Thats looking really good, what equipment did you use to blast the car and how long did it take?

Homer,

I used a combination of scrapers, grinder with an abrasive wheel like this Silverline 115mm Polycarbide Abrasive Disc Wheel Brush rust paint Angle Grinder | eBay and a media blaster Millar Soda Blasting
I used kiln dried sand from the builders merchants, I first used the hard media from Millar's but although it is slightly better it's not worth the extra money for paintwork, it is better for heavier rust, but value fr money and ease of supply kiln dried sand works really well.

This blaster is great with a couple of proviso's :-
You need spare valves for the outlet end, Millar's now do a spare s/steel valve Millar Soda Blasting but you can get valves from the plumbers merchants which is what I did, so far I am on the 3rd valve, but I have nearly done the whole shell.
You also need good dry air, moisture in the air settles at the bottom of the tank and clogs up, if this happens the easy way to clear this is to let the air out of the tank, and blow air back up the outlet with a blow gun to clear the blockage. My compressor if 14cfm with a 200 Ltr tank but this is not enough to keep you blasting without stops for the compressor to catch back up.

I haven't had any panel distortion, the blaster is not on a commercial scale and I tend to move around stripping back layers rather than blasting it clean in one hit. There were areas where there was some black paint under the primer which is REALLY hard, I chipped this off with a scraper / screwdriver and then finished with the blaster, the same applies where there is some seam sealer, but I used a wire wheel in the grinder to rip this off. The blaster also doesn't like evo-stik, basically anything rubberised tends to let the grit bounce off so it is quicker to rip it off with the wire wheel.

It took me probably about 6 to 8 hours in total, mainly due to the confined and awkward space to do the boot area, with several breaks. It's a pretty messy job in the boot as the sand is flying around everywhere, it like being in the blast cabinet yourself !!! Ideally you would want an air fed mask, it would be much more comfortable than a bandana (rag tied around my head to keep the sand out of my hair and ears!) goggles and mask.

Cleaned off the nearside wing this morning went from a fully painted wing , hit the worst off with Ploy disc on the grinder, then sandblasted and then treated with phosphating solution, in all it took about 2 Hrs. so much easier than the boot !

I only have the nearside Cill and B post to finish and that will be everything back to bare metal (Well the shell that is, I still have the doors, boot and bonnet to do, but that's in a different building so I can look at what I have done rather than what's still to do !!!)

That is awesome man. I'm amazed at the pace you're keeping. You'll be done very soon!

She's a beauty. Will love to see it running :icon_worthy:

Thank you, it's been too cold this evening to do any more, I will post some of that past rust horrors, it's nice to see how far it's actually got as it sometimes seems like I haven't done much.

The wing doesn't look too bad, when I did mine they both needed outer arches, complete front nose cone sections and repairs to the side light pods.

The panels were expensive but compared to new wings they were a bargain!

Here are some shots of the rotten right hand spring hanger box and part of the wheel arch and cill.

New spring hanger repair sections were purchased from Martin Robey, and the rest was fabricated from sheet steel, if I do this again I will buy an English wheel, it would have made life easier (if I could gain the skill to use it that is !)

"will post some of that past rust horrors"


Scare me!

That made me laugh.

Do I need to up the anti then ?

Blasting off the B post on the left and door surrounds I saw some lead where the rear quarter light goes which looked out of place, after a bit of digging with the grinder I found another rust hole !

The lead was done really quite well, I'm not sure if it was for door fit or to cover up the rust at some point as other areas of rust had been covered with filler, so I assume it was done for door fit and had simply not allowed the rust through.

There was evidence of a leak to the rear screen above this point, which must have allowed water to run down and rust this point.

Removed the rust, treated the area underneath and then after applying weld through primer welded in some patch pieces, it's now a lot more presentable.

My car had lead in this area as well, I think it might be where they adjusted the shell to fit the top line of the doors.

I had to carry out the same repair on mine on both sides which was a bit of a pain.

If we are having a rust completion I have put some pictures below of the rear seat pan on mine and the panels I made to repair this, I actually had to change the panel behind the rear seats which isn't available new so I cut one out of a scrap MK2. I've also attached a picture of the front wing nose cone replacement which I had to do both sides.

Nice job, I think we have all got some horror stories with the rust in these "corrosion designed in " but wonderful cars.

Finished a couple of small repairs to the right front indicator area and got another coat of epoxy primer on the dash area.

I have the body upside down at the moment and could see some slightly bald areas where I had missed bits when I coated the dash area while it was on its side.

I may get a light coat of body colour on the dash tomorrow while it is upside down, so that I can catch these bits early.

I finished stripping all the paint this week and treated the body with phosphating solution and then cleaned with salt remover and panel wipe.

Got to shoot a coat of 93% Zinc Rich Epoxy primer , blimey that paint is heavy, you can certainly feel that in the spray gun !

I didn't take pictures of the inside before I masked it up so they will have to wait until I take the making off.

The Zinc primer goes on quite mauve to start with and then become silver/grey as it dries, the premise behind the zinc primer for those who don't know is that it provides Cathodic protection against rust and is also an epoxy so gives barrier protection too.

If a scratch appears on the steel that goes through the topcoat and primer back to bare metal the zinc in the primer will react with the steel, this reaction will form zinc salts that will heal the scratch maintain the barrier and the steel will not rust.(Well that's the theory!)

I have ordered the wheel arch repair sections (thank you Daimler Mk2 for that suggestion) which I will adapt for the rear arches, hopefully I can get these done this week and finish the last of the primer on the arches and get another full coat of epoxy body primer over the whole car.

Very nice. That is a great base to work off of.

Thank you, I feel I am nearly turning a corner, I can't wait to start putting bits back on instead of taking them off.

Great job Jon!

TilleyJon,
"Start putting bits back on!"
I know the feeling. Always wondering, do I have to carve something else up on the shell before I get to start putting this thing back together.

Thanks you guys.

I got a couple of coats of epoxy primer on the last two evenings, I will post some pics when I get a mo, I am using a high solids epoxy mastic in a red oxide colour, which I have to warm up to get it thin enough to get through the spray gun ! It does spray nicely and sets up really hard so will be a great base. I intend to shoot another coat of grey epoxy on top so that when I am sanding the primer later I can see if I get to the red oxide coat underneath, as I don't want to compromise the Zinc base primer at all.

I have cut some holes in the front wheel wells as Primaz suggested, but have also added some splash deflectors for the wetter English climate ! Hopefully I won't have to carve anything else up later Clyde !

I will post pics of this too. I am hoping the arch repair panels arrive tomorrow so I can get on with the rear arches as that is the last of the fabrication on the main shell.

FYI, I painted the undercarriage with POR-15 chassis prep (which is a Zinc layer), then I applied the POR-15 chassis black to prevent rust. I drive my Jaguar rain or shine and right now I hate rain as we have a lot of wet weather. I drive extra careful as most Californians drive like idiots in the rain.

And I thought California was the sunshine state !

I didn't realize you got so much rain I'm not surprised you hate it, it's the other idiots that cause the problems.

The POR stuff is huge in the US, not so much here, I am using products from Rustbuster in the UK, the chassis prep you are using is essentially the same as the phostphating solution I am using, I am then applying a full coat of 93% Zinc primer over, and then using a Black Epoxy mastic on the chassis, same thing as the POR 15 chassis black, with a Red Oxide colored Epoxy mastic on the body shell.