp, airflow, paint thickness and how much thinners is mixed with the paint. As a general rule of thumb though you can wet sand primer after a couple of hours. High build primer needs longer though as it goes on thicker. 2K colour can be wet sanded after about 48 hours.

 

You only need to prime bare metal, in the case of the gutter it will be sprayed like this

 

Bare metal - etch primed

2K high build primer sprayed over the etch whilst tacky

Left 48 hours then flatted back - this allows the solvents to evaporate

Left another 48 hours before a colour coat

 

It's 24C in my garage and I have a couple of fans going to circulate the air, if it's cold you need to increase the drying times.

 

Pics of the gutter after high build primer and flatted back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[simonwestoll]

Nice gutter work, wanting no cracks in mine now...

The gutter being at eye level and a character feature of mini is well worth making the fine job of it that you are.

What product would you use to seal/fill the cracks in 2K paint?

The excellent tip of masking tape rolling technique you show could perhaps be employed on the inner (roof side) of the gutter also to avoid me having to respray the roof.

Edited by simonwestoll, 07 September 2014 - 10:12 AM.