“Here we go again” 1275GT project NOW FOR SALE

[Old English White]

Oh well So no easier than a round nose then
Keep up the good work.
Yes. I reckon all of those old "Heritage" presses are knackered by now.

[Dearg1275]

Come the time to try the passenger door in prior to fixing the A panel it would not fit. It sat too far into the frame. Some head scratching later and two problems emerged. One was that the catch bar bracket had been poorly repaired and was sitting too far towards the skin side of the door and was catching on the edge of the hole in the A pillar it parks in.

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With that sorted all should have been fine but no. The hole it disappears in when shut was also too far towards the centre of the car by 4mm. This is a new Heritage panel! Once it was filed away on the outer edge everything worked fine. Oh why does it have to be like this!

D

[roger mcnab]

hi david
it seems murphys law is not resting that is the only conclusion for it when i go looking for something in the shed it is never where it was last put
so i then change tack and start at some thing else and in no time the orininal thing shows up as if by magic
cheers roger

[roger mcnab]

hi david how are you it has been a while since your last post hope that you are well and working hard
cheers roger
got the v8 block back yesterday so i can put some things together
cheers roger

[Dearg1275]

Thanks Roger,

Everything is fine. I have put the GT on hold while I recommission my Mk2 works replica for a trip to the Alps in September. It needed some rust/paint work intervention. It also was drinking oil a bit and I had a new head to fit. That and the usual spanner bashing. In the interval I had a trip to Germany and that was not without incident. Starter motor failure on a Saturday, the day before my ferry home. I was saved by an enterprise run by Turks who stayed open to get me out of trouble. Great guys. This was my modern Golf and they butchered two starters to fix mine because all the parts stores were shut. You have to love people.

Back to the GT soon.

D

[roger mcnab]

hi david i worked with a greek chap who had some turkish friends they were great people but terrible coffee but that aside i once saw a doco about these turks not the same but they would buy xk120 jags take them to turkey dismantle and sit for days fixing the panels to reassemble the cars to resell
cheers roger

[Dearg1275]

Now that my mk2 is fettled and ready to roll I can get back to the coal face. The passenger door was holding up finishing the front end and welding in the A panel. Clearances are tight in places so I wanted to get the door reskinned and offered up before making anything permanent.

The door had been bodged and had a lot of filler. The door bottom had a patch welded angle to stiffen the skin. Not nice.

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Some bodgectomy later.

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Then the corner.

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To be continued.

D

[Dearg1275]

The two elements of the corner trimmed to the old skin and ready for welding once the old skin is removed.

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And the observant will notice tack welds where finished welds should be. Hmmm.

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Yep, I got it wrong. The frame had bulged inwards and I had not noticed. Instead of it being straight it was now convex and not a good idea if you want the door to a. Shut and b. Seal! I walked away at this point. Not in the best frame of mind to complete the welds.

D

[roger mcnab]

hi d

good to see you back on the clubman shame about the door why some people bodge things up never ceases to amaze me
i had an old econo van for my kitchen business and always wondered why the rear door would some times open suddenly on looking closely at it the previous owner had fixed the top hinge with about a kilo of bog the metal was rusted and this was easy to keep pushing bog in till it held
cheers roger

[Peter Laidler]

The door episode shown in the photos, that you were doing it right, from the word go. Check before the final long weld!!!!! Simple for you to unpick the small tack welds as shown and start again.

[Dearg1275]

Where does the time go. It’s two month now since I as much as waved a welding torch at the GT . I suppose gadding about in the mk2 and some decorating has to be done sometimes.

Well, back at it. I had a problem with the passenger door. The front of the original skin was so close to the repaired door frame/ a pillar that you could not have got any paint between them. As above the door frame needed repair thus the skin had to go anyway. With being fairly selective about how the new skin went on and with a little frame massage the problem was solved without modifying the A pillar area. Apologies for the strange angles and poor lighting. Work room is limited on this side currently.

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Apart from some spot welding of areas currently blocked by the front subframe that is all the body work finished. The question now, given the rise in energy prices, is whether to get the workshop up to temperature and try to prep it and get some paint on or wait until the better weather next summer.

D

[surfblue63]

Depends how you value the time needed to get rid of the surface rust and problems that any porous surfaces may have after the winter.

[Peter Laidler]

Good to see some more progress David. I was getting withdrawal symptoms not seeing progress.

For preservation, I say ANY protection over the winter is better than NO protection.

[Exminiman]

Re the price of gas, it went negative last week
https://www.ft.com/content/8c4f9b6f-777 ... dd12f7a99f
Not sure if it will filter down to your workshop heating costs very quickly though.

[roger mcnab]

hi david you need to expand the shed so you can sling a mouse by the tail and not hit its head on the walls but that is a nice old stone built shed so that well be a test os skill with a big porta power ha ha but good to see some progress but a change is as good as a holiday thats why i fiddle with my motor bikes as a diversion while i wait for parts to turn up
keep smiling : : makes them wonder whats going on
cheers roger

[Costafortune]

Get it painted ASAP.

Primer is porous and absorbs moisture. If nothing else, prime it, block it down and bang a couple of colour coats on. Next year you can flat it off, find any imperfections and top coat it. Plus, it will have had enough time to settle.

[Dearg1275]

Get it painted ASAP.

Primer is porous and absorbs moisture. If nothing else, prime it, block it down and bang a couple of colour coats on. Next year you can flat it off, find any imperfections and top coat it. Plus, it will have had enough time to settle.

Don’t worry folks. It won’t sit like that through the winter. Only the front is unprotected and I will whack a couple of coats of epoxy primer on there. Epoxy primer is not porous, unlike etch prime which offers a very false sense of security.

There should be a couple of bright warming days before the winter proper closes in.

Oh and somebody mentioned gas. What is gas.

D

[Dearg1275]

Before I start applying paint in the engine bay can anyone answer this for me. The passenger side inner wing has this seam. Was this there on original pressings or is it a Heritage work around?

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D

[minibitz]

Workaround I would say.

Got 4 Clubmans in the workshop currently, none have a split inner wing. They all have full pressed panels.

[roger mcnab]

hi d avid
gas is one of those things we shouldn,t discuss the climate police might not like it my clubman did not have that split inner guard they both have been removed to allow the v8 elbow room hope the winter is not to cold for you cheers roger