What I am doing!

[mojobaby]

Looking forward to that! Have you decided on a colour yet or are you going to keep us all guessing?

 

[JonathanT]

Couldn't post on Monday...server error!

At last!!!! The big day has arrived and hurricane Katie is doing her best to hinder the operation. Howling wind and horizontal rain! Well my good friend Steve and his son of Vincents Garage arrived on time and we promptly adjourned to the pub until the wind calmed down
So first job get Jenny the Austin Seven out of my ex wife's garage so my ears don't get bent anymore and over to my newly acquired lock up on the other side of town...What another garage to fill up with junk?!Then it was Wombles turn travelling on the trolley so it can be painted easily within the wheel arches etc . We arrived safely ....phew Rob was fast driver and that railway bridge on the way seemed very close to the raised body as Womble flew underneath. So there I am following thinking how could such a tiny body shell have been so much hard work . So now delivered safely to a huge spray booth compared with my garage ..enough space to turn it sideways ! I've been crawling underneath front to back to get round for months. Colour not completely there yet but it will be a variation on 412 Ille de France.....So watch this space for the next exciting instalment!

 

[JonathanT]

Photos!

 

[JonathanT]

More photos!

 

[Vulgalour]

Exciting times! That last picture is my favourite.

 

[JonathanT]

Er well it was like this officer.. I was reversing and a Renault 4 got in the way

 

[JonathanT]

Keith my painter is making an amazing job. He is so meticulous! He gave me high praise for all the work I done including the welding and the rubbing down. But he's taken the work to the next level stripping the bonnet completely as it had micro blisters. He has also removed tiny paint chips and tiny spots of rust I'm sure it will be an amazing job!

 

[JonathanT]

Meanwhile back at the ranch I'm working hard on the brake pipes. Proving to be really difficult to do despite having a professional flaring tool. I've discovered that I can bend the pipe very neatly around socket sets and tin cans and the like. Don't get alarmed my wishbones are not going to be silver! But I have yet to do the final painting to the chassis. Can anyone help with this? All of the brake pipe ends appear to be Imperial size. However the master cylinder appears to have The central one of three in the Imperial size and the other two in metric. Is this correct?

 

[mojobaby]

Hi Jonathan, it's unlikely that there are both metric and imperial sizes on the same unit. i bought a special spanner to tighten the nuts. It has one side open (like a horse shoe),
so that the spanner can be removed after tightening.

If memory serves me correctly, it was a size 11 spanner and it fitted all the nuts except one of them. The one that didn't fit was either a size 12 or size 10, I can't quite remember without going to have a look. It was a size different.

I really couldn't tell you the reason behind it, perhaps the pipe that serves the back wheels is a bigger diameter.

Great work on bending those copper pipes without kinking them!!

 

[JonathanT]

Thanks Mojobaby

I have a suspicion the master cylinder may have a corrupted thread in the centre hole so I will proceed with caution ! Brake pipes pretty much done but peeled back to get the final chassis painting done

 

[JonathanT]

Isn't it always the way..you set aside a nice chunk of prime day off and something happens to rob you of that time. Like kids want a lift somewhere or the boiler breaks down well all those things conspired to happen on Saturday. But on Sunday I had a repreive. I actually had most of the day to get on . So I managed to get the rear wheels and brakes all assembled . I would have got the front end together too but the pipe couplings don't tighten down far enough into the flexible hoses. Only two or three threads holding in isn't enough. So I will have to remake the pipe ends with new couplings . Here are some photos of today's progress .

 

[mr-reno-139]

They are definitely metric on master 10 mm and 12mm
Be aware there are concave flares used on the imperial ends which usually involves actually 2 operation with flaring tool
Metric is convex or single flare operation
Look closely at the parts you are connecting pipes to

 

[mojobaby]

In your photo from Friday, I couldn't quite make out if you have blue paint on your chassis or is it a reflection from outside. Must be a mirror finish if that's the case.
Everything looks so clean and new- I've been inspired to paint my suspension parts so I started today and finished one side with anti-rust and black paint.
The bracket(silentbloc) that holds the suspension arm is a terrible mud trap

 

[petak]

coming together!
Nice

 

[Paul Narramore]

Jonathan, Smart chassis finish. What did you us? Sprayed or brushed?

 

[JonathanT]

Hi Guys thanks for the compliments . The chassis was delivered back to me already prepared and painted by Renault Reborn. But some parts needed a higher finish as Keith is making such a. Amazing job of the body I thought it would benefit a shinier finish. So the bits that are vaguely visible when the car is assembled now have a satin sheen. It's actually B&Q satin black aerosol and it went on really nice. I tried expensive hammerite but that gave an awful finish. Yes paint is black and light in photo makes it look blue. Here is the shell a few days ago

 

[JonathanT]

There ......Finished!

Much more eco Friendly too

 

[JonathanT]

Keith the painter has been busy....colour is going on and looking great !

 

[JonathanT]

Meanwhile back at the ranch ...

 

[JonathanT]

Bodywork comes home from the paint shop this weekend ...,so it's last minute final prep of the chassis before that happens.

So a little super high tech alignment of the rear wheels was in order followed by a little fine tuning of the brake pipes