1965 TR4A progress and restoration

[Jase]

Yep, that’s where the cost is when painting, a long job.

[Jase]

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.

 

[stuart]

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.

 

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.

[Jase]

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.

[Jase]

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. 
 

[Bfg]

Well done Jase great work in progress. 

Thank you yet again Stuart for your excellent advice.

Pete

[stuart]

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. 
 

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.

[Jase]

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?

[Jase]

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

[stuart]

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.

[Jase]

I miss the like button  Stuart needs lots of them - Thank you.

 

PS Still not brave enough 

[Jase]

In between coats, added a darker tint

Edited May 1 by Jase

[stuart]

18 hours ago, Jase said:

In between coats, added a darker tint

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.

[Jase]

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.

[Jase]

Pre-flatting back

 

[Jase]

Well, managed to breakdown last night. First time ever I couldn't repair at the roadside. Looks like the electronic ignition is shot, no spark. It could be more and will need to investigate. Re-fitted points and condenser at the road side and had a spark at the points but it still wouldn't fire. Carbs were full of petrol. Will replace the ignition with Lumenition and change the coil again just in case although that was sparking.

[Lebro]

Which electronic ignition unit were you using ? From your description (no joy when points back in) The Electronic ignition probably was not the problem. did you check for spark at the dizzy / plugs ?

Bob

Edited May 8 by Lebro

[Jase]

Yes, there was no spark at the plugs with the electronic ignition. It was one I bought from Rimmers, it’s not an optical one if that helps.

thanks

Jason

 

[roy53]

Dizzy cap /leads ?

or even plugs as spark at points not transfering  further.

[Lebro]

1 hour ago, Jase said:

Yes, there was no spark at the plugs with the electronic ignition. It was one I bought from Rimmers, it’s not an optical one if that helps.

thanks

Jason

 

But was there also no spark at plug with points & cap ?

Bob

[Jase]

I didn’t check with points, going to replace ignition anyway as I need a reliable unit will check everything. Bizarre really, can’t think of any other problem except the electronic ignition. It took a while to start as I haven’t run it for 6 months so may have just failed.

[stuart]

2 minutes ago, Jase said:

I didn’t check with points, going to replace ignition anyway as I need a reliable unit will check everything. Bizarre really, can’t think of any other problem except the electronic ignition. It took a while to start as I haven’t run it for 6 months so may have just failed.

TBH I would go back to points, they will always get you home, check the short jumper lead from coil to dizzy as they often fail. Your electronic ignition wouldnt have liked the taking a while to start. If left for a long period its always best to use the fuel pump priming lever to fill the carbs and with points you can flick them a few times with a screwdriver to check you have a spark and away you go.

Stuart.

[Jase]

Okay, so other issue, to fit the electronic ignition I had to cut down the brass rod that the points sat on. Is this eqsy to repair so they fit securely. I left a small portion there so they do lock (just) but I’m not convinced it’s right

[RobH]

10 hours ago, Jase said:

Re-fitted points and condenser at the road side and had a spark at the points but it still wouldn't fire.

There really shouldn't be a spark at the points. The condenser is there to stop that though maybe if it was pitch dark there might be a glimmer of something.......

If you have cut down the pivot pin I can't see how you could fit the points properly.   You could repair it relatively easily  if you have workshop facilities but it's probably just as easy to buy a new spare top plate from the Distributor Doctor.  If you fit the points to that and your new electronic ignition to the other, it is very easy to keep it as a spare and just swap the whole top plate. 

Stuart is right though - points are reliable as long as you keep them adjusted correctly -  so simple there is little to go wrong.  

Edited Wednesday at 06:03 PM by RobH

[Jase]

Thanks everyone, good call on the replacement top plate, will order one and a new set of points etc as a back up. A needless breakdown. Annoyingly the only modern part on the car and it fails.