Cleaning Up A Bit

Once you have heard the lark, known the swish of feet through hill-top grass and smelt the earth made ready for the seed, you are never again going to be fully happy about the cities and towns that man carries like a crippling weight upon his back.
Gwyn Thomas

I scraped off a lot of congealed muck from the protective bash-plate which was mounted beneath the gearbox. I gave it all a good going over with a wire brush to remove the worst of the rust and then slapped on a coat of rust-converter liquid with an old paintbrush.

It looks rather good today, seen here with the  mounting U-bolts that I bought a while back. It's not perfect but with a good coat of primer and a couple of finishing coats of paint it'll be dandy. At least the rust is gone.

I also had a go at tidying up some of the scruffy bodywork and sheet metal today. The back end was gummed up with rotten old stickers, most of which are not even relevant any longer. My kids did a mad turn with some leftover tins of enamel paint a few years ago when we took Marigold to a 3-day music festival on her final trip as a standard Westy. 

I attacked them with a wire brush and a sanding disc attached to an electric drill. Got some reasonable results but will still have to sandpaper, prime and prepare before even thinking about the top coat. This is where I am at the moment, still have some wicked holes in the engine lid to be filled. The authorities keep changing the registration number-plate requirements so we have a good pattern of holes to remove.

The steel floor on the driver's side (now the right-hand side!) is badly rusted and pitted, right through in parts. Oh dear. I gave it a good few strokes with the wire brush and laid a couple of coats of rust converter down on it. 

It's still looking pretty grim but at least I should have arrested the rust a little. I have picked up some glass-fibre matting and 2-part resin to fix these holes. I just don't have the welding skills to weld in a replacement metal part to this thin substrate, although I may rivet one in to add strength before I "glass it".

Thanks for stopping by
CooP