And finally, Wookie's 82 begins !

MFP-Joe wrote:

Hi Guy,
I took the time today to read through your entire build report. I'm extremely impressed by your craftsmanship and your design ideas. I particularly liked the design of the side covers. Great work on the technology, modifications, and design! This will be a real showstopper. Go on this way, ...and i`ll repeat: Phantastic work!

 

Thanks Joe, high praise indeed. There are a lot of firsts for me in this build (using a metal lathe, working with plastics etc) I think in the main it comes down to having an idea and going for it without being scared of it going wrong (most mistakes are recoverable)

Yes, Guy, I completely agree with you, you just have to tackle the things you have in mind, the rest is mostly learning by doing, whenever i´ve had some ideas, i just ry to find a solution to fix it.

So for the last couple of days I have been pushing on with getting ready for paint (was going to di it last but everything else has taken so long the weather will be changing soon and it will be too cold) one job I have been putting off was the "manual tap" conversion which is now done. Tomorrow will be POR15 time. I know there are differing views on tank liners but with the amount of welding I have done with the petcock and the filler there is a possibility of a "pin hole" in a weld somewhere and I really don't want the paint to start pickling from fuel vapour 

Hey Guy,
Forgive me for commenting if you are well versed on the POR-15 coating process, but just wanted to share a thought on how to get good results, in case you haven't done it before.

It goes without saying that you want to derust to the extent possible.  Swish around the paint, and coat all surfaces, focusing on the backbone hump and top, then dump out the excess.  Thing I've noticed, is that even after dumping out all you can, there will still be a good bit of paint remaining in the tank.  What I do is keep the puddle moving, until it hardens up.  It will take about 30 minutes.  During that time, you can get two extra coats on the metal.  The first coat will start to harden, so when you go back over it, you will deposit another layer.  In the end, you will have a really nice thick coating inside the tank.  Por-15 is good stuff!  

Thanks Ed, I’m a POR virgin so this advice is pure gold

Well "it's happening" !! the POR-15 seems to have gone OK best I can tell (thanks Ed) now the primer is on so over the next couple of days I hope the "paint gods" are smiling on me. Never done multiple colours or used "water-based" paint (only ever used cellulose) so who knows what will happen ?