Restoration Diary
(Click on any photo to see a larger version)

December 2002

Since the last update the emphasis has been very much on bodywork. This has now turned to our priority as once we have got the body sprayed and sorted we can get it back on the chassis and concentrate on remaining jobs to get the M roadworthy. Unfortunately Tony and myself have been busy just lately, but we have tried to stick to our routine of spending two evenings a week and a day at the weekend working on the car.

Now we have a compressor we have decided to tackle all the bodywork ourselves, including the topcoat. We have taken on board lots of advice and opinions in preparation for this, quite a lot of which has been conflicting. Taking the best bits of this advice then talking to the body shop our general plan is:

• Remove all old paint + primer down to gel coat.

• Carry out repairs using glass fibre compound and filler – ideal time for ‘big’ repairs.

• Spray surfaces with 2-3 coats of etch primer to ‘eat’ into the surface and provide a key.

• Spray surfaces with 2-3 coats of filler primer. This will highlight any flaws we may have missed and is the time to rectify them, examples of flaws may be pitting in the gel coat, lines from sanding or poor repairs from earlier.

• Carry out repairs – it is ok to use filler on the filler primer, not on etch primer.

• Check surfaces using a guide coat.

• Sand and re-prime.

• Flat the surface using wet and dry, at least 800 grit.

• Apply top coat, around 3 coats.

• Flat using 1500 wet and dry then use cutting compound then wax polish.

• Stand back and admire several hundred hours of hard, tedious and very rewarding work!

That is our plan anyway, in our experience as with most plans for TVR restoration, great flexibility is needed as the unexpected will arise, and we may need to adapt the above to suit. You get the basic idea anyway.

Bringing you up to date with where we are as of 1st December:

• Complete body, bonnet + doors etch primed. (Just a reminder, we are not painting the inside of the body as has been done to a yellow Dutch M in Sprint, nor the underside which we have instead painted in a rubber compound).

• Doors + 80% of body filler primed.

• Doors 95% ready for final priming and top coat.

• One third of body fully repaired.

• Engine bay has had first coat of red.

Because we have never done major bodywork like this before we are both high on the learning curve, which I think is a great way to learn, but we are in at the deep and are having to pickup some things as we go along. For this reason it is taking along time as we do not want to do it wrong, and if we do, we have to go back a few steps and correct ourselves. However, one consolation is that we are saving several thousand pounds doing it ourselves, we are learning valuable new skills and we should be able to get just as good a finish as the professionals in the long run.

Some remarks on our work so  far:

We have seen how even the tiniest of marks on the body shows through primer and topcoat so easily. Therefore it is essential to have the bodywork perfect before applying the top coat. We are getting caught out by pitting, caused by sanding down to the gel coat where tiny tiny air bubbles in the gel coat then reveal themselves as a pit, they are most frustrating! Also lines left by using too coarse sandpaper show through very easily. It is also essential to make sure the contours are accurate on every panel, not that hard on flatter areas like doors, but more so on areas like the rear wheel arches and around detailed parts like where light fittings go. On these areas we have had to use filler, often applying it several times with careful sounding down to try and perfect the true lines. To show up any errors we then use the guide coat, in our case we had some aerosol matt black paint. For these small repairs we have been using a filler from Halfords which does not require mixing with a hardener, it is straight out the tube which saves a lot of time and is easier to apply.

When sanding or using wet and dry we must be careful on the edges of panels not to apply too much pressure as it is very very easy to sand through all layers of paint just on the edge.

The first area we applied the topcoat to was the engine bay, and it looks absolutely gorgeous!! It has surpassed my expectations and I cannot imagine a nicer shade of red. It will suit the car perfectly against the polished woolfies and brightwork!

To ‘cut’ the new top coat in we first used wet and dry to remove any unevenness in the paint then used a two in one cutting and polishing compound with an air polisher. The results from this were excellent, maximum results with minimum effort which makes a pleasant change! Doing this on the bonnet will be a real pleasure!

One of the factors slowing down our work is lack of space, we are operating in a single garage which means we only have limited access to one side and an end at any one time. We can partially overcome this by making up rather unusual tent-contraptions with bits of wood and tarpaulin, if nothing else I am sure it increases curiosity in the neighbours.

Looking forward, before we apply the top coat we want to check the fitting of light fitments and bumpers. Any redrilling of holes can then be done without risk of cracking new topcoats of paint. This means we need to source some new bumpers ASAP. We have 2 rubber ones in reasonable condition (large amounts of waxoyl required on frame though), 1 rubber bumper in poor condition, and the other 1 is dead! We would like to stick with the original bumpers as opposed to fibreglass or carbon fibre ones so we are currently working on this problem.

The effect of the above experiences is that it has made our estimate of time to complete the bodywork enlarge a lot! My aim is that by the end of January we will be fully sprayed with the body back on the chassis and actually looking like a proper sports car again.

As always, any advice or tips will be gratefully received.

Update as of 6.20pm, 29th December - The Red Mist!!

With Christmas now come and gone, we've been able to spend a bit of time between Christmas day and new year to do some more bodywork, and as this is being typed, we're waiting for the final top coat on the OS of the car to dry. It's been an unbeleivably time consuming job to get every little imperfection out of the surface, but we 'think' we're there now, and in about an hour, we'll find out just how well (or not!) we did. The piuctures show the car from the rear OS quarter, and everything from the front wing, right down as far as the sills, and back as far as the centre of the rear has now been painted with four coats of flamey red. Next step, a little later on this evening, is to rub down this top coat with very fine wet and dry, with a little soap applied to stop the build up on lumps on the paper. The surface isn't absolutely smooth, it's still a case of trial and error with the gun, and we're getting some orange peel on the surface, but there is more than enough paint thickness to take this off without revealing primer. Next up will be the air polisher and some Farècla rubbing compound, which has the added advantage of bringing up a decent gloss finish without having to go over everything with hard wax as well. We'll probably leave the surface like this, then use a quality wax like Zymol a little later on. Suffice to say, when the whole car is painted, it'll be a white glove only area!!

Happy New Year to all our visitors, and all the best for 2003, the year of the 'M'!!

Chris & Tony