Raptor Liner on the Bonnet & Tail Light Repair - Roundtail Restoration

A few productive visits including fixing the tail light and getting Raptor Liner in the front wheel arches. The video:

In addition to those two things, I also wanted to get the bulkhead cleaned up and in Raptor Liner as well, but I didn't quite make that goal.

On the bonnet, I needed to get it sanded down in preparation for epoxy application. While I had done this several months ago during bonnet repairs, it wasn't ready for paint and it needed another go through. Not much to it - just hitting all of the areas with various scuffing techniques (palm sander, sand paper, red scuff pad, etc.) trying to scuff it up as best as I could. Some spots were tough to get to, like under the wheel arches, but I knew that going in. I had used a paint brush to get the more inaccessible surfaces where I knew the spray gun just wouldn't reach.

Almost ready. You can see the epoxy around the wheel arch area.

Slightly closer view.

With that done, I decided to move on to fixing the rear tail light area. If you remember, this area took a pretty good shot at some point and my initial repair, while required, did not adequately address the proper fitment of the actual tail light. In short, the area where the tail light bolts up should be very flat and instead, mine "drooped" towards the bottom. This would result in a huge gap between the metal of the car and the tail light assembly itself. Not acceptable. So, I cut a large slit in the metal and then bent that portion of the wing out so that the tail light assembly would fit flush to it, as I discussed last time.

Refresher. No, I didn't need the red plastic, but it looked cool!

Once I got that fitting properly, it was time to weld in a patch or three. I did it in little sections to make the repair easier since that area has some rather complex curves.

First patch tacked in. Still some gaps to fill around it.

Second patch fit in there.

And tacked in.

Final patch set in.

And it all welded in. Not pretty, but effective.

Same shot, different angle.

With that done, it was time to shift back to the bonnet, which I got in two wet coats of epoxy primer. Easily the most difficult time of painting I've had yet given all of the hard to reach areas. But, I was happy with my coverage when it was all said and done.

After the first coat. You may seem some red showing through, especially around the wheel arches.

A closeup in the headlight bucket. Hard area to get at, even shooting through the headlight hole because of the angle.

Another first-coat shot, the red showing through a bit more obviously.

Armed with the lessons learned from the first coat, I was able to get the second coat on with total coverage except for some areas right under the hard curve in the nose (I figured this out on the next visit).

Two wet coats!

That was it for that visit, but I got back for another quick weekday visit to get the seam sealer on there. Not much in this case; only in the wheel arches and where the wing welded to the bonnet lid.

Like with the body, I did an application with the caulking gun followed 30 minutes later (following instructions for it being paintable) by an application with the paintable seam sealer to ensure a good water-tight seal.

Application in wheel arch with the caulking gun.

And with the paintable stuff.

Wing-to-lid application with the gun.

And followed by the paint brush.

I also got some fiberglass filler on the few repair spots that I missed. All of this was in preparation for the weekend so I could get Raptor Liner on there without missing any cure times.

The Raptor Liner went on as good as it always has, applying two coats with about an hour in between coats.

Driver's side.

Passenger's side.

I also decided to get filler up in the nose. There were a bunch of dings and pits from using the stud welder up there. While I wasn't as concerned for a straight, smooth finish like I was on the other side, I didn't want it to look too awful either, so I used filler to help me out.

Filler after sanding. You can see some of the holes for the TRIUMPH letters.

Somewhere in there I also cleaned up the weld repair to the tail light area. This will require filler work but, since it was now in bare metal, I need to get it in epoxy first.

In the last few minutes of the visit, I did take a sanding block to the driver's side rear wing to see what I was in for.

Yup, as bad as I suspected. But not really any worse than the other side.

That was about it. Work continues!