1966 Mk1 Cortina GT

4 minute(s) of a 210 minute read

He thought he was being waterboarded!

The high build primer was a lot easier to use than I thought, the epoxy base I started with was thick and even after thinning it was

These were taken just after spraying so they look a lot better but I was happy with the results

To get the outside of the body in high build came with a new challenge, to date I had been spraying the odd panel or side at most. As you can see in previous posts the Cortina's fit is "snug" in the garage even with my toolbox wheeled outside I can only just get around it if it's positioned correctly.

An out of the box or extension of the box itself came in the form of an awning I'd purchased years ago for the ladies to use whilst we watched Le Mans at home. Conveniently as wide as the garage and tall enough to avoid the up and over door - it even has 3 sides so sealing it to the garage was easier. It looks ramshackle and it was but with the tarpaulin applied correctly it was resistant to wind, rain, outside contaminants and overspray from inside. Plus it looked like a police investigation tent was on our driveway which distracted the neighbours!

This did however create some issues I hadn't considered, the frames I'd made had been designed to the height of the Cortina when its on axle stands at their base setting making spraying the sills easier then made spraying the roof harder because the up and over door restricted head height by 200mm which lead to runs. Then the width of the garage at the door created a bottle neck that I caught the hose on the sill and also got to close when spraying making runs.

The point of this was to learn - the only failure from this would be not to learn fro my mistakes, the benefit is that it's only primer. It just needed more flatting.

There is something therapeutic about flatting primer, I'd put some music on and just wet sand a panel - before you know it you're an album down and the panel looks amazing!