Steve’s ’61 – More panels in colour!

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last update on progress at Creative Coachwork, since then the team have been slaving away getting the bolt on panels straight and into paint.
First up was the deck lid. Although the decklid was rust and dent free, I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to weld up the number plate holes. Why? Surely I’ll need a number pate? Well they weren’t drilled straight and one was slightly ovaled out, so they had to go. Welding them up meant Simon had a bit more prep to do than if I’d left them in, but I think he secretly loves it when I create unnecessary work for him! I think I’m a perfectionist, but I look perfectly normal compared to Simon. The man is obsessed! And I applaud him for that! There are too many bodgers looking to cut corners in this world.

With the decklid in Indigo blue it was time to move onto the doors, these had already been blocked by Simon when fitted to the ‘shell. So they only needed the insides doing at this stage, it’s a nasty fiddly job, but they need to be right as after the dash board they’re the bit you see most while actually driving your car.

And lastly for this instalment, there’s the wings. If you can remember back (a long time) I have Day moulding glass-fibre wings. For the money you can’t go wrong with these, the fit is excellent and all four come in at under the price of one NOS steel wing. However the glass-fibre matting is a bit rough on the inside, so Simon set to work smoothing the rough texture, first by sanding down and then by adding a light coating of smooth stone chip. They’re not perfectly smooth and that was never the intention but they’re a damn sight better than when they left the moulds. With the work completed on the inside of the wings, it was onto the outside. As I said, these are a good fit straight out of the box, but Simon still managed to improve them as in a couple of areas the gel coat had shrunk leaving a couple of slight flat spots.

So all that leaves is the bonnet. Oh and colour sanding the entire car! The end is definitely in sight. Stay tuned and I’ll keep you up to speed.

Massive thanks as ever to Alan, Chris, Phil, Simon and Freddy at Creative Coachworks for constantly going over and about my expectations

To contact Creative Coachworks call 01939 235 707 visit creativecoachworks.co.uk  or check them out on Facebook http://en-gb.facebook.com/creativecoachworks