Thats probably the best option as the shell should stay fairly rigid while the a post bottoms are out. Hookys a post alignment tool is a godsend and well worth the £12.95: http://www.hookyspanelshop.com/our-panels/door-pillar-panels/a-pillar-alignment-tool-detail.html
Put another coat of chassis black on the underside this afternoon as it was dry and sunny. Bolted the front gearbox mount on. Bit embarassed i missed painting the bit behind the mount. Never noticed this before but my replacement wing has no hole for the wiring loom to pass though. tuesday_wildchild
Painted some black paint on the underside of the luggage floor. Great fun with the paint running down your arm.
Finally managed to find the rear Z bar so gave it a coat of bonda primer. Its missing a bush on one end and the metal bit inside the bush from the other side. Spring plates bare metalled again and bonda primered.
Its getting there slowly. Got a few bits coming from Just Kampers today including the nose cone bush and conduit seals which should allow me to fit the gearbox to the pan. Front beam is built up just waiting the one lower arm. Had to otder a new balljoint to replace the one that destroyed itself within a year due to a garage fitting it 45 degrees out. Pan needs gearbox, rear suspension and brakes and front beam and brakes fitting then i can chuck some wheels on and a seat and make brum brum noises.
Z bar looks a little neater in topcoat. So do the spring plates. Cleaned up the disc with a grinder and wire brush and gave it a coat of bonda primer. Nice nest of false widows inside it. Spindle cleaned up and primed. Back plate is a little tatty round the edges but not bad enough to warrant spending out on a new one.
The other disc got a clean up today. Just normal spiders in this one so they didn't need killing with fire. Backplate on the passenger side is in much better condition than the drivers side which is nice. Spindle cleaned up nice too, though the inner bearing was seized to the spindle so needed cutting off. New bushes in the Z bar and then fitted to the shell. My free gas shocks for the rear. Might be a little stiff for a lightweight bug though. Now i remember why i wasn't gonna reuse the old ones. Don't you just love degreaser that you can soak things in?
Bit of gloss black applied to the discs. Spindles: and front backing plates. New lower balljoint arrived in the post today but i now can't find the torsion arm it fits into.
Gave my gas rear shocks a sand and a coat of bonda primer. I quite like the look of them red. Touched up a couple of scratches around the bonnet latch with my airbrush before the celly thinners ate its rubber O rings. Gonna have to use the Apollo again to respray the nose of the bonnet and some of the 1/4 panel that has the filler flap in as theres some scrapes and repaired damage to repaint.
Did you bare metal it before paint if so what did you paint it with first the bug that is not the shocks
I just sanded the respray it had in the 90's off (as i had no idea what paint was used, possibly acrylic) and then sanded the original german factory topcoat back to key it then primed over it. I was really lucky as i got no [paint reactions apart from a 50p sized one on the passengers front 1/4 where it had had a dent repaired and repainted. I finally found the lower torsion arm i had misplaced so it'll hopefully get a new balljoint pressed in this afternoon, in the right orientation not 90 degrees out this time.
Got another shelf for my garage today so had a bit of a tidy up. This is it tidy. Less tat on the floor now too.
Finally got my torsion arm back from having a new ball joint pressed in. It now faces the right way instead of being 90 degrees out. Just needs a coat of paint and the rubber seal putting back on.
Coat of bonda primer followed by some silver enamel. Much tidier. Made a start replacing the paper gaskets on the side plates and fitted new oil seals to the axle bearing covers. Still looking for some of the bolts i need as they aren't where i left them.
