Sprint racer

[Kegsti66]

Nice use of the old door frame Kev.
I used one to repair my rotted out rear quarter window frames. It is good to be a womble .
Keep up the great work.

[junior]

Hi Tim. Please be so kind as to let on if you find someone good for 70's style numbers as I intend to number mine.

Of to get my tyres today and will ask the chaps there as they do production car racing and are good guys. Cars looking good

[KevJTD]

the bonnet tim wanted to remove the bracing from the underside to save a bit of weight, a nervy thing to do as I wondered for one how strong it'd be without the bracing and for another thing, how to get it all off without running through the skin!

angle grinder with a thin disc and it all peeled away fairly well in the end. bonnet is pretty floppy as I thought it might be but still good enough. as a precaution to getting cut finger ends when lifting it off I cleaned and flattened the edges then applied a bead of sealant, just the job

rear arches got a layer or two of stonegaurd to protect the welds and seams, watertight and over paintable if needed but ok as is to keep moisture out

rear panel needed a repair under each light fitting, thought i'd done with the welder...should have known better!

red stripe disappearing..

etch primed a few parts, front spoiler

rear arches

bonnet edge was taken back to bare because of a load of stone chips..

[KevJTD]

all bare/vulnerable areas have been etch primed now, tomorrow i'll sand the rest down and prime it all.

Saturday will be sanding the primer and then re-masking before painting on sunday....fingers crossed...

[Veesix75]

Thanks Kev great work as ever, thanks for doing the bonnet , means I can lift it off on my own now

Looking forward to seeing paint .

It's funny seeing its previous colours showing through red, then yellow, then white.

Not be long now, it will be back on my trailer before you know it....

[KevJTD]

everywhere sanded down and cleaned up, wings, bonnet, hatch and front spoiler laid out so I can paint everything in one go which is handy, we put the car in offset to one side of the workspace which has worked out well

all old masking removed and new applied

workshop had a much needed tidy up which cleared a bit more space but more importantly the clean floor will stop dust flying in the air as you walk around, plus the air-line dragging lifts dust up too. i'll try the old pros' trick when topcoat goes on of dampening the floor....

finally got around to putting the proper primer on

all went well apart from the bonnet and one wing, wing I think may be my own fault, trying to clean so many panels in one go, the bonnet has reacted where it had been painted before.
i'll strip both down tomorrow.

the screen surround i'll put some topcoat on then fit the wings before doing the rest, hopefully everything will go to plan tomorrow and sunday will be the big day to top the job off.

nice to see tim tonight too, hopefully our schedules are on track enough, although I thought I had less time than I do so not so much of a panic

[Veesix75]

We've got plenty of time Kev....

By coincidence I was in Lincolnshire again this afternoon meeting Joel from the forum . His mates build drag bikes, they looked awesome, plus a 1976 Ducati which I should have taken a photo of. Joel has a very solid and part rebuilt series 1 33, very nice.

Realised I was just 10 miles detour to Kevs unit so called in......as ever all is looking good.

Double figures weather temp this weeken so good timing

[KevJTD]

day was supposed to be a simple one, redo the bonnet and wing where the reaction had been, sand the primer down on the rest of the car, re-mask it all up, home early for tea

didn't quite pan out like that.

bonnet and wing reacted badly, not good.

i'd just sanded down the one side of the bonnet to prime it again as it was taking an age to sand back to bare with all the different layers, primer reacted along the feathered edge! nothing for it but to spend hours taking the whole thing back to metal, pain in the arse and hands!

the wing had reacted worse than before, consigned myself that it would have to wait until next week when i'd ask the paint rep for some kind of sealer with it being fibre-glass maybe causing the issues?

eventually got round to sanding the primer off the bodyshell which thankfully went very well, just a few spots to fill in with the stopper

with the bonnet sitting outside in the sun it dried off enough for me to try priming it again, mixed a bit extra to do the rear window frames and maybe try the wing again, just for a laugh

first thing going my way today, the wing turned out perfect! not a bit of an issue? beats me why it decided to play along at last but i'm not complaining!

as I was now actually regaining some momentum I got my new devillbis paintgun out and mixed up a bit of topcoat, to do the corners of the screens under where the wings will fit.

whilst at it I painted the front spoiler halves too, just to have something flat to judge the paintgun settings out. must say it has a much better flow pattern than the cheapo one I was using, £130 paintgun so not cheap in my book but apparently cheap by paintgun standards...

it seemed a bit odd to me the other day that the gap between the sill under the door and the bottom of the rear quarter is left open, all the rain dirt and water will just get blasted in there. so I decided to add a bead of seam sealer

all in all a long day, started off with loads of issues but by the end of it we're back on track to have some colour on it tomorrow.
didn't get it all masked up tonight like I was hoping but a full day tomorrow should see it looking brighter

[Veesix75]

Might have been that odd paint on the bonnet and wing perhaps ?

Thanks for sticking with it, the White looks just as we thought it would on the spoiler, as in 'white' .

[KevJTD]

a bit to do today so no Sunday morning lay in for me...

wing & bonnet to sand off

wings to fit

car and workshop floor to clean down

take off all the masking paper....put new paper on

final clean down then ready for the paint

first coat is just a dry one to give the surface some grip, after that I did a further 3 coats. should have enough material to polish up nicely

rear hatch

roof

bonnet

suicidal beetle!

back to work tomorrow so it'll have a few days to rest before I start to clean it up and put it back together, 65 hours work put into it so far Sunday to Sunday, feels like longer!

[Kegsti66]

Don't ever show my boss this thread Kev.
Monumental amount of work done in such short hours. Credit to you mate.
Why do insects do that to wet paint? I remember once (late 80's when new) repairing an XR3i and a wasp death dived the roof. It crawled towards the sunroof before dying. Got the body and legs off, but the wings stayed with the car, just polished in.
Top job .

[Veesix75]

It certainly looks good in the pics Kev, real work might feel like a rest after this week?

I hope the beetle didn't try and bury itself too deep in the paint

Colour looks good, nice and clean.

As ever thanks for the huge effort, really looking forward to seeing it finished now.

[Veesix75]

Keith.......the wings would clearly have made the xr3i even faster than the owner thought, when asked how fast it was, I bet he said "it flys....."

I know, I'll get me coat...

[KevJTD]

it has been a big effort, would love to have spent another few days getting every last detail 100% but in reality it's not that far off anyway so happy with the balance that we've struck

few bits to tidy up on weds afternoon then can start to put stuff back on, at least it hasn't been long enough to forget where stuff goes!

work will seem a bit more relaxed tomorrow, and a bit less of a point to it

[Kegsti66]

Keith.......the wings would clearly have made the xr3i even faster than the owner thought, when asked how fast it was, I bet he said "it flys....."

I know, I'll get me coat...

[KevJTD]

got the majority of it all flatted and polished up this afternoon, thankfully not so much dust this time in the paintwork so flatted out pretty well.

usual process of fine wet & dry followed by all the differing polishes and compounds, hard work but it's now smooth as well as shiny

Tim is coming round Saturday afternoon so we can sort a few things out, keen on seeing if he likes the colour ok...

[Veesix75]

Certainly looks good in the pics Kev. Looking forward to seeing it. The colour was the right choice as its more in keeping with the colours at the time it was made. See you sat.

[PETROLHEAD]

Just to jump back a few posts, to the extra cage bar now required for the harness restraint points, this is the bar i helped Tom add to the BLS 33 race car.

The key requirements, to position it in the best "middle ground" according to both the regs and restraint device specifications, was to have the straps exiting the seat at an angle of 20 degrees downward, and narrowing, at an angle i cant currently remember, but if the position of the bar has to be sited significantly far away from the seat, let the belts cross, therefore retaining the harness design angles.

This is what we came up with, and you'll also see an extra downward brace that Tom wanted to add to provide an extra footing, anchored at the rear of the tunnel.

[Veesix75]

Busy afternoon, we met Kev just after 2pm and aimed to get the a home today.

Forgot how time consuming fitting all the trim and bits is, we got most done , Windows, doors, lights hatch , bonnet etc all back on .

It as dark when we loaded on the trailer and just as we pushed their outside it slashed down with rain on us

Anyhow, great job by Kev as usual, we didn't set out for concours, just tidy and shiney and the sprint looks significantly better with its new paint so a job well done.

A couple of pics

Getting there...

Ready to go home....

[Kegsti66]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N4t51IVQ5M

[KevJTD]

lol, I fell like "young mr grace" at times mate I can tell you

really pleased that it got back to tim in good time for the finishing touches to be done in time for the upcoming racing

we did get a proper soaking loading it up though, hope it's now all shiny again

[Marlow Sud]

Lovely job Kev. Now did you hide some lead bricks in it like I asked you? Slow him up a bit.

All the best,
Simon

[Veesix75]

Lead bricks it needed, I've eaten far too many pies during the winter months.....

[Veesix75]

So, first 2 races of the season booked in.

Pre 83 series at Cadwell on the 14th and 15th of May

Hscc 70's road sports at Silverstone on the 21st of May.

[Kegsti66]

Good luck Tim, I will try and get along if possible.

[Marlow Sud]

Good luck at Cadwell Tim. Show em what a Sud Sprint can do.

All the best,
Simon

[rsfruitbat]

All the best.

That new paint job has got to be worth at least 10BHP!

rsfruitbat

[KevJTD]

Rob & myself will be at cadwell of course mate, looking forward to it

[Veesix75]

Thanks chaps, just got to get the numbers back on it and then we're ready.

[Veesix75]

Timetable for the weekend, I'm in pre 83 / pre 66
combined.https://barc.blob.core.windows.net/barc ... -0v1an.pdf