Progress on Various Fronts

I keep thinking I'll do the one next thing, the next step, and then it will be really cool and I'll update the blog. And then of course I think the same thing next time. So now it's been like 6 weeks.

The engine is (mostly) reassembled, and looking quite shiny.

I'm really happy with how these Aston Martin-ish wing logos turned out. Much better badging for the valve cover that what was originally there:

This was a bit of a process, starting with making a simplified version of the Aston Martin logo in Solidworks for CNC engraving. Then milling off the tops of the cam covers to make a flat spot to mount them.

These are the boot/bonnet (hood/trunk) latches. Bent rod, machined bases and threaded bosses, brazed together, then powder coat chromed:

Turning on the lathe to make the hemispherical 'nubbins' the latches sit on:

Muchas Gracias to Pops Racer for use of his machine tools and expertise.

Bent rods with threaded bosses and ball tips brazed on. The assembled one at the top gives an idea how they work: the spring, threaded rod, and nuts will all be below the body surface. When the ball tip sits in the nubbin, the spring holds the boot or bonnet closed. To open, lift on the ring and twist clear - then open.

De-rusting armamentarium

Lots of de-rusting and paint prep work, getting ready to paint the subframes, suspension, and other "undercarriage" parts. Here is the front subframe as received from UK (above) and partially into the de-rusting process (below):

Then I converted the garage into a paint booth and hung up all the parts and pieces. Shot PPG Omni 2-part epoxy primer on them first:

That's the same sub-frame that was being de-rusted above, looking much nicer.

Then I shot color on all those same parts: Majic Tractor, Truck, and Implement enamel. This product is made by farmers in Ohio using soy oil instead of petroleum oil, but it shoots just like regular acrylic enamel and when used with the hardener, it dries to a nice tough glossy finish. By reputation it is supposed to be extremely durable and rust resistant. There is a video for this stuff that's worth a look. 

After watching a few 3M painting videos, with guys in lab coats and space suits demonstrating their highly scientific products, it was a nice contrast to see Mr Fitzgerald, Ohio Farm Paint Technician, restoring that old tractor. Mr Fitzgerald also has a lot of videos on bowhunting. 

Acrylic enamel is good for chip resistance. Even when fully cured it seems to retain a kind of "elastic" quality so if you ding it with a wrench or your tire throws a rock against it, it's less likely to chip - and if it does chip, it will be a small spot that's easy to touch up rather than a defect that propagates under the paint surface and traps water to start a rust pocket.

I used two quarts of gloss white and half a quart of John Deere Green to get the light green tint, which turned out even better than I was imagining. I think it will go well with the dark green paint on the bodywork.

Speaking of which:

After much digging and scratching and hunting all over the internet, I have pretty firmly established that the above car color is Buckinghamshire Green Metallic, and the paint code is AST 115D. My local car paint store can match this in a respectably high quality, not horrifically expensive basecoat/clearcoat urethane product which should be reasonably user-friendly to shoot. Well, really, car paint is horrifically expensive. This stuff is quasi-affordable on the spectrum of car paints though.

Got a nice deal on a paint gun. I was interested in trying the new 3M Accuspray and PPS 2.0 system. Main advantages - all the messy parts are disposable, and can get effectively any size tip to use with the same gun. I was scrolling through Amazon and saw that one of the starter kits was priced about $40 lower than the others. Checked the numbers - yes, same product. So ordered the cheaper one. 

When it arrived, I found I had been sent two starter kits.

Some kind of mistake, I figured. So went to my Amazon account to arrange to send one of them back. Nope, not a mistake. The purchase I made was in fact two starter kits, for $40 less than a single one usually goes for.

So, naturally, I listed it on eBay and it sold for a price about $100 less than usual - so a good deal for the buyer - and also a good deal for me, because my net price for my starter kit was really, really cheap. As in, when I get refills for the disposable cups and a replacement tip, it will cost about what I paid for this whole kit. 

Big Data Giveth, Big Data Taketh Away.

Next steps:

1) assemble the powerplant frame (front and rear subframes, engine, transmission, driveshaft, and differential. In Miata world they call this assembly the "skate."

2) get the Replicar frame out of the crate and paint it with the same epoxy primer and light green tractor paint.