Polishing

Because I'm working in a single garage and a little bit tight for space, I have for some time been moving the bonnet around the garage placing it on the body when I wasn't working on the car and leaning it up against as wall when I was. I was starting to get cheesed off with this so made an effort to get this part of the build finished. First I installed the resevoirs for the brakes, clutch and washer bottle.



I painted up the hinges with POR-15 which dries to a nice shiny and seemingly bullet proof finish but I did have a little trouble getting a nice clean appearance. The paint seemed quite thick and didn't flow as I would have liked. I may revisit these later and have them powder coated but for now they'll do. I don't get much time in the garage these days, I've come to realisation that if I go for perfection, I'll never get this thing finished. The next step was to polish the bonnet, well the middle section at least so I could bolt the scoop on permanently. Here's when things started to go downhill and my aim for perfection got in the way. I followed advice I got elsewhere and polished the bonnet with Farecla Profile 200 and a wool mop followed my Profile 500 and a lambswool mop.... result, shiny but scratched to hell :-( I was obviously doing something wrong. I set about masking the bonnet into different sections and using different combinations of compound and pads ( I have a few different ones that I've previously used on my tin top) to see which produced the best result. Not happy, I turned to the internet and after a little research bought some different compound and pads, and then some more after that. This seemed like the longest week ever with nothing seeming to work and being unable to attain anything like the finish I've seen and admired on other similar builds.

I finally gave up on the bonnet and moved onto a different area, partly to take my mind off the disastrous attempt at polishing the bonnet but I also wanted to get the windscreen fitted for the final time so set to work polishing the scuttle area. Given all the combinations of compounds and pads I'd tried I was determined to get it right. It seems someone was watching and as if by magic, it all came together.



And just to prove to myself it wasn't just luck I had another go at the bonnet



Sure there's still a few marks which I may go back with my newfound knowledge and experience and rectify but for now, that'll do for me !

Bit more work on the dash

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that my dash blank, being one of the first from GD (that seems like a long time ago) wasn't marked out with the gauge position so I had to do it myself. I borrowed a layout originally set up by Simon R which seems to have found its way around the web and marked the positions onto the blank before cutting out with a combination of the trusty Dremel with a radius cutter for the two large gauges and a holesaw for the smaller ones. Here's a before picture.



This was all part of a plan to mock up the dash so I could get an idea of where to mount the ECU, relays's etc that from part of the engine loom and need to be concealed behind the dash.

I also fitted the brace bar, which fits across the width of the car and bolts through the windscreen legs, and the dash support bar. This enables the under dash plates to be fitted into place.



The back edge of the plates is bolted onto the brace bar by drilling and tapping it, I used m5 with button head bolts. The front edge is simply wedged between the support bar and the bottom edge of the dash which has a right angled return but because I wanted to work with the dash plates and needed them to be held a little more firmly without relying on the dash to hold them in place, I made up a couple of brackets from some angle iron and welded them onto the support bar so they could be bolted at the front aswell. I used some m5 rivnuts for this.



Here's a picture with the bracket in place prior to welding which I wouldn't win any prizes for, but it does the job



The dash blank held in place with the support bars and under dash plates fitted. The dash itself is held in place along the top edge by some m4 button heads which pass through the lip on the underside of the scuttle and tightened from the back with some wingnuts. The button heads are self tapped into a 3.2mm hole and held firm with some araldite.