Andy's awful autos: Spitfire sprucing

[Andyrew]

4 minutes ago, SiC said:

How much? Got a link?

I could do with one on mine!

https://ebay.us/m/rrpIZj

[Andyrew]

Clearly! 

The bodywork on the shitfire is scruffy one end and shiney (ish) but shite the other . The bonnet is fantastically battered but pretty much grot free being an imported bonnet from california. While rust free, it has probably going on 100 dents or deep scratches. Now a good bodywork person could get this looking mint but I'm certainly not doing it.  Like with the MGB the paint is flat, flaking and rust is creeping in. 

I decided to use all the tail end cans I had of clear lacquer, 400 grit knocked back the paint and plastered the bonnet in what I had. Which was okay until everything reacted and one can broke halfway. 

With paint you really get what you pay for so I went off to my paint specialist for some clear lacquer.

4 cans later, this stuff absolutely stinks. This was ment to be another free spruce up but that kind of failed. 16 quid and some time later we have a bonnet that is a little more weather tight, cleanable and makes a feature of its shiteness. Good enough for me.

[Andyrew]

The paint specialist didn't seem to stock any "triumph painted random white donkeys years ago" in aerosols so I had to try the other supplier 

Sure enough they had some on the shelf

The headlight bezels are from the car and not the bonnet so are the same white as the rear end. I decided to knock back the top and some of the flakiness and give them a little spruce.  I'd ran out of panel wipe about 2 years ago and now I've ran out of brake cleaner so I used another surface prep liquid.

Some white piss water sprayed on And placed them in the oven with the car to cure

[Andyrew]

A second pair of eyes.

With the lights exposed, I decided to treat the spitfire too the H4 conversion lamps I had in the workshop. I even removed the red overspray from the headlight retaining trims, basically a full resto now. 

Eye plucked out

Dug out some (hardly even noticeable) brighter bulbs I had carefully kept in storage

New Eye fitted

Light bezel refitted 

And the other side to match

 

 

 

[Andyrew]

Next up is to deal with all this broken mess, the compound splatter is from when I got the car, the soot is from starting the VDP. Everything busted, bent or loose. 

[jim89]