Gordini rolled at Bathurst!

That would make a good headline. It was a gentle roll, onto a tire! I washed the underside again yesterday with Marine Clean and treated it with metal ready to stop any rust that might be around. This morning I rolled it again and primed the underside and gave the roof and some other sections which were a bit light a second coat. I've had the car for just over a month now and it is coming along better than I had hoped it would. I will start on the suspension now and then give the inside and underside a coat of colour in the coming weeks.

  

Re-coating the roof.

 In the boot.

 Starting the underside.

Almost there.

The whole shell is now in primer.

The shell is almost all primed.

The weather up here has been terrible of late and having to go to work has been slowing my progress!
I had removed all the paint off the rest of the shell and carried out all but one repair which is the right rear sill which can be seen in the following photos. Today the sun was out and with no wind I decided to make hay and cover the bare metal which had all been rust treated. I was not able to get any red brown/primer so I settled for a 2 pack primer which is probably a better way to go anyway. I sanded the red/brown from the front panel and proceeded to spray the shell. All the floors inside have had the POR15 treatment and primed over ready for a coating of Cannes Blue in the coming weeks. At the same time I will paint the underside and inner guards/wheel arches.
As I didn't want to dirty my good spray gun I have been using a cheapie from Supercheap Auto which came with some other tools I bought some time ago and I might say for a $5.00 Chinese spray gun its not to shabby.

Enjoy.

 Now in primer.

I stripped the inside as well so it can all have a coat of Cannes Blue.

Front in primer

Its taken a lot of time and work but the front is now all repaired and has been primed. I'm now moving to paint strip the rest of the shell. I have bought 1 litre of 2pack CANNES BLUE to paint the wheel arches and underside. I hope to have this completed in the next couple of weeks so I can move the shell into the garage and start on making it mobile on new suspension, then paint strip the doors and guards. Most of the welding is now complete. I only need to replace a section of the RH rear sill. My biggest foreseeable problem is the $7k required for the paint job.

Completing the boot area.

I received a quote to have the shell soda blasted- $2,400.00, needless to say I have begun paint stripping. Its difficult work using a combination of paint stripper, scrapers, wire brushes, grinders and a rotary wire brush in an electric drill. It is effective but messy. I have removed all the paint and seam sealer from the boot and with the POR 15 system I used the Marine Clean to clean the metal, Metal Ready to convert the rusty bits and then the Hammer Tough rust paint. This system will stop any water that might get into the boot rusting the metal. I will use the same system an any parts of the body that have panels bolting to it. When the first coat is dry I will renew all the seam sealer and give it another coat. Then some red brown primer on the rest of the bare metal.

 Most of the paint stripped out of the boot.

 The streaks seen here is the Metal Ready rust converter at work.

POR 15 rust paint, 1st coat.

Welding up front.

My old SIP mig decided it was time to retire so I needed to buy a new one. I researched what was available around town and settled on a Ross 150 amp which will do both gas and gasless. I spent much of the morning welding the rust across the front. It was basically below both main headlights. I replaced 2 sections with new metal and chased the pin holes across the panel. Most of the small holes I did the 2 cent thing, placing a 2 cent coin behind the hole and then welding as can be seen in the photos. If the coin is placed tight up to the metal you get a reasonable finish behind but still requires grinding. I removed all the drip check sealer from around the front to reveal some surface rust underneath. I will treat the whole boot area with POR-15 so it won't rust again if it gets wet.
It looks like I have been able to get hold of some good second hand panels to replace the rusty one I have including the rear light panel and bonnet. I have also got hold of a new to me oil cooler and a lot of other smaller parts as well.

 Welding up the pin holes in the front panel.

 This was the biggest rust section RH front.

 From the inside showing the 2 cent coin in place for welding.

With the coin removed.

Previous owner interest.

Gordini's have always had a following. Do you remember your car when you were 20?
I have spoken with the Gordini's first 2 owners during the past week and its great to know they still have a interest in the car and both are happy to know it still exists and is being rebuilt.
I was contacted by John Spry (2nd owner) a few days ago who gave me a bit of the cars history when he owned it and how he ended up with it. Today I spoke to John Sever who was the cars first owner. John tells me he was following Bruce Collier in the Australian rally series and wanted a Gordini. One afternoon he went over to Seymour's in Roseville and asked the salesman about buying a Gordini. The salesman asked how serious he was as they had one in the holding yard. John looked at the car that day and bought it. John said he thinks the salesman may have got into a bit of trouble for selling him the car as Renault wanted all the Gordini's  to be sold to rally teams. Is this the only Gordini not sold to be raced or rallied in Australia?
In 1968 an R10 sold for $1990.00 drive away and the Gordini selling for $2990.00 drive away, a lot of money in 1968! John purchased it new from Seymour's on the 17 June 1968 and owned the car for 5 years traveling 70,000 miles in it before selling it to John Spry.
John Sever put the black stripe across the bonnet due to receiving a lot of stone chips driving from Canberra to Sydney, interestingly the car has the same black stripe today albeit a bit faded now. My original plan was to paint the car in the lighter Cannes blue but now after learning some of the early history I am considering the original Moyan Blue and putting the black stripe back on the bonnet.

I am currently working on the car 3-4 hours a day mainly with body repairs. I have completed all the work in the rear (C pillars back) and have now turned to the front. I hope to have it all back to bare metal in a month or 2 ready for rust converting and priming. I'll post more photo's soon.