Thread: The Grey Ghost - a Rolling Restoration

Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

Hi Grey Ghost

Seeing where you are at, I would second what Peter has said, get some new rivets and remove the remaining strips to paint the floor in one go.

Before you paint, would you be interested in a little experiment for me?
looking at those sharp little dents in the floor, I would like to know if they can be flattened back.
Using a jack and an insulator ( piece of hard wood ) push up on the point of the dent under the floor, then using some freeze spray (the type they sell at JayCar for electronic fault finding) , spray the centre of the dent to freeze it.

I am wondering if this would take some of the stretch out of the material around the dent.
.

The short answer would be NO.

This is the long answer why,

The freeze spray would shrink the Ally in the short term while it was cold but it would just go back to the same size it was before when it warms up to room temp again and if you have taken the dent out then it will push back out either where it came from or somewhere else in the panel causing distortion and deforming the panel.

The best way to flatten a panel like that out is to either use an English wheel with 2 flat rollers (rather hard to get completely flat) which will effectively spread the stretched metal out through the whole panel or a panel roller, (3 wide rollers, 2 bottom and 1 top that is normally used to roll sheets into a cylinder but I have used them to roll sheets flat before) or to replace the entire panel.

You can try just a hammer and dolly as long as they are not too deep but again, it's alloy, it stretches a lot more than steel and you need somewhere for that stretched metal to go.

Cheers Casper

Hi All,
Last night a mate and myself built a removable Merbau floor for the Grey Ghost.
The theory being - it's removable, it helps protect the tray floor and above all else it looks good! I will regularly remove it, and then house down/sweep the tray floor.

3 hours work:



To the victors the spoils! (About 8 each)


Regards,
The Grey Ghost

Looking good Tom!

Nice idea too. I plan to go the marine carpet in my S3 but the wooden floor has got me thinking now. Hmmmm.

Originally Posted by pfillery

Looking good Tom!

Nice idea too. I plan to go the marine carpet in my S3 but the wooden floor has got me thinking now. Hmmmm.

If you are going to go for a wooden floor. Just make sure that it's properly sealed (The wood). As wood has a tendency to soak up water. And that adds more weight to the Landy. A friend had a tabletop with a metal frame and wood in the middle of it, and it got really heavy in the back when it rained. Due to the wood being unsealed, and it soaking up the water .. So he replaced that with checker plating.. (Much lighter)

Wolf

Thanks for the advice - couldn't agree more.
I am going to lightly sand the wood, and the coat it (all over, top/bottom) with a MINIMUM of 2 coats of Linseed Oil.
Plus (if I can convince the wife) the Grey Ghost will be kept in the garage as well...
The company car can stay out in the rain...

Regards,
The Grey Ghost

Hi All,

Got up early today and did some more work on the Grey Ghost.

Received Spare Wheel Holder parts (thanks pfillery) last night:


And now after light sanding/cleaning:


Did the first (of many) coats of Linseed oil:


And lastly discovered this at Bunnings last night. I have lightly sanded/cleaned all of the tread strips and given them a coat of this.
Only time will tell how well it lasts - I will post a picture once the strips have dried (at least 2 coats):


Regards,
The Grey Ghost

Hi All,

Managed to do a little bit more work today.

There was some OLD foam underneath the battery in the bottom of the battery box:


And now there is some new foam:


Sanded, Cleaned, Masked, Painted - Drivers door:


Sanded, Cleaned, Painted - Rear Cross Member:


That's about if for this weekend.

Regards,
The Grey Ghost

OH WOW...


thanks for directing me to this thread Tom

The Grey Ghost looking absolutely fabulous

same colour as my 'jack', pic in sig

Mrs hh