I've spent the last eleven hours working on my Uno Turbo. And specifically, fixing the dents/scratches etc. in the replacement door that I got last Saturday, and preparing the front-left wing/door pillar/sill for painting (at last, three years after it first became damaged!)
The Toyo Series motorsport schedule is proving a real challenge as the next event is tomorrow - three weeks after the last. I've had four days off work since then. One day spent entirely at banks and insurance companies, trying to sort out a deal for my planned new business. Two of those days have been spent buying the Stilo and getting the replacement door (both separate trips to Auckland) leaving today, Saturday, (after I got home from work at 11:30AM) for all the panel and paint work. Ridiculous! Of course the Uno Turbo hasn't even been started up in three weeks...
It took five or six goes, and hours of sanding, to bog out all the dents in the door (which, of course, looked perfect to start with). Uno doors take a real hammering! I counted eleven dents, mostly around the middle ridge, but with two under the window and four along the bottom. Fixing that lot has taken about five hours. I hoped to prepare the door frame etc. as well, but there just weren't any more hours... I had to draw the line somewhere, so at 9:10PM the compressor was fired into life and the first coat of primer went on. And after about 10 minutes, a second 'dust' coat, precisely the wrong order to do things in but I was having problems with surface texture showing through!
Then the heat gun came out (temp is a relatively warm 11 degrees tonight), so that the primer assumed a matt finish (about 10 minutes). Usually I leave the primer a day or two, then wet-sand - but obviously that's not an option these days so I mixed up the topcoat and on it went. A first light coat, 15 minutes, and a second, heavier coat.
Things were looking great until a large moth decided to have a thrash around, making a 5cm circle of brown dust. As I watched it soak into the paint, and realised it would be impossible to polish out, I thought I might apply some more paint. So I did.
Of course that extra paint has now turned into a huge sag (even though the panel is nearly horizontal!)
Nevertheless the gun is now cleaned out, so the painting is 'finished' (well, sort-of, probably until after Christmas. Oh that's right, I don't get holidays because I'm 'part-time' (only 45 hours per week). Hell, probably until this time next year...)
To get to the event tomorrow I have to leave at 7:15AM, quite a challenge when I worked until 3AM last night on a video editing project due tomorrow also, but there is another minor detail - the Uno needs putting together! Lights, door, window, etc. :bang:
And so it is that now, 10:30PM, I decided to take a dinner break - to give that paint a chance to harden. The tin says 24 hours, or 6 hours if baked in a paint oven. Six hours?! How about one-and-a-half and a blast with a hot air gun?
I can't help but think that my old Toyo-series arch-rival jjhepburn has things truly sorted out when it comes to his competition vehicle... we painted it almost two years ago when I gave up my old full-time job, and it's needed no panelwork since - he just gets in it and goes. He's watching the rugby on TV tonight... as I'm out in my garage and, he'll beat me in the hillclimb tomorrow in that bloody Uno 60 - you just see! At least I shall have one excuse - it's my first hillclimb, as I've never made it to this event in the past (the Uno Turbo has been broken for two years).
Of course, it's the first hillclimb for James as well!
-Alex
The Toyo Series motorsport schedule is proving a real challenge as the next event is tomorrow - three weeks after the last. I've had four days off work since then. One day spent entirely at banks and insurance companies, trying to sort out a deal for my planned new business. Two of those days have been spent buying the Stilo and getting the replacement door (both separate trips to Auckland) leaving today, Saturday, (after I got home from work at 11:30AM) for all the panel and paint work. Ridiculous! Of course the Uno Turbo hasn't even been started up in three weeks...
It took five or six goes, and hours of sanding, to bog out all the dents in the door (which, of course, looked perfect to start with). Uno doors take a real hammering! I counted eleven dents, mostly around the middle ridge, but with two under the window and four along the bottom. Fixing that lot has taken about five hours. I hoped to prepare the door frame etc. as well, but there just weren't any more hours... I had to draw the line somewhere, so at 9:10PM the compressor was fired into life and the first coat of primer went on. And after about 10 minutes, a second 'dust' coat, precisely the wrong order to do things in but I was having problems with surface texture showing through!
Then the heat gun came out (temp is a relatively warm 11 degrees tonight), so that the primer assumed a matt finish (about 10 minutes). Usually I leave the primer a day or two, then wet-sand - but obviously that's not an option these days
so I mixed up the topcoat and on it went. A first light coat, 15 minutes, and a second, heavier coat.Things were looking great until a large moth decided to have a thrash around, making a 5cm circle of brown dust. As I watched it soak into the paint, and realised it would be impossible to polish out, I thought I might apply some more paint. So I did.
Of course that extra paint has now turned into a huge sag (even though the panel is nearly horizontal!)
Nevertheless the gun is now cleaned out, so the painting is 'finished' (well, sort-of, probably until after Christmas. Oh that's right, I don't get holidays because I'm 'part-time' (only 45 hours per week). Hell, probably until this time next year...
)To get to the event tomorrow I have to leave at 7:15AM, quite a challenge when I worked until 3AM last night on a video editing project due tomorrow also, but there is another minor detail - the Uno needs putting together! Lights, door, window, etc. :bang:
And so it is that now, 10:30PM, I decided to take a dinner break - to give that paint a chance to harden. The tin says 24 hours, or 6 hours if baked in a paint oven. Six hours?! How about one-and-a-half and a blast with a hot air gun?
I can't help but think that my old Toyo-series arch-rival jjhepburn has things truly sorted out when it comes to his competition vehicle... we painted it almost two years ago when I gave up my old full-time job, and it's needed no panelwork since - he just gets in it and goes. He's watching the rugby on TV tonight... as I'm out in my garage
and, he'll beat me in the hillclimb tomorrow in that bloody Uno 60 - you just see! At least I shall have one excuse - it's my first hillclimb, as I've never made it to this event in the past (the Uno Turbo has been broken for two years).Of course, it's the first hillclimb for James as well!
-Alex
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