Spotting putty, upper grill opening flange

I went back to the NAPA paint center in Pearl City to pick up some wet/dry sandpaper and some spotting putty. Good news, one of the guys from the old Redline in Kalihi was working. Maybe things will work out after all. The bad news: out of anything near #100. The shop is much too small.

I am back to my short Saturday morning schedule. I really need to take some time off to make any progress. I think the Navy Seals were on the ground in Pakistan longer than I worked on the E9.

There is a series of small rust-through spots on the upper edge of both grill openings. More so on the LH side. I patched the LH side with fiberglass and POR Patch. This time I covered the metal with POR Patch and laid down the cloth, then stopped. Next time I'll saturate the cloth, maybe with POR paint. My goal is to avoid pulling the cloth out of position, especially pushing it through the holes.

Tried out the spotting putty on several places, worked well. Also bought a new can of primer, had the same aligator skin result. Could be incompatible with POR-15 Etching Primer. Next time I'll wipe the area with PPG thinner before spraying to see if that helps.

Spent more time on the LH lower front, just above the air dam. Almost there, finally.

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Still on the nose, regret the loss of Redline

Took Friday off and spent much of it on the E9. Stopped off at what used to be Redline in Kalihi for a wedge shaped sanding block and some wet paper. The paint section looked worse than ever, and still no new Redline oil. I asked about the block and was told to try the "paint center" in Pearl City. Since I had the whole day I decided to undertake the adventure.

Turns out Redline is no more, bought out by NAPA. The paint center does have PPG paint, but the situation with my sanding block is cause for concern. I was told that since it is not a NAPA item it would be 6-8 weeks before it came in, if ever. So what used to be the only professional automotive paint store in Honolulu is now just another NAPA. What a shame. On balance, NAPA is the only store I trust with repair components for average cars, like my van -- water pumps and such. The others sell nothing but junk. For me it is factory original, or NAPA. Anything else is a waste of time. For specialized cars like my E9 and my Lotus there are reputable sources, just nowhere near Honolulu.

Just for fun I decided to locate the new store on Google Maps. Check the comments ... my feelings exactly. The exact opposite of the old Redline.

My Saturday session was longer due to no Gamelan rehearsal. Over the two days I got a lot done, but not much "visual progress." Sanding, a little more filler, another coat of primer. Tweaks everywhere. One place that is taking a lot of time is the area below the grill opening on the LH side. Trying to even out some old impact damage and deal with the acute angle at the joint with the air dam.

Exposed a new spot under the LH side light. Not rusted, just pitted, like old damage. Wire brushed, POR-15 clean and prep, filled with Technifill.

One new thing I did was to start grinding out some rusty spots in the underside of the hood and near the windshield opening. Nothing big. Looks like I'll have to weld a patch along the corner of the water gutter, just like the rear trunk opening. Gave all of the exposed areas the POR-15 clean and prep treatment.

I exchanged mail with Coupe King concerning door skins. Apparently he has steel for one side and aluminum (CSL style) for the other. Guess I'll keep looking. I'd like to add one of his air dams, but I'm sure I'd knock it off at the first parking lot.

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Back to the E9 nose

With the Lotus back on the road I can once again turn my attention to the subject of this blog. But time is running out on the van. It needs a new belt idler pulley and again the fans are not coming on. I'll try to do those things at home.

Before I went to the shop I checked here to see what I had last done on the E9. My starting point was sanding down the filler applied at the end of the last session. So many weeks have passed that I had to wash the nose down with soap and water to prevent grinding oily dirt into what I sanding.

The good news is that after a lot of sanding I finally started to feel the contours emerge. This is hard to explain. You start with rust or collision damaged sheet metal, cut holes, weld patches. It is a mess. As the fillers go on and are shaped, something special happens. The long, smooth contours of the original panel begin to emerge. Sanding is not just about smoothing, it is about exposing the original shape.

At the end of the session I could feel this happening. Many contrasting layers and colors of paint and filler interfere with the discovery, so I ended the session with a coat of etching primer. I will try to stop in one afternoon and shoot some sanding primer on top, to make next Saturday more productive.

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LH nose sand and primer

Spent a lot of time on the E9 today, even though it doesn't seem like much.

Began with smoothing out the filler applied last week, using sanding blocks and #50 paper. Important thing was to establish the height at the hood cutout corner. This would establish the shape of the concave curve between the hood opening and the top of fender and how the shape progresses towards the roundel mount. Shaping the cutout at the hood opening corner took some work.

After applying a little more filler I ran the headlight buckets through the POR-15 clean and prep drill. All that black means the Metal Ready is working. I can't decide whether to leave them the way they are or weld in some patches.

Did more sanding, found more low spots, especially at the LH corner. Add more TECHNIFILL.

The contours finally began to come into focus. Spent a lot of time working out the curves at the LH corner, were multiple curve planes converge.

Eventually I reached the point where I had to paint the entire area to get a better look at the contours. Began with Evercoat #720 Acid-Etch Primer, and after a thirty minute dry time a few coats of High Build Primer. I'll start sanding that next week.

Hammering away on right tail light

Last week I cut out the pieces that will form the lower edge of the right tail light flange. Today was all about getting them to curve to match the body. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I cannot show you how nicely they turned out.

I began with the bottom half. Mostly it needs to curve away to the right. The challenge is that it also has to curve up a little in the same place. I did the first curve with the shrinker on the folded edge that will be the bottom of the Z bend. This has always worked well even with the relatively thick sheet metal I am using. In no time at all I had the patch aligning nicely with the curve in the panel, at least what is left of it. I was hoping I could get the upward curve with the stretcher. Previously it had been much less effective than the shrinker, and this time was no different. Part of the problem was that these tools flatten the work, the so stretcher was undoing the curve created by the shrinker. I got around that by hammering. Lots and lots of hammering. To save the curve I used a curved dolly clamped in the vise and a curve-faced hammer or a flat-faced hammer.

The upper half was the opposite -- the same edge needed to be stretched. This took a little longer but even so went very smoothly. The last thing I did was grind off the mating edges to bring the setback to 5/16 in. I need a clever, quick, fool-proof way to check it, as using my machinist's ruler was too clumsy. I never did get around to bending the upper half upward at the outside corner. The will require shrinking the inner edge, and before doing that it needs to be trimmed.

Next week I'll take so starting pictures, which will show how things ended up today.

Before leaving I sanded the places I painted last week with etching primer and gave them a coat of sanding primer. I decided to use brown, to differentiate the black layer. I was surprised that the paint came out sputtery and with lots of grit, like spaying old style lacquer primer too thick. We'll see next week how much adhesion I got. I suppose the can was old.