1971 Met Panda "Rosie" - Now with MOT and TAX :)

[pskipper]

New garage starts going up next week 24'3 long by 10'6 wide with 7' to the eaves

[pskipper]

New garage finally up, power going in on Monday and plumbing in the compressor properly when the last few bits arrive next week

Old garage...[frame][/frame]
Mmmm, asbestos

New garage [frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Loads of room

Will update as soon as work starts on Rosie again

[DaisyMayFozz]

looking good!

my garage is tht packed, you can only open the doors about an inch and its a double!

[polo2k]

je suis jealous!

[irmscher]

You will wonder how you managed without all that space all you need now is a heater for winter

[Alex'n'Ane]

Wow what a tidy garage! I'd give it about a week...

[pskipper]

Actually spent a lot of the last two days organising it so that doors and wings can just go straight onto the big shelving Oh and plumbing in the air compressor properly

[pskipper]

Strip down to get her on a spit for final checks, any necessary welding and spraying has started and is progressing well!

[polo2k]

pics or it didnt happen

[pskipper]

Flat camera batteries, will get pics soon. You've worried me now because Lynda didn't want to bother with pics from the baby scan this time!
Does mean that we have to have finished by early feb now!

[polo2k]

Flat camera batteries, will get pics soon. You've worried me now because Lynda didn't want to bother with pics from the baby scan this time!
Does mean that we have to have finished by early feb now!

Baby scan??? huh?!? I think you forgot to mention that??? or maybe it didnt happen because there are no pics ;)

[pskipper]

[frame][/frame]
Almost empty engine bay which revealed the one patch of well done shiny paint!
[frame][/frame]
Bit of rust in the corner of one window frame which will hopefully just clean away.
[frame][/frame]
Just the steering, pedals and handbrake to go and the interior will be empty!

See it really did happen!

[polo2k]

looking good!
I get it feels good to see some progress!

[pskipper]

Progress is good, although today was spent sorting out the alternator on the Merc and rebuilding Betsy's fuel pump. Currently counting down the minutes on an ebay bid to get a cheap diesel engine for the traveller so Rosie may stay as she is for a day or two so I can see how well it will fit a moggie engine bay if I win.

[polo2k]

Ya big show off with your engine crane

Remember its Dangle, Dangle, chop chop!

[pskipper]

A fair bit has happened since the last update. She's now up on a spit and completely stripped down (other than the odd rubber blanking plug that I still have to find and remove). Frustratingly the door bolts which snapped when we put her back together when we moved to Lincoln were not removable so we decided to replace the plate so the door hinge panel is currently gaping open, once that is done the shell is ready for stripping and painting.

I also need to repair one door bottom, do some more grinding on various parts and fill in the holes on the front bumper which a previous owner put in to mount fog and spot lights. Once that is done (hopefully by the end of the weekend) everything will be ready and the next jobs will be paint stripping, filling and respraying.

We've also painted the garage floor to help keep dust down ready for the spraying, rebuilt a couple of ceilings in the house, had a baby, finished redecorating the house, done stuff on the garden and I started a PhD in January. As they say, if you want something done, give the job to someone who is busy.

Pics to follow tomorrow.

[pskipper]

Spent most of today working on the final door bottom, although I did get the holes in the front bumper filled and ground back nicely too.[frame][/frame]
Door bottom repair, also needed some repairs to the section that makes up the underside of the door, but that wasn't too bad really.[frame][/frame]
The other door. I haven't been that impressed with the door bottom panels, I knew it would be a fiddly job but the curves on the repair panels really don't match the original door curves [frame][/frame]
Solid chassis and the car on the spit I forgot to say that when I got her up on the spit I realised that the area around one of the front spring hangers was just too badly gone (couldn't see it before in the dimly lit Swindon garage, so I replaced it [frame][/frame]
Finally the chassis from the other direction.

[pskipper]

And after todays work that is the welding and grinding all done. Now to get the body and parts prepped for painting and hope for a nice spell of good enough weather!

[pskipper]

Since the last post I have been mostly stripping off paint. Unfortunately whatever paint it was that the previous owner used to turn her red does not come off with paint stripper, it just turns into a gooey mess which smears around the panel rather than scraping off so I'm having to mechanically strip her which is not nice

[Rasputin]

If it`s Nitromors you are using,it`s no longer suitable for car paint!