Still on the paint

During the "pause" the father in law popped round on boxing day, so we sneaked off to the garage as I knew he would set the tappets up with his eyes closed ready for a the compression test. I wanted to check the tappets as I noticed there was a locking nut that was out right missing, so I was starting to feel the way forward was to not take anything for granted.
Well we didn't even think about doing the compression test when we found a sticking valve that wouldn't close, so no point in doing the test. Father in law looked at me and said it is probably head off and I agreed there was no point going forward, and especially when he said we could do it now. Dam right as I was not the only one going to get in to trouble for messing around hidden away in the garage, so it came off but we did call it a day at that point and went back to join the family.

The following day I had a few chores to do so no lay in and got on with making one of the garage doors wider then paused to clear the chores and rescue some kind of sense I was still part of the family. I think every time I went to the work shop I was gone for at least 6 hours, almost a good job we had lost both kids to the x box so wife could try and relax whilst suffering from a very bad cold. Although she did soldier on with Christmas prep regardless! Had to hold back moaning about everything being hard and taking ages as it was small fry to her.

So lost track of what day it is, but that's Christmas for you. When I did the big buff on the clear coat, I was not expecting it to be a five minute job, and I was not disappointed! That was another 6 hour day and it turned out I had not put enough clear coat on the rear valence so the short buff cut through to paint, but on the whole it was looking a lot better. A lack of full light, not ideal booth conditions and a dollop of not overly skilled spraying had left dust particles and a heavy orange peel to deal with. Having buffed and standing back I had to face it another complete coat of clear was needed but should be well worth it. A plan B was hatched and a few phone calls made had to tow truck delayed till the 5th and I will be there tomorrow to push the mini into a unit a few doors along so it is out of the way for work on the 2nd. The plan is that my supplier will have stock of clear coat by friday and I can spray Sat morning in better light and crossing the fingers I can keep it warm enough to dry ready for  he Sunday move back home.
God, the thought of actually putting some stuff back on it. Sounding dangerously close to some kind of noticable progress, if parts get fitted that means more space in the shed and loft as well. I would like to get excited with the prospect of all this, but .... Already wondering if the clutch is seized so strongly thinking about changing the clutch asap, the valve collets seem to be a tw£t and are a bit stuck apart from one valve. So valve removal isn't going to quickly and getting a bit twichy about the piston rings although the boar doesn't look to bad, after a quick planned hone it should be up to specs. Well it seems like that big mini spares parcel is going to have to wait a while as it doesn't look like it will be all that soon for the first fire up. Best to get it right and not cock it up by rushing it. Restoration progress looks like it will still be slow going for a while, the rockers and push rods have already had a quick clean up so still plodding forward.

A change of colour

With the mini in the new work shop I have been back there twice now and ended up racking quite a few hours. Only if the jobs would happen at the speed I have in my head!! I never try to guesstimate  optimistically and always add on extra time per job, but not really having done something quite on this scale it is no surprise I have over run each time I have been there by a good few hours. I was expecting to take up a fair bit of space in the work shop but oh my word I really did amnage to spread out.

To date I have finished sanding and cleaning all the panels, moved all the frames to hang panels up, masked off (I really couldn't believe how long that took, wasn't expecting a five minute job but went well over an hour that I hoped for), sprayed the colour on and not a single drop of paint left in the tins! Then today I had to buy more clear coat, do a bit of sanding on the bonnet after the air line I joined with fittings decide to separate which gave a mighty woosh. Gave me a bit of a jump and looks like it through a load of shite onto the bonnet.  R/H side sanded back, there is a few water droplets on the left but the rest is what it looks like, bad. Oh, brilliant idea was to borrow our kids water pistol to apply water when doing the wet and dry :)

With a bit of added panel prep done and panels all cleaned I got on with the clear coat again. Have to say I am not enjoying my spray gun and if I do this again I'll get another one that is gravity fed and with a bigger needle. The 1.2mm needle and gun is not giving a very wide fan or as much out of it as I would like, so the speed I passed the panel each time was surprisingly slow and really did take a bit of self control to slow down. The orange peel was impossible to shake on the bigger panels, fine on small areas but that's why the extra layer of clear went on today to give me room to polish it back a bit harder and hopefully get it all up to standard, fingers crossed.

So that should be it for a few days now. I do need to look at the garage and see if the opening can be made bigger for more clearance on the wheel arches for it's return. The racks in there need unloading and shifting to allow space for the tool chest to go in, yes I plan to actually be able to find spanners, novel idea! May be a compression test on the engine as well, we will see, spent quite a bit of time away from the family the last few days so trying to be good and spend at least some time with them.

Change of work shop

Today was the big bay, the day we had to move the mini to a different work shop. So it was get up early to finish grouping up supplies, bonnet and boot to load into my car and then squeeze the mini out of the garage ready to be collected. When the mini went into the garage I was not convinced it would go through the door so I re jigged the complete end of the wooden garage so I could just remove it with out the roof falling in, my neighbor was addiment it would fit and we did measure it to find he was actually right. When I say right we had 1cm either side of the arches getting it out, so correct but wow that was a bit twitchy.

After a bit of a faf moving things at my work so I would have enough space for all operations the mini was pushed in to it's new temporary home and a final inspection was made. I did see it coming that there would be just a little more to fill as I had a bit more space around it to have a good look. That was all done today and have completed most of the flatting back of the primer, then it will  be a big cleaning mission and onto a big masking up mission. Then we should be finally ready to lay own some paint. Exciting times.
May have to chop the garage doors though so it can be pushed back in with a bit more leeway, but all is good.

Moving forward

Since the last update I have been back to the paint shop and he had enough pigments this time to make the pots of paint, in fact I seem to have been to Motor mart quite a bit lately but then he is a mini guru so it's always nice to pop in and inevitably we chat about random mechanics or mini stuff.
Armed with said paint 5 days ago I did manage to paint the metal rear pockets (not sure what they are called, like very deep door bins but obviously they are not attached to doors), all door pillars and the boot which went fairly well with just a boot scuff on one of the rear pockets where I was climbing in and out to get the pillars done but that is all retouched now and a clear coat has been applied. It was not that easy due to a lack of space to work but quite happy in the end and the gun survived a quick clean up as I had to rush straight out on a family matter. I don't seem to have any pictures of the painting but to be fair even if I did I don't think the light is good enough for the phone camera.
So whilst in a spending mission !!! I have now ordered a truck load of parts to make sure the next stage can happen. Yes next stage ! That would be compression testing the engine and if successful straight onto getting it running in the test jig, so that would be bolt ancillaries on ..... so I needed gaskets, hoses a few bolts, card needle & jet, you know minor things! But they need to be bought at some point. I did also buy a very nice inline regulator for the spray gun as I didn't mind chancing it at home with a short airline but no way was I doing that for the next stage when I want the best quality I can muster for the outside and there will be 20-30 meters of airline to loose pressure from the gauge on the compressor.

The engine parts I ordered was a bloody night mare, I had researched some of the parts to get the right variant but my word there has been a lot of changes and versions of parts in the engine bay, fingers crossed they all bolt up ok when the time comes and I haven't wasted 1/2 a day checking and then sourcing those parts.
The next time slot I had was a few days later and realised I really did need to get on with the next potential problem ....the boot lid. I could see it coming, if all the body panels looked ok but when I stated to block sand them realised they only looked ok because they where mat colour and where actually barely half prepped surely the smoothed over boot lid would just as much of a pain. But I needed my sanding frame back so I could work on the boot lid ontop of the engine bay like I did for the bonnet. That would be the frame I had moved outside so I had more room to paint the inside of the car, yep that would be the very wet frame. Brought that inside to dry and settled for cleaning up the oil filter housing and a quick painting of that.

Poop, I was so right about the boot lid. A quick block sanding revealed what I had thought so I got the P38 out again :( Fortunately work has been relatively quick and I was able to get the inside prepped, primed and started on the outside in one evening. That evening might have been from about 7pm to 2.30 am but I finished that night not feeling to bad about it.

The need for a solid push is I have a recovery truck booked for the weekend and that night was Wednesday ....it might also be last day of work on Friday and that means there will be a bit of drinking aka no last minute working on the mini that night.
Tonight I have been in the garage already and sanded back what I had left drying, quietly pleased with how far I got and there is a fair chance I can finish it off tonight with a coat or 2 of primer. It is not essential but would be really nice.
The plan is to get the mini in my works unit, give the shell and all doors, boot & bonnet the final sand, wash down and clean. Set up the spray booth and mask off. Weather I get round to shooting some paint I don't know as we are out that evening. But it will be shell painted and clear coated one day and then the rest done on another day. I did manage to make some stands for the doors, boot, bonnet and one for the spray gun as well today, so they are sat ready and waiting  at work.
Well I think the last (fingers crossed) round of filling should be very dry now and it is time to go do some sanding, it is 10pm so we will see if I get back inside the house before midnight ?
This is the state of the boot lid before I came in to wash up and write this, what ever those layers of paint is better not give me grief on contamination bleeding through the primer, time will tell. The red was all over when I started, so you kind of see there was a bit of leveling/smoothing out to do !

One step back, one forward

Over the last couple of days it has been a little step backwards but we should be going forward again. I had moved the mini forward (the first time in 2+ years it has moved) so I can get to the boot ready to flatten the primer ... found I had not quite finished priming inside there so finished that off and did some more cleaning in the garage. Oh and I finally found enough space in there to remove some mini parts from the house!

The power for the garage is cheekily run from my shed on an extension lead to the garage, I am always conscious of not overloading it and only run the 2 strip lights and one other item at a time ...normally the heater. So a couple of days ago I turned on the plug in the shed and heard just a little crackling, almost like a crisp packet un folding or a bit of tinsel being scrunched, not loud and didn't continue. That night I did have an idea what was going on and used a different ext lead on a different plug socket. Having taken a half day today, when I got back home I turned the main power off and went to discover the plug was not looking quite right and the socket was ... well you can see. In the end it was ok I just raided my box of electrical parts for a new plug and socket front so all sorted now.

Before I got home today I did pop into the paint shop and announced today was the day ...for paint NOT more primer. The chosen colour (as agreed by the family as I left that open to them to counter the vast amount of time I have hidden away working on it and give them some input on the project) the colour needed a vast amount of one pigment that I was told he normally only uses 30ml of to mix a colour, yep I needed 260ml and he buys it in 250ml bottles. He made an order and hopefully it will be there tomorrow, but I did get an aerosol made up while I was there for small parts and back up for an emergency later on.
I was good and before I got home I bought plastic sheeting and a jug for mixing paint and thinners ( prob best instead of using the jug from the kitchen :) ).
Obviously I cracked straight on with sanding the boot, um, well I might have dug out the boot hinges which where already primed put them on a board and painted them :) Yep the first parts truly finished in the final car colour. As it is a pearl paint it is not easy to photo and will change a lot in different lights as well as it changing when a bit of clear coat is applied, so may be not truly finished but my word they are close. Ignore the colour on the board as it is quite different due to no primer.

Hinges, ext boot hinge bolts and bonnet spring painted but have paused to help my youngest with some school work and the garage to stop stinking so bad before sanding the primer in the boot. Not expecting any more visual changes today so took five to write this.
Boot and inside car painting tomorrow as long as my compressor behaves, woop.

First paint

Today saw the first real paint on the car, I know I did the underside of the bonnet but that only half counts. The engine bay and floor pan, no one can dispute is paint on the car. I have to say that it is a bit of a relief to be able to stand in the side door of the garage to look at the mini and really say to myself "it looks like progress".

So far each step has been so involved or just out right long winded I am the only one who can see the tiny steps of progress. Even if I look at a lot of the pictures I have to admit I can barely see what I know had been overcome and done.
Well I may be getting ahead on the To do list, but that really doesn't mean I can slack off and rest my aching back (yes it is still not right ) as there is still a lot to do and just as much to line up. Let alone a final decision on what exact colour is going to be used so subsequently where I go to buy the paint. Still at least we are heading in the right direction and I am sure there will be plenty more hurdles to overcome with the wiring loom and engine next year, so don't worry I am sure the drama is far from over.

Sticking to the plan

So over the last few days I have been back to the paint shop again for hopefully the last round of etch primer AND some gloss black. This is very good news as the gloss black is for a finished coat on the car. So it has been the plan for a while to go for more of an engine bay refresh instead of a bare bones start over like the rest of the car as it has always been one of the more tidy areas as it had actually been painted a few times. So there really was just a few surface brown patches to tidy up  and the surround (wings etc) have been masked off and bay cleaned and keyed ready for paint tomorrow.
With the black engine bay theme going on today I painted the underside of the bonnet, I am having to draw the line a bit for the sake of realistic progress so no it is not perfect but it is just the underside of the bonnet. So no close up and by the look of it terrible lighting as well.

Also today those bonnet fittings got a finished coat of black (just the catch spring to powder coat as I think it will last longer and might do it in the red I have), both front doors where cleaned and primed ...... well I might be doing just a little more work on one of the doors but in a few days it will be back to ready for paint stage again.
As you can see bellow a few things have been crossed off the "order of works", a few notes and a few jobs have been added as well, it did look like a bit of a small list and well, a bit easy so I think it looks more like the massive lists I am used to seeing :)

Not sure but I think in 3 or 4 days I might well be buying paint.! I did test my spray gun the other day and all seemed good. My word, this really is on the verge of .... progress ! and not just the kind only I notice and every one else looks at it and thinks "what a shed, just smile and nod, he seems to be pleased with what ever it is he has done to it"

More bonnet !

Just a little update today. So the doors are out of the house and making the garage feel cramped. A carrier bag of rubbish, 6 empty spray cans, a gazebo and bag of sides where removed from the mini. I found another ratchet (found a really nice one last week under some parts!) 1 pack of hardener, lots of  new filler spatulas, the car mounted door catches that I clearly didn't shield from a priming stint! Oh and a dustpan and brush which I haven't seen for a very long time. Almost like Christmas all these new things I have/found !
Have been striping the spare bonnet for all fittings and just about to have a go at the stay retaining spring (if that is what it's called? holds the stay to the bonnet when not in use), forums are not saying it's easy getting off in a state to re use so we will see. But the rest is off and ready for sand blasting tomorrow.

Well I will confess and show you the "planed" order of works, it is do able, there is a chance, it could happen? Not counting the chickens yet, I know life usually throws me a curve ball so not getting excited yet. As long as my back keeps getting better, yes another recent set back but seem to be on the mend. But lets keep chipping away :)

Somebody at the door

That some one is me, yesterday was drivers door and today is passenger door (silver). I am not starting this, I am finishing them, I started at least one of them ...... quite a while ago. I am sure I started as the current garage was empty aka the mini was not in it, so the min would have to be sat on the drive at the time. That was quite a while ago now, still glad I did as most of the hardware was already off, door cards off and I had already de rusted a few spots and treated. As I knew how to get the lock off this time I did not spend to long getting the O/S lock and handle off, but this time I don't think it is worth changing the key barrel and doing a full strip down, clean and lube as there seems to be a lot of bubbles in the chrome. Really can't be arsed to go through taking the lock off again so will have a rummage through the mixture of parts and spares for a replacement if not it will be a new one. Nice to get the chrome cup out from behind the handle though, not really my thing.
I had to cave and chance it...... I brought the doors inside as I am really running out of space in the garage, it is also a bit cold even with the heaters on, so to keep a good working speed/filler drying time down. I cleared the dinning table and set my self up, I even put on a smelly candle as I realised the whole house was starting to smell like P38 ! But working right next to the log burner was good as all the used sand paper and paper towels went straight in it. Work tidy & work warm.

By sweeping off the excess filler dust as I went it seems to be not to bad in the house, result. So I have paused to let the fine filler dry before a final sand on one last spot and type up the weekends progress.
Next phase is remove the door windows and seals, final rub down and clean then we are good to prime. The spare bonnet needs all the fittings taken off and prepping for primer/paint. At this point it is possible we are down to just finishing off the rear pockets for primer and we are ........well not quite ready for painting, there is a few bits in the mini. Like the gazebo used for priming when the min was on our drive, yes the one that blew off down the road when I had turned my back for 10 minutes despite weighing it done with dumbells ! A boot lid which I have not really looked at much, dust sheets, used sand paper, most of the empty tubs of filler have been removed a few days ago :) I think that is about all that is in it, apart from a truck load of dust again ! But I have a nice new work shop hoover so that will be put through it's paces with all that fine dust !
So this is how the garage was left at the end of the day. To me it is starting to look a project car ,at last.