Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all, As promised here are some photos:
Starting off we have the front suspension leg fitted and also the rear axle dropped off for new bushes/shackles and pins. I also put on new hub o rings and gaskets before I replaced the brakes as they were getting a little damp on the backplate.
Unfortunately I have lost photos of the completed underside but will get a few photos when I next have it on the ramp. Next up I had to skim a little off of the passenger door hinges to allow a good gap all round the door aperture. This involved the hinges coming with me to work and getting them on the surface grinder. Roughly 2mm was removed and this brought the door into a lovely position. I then got the doors on and aligned with only the drivers door requiring shims. I then started on the wings and front panel. I good few days were spent trying the get the things to line up properly. I got a good gap on the wing/bonnet line pretty easily and so was the line along the wing/door. However the 3 hockey stick holes on the wings and front panel bore no relation to the hole centres of the hockey sticks. However a lot of filing sorted that and some oversize washers fixed the issues.
At long last after a good few days of stress I had gotten all of the front end nicely lined up.
The wings got a good seam of sealer down the gaps (Still retained the drain at the rear of the wing). And they were tightened home.
A few hours to let it set nice and solid and then I started to remove everything but the wings.
I then stripped the body back to sound paint and gave the shell and other items off the car a good few coats of 2K etch primer (Appropriate PPE Worn).
I then gave the engine bay a coat of primer and then a few top coats. This was masked off the next day ready for priming of the shell. I then used cellulose primer and primed the shell in the garage and the other parts on the garden, surprisingly I had no flies visit. After this I gave a little blast of black guide coat on everything and started sanding and filling. Luke

Ran out of space for attachments so ill carry it on with this new post. Apologies for the "d" in all the photo comments, I put it in there once id added the attachment to the post, that way I didn't miss out or duplicate photos.
Anyway...
Another few coats of primer then went on to everything in readiness for top coating. I then went on to top coat the interior with Cellulose Maroon B, left this a couple of days to harden and masked off the interior so I could paint the exterior.
I gave it 6 nice wet coats and it was looking very nice, although slightly orange peeled. So I flatted off with 1200 wet and it looked superb.
I gave it another few coats with a fresh tin of 5ltrs as I didn't quite have enough to paint all the doors and other items so I got another 5ltrs. The extra coats of new paint were to ensure the shell remained the same colour as the doors that would have been painted from a different tin.
2 Coats at 50/50 paint/thinners were sprayed, 1 dust for a key then 1 applied wet. I let that flash off then gave it 2 coats of 75% thinners to give it a good laying off and glossy finish. This worked wonders Then disaster Struck, Upon close inspection when dry, the paintwork had small black spots in it, like a black glitter. I followed a strict regime of filtering the paint with filters supposedly filtering down to 190microns.
A trip to the paintshop and the replaced the paint free of charge and sent the old tin for analysis. I presume the black tinter had separated and wouldn't mix in fully. Very good service from them though. And thats the story so far!
Hopefully ill get the last few coats on the shell to cover the "glitter effect" tomorrow. Ive also got a new head gasket, rocker gasket, thermostat housing and waterpump to fit to the engine so that will be happening in the next few days.
Thanks All.
Luke

Apologies if some photos appear to be blank, I think ive put too many on one post.....my internet isn't great so I cant see all the photos. hope it doesn't affect others viewing my posts.
Luke

It's good to know there is someone out there that knows how to spray celly properly. It seems celly spaying has acquired a bad press because people have used it wrong in the past but you seem to know what you are doing OK. Well done.

Well I'd say it's a Fluke more than ability. This is genuinely the first time I've used a spray gun. I must say I have followed much advice from many paint sprayers and I think I have managed okay. A little orange peel and the occasional run. But I flatted the runs out before the next few coats.
I'm very pleased with the good gloss to it straight from the gun though.
Luke

Orange peel finish is usually caused by not enough spray pressure or paint too thick. When I used to spray I would use 50 to 60 psi and thin down 50/50%, except the last coat of course. You could get thinners graded for different spray temperatures too. You've done well. Let the finish go off for a month before going over it with a light wipe of something like T-Cut or fine rubbing compound for a stunning shine

That looks really good. A shame about the paint problem but atleast you can sort it out properly.

Are you absolutely certain you want those nice leather front seats in a maroon car ????? Subtle hint ! (lol)

Erm well yeah I do want those lovely seats in my car....they aren't too lovely at the moment though. But they will be....;-)
Cheers for the polishing advice, going to give it last coats today then flat it all down with 2000 wet on Monday. I'll then get on with everything else needed on the car and polish it up in a few weeks.
Luke

Great work, I hope I can get a finish like that on my first spray job!

Cheers. I'm glad I went for cellulose, it seems so forgiving. I had areas that layer on quite thick and expected ripples in it but it flattened off and dried so fast that it avoided running.
I'm sure if I had used 2k then I would have encountered a lot more runs.

I managed to get the last four coats of new paint on yesterday and it looks lovely.
I'll leave it a few days then flatten off. Then I'll leave it a few weeks until I polish it.
There are a couple of runs. One on a wing and one on a b post but nothing a little wet flat won't sort.
Makes me glad I've ended up with 14 coats on....
Luke