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Body Restoration

The bodyshell was stripped back to the bare metal after removing everything that could be removed & this was how it looked  on arrival  at  the body shop for repair & repainting. Removing the wheels & suspension created its own problem as it was not now possible to move the car around. I fabricated a trolley  to enable the body to be moved to &  around the paint shop & after  painting around my garage to complete the restoration. Two fixed rear wheels &  two caravan jockey wheels at the front welded to some box section steel tubing made the trolley which made moving the shell easyThe labour cost of these skilled  professionals  dismantling my car & then removing 30 years of paint & repaint plus all other repairs etc would have been prohibitive so I decided to  undertake this myself. The actual removal of the paint was not that difficult but it was possibly the worst  task one could  imagine. It took me about three weeks & about 25 litres of Nitromors Automotive paint stripper together with a mountain of wire wool  & synthetic rubbing pads. It is a most unpleasant,  labour intensive job that needs to be done with care & great thoroughness  to make sure there are no bits of paint or under body seal remaining. The actual chemical stripper produces nauseous fumes & causes irritation of eyes & nasal linings as well as getting into even the very slightest little cut. Protective gloves &  eyewear are essential. After reaching this stage various parts of the car that were extremely difficult if not impossible to remove  e.g. the fibreglass floor sections were protected  with thick cardboard & duct tape The complete underside, wheel arches & engine bay were bead  blasted to remove any remaining rust, chassis paint, underseal &  road dirt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the start of  the body restoration & the blessing of aluminium is obvious from  just comparing the bonnet with the boot. The aluminium bonnet is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship but is welded to a steel frame which had small areas of superficial corrosion  that required attention.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boot lid by comparison was a complete rusty  mess. There was some bubbling of the paint on the trailing edge which turned out to be very severe when the many layers of paint were eventually  removed.    

Both doors required  new bottom sections welding in place as the lower sections of both doors were really badly corroded. Over time the drain holes  at the bottom of each door had become blocked with deposits that had accumulated over time & the moisture  held next to the relatively unprotected metal causes these rust  problems. The rust was really not that bad but these unexpected repairs  meant an increase in both time & cost to restore these areas. Replacement of this rusty metal meant the fabrication of new  repair pieces & the extremely skilful  welding plus lead loading  to finish the metalwork. Replacement pieces in complicated shaped areas was accomplished by welding  smaller sections in place to ensure the correct  shapes were maintained. The removal of larger amounts of rusty metal at one go  makes it difficult to achieve  the original contours &  compromises the shape of the final result. These were hand made cars & they  differ side to side by varying amounts so the repairs & reinstatement are better achieved in a similar manner.

At this stage the body is ready for the first coat of primer. The yellow primer is  an acid etch primer which attaches  to bare metal by chemically bonding to it & the grey primer is the more common primer surface that is used  prior to receiving the colour. There is a tremendous amount of labour intensive work involved in the repeated flatting & rubbing  down all  of which is done by hand  

I have no idea of the number of colour coats but the car has been in the paint shop since November 6th 2001.I was very interested that the doorjambs, sill, windscreen rebates, headlamps surrounds were all given a coat  of paint before the whole painting process began as these areas are difficult to coat properly when applying the surface finish.

First time for a long time on  its own suspension & wheels with  Ferrari technician Derek (Chalky) White 

The ride height of the car with no engine or interior, glass is clearly increased  on these two pics. When the engine & gearbox was installed here was an immediate reduction about  20mm & this  continued to reduce as the various components were refitted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comparison of the ride heights above & below. almost fully finished; less doors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various body angle shots to illustrate the  beautiful yet complex curves, lines  & subtle shapes in the Pininfarina design. Interestingly  the GTC4 car was considered an ugly car at its Geneva debut 

 

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