Sting Ray's '89 90 - Complete Restoration

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Sheeeeeiiiitttt! You seem to be taking it extremely well....! Respect!

Is it something particular to Frost's paint that has reacted? :confused:
 
I'm not sure if it was incompatibility between the prime and top coat, or top coat and stone chip - probably the former, based upon what's on the tin. I'm going to take the rookie guess work out of the equation and consult with the paint pros from now on.

I probably sound calmer than I have felt for much of the day...:( My body feels pretty broken as well!
 
Sting Ray said:
I'm not sure if it was incompatibility between the prime and top coat, or top coat and stone chip - probably the former, based upon what's on the tin. I'm going to take the rookie guess work out of the equation and consult with the paint pros from now on.

I probably sound calmer than I have felt for much of the day...:( My body feels pretty broken as well!
Click to expand...
Bloody hell, feel for you mate i made the same mistakes years ago and the work involved to put it right nearly ****ed me off enough to stop the project so well well done to you for persevering and rescuing it.Reading what you've said I think it is a compatibility problem,you may have got away with it used an isolation coat between the 2 but never mind you're back on track now
 
Sting Ray said:
I'm not sure if it was incompatibility between the prime and top coat, or top coat and stone chip - probably the former, based upon what's on the tin. I'm going to take the rookie guess work out of the equation and consult with the paint pros from now on.

I probably sound calmer than I have felt for much of the day...:( My body feels pretty broken as well!
Click to expand...
Bloody hell, feel for you mate i made the same mistakes years ago and the work involved to put it right nearly ****ed me off enough to stop the project so well well done to you for persevering and rescuing it.Reading what you've said I think it is a compatibility problem,you may have got away with it used an isolation coat between the 2 but never mind you're back on track now
 
26 hours of grinding, wire brushing, wire wheeling, etching, and stone chipping, and it's back on track! A 600W space heater certainly helped to warm the chassis through and provide the right conditions for painting. I also had to replace the 10mm copper pipe on my compressor, which decided to shear.

It now needs a couple coats of 2k to seal the stone chip as it's porous.

The Bearmach HD springs have arrived, as well as some bushes for the trailing and radius arms, which are now being powdercoated. The engine parts have come back from being re-zinc plated, and look excellent!

Still need to decide on shocks - OME or Koni...
 
20180207_121341.jpg
 
Yesterday I applied 2k black paint to the underside of the chassis – it’s my first time using the stuff so I’ll see if it’s cured or not, later this afternoon. If it has (I hope to god it has!!!), I’ll flip the chassis over and do the same to the topside over the next couple of days. I’d certainly like to put the painting gear away for a while and crack on with the rest of the vehicle now; this stuff is laborious.

Last night I ordered the numerous parts for both tanks, including the underseat tank itself.. LR can supply pipes and widgets that allow a 2 tank setup to be installed, although it will be cheaper and simpler to put together a DIY solution that allows to me to simply switch between the two tanks with a couple of valves.

I should get the trailing & radius arms and the bellhousing back from the powdercoaters/blasters this week too.

Oh, and the Ashcroft box arrived on Friday :)
 
I’ve only just tead through your painting woes. If I was a bit earlier I could of advised you through it. Sounds like the last coat you put on didn’t agree with what was underneath, the solvent has eaten into it and softened it up. It’s a more common thing amogst aerosol based products due to the high solvent content. The usual way, and the way I’ve been taught would be etch primer, primer, stonechip, topcoat.

We all love a shiny chassis :p I’ll be keeping an eye on this progress!

If you have any other problems or questions drop me a message!
 
Can’t go wrong with upol, acid etch, gravitex stonechip are spot on. Make sure to use the dedicated hardeners with whatever products you buy.

As for primer and topcoat, just personal preference, but same again, upol will do a good primer and hardener, they do a good lacquer also.

Hard to specify as we use brands that people would maybe struggle to get their hands on from just an independent paint supplier. (Sonne, Octoral, Roberlo, Lechler, Glasurit)

Find a local (Independant) supplier and ask their opinion. If your after 2k paint, they’ll mix it there and then and sell you a hardener to go with it. If your ordering online, probably stick to known brands.
 
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FYI, when I spoke to my mate's vehicle painter (I should have spoken to him first!!!), he said that a decent etch primer (U-Pol Acid #8 is good, and is what I used), follwed by a decent quality "Chassis Black" is all one should need for a chassis...so long as it is latter is compatible with the former. If you go down this route, 2 litres if each will suffice for a 110 chassis.

It turns out that Gravitex is sold under a different, less-desirable brand as well; I'll dig out the name for you in case you go down this route as it's a fair bit cheaper than when sold as a U-Pol product.

My hardener (also called activator) and 2k thinners is branded Octoral. I've been using a ratio of 2 parts 2k paint, to 1 part hardener, followed by 10-15% thinners, then warmed up prior to spraying. It's very nasty stuff so ventilation and respiratory protection is definitely needed. You'll need at least 3 litres of 2k paint and 1.5 litres of hardener, as well as 1 litre of 2k thinners.
 
Sting Ray said:
FYI, when I spoke to my mate's vehicle painter (I should have spoken to him first!!!), he said that a decent etch primer (U-Pol Acid #8 is good, and is what I used), follwed by a decent quality "Chassis Black" is all one should need for a chassis...so long as it is latter is compatible with the former. If you go down this route, 2 litres if each will suffice for a 110 chassis.

It turns out that Gravitex is sold under a different, less-desirable brand as well; I'll dig out the name for you in case you go down this route as it's a fair bit cheaper than when sold as a U-Pol product.

My hardener (also called activator) and 2k thinners is branded Octoral. I've been using a ratio of 2 parts 2k paint, to 1 part hardener, followed by 10-15% thinners, then warmed up prior to spraying. It's very nasty stuff so ventilation and respiratory protection is definitely needed. You'll need at least 3 litres of 2k paint and 1.5 litres of hardener, as well as 1 litre of 2k thinners.
Click to expand...

I’d say the chassis black was to blame for the mishap. Out of curiosity what does chassis black consist of? Is it a 1k or 2k product? I just used hammerite for my chassis, brushed it on, didn’t need to mask up everything then.

We have tried a trade stonechip, indasa and 3m but we always go back to gravitex. Only costs about £4 to us so not worth messing around with anything else. I’d be interested to know which other brand is the same stuff though?

Can’t go wrong with the octoral stuff, sounds like you’ve been given some good advice and are using some good products! Should all come out well (fingers crossed)

Ash
 
Thanks Ash :)

I suspect there was an incompatibility with the acid etch primer and the chassis black (1k). If I had used high build in between, it most likely wouldn't have happened. So I suppose I'd recommend adopting this approach as well, or using a chassis black that is compatible with acid etch primers.

I gave myself a night off yesterday, and won't get much done this evening either, although I do have some rather boring parts to collect from my mate's workshop up the road.

I probably won't get round the spraying the rest of the topside 'til Friday afternoon as I need to get some more paint and activator.

Whilst this is planning ahead somewhat, I have managed to find a second hand Front Runner 40L slimline water tank nearby, so I've snapped that up. It should fit behind the seats quite nicely, and will provide ~ 60% of my water carrying capacity. I'm (conservatively) budgeting on 5L per day per for two people, and would like to have a 7 days worth of water onboard between 'towns', which means being able to carry 70L. Showers and spare water for the vehicle will need to be sourced/supplied from elsewhere, although this obviously need not be potable.
 
Sting Ray said:
(snip)I'm tempted to blank off the filler neck on the front tank, and just fill up from the rear and transfer via a pump to the front tank; it would take longer to fill though, which could be annoying.
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Glad to hear you've persevered through the rage you must have felt when the paint job failed! I'd be livid. Anyway, just returning to this point you raised earlier, it struck me that if you do that and the transfer pump fails at an inconvenient point, it'd be a real nuisance since you'll have to transfer all that fuel manually somehow. Strikes me as a single point of failure that you don't need to add. At least if you go down this route maybe blank it off in such a way that you can still get at it and open it easily enough in case.
 
Yeah I've changed my approach (I think) to that. There will be a single supply and return at the pump, with two manually operated valves in the engine bay that can draw/return fuel back to each tank. When one runs close to empty, all I need to do is hop out, operate the valves, then jump back in, and fuel will be drawn from the other tank.

I could site the valves on the dash somewhere, but I don't really want those pipes inside the cabin. Under the floor is another idea, but if the valves also had a neutral position, situating them somewhere slightly inaccessible would also provide an additional security feature. If they managed to overcome the other security features I intend to install, any would-be thief would get half way down the road before running out of fuel, then would need to bleed the system to get it going again, assuming they can work out how to get more fuel in the engine.
 
I know you can get pipework that's designed for in-cockpit fuel flow (less gas-permeable), but agree I'd not really want them in there with me either. I like your idea of being able to cut them off. You could do it via a remote-activated solenoid so you could have the cut-off anywhere and not have to reroute or extend pipework - again, possible single point of failure of course but it's an idea! I guess you could also rig up some kind of manual wire a la throttle cable to do it as well which might be a bit more robust.
 
This weekend I aim to:

See if I can collect the powdercoated trailing/radius arms and blasted bellhousing.
Applying what I damned well hope will be the last of the 2k top coat to the chassis.
Paint the rear tank (the guard/cradle has already been painted).
Once the exterior has cured, Dinitrol inside the chassis.
Semi-fit the front tank (90) to work out how to attach the back end to the B post outrigger.
Fit the rear tank.
Fit the shiny new Autosparks chassis loom.
Fit the chassis brake pipes.
Fit the axle brake pipes.
Run the fuel lines to both tanks and secure to the chassis – I’ll leave a fair amount spare on the front end ‘til the engine is in, which is likely to be at least several months from now.

It’s unlikely, but it would be awesome if I could fit the axles to the chassis as well, but this depends on whether I get the trailing/radius arms back or not. I’ve already got the bushes etc for both too.

I promise to upload more photos!
 
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