Boot Work - Triumph Spitfire Restoration

When we last left our intrepid hero, he was contemplating life, having burned through some build primer and exposing bare metal on the passenger's door. After sleeping on it, and knowing the correct answer deep down, he made the decision to epoxy the door with two wet coats...again. To the video:

Showing some of the bare metal (burned through) spots at the bottom.

To minimize the chance of doing that again, I worked the bare spots with some light hammering to try to recess them just a bit. However, I couldn't really feel the the spots were high (or low), so I'm not sure if I did any good, but I did know that if I didn't feel it to start with, I didn't want to feel it afterward, so light tapping was all I did!

I also continued work on the boot lid. I had left a few obvious spots at the end of last visit where I knew I had to put on a bit more body filler. All in all, the boot lid didn't go so well. I'm not sure if it was me working it too much or if it was really in that bad of shape. Some of both, probably.

Close-up of low spots requiring more filler (the darker streaks in the big white circle).

Eventually, I got it to the point where I was happy with it and got some more Evercoat Rage Ultra filler on it, smoothing it down in preparation for another two coats of epoxy.

Boot lid with filler on it, ready for sanding. Notice most of it is across the top, not-so-flat portion.

I think given the large piece of flat metal was what got me as it was easy to warp slightly and I ended up chasing my tail a lot. The boot lid was damaged, so I know I didn't cause all of my problems, but again, I'm not sure that I didn't contribute.

I blocked out the boot lid and prepped it and the door with two cleaning sprays of Wax & Grease Remover for their coats of epoxy and got those on towards the end of the visit.

Ready for epoxy.

Light first coat of epoxy to minimize cratering. You can see the filler showing through on the boot lid.

While I was waiting for prep steps, paint to dry, and what-not, I pulled out the driver's side door and started the hammer and dolly work on that. The forward portion of the door is in ok shape, but the back is "meh". During my door repairs, I had to fill some holes the PO (Previous Owner) put in to use a slide hammer (no, I won't use one of those) and this area was in rough shape. There's also a two sizeable creases in the door, one running at an angle to the curve at the top of the door, making it a tougher repair.

After scuffing the epoxy, exposing the highs and lows. It should all be a light(er) gray.

The lightning bolt of the bad crease in the light. Ugh.

That was about it for that night (Thursday) and I was right back Saturday morning (yes, I had another breakfast sandwich) to continue.

Now that the epoxy was dry on both the door and the boot lid, I could hit the door with another several coats of build primer and the boot lid with the next step of polyester glazing putty. First up, the door.

In between visits, I bought a 2.2mm spray tip for the spray gun as I wasn't really happy with how the 1.8mm tip was laying the paint out. I just wasn't getting a very wide fan pattern and I thought the larger tip would do better. The SPI Tech Manual does call for a 1.8mm to 2.5mm tip, so I was running at the small end and figured running it right up the middle would be good. It went on much better - four coats of build primer and I put the door aside for "future me" work.

2.2mm tip on left. You can probably see the size difference between it and the 1.8mm on right.

I swapped between working the boot lid in polyester glazing putty and, while waiting for that to cure, metal working the driver's door. Lots of block sanding on the boot lid and lots of hammering on the door.

The final condition of the door, ready for another round of epoxy.

Final cleaning prep on the boot lid with W&G Remover and I hit it with two more coats of epoxy. Happy with the way the epoxy went on this time as I had little to no cratering, so I made sure to record the gun settings for that round, as I do for all of them (and you should, too).
I left with the door still needing some work, so I didn't coat it in epoxy. I'll focus on finishing the metal work on that during my next visit and also get the boot lid in build primer and start blocking that out to see how it comes out. Until next time...