Bodywork Part 1 2018

Panopticon Project. Land Rover Series 2a SWB 1970 Restoration Project. Bodywork and seat box.

Now started one of the hardest parts of the build. The Stripping, priming and spraying of the bodywork.

I have never painted anything this large or important before and never use this paint. After a heavy pressure wash to remove years of grime from under the wings and about a half inch thick layer of grease under the seatbox, every panel was painstakingly stripped of paint with chemicals to avoid damaging the metal. This took hours and I got through several pairs of industrial gloves and plenty of burns on my arms.

Then the panels were washed again before a light sand with an orbital and a layer or two of etch primer.

Washed and sanded to remove the worst of the paint. The end panels were rotten through so binned.

New end panels and back bar from YRM Soloutions and Paddocks.

Everything was then etch primed in grey.

Riveting aluminium panels together is one of the most satisfying jobs of all.

I then wax-oiled the underside. Aluminium still corrodes. Afterwards it was wrapped in thermal sound-prooffing on the outside, I prefer the bare metal look inside the cab.

All outer body panels went through an incredibly arduous process of manually stripping the paint, grime and oxide off. This took hours to do every panel. Then they had to be washed to remove paint stripper and a light sand to prepare the metal.

Etch primed. This binds the paint to the metal and allows you to see and problems before wasting top coat. I didn’t use filler primer on the body work. I want to see the texture of the spot rivets and had to save time and money.

Doors and wings hanging up to dry in the paint room. I bought brand new doors as, I didn’t think it worth it to repair the others. I bit of a shame that the original metal has now gone to scrap but can’t get too emotional about these things.

After etch-priming and rubbing down (sometimes re-priming) I began the topcoat. Disassembling the wings allowed me to do a better job and a more thorough ‘factory’ job.

Luckily I have access to a professional paint room and spray equipment. Kudus to the people doing car painting in their garage or even driveway!

Design. Make. Explore.

Bodywork Part 1 2018