”The time has come", the Walrus said, ”to talk of many things, Of panel fit and sealing wax and car badges and springs, And whether one should use ”two pack" or cellulose on wings".
With apologies to Lewis Carroll.
Do you remember the lost Nitromors? Of course you do. Well of course I found it immediately after buying two more cans. I literally tripped over it in its bright B&Q bag. So that decides the principal method of paint stripping, of which more later.
Readers with a longer attention span will also remember the new unbreakable vice. ”Well pride comes before" and all that. Matthew, the one and only son in law, came to stay and, instead of the burst of P6 activity I anticipated, we ended up rebushing the front suspension on his new(ish) Land Rover Discovery. Extraction was a piece of cake. The bushes were so bad the middles pushed out. Insertion of the new ones on the other hand wasn‘t. The new vice huffed and puffed but made little progress until we decided there was some danger of vice failure. Sadly when I set off back to the house he decided to have one last go with predictable results. The ensuing bang proved not to be movement of the bush, as he at first thought, but the sad divorce of the lower jaw from the rest of the vice. And so to Barry‘s once more to interrupt his work by borrowing his press. Thanks again Barry.
On a better note, the carpainter (a mate of Fred‘s) finally made contact and came to see the car. His quote was readily agreed and a date of the first Saturday in December fixed for him to take away the panels, which I agreed to have ready stripped for him. Only when he had gone did I realise that was only four weeks and since they came from many different cars there was no assurance that they would fit together. And so began the great trial fit.
The first job was to glue in the boot seal to seat the boot lid on. Lesson one˜Evo-stick and Waxoyl don‘t stick! The seal was therefore just placed in position under it‘s own tension whilst I found the chrome strips which hold it in. No chance! The aforementioned L.Carroll would
have recognised my garage in an instant (See closing para). Waxoyl seems to hold rubber reasonably well however so I placed the boot lid and located it by engaging the lock. One rear wing seal was already in place and the other was reasonably easy to fit but the splash seals were a problem. They should be backed by strips of steel to support the pop rivets but.. (See left re state of garage.) Happily B&Q came up with 2mm by 10 mm aluminium strip which should be enough to back every seal on the base unit. The wings then fitted without problems and swage lines and gaps look good. I even discovered that the old backing rubbers which give a solid black background to all the panel gaps can be beautifully renovated with ”Back to Black" aerosol. Given the price of the replacement items this was a serious saving.
The bonnet fitted well of course since it is the original, but the front wings were not so easy. It‘s not that they didn‘t fit you understand, more that I appear to have removed and thrown away the vital, and apparently rare, brackets which locate a dowel at the rear of the wing thus avoiding it‘s flapping uncontrollably in the breeze. There therefore ensued an uncomfortable afternoon in the rain at the scrapyard retrieving replacement brackets, and a few other bits, from a total basket case. Unpleasant as this experience was, it wasn‘t a complete waste of time since I did notice that the yard has, separate from the wrecks, several almost mint bonnets, both mark one and two. If you are a P6 enthusiast with what we may, with some licence, call ”Swallow‘s bonnet" (see earlier article) get in touch and I will be happy to pass on the information.
The only other problem was the driver‘s door which came from elsewhere and most certainly didn‘t fit. I spent a whole day removing hinges and moving shims around before I got the door to sit well. However, sit well it did by the end so if you have a similar problem, persevere. The whole thing now looks much more like a car and most encouraging, even if it does have more colours than Joseph‘s coat. Trial fitting was a good idea. I‘d hate to try it with new shiny paint.
Now the plan is to clean all but the panel edges with stripper and to blast clean the edges to avoid the risk of filling gaps with Nitromors which may spoil the ultimate paint job. I‘ve bought a blasting gun and some grit, now to build a cabinet big enough for doors and wings. Watch this space. (Oh no! I feel another disaster coming on. Ed!)
Speaking of paint, much angst has gone into deciding the colour it should be painted. The final decision was to use the precise colour in which it started life in 1977, namely Atlantis blue. The P6 Rover Owners Club mag had a splendid list of colours available by date and all blue P6s for the last three or four years were Atlantis. (Are you sure its not the same as Zircon Blue & Rover just changed the name as they used a new Zircon Blue on the SD1 and that just confused everyone. Ed.?)
The problem of stripping and painting the roof was solved on an expedition round Fred Bell‘s loft. Tucked away amongst lots of ancient spares was a vinyl covered job in excellent condition and sporting a glass sunroof. This was ferried home bit by bit (sunroof first to ensure it could be made to work) and will be rendered good as new by a bit of polishing with vinyl cleaner.
Hanging so many panels on the car has now cleared the garage to the extent that I found the boot lip trim which is now fitted. Much further trim and sealing strip must now follow before the repainted panels return. As for the loom, I‘ve just received November‘s mag and read Simon Stallard‘s article. Since he‘s just changed a loom I‘ll talk him into helping with mine. (whew! that was close, Ed) On second thoughts I‘ll ask Ben, he‘ll cost me a lot less in beer!
As for the garage, it may be cleaner but that is a relative term. Lewis Carroll had the car restorer‘s space in mind when he wrote:
”If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year, do you suppose" the Walrus said, ”that they could get it clear?" ”No chance" the car restorer said and shed a bitter tear. (Having smacked his shin on that protruding bumper iron AGAIN.)