Staff Diaries Minor Lowlight body repairs continue but the Frogeye’s finally painted.
Some of you may have thought that progress has slowed on the Lowlight in recent months. In actual fact this isn’t the case; the jobs being done are now just much more fiddly, time-consuming and frankly not that interesting. However they are completely essential in order to get a good overall finish.
One such job that’s been a lot more difficult than I had hoped was the sill finishers. The construction of a Morris Minor is quite strange, in the sense that it was an early monocoque design and the sills were not fully sealed, instead being covered by a removable kick plate and a finisher. As I had replaced the floor and the inner outer and boxed section, I fully expected them to need a fair bit of tweaking to get them looking good, as well as fitting under the doors and that was certainly true.
After the first offering-up it was clear they would need a bit of packing out. Initially I used washers and some other temporary packing but then
As well as moving away from cellulose paint, I’ve decided against putting any body filler in the Minor’s gutters
decided to weld a few offcuts of metal to the inside in order to provide a more permanent and stable set-up that would not be a pain to reassemble.
Another tricky area I have been working on is the gutters. After sandblasting them and using Bilt-Hamber Deox-C gel, what was left was rust-free but in a bit of a mess. Some people may have opted to replace them, but having looked at the job, Dad and I concluded that it would be very difficult to get the gutters on any straighter than what was left.
I did a similar job on Lily’s gutters, sadly after someone walked over the roof and after three years outside they’ve started to deteriorate and let the car down.
Understandably I don’t want the same thing to happen on the Lowlight, so as well as moving away from cellulose paint I’ve decided against putting any car body filler in the gutters.
Instead I’ve been carefully and slowly building up layers of epoxy primer, which as well being tough will provide enough thickness to enable the gutters to be sanded back smooth without any filler. Hopefully this will be much more durable.
The final major bit of bodywork is the front panel, which is really rather ropey. I’ve put off repairing it, because for the last year I’ve been promised one from New Zealand. If it ever arrives (and I’m beginning to wonder if it ever will!) it should really lift the car, having space for a chrome insert in the front of the grille.
As well as this, it is also much less frilly, so should provide a better base for repairing. I’m hoping on getting my hands on this in the next month or so. Then I’ll be able to send it off, along with the rest of the car to the paint shop. It’s getting ever so close to this and feels like such a long journey, much bigger than I’d ever expected.
I’m really looking forward to turning the corner, away from sanding, welding and filling and begin putting the car back together. How long have I been borrowing Dad’s garage now?
Turning back to Lily the brakes are a bit strange at the moment. They work fine (I wouldn’t be driving her if they didn’t), but the pedal travel seems long and perhaps is getting longer. I’ve adjusted them twice and that’s made no difference, so some further investigation is required.