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Polar White and Rust - a restoration epic, can it even be done?


IanMc
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Hi herman, cheers for that yes no offence was intended !..

its funny when you look at google pictures of our cars. Later plastic bumper mantas cant realy have numberplate fitted in wrong place but early cars can.and it can make or break a good looking front end.

ian.you are doing a fantastic job ,attention to detail is 100% and you have made me rethink some of my own repairs too . Good luck with the red velour search.pity the interior on facebook is manta orange but im sure someone somewhere will have a red seat cloth. Im pretty sure the material was also similar if not identical too in SOME other models .ie chevette gls,viva gls,vx2300 gls..

early cavs,mantas and asconas used a totally different style unfortunatey. If it were me i would personally put one of those black vynil seatcovers on the drivers seat untill some red cloth shows up. It will eventually. My cars have one of those covers on all the time to keep them clean . 

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16 minutes ago, cam.in.head said:

If it were me i would personally put one of those black vynil seatcovers on the drivers seat untill some red cloth shows up. It will eventually. My cars have one of those covers on all the time to keep them clean . 

Thanks Chris - yes I am coming to the same conclusion myself.

I’m not in a desperate hurry, it’s not as if it will stop me using the car or anything.

Blimey, I just noticed that there has been almost 21,000 views of this thread - I think that we might all need to get out a bit more!  :lol:

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This afternoon I got the front end of the car up in the air to make working a bit easier. After that I added a very thin skim of filler to cover the low spots pitted with surface rust on the lower valance.

 

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While that dried I decided to do a job that has been on the 'to do' list for a week or two and get some display racks on the wall (removed from the scrap bin at work). These have been recycled into areas for me to keep PPE and lighting. Not sure how long they will remain this organised, but you have to start with good intentions!

 

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Just had a little play with the dent between the number plate mounting screws. This is what I started with:

 

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After using Hermans suggestion of bar and clamps, and then a little heat and hammering I now have this:

 

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I'm fairly happy with that - a little filler will finish that off nicely.

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Continued with the work on the lower front valance this afternoon. Its coming along OK, but as always its time consuming and patience is required to make it look nice.

Interestingly I noticed that the top left hand corner (when viewed from the front) doesn't line up with the wing, even though all of the connecting bolts are perfectly aligned - weird! The strange thing is it seems to meet/align well at the bottom and middle, then sit back at the top. Its probably about 3-4 mm below the front line of the wing.

I couldn't see any way of manipulating it to make it fit better, so I am 'constructing' a better fit with some body filler. You can see that piled on in the photo below. Once that is dry I can hopefully take it back down to the wing ling and open up the panel join line again (I just did that to give me a better idea of the level required. Perhaps it never did fit properly, but with all of the more serious issues to deal with, I just never noticed to be honest.

 

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Back to the upper panel a short time ago.

After some elbow grease, I am now pretty much back to the correct lines. All of the low points are now dealt with and there is just a few air holes that I have filled with filler stopper to rub back down.

 

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For all those returning to work tomorrow for the first time after a Christmas break (including me) - deep breath, how bad can it be?

On the plus side, at least it will be a short week :rolleyes:

Have a nice evening everyone.

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Update on the front spoiler corner/end fix - this evening I cut both bolt heads off and then decided to go for it and ran a nyloc nut down each... I am pleased to report that both are solid!

Next I did some more sanding on both the upper front panel and the lower valance. Both are coming along very nicely and might even get some primer tomorrow evening if I get time.

Every time I look at the bonnet it depresses me more, so I have decided to leave that until last - at least that way I will have a good reason for getting stuck into it.

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Got a bit more sanding and shaping done on the upper and lower front panels this evening.

When I thought I was getting pretty close, I decided to give it a quick dusting of primer to show up any/all imperfections - there are plenty!   :rolleyes:  :lol:

 

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No bother though, Rome wasn't built in a day. At least I can clearly see the problem areas now and work on them.

Have a nice evening all.

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Some decent progress this afternoon.

I now have the final shape of both the upper panel and the lower valance. Subsequently, these have now had another dusting of primer, but another couple of coats is definitely required:

 

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After that I turned my attention to the roof. This has remained generally untouched since I received the car and used my DA sanmder to remove the surface rust that had developed while it was under a holed cover...

There are five low spots to be filled and sanded out - two of which were caused when I welded in new metal around the rear screen area. I decided to dust it with primer after a quick sanding to see exactly where the areas of concern were. You will see that on both sides of the car, just up from the 'C' pillar there are matching hollows - no ideas how these came to be there, its odd that they are in almost exactly the same spot on opposite sides of the car too.

Anyway, they wont be there for long  :D

 

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A little bit of progress this morning.

After feeling for the low spots again, I marked them on the roof with my trusty marker, then dumped some filler on top.

 

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Being colder today, it took quite a while to dry, but once it was hard enough right through to start rough sanding it to a general shape. More filler will be required in some areas.

 

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Thats probably it for today as we are off out shopping - apparently...   :unsure:

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It just occurred to me that this whole restoration thread 'thing' could actually turn out to be counter productive...

If I ever come to sell this car, I either need to point any potential buyer to this thread to show them what has been done to the car, or say nothing.

Viewing the thread they might be impressed, or very disappointed with what I have done, and/or the way I have done it.

Conversely, by not mentioning the thread they might say "well I only have your word that you have done this or that!"

You get my point?.

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Dont worry Ian if you ever sell the car they will see exactly what has gone into it. Not that I think you will be selling it anyway ? .

the good thing about your car is that you know exactly what has been done and what all the surfaces are like under the paint. Which is not true of 9 out of 10 of any restored car someone could buy..yes they may look smooth and shiny but you never know what's underneath.we have all read horror stories about what people have found under paint/ panels on cars they are repairing and a freshly restored car for sale could be no better.you just never 100% know.

original cars are always better or untouched ones like yours was.you know exactly what you have got,no one has covered anything up.

its a bit of the same argument for reconditioned engines,and other parts. 

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More very boring sanding of the roof tonight, but its almost there now.

Just a bit more tomorrow to smooth out last skim of stopper filler that I have just put over the last remaining imperfections.

 

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With a bit of luck, I might be able to get the roof primed in a day or two.

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Loads more sanding this evening, topped off with a couple of quick coats of primer.

This has showed up some small defects that I had missed - Doh!

I'm only 95% happy with the finish so far, so some more stopper filler and finish sanding is still required... I had actually thought that this might happen, hence I only gave it two quick coats of primer.

Its not really time or effort wasted, its just annoying more than anything. Just when you think you have almost finished a small part, it jumps up and bites you again.

Oh well, onward and upwards

 

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Have a nice evening all.

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39 minutes ago, mantaray said:

All ways the case, primer show up every imperfection in the filler. For small imperfections it is worth using primer/filler, make life that bit easier.

I’ve never used it to be honest, is it cheating or do you recommend it?

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Should be fine BUT 

make sure you follow the primer / filler instructions to the absolute letter. Some of the ‘custard’ coloured stuff I’ve used in the past has been realy fussy. slightly too thick and it cracks very badly when it’s dry. Sometimes not immediately,sometimes a day or two later . 

It must work or they wouldn’t make it but just be carefull !

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3 hours ago, cam.in.head said:

Should be fine BUT 

make sure you follow the primer / filler instructions to the absolute letter. Some of the ‘custard’ coloured stuff I’ve used in the past has been realy fussy. slightly too thick and it cracks very badly when it’s dry. Sometimes not immediately,sometimes a day or two later . 

It must work or they wouldn’t make it but just be carefull !

Thanks for the great info Chris, much appreciated.

I have heard of similar stories before, hence I have never used it and always done things the 'long way'. I think I might avoid that and just stick with the traditional primer and stopper filler. It is/will take me way longer, but I have confidence in that/those.

Thanks again to both you and Chris for your support!

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Spent a couple of hours pottering around this afternoon.

First off I did some more sanding and minor imperfection work on the roof - yawn!  :lol:

Then I set about having a bit of a tidy up as it was rapidly getting difficult to move around without falling over all of my 'stuff'.

That task was helped by finding this little kiddie on FB Marketplace last night:

 

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The guy only wanted £15, so I didn't have much to lose. It even came with all the feet, the front draw blocking bars and all of the original (plus some for the retrofitted ones) keys for the locks. As you can see someone has 'added' a lock for the bottom up and over door as well. Its not as good as my other one, but I'm still quite pleased with that to be honest.

 

 

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