Thread: Meet Max

As the restoration slowly motors along, I'm slowly accumulating parts...

On the left is my a-pillar trim, on the right is the trim that I purchased (from the NT of all places):



From the same guy - the top speaker cover:



And also these scuttle vent covers:



These are a bit of an unknown - they are a cheap ebay copy for the front lights. I do have some old lights, which I am going to try and restore myself.. But for $70 delivered (the set) these will do as a temporary fix.

I have a few spare original lights, and my intention is to try and sand them back with 2000 grit sand paper + a polishing compound to see how they come up. I will experiment on the worst one that I have, and if it works - then I will try one of the originals..

I also sprayed a few items last night with clear coat - I will try and take some pictures over the weekend.

Cheers,
GG.

Hi All,

I spent more time on the 2 Door over the weekend... Lot's of little jobs getting ticked off the list - although still a lot more to do!

Bonnet stay - painted & clear coated:



Some door handles - painted & clear coated:



The tailgate arm - painted & clear coated:



The tailgate brackets - painted & clear coated:



I have multiple front lights, so decided to do a bit of a sort out. I have discovered that the correct ones for my 2 Door are made of metal, and the front lense is screwed on. The later ones (although they look the same) are made of plastic, and the front lense isn't screwed on.. The original units are a bit of a silly design - to change the bulbs, you have to remove 4 screws from the front... I found that on each light that I had, at least one screw was rounded off - and I had to use an "easy out" to remove it.. This is trickier than it sounds - too much force and the lense cracks, not enough and the screw stays firm.. Anyway..

Here I have 4 original lights - 2 RHS and 2 LHS:



I also have these ones - the newer, plastic ones:



And here is one of the newer plastic ones vs the Chinese copy that I purchased:



in total I have:
2 x original RHS
2 x original LHS
1 x broken original
1 x newer style plastic LHS
1 x newer style plastic RHS
1 x copy plastic LHS
1 x copy plastic RHS

Naturally I want to refurbish the correct old style.

The first step - remove all of the gromits.. Most of them were missing, and the ones that aren't - were badly broken or brittle:



Next - I removed all of the lenses. Here they are - before cleaning. To clean them I simply washed them in hot, soapy water - with a kitchen brush (don't tell SWMBO). I then used Windex on them.



And after cleaning:



Next - here is the back of a light unit, before cleaning:



And after some time with de-greaser and a tooth brush - all cleaned up:



Here is an example of the bottom edge of the light body - this should be black, but it's fairly faded!



So I sanded the top & bottom of each of the 4 original light bodies:



I noticed that one of the lenses had a clear edge, when all of the others had a black edge.. Hmm



I decided that I would paint the edge (to match all of the others) plus one of the other lenses also had some over spray on it..



Here are the 2 lenses that I am going to paint - all masked up:



Here they are after 4 coats of plastic paint - certainly not concourse, but a lot better than they were.. The lights look better in the photo than in real life:



Next - I masked up all 4 light bodies, and this is after one coat:



I had one broken light - so I experimented with trying to bring it back to life.. My experiment didn't work. Here it is before I did anything:



I washed the light with Windex - it came up cleaner, but still very faded.
I then polished the surface with a car polish - no huge difference.
I then sanded it lightly with 3000 grit sand paper & polish - no huge difference.
I then sanded it lightly with 2000 grit sand paper & polish - no huge difference.
I then sanded it lightly with 1000 grit sand paper & polish - no huge difference.
I then sanded it lightly with 600 grit sand paper & polish - no huge difference.
I had taken photo's after each stage - but to be honest, they don't look any different...
Here is the final product:



I have done some more research and people have suggested tooth-paste or t-cut polish... There is also an autoglym product (about $80 for 2 headlights) that I might try.. I will try tooth paste first, and then t-cut before I spend $80 on the autoglym product.

Next job - there are 2 brackets that are for the front windows/door. Here I have sanded the left hand bracket - the right hand side is the "before":



I also sanded the long bracket that is for the rear bumper (it mates a rubber strip onto the rear bumper).

I then primed the 2 x window brackets & the rear bumper strip:



Next - I started on the original jack handles:

Here they are before:



It took a lot of sanding to get them looking like this:



And here they are with the first coat of primer:



So - lot's of little jobs done, but still a lot to go...

Cheers,
GG.

Nice work!

Can you still buy new lenses?

Originally Posted by 86mud

Nice work!

Can you still buy new lenses?

Yes I believe that Famous Four in the UK sell them for $30 pounds each!

Hi All,

A small update - I haven't got much done in the last week due to the weird weather (rain & humidity). But a few jobs did get done.

I started top coating the jack handle, window brackets and bracket for the rear bumper:



Tail gate handle finished & one interior door handle:



Some parts arrived - gaskets for the front lights:



Various light globes:



Screws for the front light lenses:



Next I started cleaning up the rear lights - before & after:





This is the spare wheel holder - I have since discovered that the bracket is not original, it should be a 90o bolt. Here it is before:



Cleaned:



First coat of primer:



And a close up of the bracket!



The rear light lense - before & after... You can buy replacement lenses - at $145 pounds EACH





And the side reflector - before & after... Again, replacement ones are available - at $175 pounds EACH





As much as I would like to replace these (you can see small holes in the top of each reflector) - I just can't justify it to myself...

I might get out into the shed tonight - hopefully.

Cheers,
GG.

Hi All,

A bit more work done... Interior door handles - finished:



Exterior door handles - finished:



Left and right hand front indicators finished:





First coat of spare wheel brackets:



More importantly the 2 new front window channels are ready to be picked up:











I am picking them up in person tomorrow, but from the photo's they look great.

Cheers,
GG.

Hi All,

Not much progress on the 2 door lately.. As with some restorations - life gets in the way.. The car is still at the paint shop, and the seats are still with the re-upholsterer.

I did manage to clear coat these small pieces over the weekend:



Cheers,
GG

PS - Oh and another project landed in my lap recently, but I shall start another thread on that..

Hi All,

Well not much is going on with Max at the moment... I sent him off to the panel beaters a few months ago, and I sent the front & rear seats off to upholstery at the same time.. Then the world as we know it changed.

My pay at work has been reduced, so I haven't exactly been chasing up the Panel Beater or the Upholsterer either.

Here are some progress photographs that I received from the panel beater a few months ago. It's interesting to see the various layers of paint & bog..:















Next up - the seats. I've learnt that the early 2 doors don't have arm rests on the rear seats, but the later seats do.. I've also learnt that the later rear seat base is different to the earlier rear seat base.. So the plan has been hatched to restore the earlier seat base, with the later seat top - so that I have arm rests on the rear seats. Yes this isn't strictly correct for a 76 - but this isn't a concourse restoration either. I think that only a rivet counter would notice..

All of the seat components are being stripped, sand blasted, painted, re-covered, etc.

Here are some pics from the upholsterer..









Not much else report. My plan is to start chasing things up when my wage returns back to normal.

Cheers,
GG.