Sting Ray's '89 90 - Complete Restoration

Et voila!

Oh you fool ... Hope you got it cheap ...

You've gone and bought an upside down one!

Mordant solution was brushed onto the chassis this morning, and left for 30 minutes to dry, before rinsing.

More acid etch is on the way, so I'll set about applying that over the next couple days.

Buzzed CIO seems to get a good rep so I'll order that too.

I was wondering if you were going to paint it or leave it shiny.

Whacky colour scheme or boring old black?

dieseldog69 said:

I was wondering if you were going to paint it or leave it shiny.

Whacky colour scheme or boring old black?

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That trailerfitter landrover toolbox videos on YouTube used DAF grey on some axle parts I think, looked good and think it was buzzweld.
Something different I thought, would show up leaks nicely

Black is the order of the day, but yes, something lighter would show up the leaks...not that there will be any of course!

The underside of the chassis and most of the fiddly bits were primed after work yesterday evening. Today I finished early so I could crack on and etch the topside. Here's the outcome:

That's looking fantastic

Thanks

I'm hoping the Frosts satin black chassis paint arrives today so I can spray the underside this evening, then flip her over and do the same on the topside tomorrow afternoon. Once that's done, I can apply the U-Pol stone chip and be done with painting the chassis!

I should be able to collect the engine parts that were zinc plated too. Fortunately there's an excellent rebuild thread for a 300tdi on here, so I'll be using that to help me rebuild my engine.

Just about to sort out a refurbished box from Ashcrofts too. I forgot to send the bellhousing for blasting, so will do that as well - there's no point giving it to Ashcrofts as they won't give it the finish that I'm after.

Just paid for a recon box from Ashcrofts...ouch!!!

Which should be here next Thursday - wasn't expecting it to be so soon!

The paint hasn't arrived so I set about removing the metalastic bushes from the trialing arms. Never in the field of vehicle mechanics has one man struggled so much aginst something so little! Got it out in the end though, so I win

Sting Ray said:

Thanks

I'm hoping the Frosts satin black chassis paint arrives today so I can spray the underside this evening, then flip her over and do the same on the topside tomorrow afternoon.

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How much paint does it take?

Beneagles said:

How much paint does it take?

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I used less than 2 litres of etch prime, so ordered 2 litres of chassis paint.

Cheers

Yesterday afternoon I was able to apply the chassis paint to the underside, and this morning I have done the same to the topside. FYI, I used a little less than 1 litre. The shine will dull back a bit once it has dried.

Looking great! Loving your work

Joemac434 said:

Looking great! Loving your work

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+1

Why thank you kind sirs

Just stripped the gearbox to send back to Ashcroft next week. There's not a huge amount I can crack in with at the moment - I may hold off running the axle brake lines til tomorrow as I need to do an oil change on my DD.

DISASTER!!!!!

Please learn from my mistake and always ensure you overtly purchase compatible paints! I suggest that testing a small area is a good idea too.

It turns out that the Frosts chassis paint is not compatible with self etching primer - if I had read the tin, I would have known a lot earlier, and would not have introduced a couple of days worth of extra (and very intensive) labour.

About 15 minutes after I applied the stone chip this morning, I noticed that there were a number of patches looked very wrinkly. At first I thought this was just an area where I applied it slightly too thick, but oh no, that wasn't even close. Upon agitating the stone chip, the top coat simply lifted off the etch primer - my heart sunk - I was majorly gutted. The odd thing is that the top coat looked spot on, and was resistant to being abraded, which told me that the key between it and the primer was good.

After considering a number of options, including hanging myself, I decided that the best thing to do was to grind off ALL of the paint and start afresh from bare metal. This did however mean that I would lose the galvanised zinc coating. This is inconvenient, but not a show stopper - the reason I went for a galvanised finish was to protect the inside of the chassis, which is where the rot usually stems from. The zinc was always going to be painted over - I now just need to place more emphasis on maintaining the painted finish. The inside will still be treated with Dinitrol once the exterior has been sorted.

Despite spending many hours today sorting out the mess I have created, I have nowhere near finished. I have taken the front/underside of the chassis back to bare metal, etch primed, and then, because I'm not sure if I'll top coat before stone chip or not, have tested a small patch of stone chip straight onto the primer. I'll speak with U-Pol to see what they recommend as a top coat, just to understand what my options are.

All in all, I'm seriously hacked off with myself!!! That said, sh1t happens - just got to get on and sort it out now.