Lines and Hoses.

I have spent the last couple of days with the shell on its side renewing all the lines and hoses. Its pretty crowded in there when its all back in place. Of course I broke the clutch cable at the plastic fitting that clips into the bracket at the rear cross member, you know where I mean! The bracket that brakes through the floor on all R8's and 10's eventually! Luckily I had a spare cable so I used that one. I will drop the master cylinder and booster to the local brake place tomorrow to have them rebuilt.

 New hoses installed.

With the stone trays in place.

Second coat to the shell.

As I said in my last post I was not happy with the job I did on the roof so it needed to be re-painted. After a careful look over the whole shell I decided to re-paint the whole thing. I sanded the shell down over a couple of nights and repainted it today and this time I waited for the compressor to keep up for a much shinier finish. The finished job of the second coat is 100% better.
Now I can start to put it back together. Note the gear and hand brake levers are back in. Well that's a start!

 The upper wishbone is ideal to hold the gravity feed spray gun.

 Bolts with new washers and new screws and washers for the front 

and rear guards get a coat of blue. 

 A much better finish on the second coat.

Couldn't help myself. Had to start to put it together straight away!

A colourful day.

The shell has now been painted. I'm not all that happy with the roof so I will repaint that in the coming days. Not too much to say as a picture says a thousand words.

The fiddly bits take so much time!

I have been working day shift for the past week and a bit so progress has been down to about an hour a day. 3 days off and I'm hoping to get a bit done. Over the past week I have been completing some of the more fiddly bits like removing the paint from the door springs and fittings etc. I have also fitted the new A pillar braces which I made last week. I copied the one from the right side which was badly rusted but the basic shape was still there. I think it rusted from the back of the brace as there is little paint behind some of these areas.
Cutting them was no problem but putting in all the bends including a double bend in 2 different directions was a bit of a challenge when all I have is a vice and hammer at my disposal.
I repaired the right rear sill today which is the last rust repair to be done on the shell so i'm hoping to have the shell in colour soon. Also picked up a heap of new Stainless nuts, bolts and washers today as well. These will replace all the rusty ones, i'm sure i'll need more!

 The underside trays, cleaned and re painted.

 Some of the fiddly bits cleaned and primed.

New right A pillar brace now in place.

Underside and Inside in Cannes Blue

Never waste a nice sunny day. I have now painted the underside and inside in Cannes Blue. The inside is yet to receive another coat. I have not painted in the rear foot wells as new sound deadening sheets will be glued in place.
I will now start to put the underside back together, then I hope I will have all the new suspension components to start on the front section.

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.