Quick paint job anyone ????

[smiffy1071]

Actually, I was at the farm this afternoon, and I was having a close look at the poor old girl. the black is looking rather tired, so they need doing. Trouble is where she is parked at the farm, there is sooooo much crap parked there, A40 farina, 1969 austin mini cooper, 1958 land rover, several scrap coaches & buses, plus my caravan and both the CX 22 cars, there just isn't room to get at any job I want to do!! john s

 

[DoubleChevron]

Actually, I was at the farm this afternoon, and I was having a close look at the poor old girl. the black is looking rather tired, so they need doing. Trouble is where she is parked at the farm, there is sooooo much crap parked there, A40 farina, 1969 austin mini cooper, 1958 land rover, several scrap coaches & buses, plus my caravan and both the CX 22 cars, there just isn't room to get at any job I want to do!! john s

I wouldn't even attempt a paintjob (come to that any mechanical work) until I had a clean dry area to work in. Something the size of a double car garage with just the CX parked in the middle would be ideal (ie: about 6x6metres). I struggle with lack of space in my little shed (it's 'L' shaped, about 8 x 4metres in the main part, opening up to 6meters width in the back part... Why the bloody hell it wasn't just built as a simple 8 x 6metre shed without the annoying 'L' shape so I could fit 2cars in is beyond me ). Buyt hey it makes a handy sized worshop area in the back 'L' shaped bit.

There's no way I'd be trying to do bodywork in the open, especially in the soggy damp UK.

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[smiffy1071]

Rest assured, I don't plan on doing anything while all that crap is in the way. I want to get the car back in the shed soon, as the front screen has to come out, so the bottom of the frame can have some new steel welded in.
This must be done before any painting work takes place.

 

[DoubleChevron]

Another 1.5hours tonight...

I spray puttied the top of the rear bumper, wheel spats and mirrors.

The Fuel flap is 10minutes away from being finished.

The bumper top portion was previously sanded flat (as opposed to the texture of the rest of them). This is because a hole in the rear bumper needed to be plastic welded up previously.

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[orestes]

looks good... I've just started tending to the rust on the Soarer, and you'd be amazed at what one small spot of rust in the boot lid looks like when you actually take the strip off the botom of the boot I tended to that with the wire brush, and then grinded back the rust back to bare metal, and used some of the acid rust converter on it. After much stuffing around I also fiberglass filled some of it (fiberglass bog is anoying sh!t, but it doesn't break off like normal bog) and boged the rest of it over. Spray putied it, and sanded it back, and painted it this evening. All up probably less then 2 hours work, but then waiting 24 hours for all that shit to dry properly so I could paint it and so far that's only treating the rust in the boot lid. I'll eventually get round to posting up some before, and after shots if you're really intrested. But all in all it's just a statement of the frustration involved in rust repairs, especially when there's more rust then what you think there is there when you actually pull the metal strips of of the panel

 

[addo]

Orestes, it might seem a silly thing to say but try to fix the leak. This was drummed into me years ago by an old panelbeater and it's proven good advice. Look for where the water is getting into your boot lid to start with, and change that situation. Quite often a couple of small drilled holes will help drain a panel skin.

 

[WESTON89]

Rest assured, I don't plan on doing anything while all that crap is in the way. I want to get the car back in the shed soon, as the front screen has to come out, so the bottom of the frame can have some new steel welded in.
This must be done before any painting work takes place.

Interesting find with the repair section, did you pick that up at a show or buy it from somewhere? Could do with a couple meself!!

Dom

 

[DoubleChevron]

It took me quite a while to figure out what that picture was .... It'll be fun trying to weld in a windscreen repair section and keep the windscreen fit perfect with leaking. I have seen CX's out here with rusty windscreen pillars, though I've never had one myself (all my cars have always been remarkably rust free ...). Even my old CX2400 and CX2200's are virtually rust free... Infact the C-matic I have here I'm yet to find a trace of rust in. Even it's sunroof is absolutely perfect.

Orestos, Did you cut the whole area out ??? Being a bootlid I'd be tempted to cut the whole area out with your angle grinder and shape a replacement bit of metal to fit. Just take a six pack of beer with you to the local exhaust joint and see if they'll weld it in, exchanging them some after work refreshment for the effort :adrink: :adrink:

I'm thinking as it's the bootlid the contant slamming closed may fracture/crack the fiberglass filler. I do hope I'm wrong, but I consider filler just a product for leveling metal so it looks nice 'n' flat, not something to be used to fill holes etc.... (though I gotta admit that fiberglass stranded filler is bloody tough stuff ).

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[smiffy1071]

Interesting find with the repair section, did you pick that up at a show or buy it from somewhere? Could do with a couple meself!!

Dom

The windscreen repair section came from Classic Citroen Spares of Leeds.
He had both left and right in stock when I bought it, and they were £35 each.
plus post of course!!

Go on then, what car are you getting ready? I can just immagine your dad sat in the passenger side, gripping his seat, and gritting his teeth, as you put the L plates on one of the CX's you have....john s

 

[DoubleChevron]

'L' plates in a CX GTi Turbo ... Hmmm... Me thinks that would attract quite a bit of unwanted attention from the :wigham: :wigham: :cancan: :cancan:

I'd try and find a BX turbo diesel if I was young and on my L's. It's quite quick yet cheap to insure (yeah I know it's a cr@ppy BX, not a proper car like a CX ... But having little $$$ when you first get your license means you can't have everything ).

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[smiffy1071]

I suspect that when Dominic turns 17, he might go on his family's company insurance. I know there is a nice CX 22TRS "croisette" at his garage, which just might be for him to learn in. Good choice...not too much power, and it's a real citroen!
From my point of view, I think it's great that a young lad wants to keep these legends alive rather than the usual hot hatch.
john s

 

[orestes]

Orestes, it might seem a silly thing to say but try to fix the leak. This was drummed into me years ago by an old panelbeater and it's proven good advice. Look for where the water is getting into your boot lid to start with, and change that situation. Quite often a couple of small drilled holes will help drain a panel skin.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of the rust in the boot are was caused mostly by leaves, dirt, etc geting in there as the car was siting for a fair while so If i can keep this area reasonably tidy it should stay relatively rust free. As for the edge of the bootlid where the majority of the rust was, i'll get around to putting some silicone into it to stop the water getting into the strip as it was managing to sit inside the strip causing it to corode the metal above it

Orestes, Did you cut the whole area out ??? Being a bootlid I'd be tempted to cut the whole area out with your angle grinder and shape a replacement bit of metal to fit. Just take a six pack of beer with you to the local exhaust joint and see if they'll weld it in, exchanging them some after work refreshment for the effort :adrink: :adrink:

I'm thinking as it's the bootlid the contant slamming closed may fracture/crack the fiberglass filler. I do hope I'm wrong, but I consider filler just a product for leveling metal so it looks nice 'n' flat, not something to be used to fill holes etc.... (though I gotta admit that fiberglass stranded filler is bloody tough stuff ).

seeya,
Shane L.

If worst comes to worst, and it does crack i'll replace it with metal, but as we all know when welding new bits of metal in they become a great place for new rust to start so it's always best to try to do as little of that as possible. Either way though with the metal strip back on it should take the majority of the load rather then the place where the repairs were done or so I would hope

 

[WESTON89]

The windscreen repair section came from Classic Citroen Spares of Leeds.
He had both left and right in stock when I bought it, and they were £35 each.
plus post of course!!

Go on then, what car are you getting ready? I can just immagine your dad sat in the passenger side, gripping his seat, and gritting his teeth, as you put the L plates on one of the CX's you have....john s

I'm not getting this one ready, but our old Turbo 1 needs a replacement section on the driver's side. I've still got to see how this pan out, we're getting rid of some stuff and we've bought a Series 2 Turbo 2 Safari with a Citroen replacement engine thats only done 8,000 miles!!! So that would be nice to keep, but it might be a breaker. Plus I think the Safari might be pushing it on the size factor for me.

Dom

 

[WESTON89]

I suspect that when Dominic turns 17, he might go on his family's company insurance. I know there is a nice CX 22TRS "croisette" at his garage, which just might be for him to learn in. Good choice...not too much power, and it's a real citroen!
From my point of view, I think it's great that a young lad wants to keep these legends alive rather than the usual hot hatch.
john s

Fingers crossed, I'll be put on dad's trade policy, but it ain't cheap thats for sure!!

I do like the Croisette and its half about so it would be a good choice, but again I have to see what happens. Oh, and speaking of power, my brother's first car was a Visa GTi and then 2 BX 16vs!! :headbang:

But in my mind there's still no beater the old CX. All those memories of towing back cars from all over the place with the old 2500D Super Safari - no beating it.

 

[addo]

Looks like a good time to split the thread into original and RE: Shane's Paintjob for all the peripheral discussion... Try to keep the original one focused as a tech resource for the next person.

Did I mention Bondcrete?

 

[DoubleChevron]

Oh yeah ... The paintjob.

Last night I found my mirrors that I'd spray puttied the night before sanded all the way back to plastic leaving guide coat everywhere in the dots I'd given them a good rub back too. It appears the plastic must be quite soft, so paint chips actually dent the plastic...... Hmm, lots of little holes to fill with stopper to level the stone chips....

The first thing that struck me when I moved the car up onto the ramps to wet rub the drivers side doors was ........ Good grief the back of the car looks high with wheel spats in place. It's sitting about 1" to high. Using my highly accurate and very technical meaure I thought I better check the front height. So I jammed my verticle clenched fist in between the top of the tyre and innerguard ( very accurate and technical ), to find the front has about 1" of air space around my fist too ...... (for some reason, DS's, CX's, GS's, BX's etc... All appear to have exactly 1 clench fists space between the tyre and inner guard with the car on normal ride height ... Seriously go try it on your car ... You get pretty much exactly 1clenched fist in there !!).

It appears my car is stuck in "Intermediate High" as when I checked the height level switch inside the car, the intermediate high level didn't make the car go any higher.......... Just what I need, more bloody work.... Oh well, no biggie, most likely just a dodgy wiring connector on the back of the switch

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[farmerdave]

If worst comes to worst, and it does crack i'll replace it with metal, but as we all know when welding new bits of metal in they become a great place for new rust to start so it's always best to try to do as little of that as possible.

We do?
Welding new metal in is the only real way to repair rust, anything else is a bog job. Are cars made of bog? Not many.

Good paint on a properly prepared surface is a pretty good start, also fixing leaks and water traps, goldseal type rustproofing and seamsealer help too.
But it isn't really worthwhile if you have another boot lid.

 

[addo]

It rusts because people slap a wet rag on the hot weld, creating massive internal stresses and fine surface defects. Cooling a bead with the air gun is better. MIG may be annealed with a fine oxy tip; heat to dull cherry and allow to air dry. That allows slight file-finishing of a bead or run.

Regards, Adam.

 

[DoubleChevron]

Hi Guys,

I thoght I better post an update.

Wheel spats are ready for topcoat.

Mirrors are ready for priming then topcoat. Talk about a pain in the arse. All those dots you see are stone chips I had to fill with stopper .... Bloody tedious work !

Bumpers have been rubbed back, the few stone chips filled. They are far from perfect be good enough (they have a natural texture that hides a lot of imperfections). They are hard to do anything with unless you want to spend a horendous amount of time to rub them flat (ie: rub the texture out of the plastic).

Bootlid is ready... I still need to add the spoiler mounting points, and mount the cetral locking assembly.

These car as you can see are bloody low ... that's why I painted it up on the ramps. Not needing to do the doors this time I have life really easy.... I've removed the ramps, and hoses the roof, wall and floor of the shed out with a pressure washer to reduce dust. It's going to be bloody easy to access the roof for painting this time (the car laying on it's guts on the ground and all ).

Finally I can take a photo of the drips in the roof, I've put a smeer of stopper on them.... I'll mask it up tomorrow, and if it's a dry night spray it after dark (it's supposed to be 35 tomorrow, so no doubt it'll hit 40degreess... ie: far to hot for painting !!).

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[catshamlet]

And just when you think it's ready, that guy from quality control says, "this smells a bit strange, but primer tastes just like dead cat. "Loverly".


I take the p!ss, but it's an education reading this thread.



Mike.