24/7/2001 - Paint Top Coat & Underneath!

After a week or so delay because of bad weather the final coats of paint have been put on the Sport. The difference between my spraying and that done now by a friend with the top coats is incredible - he gets a shine straight out of the gun! Mind you he has been at it 22 years. Nice one Tommo - thanks very much!

As usual I am chomping at the bit to polish the paintwork but I've resisted so far. I have been told to leave it at least a week before I can get my mitts on it.

Meanwhile I have kept myself busy restoring all the running gear. A friend at work shotblasted the back axle, leaf springs, shackles, spring mounts, front crossmember and front and rear anti roll bars for (cheers Terry!) and I have since sprayed these gloss black. To be honest they were quite pitted but with a coat of paint look quite presentable.

I have also bought new track control arms, track rod ends and refurbed the steering rack. Tonight I started to put everything back on. I have re-fitted the back axle and suspension and bought and fitted a 1.5 inch lowering kit for the rear end. My old Mk2 Escort has donated the rear Bilsteins so suspension travel is minimal to say the least. I 've got some Billies for the front together with uprated lowered coils so hopefully she should sit nice when done and handle as well.

Before all this I also 'bit the bullet and tackled the rest of the Waxoyl on the underside of the bodywork. It took bloody ages to get off using a mixture of thinners, then paint stripper, then a blowtorch and even good old fashioned scraping. Anyway I got it all off and was rewarded with a tidy underside which I have since given two coats of stone guard and then three coats of paint in a similar colour to the top coat (got some paint cheap!) Anyway here's how it looks:

All together the underneath cost about £50 to do which I think was well worth it. I end up using:

2.5 litres Fiat (sorry) Yellow Cellulose Top Coat
4 Bottles Upol Stone Guard
5 litres Standard Thinners
1kg Tin Seam Sealer

It took me about 5 days to do so and if you are thinking about doing it don't under-estimate how hard it is, laid on your back scraping painting etc. You also get filthy - ask my missus how many towels I have ruined.