This is the car as it when to
the car body specialist. His job was to work the
gaps and panel flatness.
Once it came back from the body guy it was
Shawn’s turn to block sand and work out any
minor imperfections in the panels this job was
very painstaking and took many hours of rubbing.
In this photo you can see the guide coat and
where it’s been sanded flat.
Whilst all the body work was
going on, I started on the rear parcel shelf. It
was also a difficult job as the frame I had
looked original but had actually been butchered
and rebuilt incorrectly. I managed to get a good
peek at my mate’s car which happens to be all
untouched.
Hers a few pic’s of the
process.
This shot shows the old
timber frame. The side upright sections are
original but have had the bottoms cut off to
remove previous dry rot and the bottom rail was
a piece of timber from the hardware store with
no cut-outs or shape as per the original. The
back section was original but in poor condition
and the top rail was bent like a banana. So it
all had to be remade from scratch.
I
chose to use straight grain Tasmanian oak for
the new parts. Here are the uprights
The
back was reproduced with a piece of masonite as
per the original.
Sections of the masonite needed to be bent and
this was done using water and weights the get
the correct shape. There’s a little jump in the
next few photos as I misplaced my camera
This is the complete rear
parcel shelf covered in leather.
This photo shows the parcel shelf in the open
position.
Anyway back to the car body. As you can see the
door shuts have now been painted and ready for
the doors to be fitted for the last time before
final paint.
Doors are now fitted and it’s off to the panel
shop for the final rub and paint.
In the booth with Shawn,
masked up and ready for colour.
This shot shows the metallic
basecoat after spraying and ready for the clear
coats.
Clear coats going on!.
After 2 coat of clear the car was once again
sanded ready for another 2 flow coat of clear.
Finally painted and looking fantastic.
The car finally arrives back
home on the tray lift and the next few months
will be spent fitting up all the pretty looking
parts. The paint job has taken since November 07
to get it to this stage and now its March 0 and
Shawn has done an outstanding Job.
