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1965 TR4A progress and restoration


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TBH it looks like a pretty good basis to start with, the dent your on about in the arch is supposed to be there and you are missing the wing beadings on top of front and rear wings. The dash you have

Jase, I know these are strange times but I also live in Bridgend and have a 1962 TR4 and would normally offer you the opportunity to come and use as a reference or just a chat. Have you cont

Having spent quite a lot of time going through the car I decided to do an essential run today and drive it for the first time and pick up some petrol, just a few shots back on the drive and my essenti

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Bonnet lined up better than expected. Any tips on fine tuning it? I don’t think I can line it up when it’s open.

 

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15 hours ago, Jase said:

Bonnet lined up better than expected. Any tips on fine tuning it? I don’t think I can line it up when it’s open.

 

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Leave the rear catch off completely till youve finished alignment also the rear rubber seal. Loosen the cones at the rear just enough to move then you can align the rear end of the bonnet to sit in them and get the rear height right. Its too late to align the sides as that requires wings off to bend the inner wing rails to suit. The side rubbers sometimes need a little shave off if the gap is too narrow. Leave the headlamps out so you can get to the mounting bolts. Make sure the captive plates move OK in the frame, Leave the side strap bolts till youve finished the alignment as you may find the straps need a bit of bending to get the bolts in and make sure you only use the short 1/2" bolts in there else youll end up with pimples out of the skin. When youve got it aligned with the wings then be careful opening it first as the front end of the wings taper in and can catch if the hinges arent at the right height in the inner wing mounts.

Once your happy with that then fit the rear catch and pull the bonnet pull right out and secure in the fully open position. Stick a piece of 2" masking tape over the catch and smear some black grease on the spring pin of the catch then carefully lower it down until it just touches the tape to make a mark as to its position. Open the bonnet and check the mark then move the spring pin till it centres in the catch hole. This may require a few goes. Once your happy its centred then with the catch still held open remove the tape and allow the bonnet to go right down to ensure its lined up correctly and that it misses the catch lever completely then you need to set the height of the pin itself so when closed the catch holds it securely,though if it was holding in the right place before then it shouldnt be far out. Its always worth fitting an emergency override lever or cable although the 4/4a bonnet pull being a more or less straight pull with a short cable doesnt suffer from failures anywhere near as bad as  the 5/6 version.

Stuart.

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Thanks Stuart, thought it would have been headlights out. They did it the easy way before and packed one side out with washers and didn't bother with a side bolt. I've put the side bolts in and it's made a huge difference with alignment. I'm about 8 mm out at the drivers corner so not too bad so far. Agree on the wings as there is a difference there but I haven't touched those yet.

 

Thanks for the detailed set of instructions.

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Two coats of celly on. Will leave 48 hours and then wet flat back and apply a few more coats with a final 70/30 coat. Spotted a few small patches that would benefit from a skim of filler but will do that when I paint the whole car. Quite pleased with removing the ton of filler on it and taking it back to bare metal. 
 

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12 hours ago, Jase said:

Two coats of celly on. Will leave 48 hours and then wet flat back and apply a few more coats with a final 70/30 coat. Spotted a few small patches that would benefit from a skim of filler but will do that when I paint the whole car. Quite pleased with removing the ton of filler on it and taking it back to bare metal. 
 

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If your brave enough then the last coat should be best thinners only and apply a wet coat. You should get away with it easily as youve got it on the flat as you do need to be very brave to do it on vertical surfaces but it will come out like a bit of glass then.

FWIW I would do those repairs youve noted now and use a nice fine stopper like Top stop Gold https://u-pol.com/product/fillers-uk/fine-finishing/easy-3-extra-smooth-finishing-filler/ then that panel is done and when you come to paint the rest of the car you can just mask it off and forget about it especially good as its such a big panel. Far easier to do at this stage and will blend in nicely, just spot prime and flat out with 600 w/dry and then three coats of top coat with the last at 70/30 and then as above a nice wet coat of pure thinners and it will look fabulous (When you do that last coat of pure thinners dont bother washing the gun out just empty the remaining paint back in the tin and fill the gun with best thinners)

Stuart.

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Thanks Stuart, not sure I’m that brave :) would you flat bavk and then top coat with pure thinners or apply as ypur final run?

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I’ve had enough of the repairs now :) I’m planning on painting it all again as I may adjust the tint slightly or it may not be an accurate match if my paint guy retires which is likely the rate I’m going

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17 hours ago, Jase said:

Thanks Stuart, not sure I’m that brave :) would you flat bavk and then top coat with pure thinners or apply as ypur final run?

No the pure thinners coat is done after youve done all the paint coats. Once youve painted it, give it about half an hour at least to flash off then pour out the remaining paint in your gun, fill the pot with pure best thinners and then bang a heavy coat right over it and walk away!

Stuart.

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18 hours ago, Jase said:

In between coats, added a darker tint

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Hope you took a note of the amount of tinter youve added else your never going to be able to match it. How many coats have you got on there now and are they single or double coats? You dont want to put too many on without allowing the solvents to fully escape else you`ll get possible solvent pop (Tiny bubbles) or it`ll start to wrinkle up as different layers dry through.

Stuart.

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All the tints are recorded and my paint chap has it all covered. I now have 5 coats on the car with time allowed for gassing out. Aiming to line up the bonnet and flat back and polish this weekend. I did think there was a huge wrinkle above the headlight but that was a reflection from the plastic sheet above.

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