Lots more sanding, sanding, sanding... till I'd well and truly had enough.
I decided to have a go painting it myself, as I reasoned, in the worst case I could sand it back and either have another go or get someone else to do it. Plus its a 4WD and not a show car, and little kids are pretty tough on paint.
So on with the primer. It turned out better than I was expecting.
On with the top coat. Of course things then went slightly astray with the paint gun throwing out cobwebs instead of a fine spray. I mixed in more thinner which seemed to sort that out. It still didn't go on as well as I'd hoped with some runs. I also ran out of paint, so got a row of air bubbles as well. I went through heaps more paint than expected, only getting 1.5 coats out of the 500ml tin plus nearly a litre of thinners. The bloke at the paint shop reckoned it would do 5-6m2.
The Land Rover Defender white is supposed to be 456 Savarine/Alpine white. So either I got a dodgy mixture, or the paint on the car has aged or maybe I just got the wrong code, or a combination of all of these.
Photos of the good the bad and the ugly below. From a distance it didn't look to bad, and looked even better from a distance in the dark!
After letting it dry overnight I gave the runs and bubbles a wet sand with 1200 sand paper. They sanded smooth easier than expected.
Then off to the paint shop where I had the misfortune of being served by "Grumpy old B@stard". Who "mixed the colour up by eye". Unfortunately it appears that his eye sight is as equally as bad as his hearing. The colour is too white this time. The 456 was too pink/brown. But with cloudy conditions, little improvement in sight with the wet season building up and me being ready to go, I pressed on. The paint went on well, with no runs or bubbles.
The finish is pretty good (if I do say so myself), but I'm pretty disappointed with the colour mix, and I know it will annoy me down the track. But there is no way I'm spraying it a third time just now. I'm looking forward to getting on with the rest of the conversion. We'll just have to take Dora (the 130) for a run to the cape to get some colour into it!
Song "all of these things are not like the other ones" -the range of colours - top is the panel behind the rear door, left the tin of 456 savarine white, and right the final colour creatively labelled "white" by GoB.
For those wondering, I left the inside unpainted as the floor is going to get insulated then covered with vinyl wood plank flooring. I should have taped and covered the inside to stop the over spray from dusting everything. Ditto under the guards which I had painted with black soundproofing. The plastic outdoor table copped a bit too !
Thanks Jerryd. Yes, I plan to support the folded out roof similar to the Trayon's, with two poles. I'm looking forward to seeing it too! The tubs taken alot longer than I expected.
I finally put the painted tub onto the 130 for good.
Lucky I painted it when I did, as we have had rain (and thunderstorms) every day since. The colour match is not good though - bugger.
I tried to match the rivet spacing with those of the original spot welds. I have now gone through over 300 rivets !!! Down the track when the tub gets resprayed I might paint over all these rivets as it looks a bit industrial for me somehow.
Once I'd done the door lines, I drilled through the existing bulkhead holes into my folded wheel boxes and riveted it up.
On the right side wheel box, there was a hole where the cut out for the galvanised steel wheel wheel sat on the series 3. So I used remaining panel from the left side and riveted it onto the right, to fill most of this gap. Still need to make a little filler panel.
I had cut off all the little rubber/cloth buffer pads that were attached to the tub floor supports, as the 130 chassis pick up points were not level. Instead I put a glob of Sika 11FC on each one instead so it could squash out to the right height before setting. I also ran a bead of sealant inside and out of all joins.
This is one of the jobs that took ages - cleaning up the old galvanising. Cleaning 37 years of dirt and grime, plus at some stage they had been painted black. Most of the paint had come off with the pressure washer, the rest I got off by scrubbing, scraping, and finally paint stripper. I also ended up using a nylon brush wheel in a drill to carefully remove some stubborn anodising. They came up really good. I reckon they look awesome contrasting with the white paint.
Down the sides, I used the original holes in the outside of the Aluminium body to drill new holes into the galvanised cappings to rivet them on. I also replaced the painted 130 capping behind the rear seat with the Series 3 galvanised one. The side cappings burnt through another 100 rivets.
In the photos you can also see the rear body mounts with the "hidden" tabs. The original bolts seemed to be about M8 (in a 10mm hole), but the M8 bolts looked a little puny so used M10 stainless button head bolts instead. The supports still needed cutting to size at this stage.
While I had good access I also dynamatted the bulkhead. Riveting the bulkhead to the wheel arches had already stiffened this panel up. I am going to put acoustic foam and marine carpet over this.
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