Triumph Spitfire Paint #10 - Second Coat of Raptor and Some More Door Work

You know me...getting behind again...

The first order of business was to get a second coat of Raptor Liner on the underneath.  So, following UPol's recommendation covered in the last post,  I scuffed it up and shot a second coat. As you would expect, I didn't need to use as much so the first (and only) batch of 500ml of tinted liner was enough to get it all.

Guess I should start paying myself now...

Closeup with a 1" chip brush to try and show the texture. This is what I was looking for.

My OCD kicked in. Just needed to see what a new grommet and the liner looked like. Perfect!

That done, I shifted my attention to the doors. There was paint prep to do and repairs on the driver's side check strap retainers as well as cracks to repair around the window channels and whatever else I may find.

A crack around the window frame support. Was able to weld this up, obviously.

Example of some cracks around the window channel.

Some more cracks.

In the end, I changed my plan from doing body work to just going ahead and stripping down the door to bare metal with my paint stripper wheels. Then, I will effect the repairs that require welding. Finally, I'll hit them with epoxy primer before I do any bodywork.

Found a few pinholes in the passenger's door after stripping.

Ahhh, bare metal.

Being a weeknight, that was about all I got done, but I was back at it first thing Saturday morning to conduct the door repairs and paint prep, as well as prepping the boot lid.

I got right at fixing all of the cracks in the window channels. I drilled a very small hole at the crack ends to stop them from spreading (even if you weld it, if you don't do this the cracks will continue to propagate).

Cracks around the door handle.

Crack around the window channel.

Partially welded up.

Welded up and mostly ground smooth.

After getting cracks welded up, I moved on to fabricating new door check strap retainers. I had a damaged one to use as a template and, having my trusty Dremel tool with me this time, I was able to cut out some good parts.

Matching with a grinder after rough cutting.

Weld-through primered in preparation for welding.

I used the original as a guide to make sure they were correct and got them welded in. Luckily, the holes lined up so I didn't have to do any manual persuasion.

From the outside.

From the inside. Welding upside down and mostly blind...not too bad.

Once all of the repairs were done, I got both doors hit with 80-grit sandpaper on the DA and red Scotchbrite everywhere else in preparation for epoxy primer. For the inside of the doors, I hit it with some of the POR-15 metal prep to convert any rust. That stuff and the epoxy primer don't get along that well, but I don't expect to be able to get much epoxy in those areas, so I wanted some insurance against future rust.

With the doors ready, I moved on to the boot lid, removing all of the hardware and framing and then stripping it most of the way down to bare metal. Of course, this made an absolute mess (which I spent hours cleaning up today) but it's in really good shape and doesn't look like it will require any repairs (though does need some metalwork).

The dealership sticker was still there. I tried, but couldn't save it.

And that was about it. I did get over there today but most of my time was spent cleaning up all of the paint dust. I also got the car transferred back to the sawhorses in preparation for body work. Next visit should see the boot lid and doors in epoxy. Cheers!