Rebirth of the B

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

Running out of stuff to do. Engine is in the machine shop getting hot tanked. The head ended up needing a valve job so when everything is back together I will esentualy have a new motor. Made the needed modifications to the front of the car for the morspeed bumper and new grill and did some real high tech fitting. Cleaned up all the engine parts that are being reused. Next week its off to the body shops for quotes on new paint and hopefully some engine building the first weekend in July.

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

Finally got some more work done. About 70 percent done stripping the bondo buggy. The car must of been involved in an accident some time between 75 and 76 as both rear quarter panels have had repair work done. None of the records I have show any work done and I have just about all of them back to about 76. Hopefully the rest of the paint will be off tomorrow and then the fun really begins

Cleaning up gas tank

Old bondo work

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

First major milestone reached. Car is now striped and body work is about to start. Unfortunately I found 1 tiny rust spot in the left side dog leg so it will need to be replaced. This week should be a lot of fun. Engine parts are due in on Wednesday and the right rear quarter panel will be off tomorrow and the fitting of the replacement along with the filler work should start. Going to be another fun week.

 

[trrdster2000]

Re: Last week of the B

Stewart, Good job and I do know of one thing you should or might want to think about, put a sealer in your tank while you have it off, they have been known to come back and haunt you when you don't. Wayne

 

[John Moore]

Re: Last week of the B

Nice work man! I just primered my tub this weekend and I'm painting the bottom with tinted truck bed liner! fun fun.

 

[Radford]

Re: Last week of the B

Nice work, looks like you had a really productive weekend!

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

Finally good progress toward completion. Painted the engine block and have installed 2 of the 3 cam bearings. Would of been all 3 and a lot more of the engine but the middle one is a pita and was damaged in the process. Round 2 with that one will start tomorrow. Lots of bondo work has been done and the car's finally being hit with primer. It's looking like 3 more solid days of work and all the body work should be finished the wet sanding and final priming should be done then its off to paint.

and the one lousy rust hole. It started out as a pin hole and opened up with some poking with a pick.

 

[John Moore]

Re: Last week of the B

Looks good man! Keep at it!

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

Well I'm running out of stuff to do. Engine is finished minus distributor. All major body work is about done. I just wish it wasn't so hot 105 today. Finished cleaning 30 years of oil and crud off the transmission and started to clean up the engine bay. Looks like it might be going to the paint booth next week.

 

[John Moore]

Re: Last week of the B

Since you've gone this far, why don't you go ahead and strip the engine bay and get it painted body color. It looks like your really going all out, take that extra step now is the time to do it. It's not too difficult (except for the heater box) and REALLY adds to the value of your B.

 

[John Moore]

Re: Last week of the B

Here's a photo of my bay, the first time I stripped and painted it.

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

The bay is on the list to be stripped down today. Once all the stuff is off its going to be sand blasted and re primed. It's been on the list of that's not going to be fun so I will procrastinate on it till the end. I'm at the tail end now and the other not fun at all project has finally finished but when it was done I found a transmission under what I thought was just a big funny shaped dirt mixed with oil mound. The hot tip for today is the gunk engine bright GEL not the normal stuff but the gel is the best for cleaning up really nasty stuff. Stays right where you spray it and works really well on the thick old oil.

 

[John Moore]

Re: Last week of the B

Cool! It's gonna turn out great!

I was just concerened when you said you had "nothing left to do". I hate when I see a beautifully painted car and under the hood it looks like crap.

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

Almost done thank god. Bay is just about ready for blasting. Major welding is just about done. Little more bondo work prime and lots of sanding this weekend and it should be ready for paint on monday.

 

[jerryrosa]

Re: Last week of the B

WOW!!

Looking Great Stewart!

-Jerry

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

It's so so close yet so far. Dealing with paint shops is starting to become frustrating as most seem to be only interested in insurance work and trying to find one that will paint an entire car is pretty hard and Earl Shive or macco is not an option. So far I've gotten estimates up to 9k dollars for a paint job which is just down right stupid for a single color non show car paint job. Hopefully I will find someone reasonable shortly. Enough ranting.

Car is just about there. All of the metal body work is finished and the car minus the engine bay is in primer. As soon as I can get a coarse enough media to blast it will be finished up. Finally the last project the mounting and prepping the morspeed bumpers is in full swing and hopefully will be finished by Sunday and once that's done it's down to wet sanding and hi solids prime and then tons more wet sanding possibly more prime and sanding then final paint.

 

[Bruce74B]

Re: Last week of the B

Looking good! If you are interested in a reasonable professional paint job, if you have a sizable dealer (doesn't really matter what make) in the neighborhood with a body shop that does a lot of insurance work, you will likely find an experinced painter who can do an excellent job with some pride in workmanship. I know I have seen some really nice work done by the local Ford dealer here that I would never have known about if not for a very agressive deer one night.

Bruce

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

What a struggle it's been to find a paint guy. Been to a bunch of them and it's really gotten old. Sure bring it on down and when you get there they look at it and don't want to touch it as they are to busy or just don't want to spray an entire car. I'm down to 2 guys now. One shop the owner really was interested and seemed to care about my project and took his time looking over the car and figuring out what needed to be done. He also owns an early 70's jag so that may of helped out. He wanted 2500 to take it from where its at. I'm hoping to get a hold of the second guy tomorrow. I know he just finished painting a B that from the people who have seen it and the owner of the B said he did a great job and it cost about 2k. So hopefully I will have it all figured out tomorrow.

I finally have a guy lined up to media blast the engine bay, fuel tank, 2 rims and a cross member. Turned out to be quite reasonable with the engine bay being cleaned and the tank and cross member blasted and powder coated for 170 dollars. As soon as a guy picks up his finished Jaguar from the guy mine goes right in. So if you know anyone who has a Jag being media blasted in riverside tell them to go pick it up so I can get moving again /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

It's finally at the auto body shop getting the final prep and then paint well at least parts of it. Doors hood trunk and front bumper have been dropped off and the rest of the car will be dropped off on Tuesday afternoon after the engine bay is sand blasted that morning. I had the fuel tank and a few other small parts sandblasted and powder coated and that should be ready to be picked up at the same time.

It's pretty weird right now as I have worked on the car every day except one since June 13th and the next few days I'm not doing squat except a possible trip up to moss to pick up the final batch of parts. The chosen color changed slightly as after doing a lot of debate and comparisons the Jaguar slate color while it looked great in direct sunlight went way to dark almost to black while in shadow. I ended up going with a slightly lighter shade from Mazda called Titanium Grey Metallic.

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now I just need to figure out what to do with my self till it comes back from paint as all my spare time has been spent on the car.

 

[Stewart]

Re: Last week of the B

As of this afternoon its out of my hands for a bit. Had a delay from sandblasting boy but other than that everything is looking good. Doors hood and trunk are getting ready for the final coat of primer. The guy painting it is doing a killer job and is really is doing it right and shows real pride in his work. The freshly powder coated tank looks good and its nice to get more stuff on the done list. Thank god this is coming to an end as the financial hemorrhaging might finally slow down to a trickle.