I plan to carry out as much of the work as possible myself but the car will definitely need a respray at some stage as it's had a awful "blow-over" spray job on the outside and also needs welding in more than a few places. I have no experience of spraying cars and no facilities in which and with which to carry out a decent job. Also, by the time the vehicle is ready for paint I will have likely spent a considerable amount of time (and probably money) on it and won't want to ruin my hard work with a bad DIY paint job. So, I will be getting the car sprayed by a professional (if it gets that far).
I've also uncovered quite a few holes and other problems that will need welding. Despite the fact I have never done any welding before I am going to attempt to carry it all out myself. (I'll have to see how that goes but I hope not to have to call in outside help other than perhaps a little guidance from a friend who has done a fair bit of welding in the past). I'll undoubtedly need to buy some tools and equipment too. A substantial hoist might be required - after laying on the floor to look underneath I'm thinking a little assistance in getting back up again might be required.
I'm not setting any timescales for the project at this stage and I expect the rate of my progress to be dictated largely by time, money and the weather.
The weather will be a very big factor as i don't have a garage and am carrying out the work on my driveway.
I bought a "breathable" material car cover which has to date been doing an excellent job of keeping the car dry ( and hiding my embarrassment from the neighbours), even through some pretty heavy rain at times (let's hope it can cope with the the high winds and other rotten weather that's likely to come our way when the winter comes). It's a bit of a pain to keep covering and uncovering it every time I want to work on it but needs must.
It is currently British Racing Green on the inside and badly sprayed Old English White on the outside. I think it will become apparent through the pictures I intend to add throughout the project just how bad the respray was and you'll be able to see that for yourself. I will try to include a few pictures of some of the runs and drips in the paint.
I bought the car with Tax and an MOT so I have had a chance to take it out and have a bit of fun in it. I had a few short "outings" but it has a "blow" in the exhaust and the brakes are really poor. I did intend to give the brakes an overhaul and put a new exhaust on it so it could get a few months driving it through the summer and start the work at the start of winter but in the end I decided to start checking the car out in more detail before I spent anymore money on what might turn out to be a "wrecker". Sadly, it became apparent very quickly that it probably wasn't such a good idea to drive it anymore after i took the seats, carpets and other interior trim panels out.
I've spent three whole days on the car so far and few odd hours here and there and at this point I am convinced that at least one previous owner ( 9 previous owners according to the log book) has tried to cover a lot of rotten metal and holes with tonnes of body filler, probably with the intention of passing MOTs, or "making a few quid" by making the vehicle look better than it is just to sell it on.
To be fair, I didn't spend a lot of money on the car and wanted a "project" and therefore expected to find most of the things I've come across and - so far - I'm not phased by too much and am not anywhere near giving up - let's hope it stays that way.
Anyway, as I have said, I have spent a few days working on her and have uncovered quite a few issues but need a place to start with the Blog so i will start with taking the driver's side front wing off and that will be the topic of my next post.
