The Elegant Thirsty Dinosaur - ETD gets a friend (ETD2)

[rottenlungs]

Thanks Phil. I`m really pleasantly surprised at the power of sanding and polishing to hide painting errors!

Yes, Alfie (no. 2 son) is very excited. We trundled up and down the drive and with both had big grins. He sits on my toolbox in the garage and watches what I am up to very intently.

Cheers

Well done James - it's looking great! No doubt you'll have a broad grin when you think about what you've achieved

Looks like another generation is getting interested in P6s too..

[WarrenL]

Looks fabulous! I'm gobsmacked with admiration. I've got to say that my experiences in painting have driven me so crazy (OCD sucks) that I've resorted to paying out large dollops of money to have my P6 dollied up. For me it was the lesser of two great evils.

[rottenlungs]

Thanks very much, Warren.

I have had to be realistic about the final quality of the respray. To be honest it has come out better than I thought it would, though there are certainly a few rough areas. I think I could spend an indefinite amount of time on preparation if I didn`t accept a certain level of imperfection. There are one or two areas which I might revisit in the future if they annoy me too much. I have also found it infuriatingly easy to knock / chip panels during reassembly.

Someone else on this forum has said that "as long as it looks better than when I started". I`ve certainly achieved that.

It`s nice to be at the end of the constant prime / fill / sand / paint merry-go-round. I had a happy evening last night rebuilding the number plate lamp and rewiring the rear light clusters. By nature I`m a mechanic, not a panel beater!

Cheers

James

[WarrenL]

That's where I struggle, James. I find it so difficult to call time on a job and say "Enough's enough! It's now good enough." Perhaps classic cars weren't the best hobby for me to get into...

[JVY]

Thanks very much, Warren.

I have had to be realistic about the final quality of the respray. To be honest it has come out better than I thought it would, though there are certainly a few rough areas. I think I could spend an indefinite amount of time on preparation if I didn`t accept a certain level of imperfection. There are one or two areas which I might revisit in the future if they annoy me too much. I have also found it infuriatingly easy to knock / chip panels during reassembly.

Someone else on this forum has said that "as long as it looks better than when I started". I`ve certainly achieved that.

It`s nice to be at the end of the constant prime / fill / sand / paint merry-go-round. I had a happy evening last night rebuilding the number plate lamp and rewiring the rear light clusters. By nature I`m a mechanic, not a panel beater!

Cheers

James

James, it looks like you have done a great job. One problem with doing DIY jobs is you know where the odd rough bit is, so your eye is drawn towards the 1% you are not happy with and it's all too easy to forget about the 99% that is perfect. I sometimes also work on theory that something may not be perfect but is now several factors better than it was and this equals, "job done". I know what you mean about knocking and chipping things on reassembly. I recently had some panels off, touched them up a bit and had a bit of bother putting things like wings back on without chipping edges/corners. Two things I decided was (provided your paint has hardened) put masking tape on corners/edges to prevent/limit damage and, if someone is around, get them to help line up things as you lift them into place. Keep up the work and hope you get finished soon.

[rottenlungs]

Thanks for your kind words, Steve.

I think the suggestion about putting masking tape along the edges is a great idea. It`s always the corners / edges that get bumped. I took the boot and rear decker panel back off the car tonight to start on refitting the rear screen. No bumps but I had my mate from over the road give me a hand.

Congrats on the MOT on your car as well. Sounds like it was a pretty major weldathon for you.

Cheers.

[v8guy]

Great work there James, just been reading through your thread. I feel its always nicer if you can turn your hand at achieving a job. It gives you that good feeling of knowing you done it yourself. One of my sayings is "its better than it was" may not be upto the pros standards yet but you can only get better with practice . Look forward to seeing it back together and on the road again...

[rottenlungs]

Thanks Guy.

I got the rear window back in last night which is a huge relief - I have been so nervous of accidentally breaking it when it was off the car.

All that remains before the WOF (Kiwi MOT) is:

1) One main beam unit has died - not sure if it's connections or a failure.
2) Fit replacement washer pump and replumb
3) tune the carbs
4) reassemble the remaining 3 doors that haven`t been done yet

Additional jobs to complete the resto:
1) Fit Facet fuel pump
2) Fit cant rails / windscreen finishers / side trims
3) Major clean of the interior
4) New carpet set.
5) Flat / polish 2 wings and 1 door.
6) new rubber seals for b post and rear wing to doors.
7) Front and back seals on the engine - this may escalate to a full engine rebuild, just don`t tell the Mrs!

Thanks everyone for your support.

Great work there James, just been reading through your thread. I feel its always nicer if you can turn your hand at achieving a job. It gives you that good feeling of knowing you done it yourself. One of my sayings is "its better than it was" may not be upto the pros standards yet but you can only get better with practice . Look forward to seeing it back together and on the road again...

[chrisyork]

Well done that man!

We wait with baited breath for the driving reports!

Just one note; don't use a facet pump! Start by solving the problem (fuel vaporisation?) as often described on here - which is a cooling problem of the engine failing to bleed properly and or inadequate radiator. Then if it persists buy a rotary pump similar to the Huco type. But come back after the car's roadworthy and we'll talk you through it.

Oh, and you may well find that the crank seals will take up somewhat once you start driving it!

Chris

[JVY]

1) One main beam unit has died - not sure if it's connections or a failure.

Could be that the fuse holder contacts in the fuse box for that beam's fuse are a little loose? There are seperate fuses for left and righthand main beam. I had this on mine and it does seem to be a very common problem as the fuse box warms up and the contacts work loose. Sometimes you find the main beam on doesn't work but the main beam flash does (or vice versa) as one contact on the supply side of the fuseholder suppplies the main beam permanently on switch and the other supplies the "pull to flash" switch?

[chrisyork]

Check that your fuses are 32mm long rather than 30mm. This makes a huge difference to a P6. With the short fuses, the holders overheat and go loose (the plastic softens - and in extreme cases will catch fire).

Chris

[rottenlungs]

Hi Chris

Are the Facet pumps not very good, then?

In terms of temperature issues, I have taken a drillbit to the bleed nipple on the carb tower - I`ll need to check for turbulence in the radiator tank next time I run it. The radiator is a good 2nd hand item at the moment. I`m intending to get the other carcass I have recored with a three-row core, though that is not going to be cheap so if I can hold off for a few months I will.. I am also going to flush out the cooling system as best I can when I take the timing cover off for the seal. I will report back on the fuel issues once I`ve attacked the cooling. I think I might replace my crummy 1 litre ex-antifreeze-bottle expansion tank arrangement with something a little more professional looking. I noticed a car on here that had the bottle out of an SD1 and it looked pretty authentic.

On a good note, the wipers now have two speeds and auto park. Basically cleaned , lubed and reseated all contacts. Delay doesn`t quite behave - it takes the wipers halfway across the screen and then stops. However, I can live without delay for the WOF. I`ve also polished a wing and a door so just one wing remaining.

Fingers crossed on the oil seals perking up with use. I would prefer not to change the back seal unless I have to.

Cheers

James

Well done that man!

We wait with baited breath for the driving reports!

Just one note; don't use a facet pump! Start by solving the problem (fuel vaporisation?) as often described on here - which is a cooling problem of the engine failing to bleed properly and or inadequate radiator. Then if it persists buy a rotary pump similar to the Huco type. But come back after the car's roadworthy and we'll talk you through it.

Oh, and you may well find that the crank seals will take up somewhat once you start driving it!

Chris

[chrisyork]

Sounds like the agenda's all in there! And well done with the wipers!

Facet pumps are OK if the shop that sells it you know what they are doing. But there a re a lot of different varieties and most over the counter sales are high pressure ones - ie to suit injection, racing etc. They are also rather cheap construction and noisy.

Have a look at the Huco pumps here:

http://www.gowerlee.dircon.co.uk/index.html

They sell under quite a lot of different names, so you could be lucky in NZ.

Chris

[rottenlungs]

Chris, JVY

I had a look at the fuse box tonight. It`s the first time I`ve had a good look in there. The two left-hand most fuseholders (labelled as heater blower and rear window) have both melted in the past - before I owned the car. Someone has done a tidy job of rewiring those two fuses with inline fuse holders. I haven`t measured the fuses yet for size.

What I did notice was the the fuses are arranged with a separate LH and RH fuse for the dip / main units but a single fuse for the pair of main -beam only lights. So I can`t see how a single main beam lamp could be due to a fuse, unless the fusebox is incorrectly labelled. I think I`ll check the rather ugly knot of wiring under the servo next, its probably been tugged at a bit when I rewired the side light cluster. I`ll find the bullet connectors in question and put a meter on them. I also have a couple of replacement halogen units on order from Holden Classics. I don`t mind having a few spares about.

Final wing cut and polished tonight. Started swearing at the windscreen finishers. I think I have one just about fitted. Time for the 3.2mm drill and the pop-rivetter.

I`ll post some pics tomorrow, I found a couple of pics of the car from very early on in the repaint process so I`ll do a quick before and after

Thanks again, all.

Check that your fuses are 32mm long rather than 30mm. This makes a huge difference to a P6. With the short fuses, the holders overheat and go loose (the plastic softens - and in extreme cases will catch fire).

Chris

[rottenlungs]

Hi.

A couple of before and after shots to compare to the current state..

rusty3.jpg (202.98 KiB) Viewed 309 times

rusty2.jpg (153.37 KiB) Viewed 309 times

rusty1.jpg (203.76 KiB) Viewed 309 times

hu2.jpg (645.92 KiB) Viewed 309 times

Hu1.jpg (636.62 KiB) Viewed 309 times

Definitely an improvement..!

Cheers

James

Hi

Thought it was time for a quick update. I have made plenty of progress over the last few weeks. All the painting is complete. I still have a few panels to polish, (Farecla G3 is good sh1t!) but its starting to look like a car again.

There are plenty of imperfections but the overall effect is rather pleasing, I think. I`m hoping to be finished in time for the 10th anniversary of me owning the car, October..

Hope she meets with approval - I`ll have to change my sig to reflect the absence of rust colouring now!

Cheers

James