Personally, I am not very patient, nor do I enjoy things like body prep, so I was glad to be recommended a local man who it was said might come and help me. Trevor is retired and been doing body work all his life. He's also an enthusiast and a really nice bloke. We got on really well and he was a massive help to me. Trevor and I spent many hours sanding, filling, looking, thinking, tweaking and producing more dust than is good for you.
Trevor's regular line to me was 'I'm here to stop you losing your patience' and he was right!
I should have added that several other people looked at the car and none wanted to take it on. That might have been due to my bodywork fitting but I suspect it was because it just frightened them. A car like this will get close scrutiny and we are a small rural community.
Trevor also recommended a painter, a name which oddly, was also given to me by someone else. That's always a good sign. Trevor and Andy (Total Paint Solutions) had worked together previously. So Trevor and I did the prep and Andy then painted it. We made sure all the panels fitted exactly as we wanted to them, dismantled them all from the car and Andy took it all away for paint, leaving me the rolling chassis to do a few jobs on.
I sorted out a gear selector with reverse lock out and basically did all the interior whilst the spider was off. I just used a single skin of carpet and powder coated aluminium. I put extra insulation around the front bulkhead
The car comes back and I can start putting things back together. I decided on a 'hole' theme for all my vents and detail panels internally too. Everything is made in 2mm aluminium and the holes punched with a sheet metal tool. All powder coated in my oven of course!
I did the same internally. I had the dashboard flocked to get a nice matt finish and powder coated the aluminium panels. I filled the doors with insulation before I put the internal panels on. Gives them a nice feel.
Trevor helped me get all the panels back on the car. My adjustable mountings were invaluable! I decided to leave the screen out until I had done some test rides just in case the dash needed to come out. It just made it easer to get behind and fiddle with anything
It all started to look good
And finally, I get it outside!
Just the decals and screen now. If you look at the lights, the headlights are tractor ones upgraded to LED, smaller than the Marchal, but rectangular at least. The lower ones are coach lights with LED side and running lights but best of all they transform in to orange flashers when you want to turn. Nice and bright and clean. I put LED bulbs in the rear too. And to be clear, these are all top quality LED's with a good pattern, not cheap rubbish that dazzles everyone. They are from Classic Car LED's and I have used them on my cobra for years. Absolutely brilliant (no pun intended!)
Trevor's regular line to me was 'I'm here to stop you losing your patience' and he was right!
I should have added that several other people looked at the car and none wanted to take it on. That might have been due to my bodywork fitting but I suspect it was because it just frightened them. A car like this will get close scrutiny and we are a small rural community.
Trevor also recommended a painter, a name which oddly, was also given to me by someone else. That's always a good sign. Trevor and Andy (Total Paint Solutions) had worked together previously. So Trevor and I did the prep and Andy then painted it. We made sure all the panels fitted exactly as we wanted to them, dismantled them all from the car and Andy took it all away for paint, leaving me the rolling chassis to do a few jobs on.
I sorted out a gear selector with reverse lock out and basically did all the interior whilst the spider was off. I just used a single skin of carpet and powder coated aluminium. I put extra insulation around the front bulkhead
The car comes back and I can start putting things back together. I decided on a 'hole' theme for all my vents and detail panels internally too. Everything is made in 2mm aluminium and the holes punched with a sheet metal tool. All powder coated in my oven of course!
I did the same internally. I had the dashboard flocked to get a nice matt finish and powder coated the aluminium panels. I filled the doors with insulation before I put the internal panels on. Gives them a nice feel.
Trevor helped me get all the panels back on the car. My adjustable mountings were invaluable! I decided to leave the screen out until I had done some test rides just in case the dash needed to come out. It just made it easer to get behind and fiddle with anything
It all started to look good
And finally, I get it outside!
Just the decals and screen now. If you look at the lights, the headlights are tractor ones upgraded to LED, smaller than the Marchal, but rectangular at least. The lower ones are coach lights with LED side and running lights but best of all they transform in to orange flashers when you want to turn. Nice and bright and clean. I put LED bulbs in the rear too. And to be clear, these are all top quality LED's with a good pattern, not cheap rubbish that dazzles everyone. They are from Classic Car LED's and I have used them on my cobra for years. Absolutely brilliant (no pun intended!)
