Exterior

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2007 Walter Mitty

Exterior

Paint

A great amount of time was spent getting the body straight as possible.  Viper Red was chosen because it is about as pure of a red as can be purchased.  This stuff is R-E-D, and very quickly I found out that pure red paint is not cheap.  Two gallons of paint were purchased, one in 'single stage' for the inside, fenderwells and underneath the body;  the other gallon was 'base' for all outside body panels.  Finally a gallon of clear and all the other hardeners and activators were purchased.

All body panels were painted separately.  This ensured a very high quality finish, but made things very tough to put back together.  Extra care has to be taken not to scratch or ding panels as they are bolted back on the body shell.  However, to get the best finish and overall quality, painting all separate is the way to go.

After the car had been painted and assembled, it was given time to cure and then the process of wet sanding began.  To give the surface a very smooth finish, it took many hours of careful wet sanding.  To give clear coat a glass-like finish, it must be sanded with very fine sandpaper.  The end result turns the car to a very dull finish

The dull finish is then buffed until it is 'right'.  It takes a lot of care because if not careful one can go through the paint all the way to primer and it makes for a bad day if that happens.  Several compounds were used, mainly the ones made by 3M.  Machine glaze was applied to bring a even brighter finish out and the whole thing was worked with a special swirl remover.  All these compounds are applied with their corresponding special pads.

After several coats of wax, the result is a very bright red.  It is not 'original', but if red is going to be used, why not do it right?

Front Grille

The front grille surround was in very poor shape.  The thin finisher trim piece that goes below the grille was also rotten.  So, new ones were made from aluminium.  Fortunately the eggcrate grille was still good, but needed sandblasting and painting. 

The original medallion on the TR6 was the cloisonné version.  Unfortunately it was damaged.  After a long search, I was able to find a new one that had never been used.  These little critters are as rare as hen's teeth. 

The medallion was attached to the grille in a different way than 'original' because I wanted to give the medallion a 'floating' look.  This was done by removing the bright trim piece and mounting the medallion directly to the grille.

Spoiler

1972 TR6's did not come with the plastic spoiler as attached to later model cars.  However, I did like the look of the spoiler - it hides the front sway bar nicely.  I was able to find a used one on eBay, and with a little detail work was able to make it look good as new. 

Bumpers

The original bumpers were pretty bad.  The chrome was  peeling off and badly pitted.  Also, there were quite a few dings.  The worse thing about these bumpers is they are heavy.  Way too heavy. 

So, new ones were made.  The new bumpers fitted are hand made from a very lightweight material (Unobtanium/BR547) used in the aerospace industry.  A good friend of mine was able to get some scrap pieces for me.  The color turned out to be almost the color of the Panasports, and with some clear coat on them they look awesome.  They are extremely light; they weight about 4 pounds each.  The downside: they were a bitch to weld.

Convertible Top

I wanted a top that would compliment the car.  Vinyl is just not my idea of cool, so I had a custom made top from Stayfast canvas material.  The top was hand made in England with a twist:  no side windows.  At first I was concerned for outward visibility when the top is up.  However, after a little  getting used to it, this is not a problem.

The rear window remains and it has a zipper around it.  This makes it nice to unzip and fold.  Finally by zipping the window out of the way and the lack of side windows the entire folding process is easier to perform. 

The top's frame was completely disassembled and primed and painted with black paint.  All fasteners were replaced with new ones made of stainless steel.

Details, Details...

The rear of the car took a long time to buff out and get the paint perfect.  Because of that and the expense of red paint, I really had a problem covering it up with black paint.  So, the rear of the TR6 is left body colour.  I think it gives it a rather unique look.

The rockers were also left body color, instead of painted black.  However, to protect them from stones and the abrasiveness of sand a 3M clear tape was applied.  This stuff can be bought by the foot, and when properly applied it will protect the paint very nicely.

The windshield frame was painted body color also.  On early TR6's, the frame was the same as the body, instead of being black.  I thought that since there are more black windshield frames around, why not make this one body colour...

 

 
 
 

Gallery 1

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