Ford cortina mk2 1600 e Project Blast fabrication and paint all panels supplied by the customer.
Where ever there is any rot we seem to have a replacement panel so I am expecting this one to go quite well.
This picture is after the jig is fitted and the inner wing removed
Some sighns of weekness but this bit is to be cut out
Oh NO it's got to go
Gone and a new bulk head repair panel fitted and carefully ground (this is the inside veiw)
The chassis is looking realy good the brown stuf is not rust it is the same coating that was on the underneath.
Oh well lets remove some more, my god did they have to put so many spot welds on the A post
A bit more cleaning and then we can mock up the A post and kick panel
After a bit if fetling and grinding pushing and pulling were happy with the fit
Looks good from here
Yep looks good from here to , Hay this bulk head panel is nice
Sorted lets mock up the a post
This will need some attention it's got a bit of wood stuck to it
Here we are getting at it with the plasma
all chopped of
Oops nasty got to go
All good here
Get some zinga on it. Zinga is a galvanic product we use inside areas that are to be covered it was designed to treat ships bescause it is 96% pure zinc it offers a realy good rust inhibitor
Good as a new one
Get the zinga out again
supports get a lick of the same after some major fetling with the hot spaner (gas torch)
Sealing the back of the support
I hope I don't have to take this one of
These are cool
These are on looking standard
Night Night!
This is how we get the cars level we sit chris in the car and when he dribbles out of both sides of his mouth the car is level easy.
This is the near side qtr removed all the steel around is sound.
This is the nearside qtr fitted.
We have managed to get the wheel house looking good
Good old spot welder
The boot fit's well with good gaps.
Here there's a big hole in here
hooks back in
No hooks on this side
The front end is looking nice
I think we have got everything to fit ok all needs a tweek here and there
There were some signs of rust here so we cut a section out to see
All cleaned up ready for some zinga
A thick coating of zinga
Welded back in and ground back.
Not any more it has now got one
Ready for zinga
A nice coat of the zinga
All good here (now)
See you next week
A bit of jig work going on to make sure holes are in the right place
Slam panel jig fitted for some more holes
Strut top cleaned ready for a coat of zinga
Strut top plate being fitted after zinga These won't fall of
Top veiw
Strut top plate fitted and cleaned notice all the original spot weld positions marked
Chassis repair after chopping out a small dent.
Chassis repair
Car fitted to rollover jig we can rotate the car through 360 degrees to work on the car in any position
Here is the car after blasting the arches have had a very quick blast just to clean them we thought they might distort if we blasted them to hard.
This is in the paint shop we have removed the seam sealer around the wheel houses for inspection to make sure there is no rust behind it.
A rear qtr after it has been stripped
Front wing after stripping.
Engine bay being stripped
Inside after stripping notice the small amount of filler on the bulk head repair.
All welded and cleaned.
Some adjustment was needed to make the wing fit well Sorted.
On with the wash etch this is a two component acid activated etch primer (PPG)
there is no build to the primer but it gets in all the nooks and crany's.
After baking the etch we left it to cure for 12 hours
It's mellow yellow
Even factory panels need a bit of love to get them streight
Here we are high building the car using a PPG high build primer three coats
Starting to look good now we can see all the hard work taking shape
Looks a bit like a mk2 cortina
Because of the spits we have to do the front and rear panels later
After a long hot bake we leave the shell to cure for 2 days
After a guide coat we start to block every panel by hand
Alec rubbing down the engine bay seems like he was in there for the week we had to drag him out on Saturday
The shut gaps are comming on these panels have been on and of the car so many times all we do is wistle and they fit them selfs now
All the panels have been removed and final finished ready for some etch and high build
Fitting the last door skin all cleaned up and ready for a coat of zinga
All the door hinges were refurbed and new pins made
The bonnet was a bit of a mission but it's all cleaned of and looking good
Ready for primer.
Even the inside of the doors have had some love.
This is turning into a realy nice project, can't wait to see some paint on it.
Next stage is to smooth stone chip the underneath prime base coat and clear coat. (underneath engine bay inside and boot)
Here we have the brush sealer after application.
Every seam is sealed
This picture should have been first this is the seam sealer applied to all the joints.
Then we spray painted the smooth stone guard.
Primer over the stone guard.
Pictures showing the basecoat
Pictures showing clear coat.
The shell is now masked up to work on the outside panels here the shell is in guide coat ready for blocking.
We will block the shell and then let it stand for a few days to allow the primer to settle then we will fit the panels and re guide coat everything and block through the panels to ensure a flat finish.
After the shell has been blocked by hand any break throughs are spot primed
Once we are all happy we can start the base coat
More base coat
Third coat of base coat
And then a drop coat to blend the colour and give an even finish you can only see the result after the clear coat
A steady hand and a good eye is needed for this bit
Hard to see in the picture but it does look good
After the fine line we over mask using 1 inch tape then we bag the car all over
And here is the result using the fine line then the masking tape givs us almost a flush line and it stops bleed through
After the car is clear coated
(4 coats ) it is flatted down using two grades, 1500 them 3000 da's then we use a three stage polishing system the result is stunning and the line has no ridge so when you feel it you can't feel the line ( it's done with magic really)
You can see we have no orange peel, its like looking at a mirror
Remask the whole car again to spray the satin black (celilose ? as it was from the factory)
The rear panel back to how it was
minilites look cool on your car
You will be able to shave in this mirror
door in primer
A rear door in guide coat ready for blocking
A rear door during the blocking proccess.
All primer is blocked by hand using longbed blocks
After basscoat the stripe is applied using basscoat
After the fine line tape is removed
After the doors have been clear coated and baked they are masked up for the satin black
Here we are all finished sorry to see this one go
On behalf of all the staff at central blast cleaning I would like to thank Dave and Lesly for letting us carry out this project and we would all love to see the car when it is built.
Mick Gregory
