I knew instantly that it needed another coat.  I ordered 3ltr of primer last week and rubbed it down today, alas no pictures.  I also rubbed down some other bits and pieces that need primer such as the bracket that the dashboard mounts to and that the steering column goes through.  I did get the car outside and found a few areas that hadn't received any paint so brushed those with paint in advance of the new spray session.

During the last few weeks I also applied some filler to a few areas that looked very distressed having been painted.  They look better now and will, I hope, look much better tomorrow when it is repainted.

So Rob popped round again yesterday and helped me get the car back on the trolley.  I then went to see Orchard Restorations' open day with my wife.  It is always interesting and I enjoyed talking to the paint professionals at the workshop.  It was nice not to be worried about door gaps and metalwork, felt like a real change.  I got a little more information on the blue colour code which was good.

Today I got back to the rubbing down.

I also did a little filler work on the sills.  I haven't rubbed down filler in 28+ years but the joy came flooding back.

Then it was time for paint once I had flatted the whole car.  

I had more of a challenge painting the top of the car than the bottom.  Having used 1.25l of primer for the base I ordered another 2l of paint and thought that it would easily be enough for two coats.  It wasn't so I found myself adding more thinners to the mix as I went along to stretch out the paint.  I did two coats but really, the second was  a little rushed (this is a polite way of telling you that I got a few runs).  Had I bought 3l of paint it would have been enough.  So I am thinking that really I should give it another coat but I don't want to do that because I'll need to rub the damn thing down again.  I will take it out of the garage on Tuesday after work if it is not raining and have a look and make my mind up.

It does feel good to have it in primer.

Happy days

Thank heavens, finished sanding.

Got round to masking and degreasing, much better activity.

Then painting.

Doesn't that look better?

It was surprisingly easy to paint again after what must be nearly 30 years.  OK, it was only primer but it was primer and a £17 spray gun (inc. delivery) but it still felt good.  Two coats of epoxy 2 pack primer and I realise that I didn't buy enough paint which is a shame as I was hoping to paint the top of the car on Sunday, oh well.  I have ordered 2 more cans of paint.  It is a lovely warm day in London so the paint went off pretty quickly and I didn't get any horror runs.  I will try to get the top rubbed down again, to take any overspray off, this weekend and paint it next Saturday.  Then the top coat over a couple of weekends before I head away for the school holidays again.  It'll be lovely to come back in September to a painted shell and to start fitting it up with the mechanicals, I can't wait.

And sanding.  Seriously sick of sanding now and I have loads to do still.

To take my mind off the sanding I decided to take these bolts out that are for the exhaust mounts and which had been placed in the frame prior to it being galvanised.  Like a donut I just put a socked on it and turned which caused it to sheer off.  I was somewhat frustrated with myself.  I got the heat out and the second came off easily.  I then drilled  a hole in the snapped bolt and heated the area before trying the stud extractor tool I have, to my complete surprise it came out instantly.  A complete result.

Now, back to the sanding.

And sanding,

Been sanding.

My wife and I went to a wedding last weekend which was rather enjoyable but limiting in garage time.  I started this weekend with a visit to the opticians at 9:15 but as I had woken early and the weather was nice I took the Triumph out for a pre-breakfast ride.  This post comes with a history lesson; the bank in the background of the picture is actually Barclays Bank in Enfield and it was the first bank in the UK to have a cash point machine in 1967. 

I'm biased but the Triumph looks bloody lovely.

Back to the garage and I am in full pre-paint mode.  I have spent quite a lot of time researching paint and the best order to do things in and have settled on the following:  I am going to rub down all easily visible paint and apply an epoxy primer to the inner bodywork.  Then I will paint with top coat and lacquer.  My main issue is that I want to paint the whole lot in a small number of days so that I don't have to get in to keying up the primer for the top coat.  This seems simple but as I have to prime both the underside and top of the inner bodywork before doing the same for the colour coat I have got some challenges.  Aside from everything else actually getting the car on its side so that I can paint the underside is very tricky and requires two people.

There are a few last minute jobs before I commit to paint including fitting the screen to check that it is properly aligned.  To do that I needed to renovate the frame, well I did at least have to get it back together having dismantled it to get the broken glass out.  One of the screen pillars is still attached to the frame but the other is in need of some work because the screws that attach the frame to it have sheared off during dismantling, I assume. 

I did get them out of some of the holes but I had to be a little assertive on two of them which needed me to put a larger hole and then thread in.  I may drill new holes in the frame in new locations and go back to the original size screws prior to final fitment.

I need to buy a frame mounting kit which isn't too expensive but I saw no point in ordering it at this stage so I took a fairly crude approach to getting the frame together.

So the purpose of doing all this was to check that the screen fits onto the inner bodywork correctly. Naturally I expected it not to fit and for me to be faced with lots of head scratching but no, if fitted just fine first time.  I was quiet shocked.

The frame does look a little higher on one side but I suspect this is only because the shroud isn't fitted so I am ignoring it.

I also trial fitted the tunnel and connecting section just to see if all was ok, it was.

Then it was down to some serious sanding.  My hand still hurt and I have loads to do.

I always thought that I would relish this phase but I am mind numbingly bored by the process of sanding and sanding and sanding.  Oh well.  I have a school holiday coming up and hope to get it primed and then into colour and that will be exciting.