6/5/2024

Started the week with more paint stripping and a coat of red primer on the aluminium face of the trapdoor.  I also gave the cylinder head lifiting ring another coat of primer and found a new bolt for it, having lost the nut from the original.  I collected the three remaining droplight panes of glass from K.W. Glass on Monday evening.  On Tuesday I undercoated the panel just to the rear of the drivers, the rounded top of the dash and the trap door.  On wednesday I assembled one of the droplight frames with a new pane of glass and had a problem with the bracket breaking away at one end of the lower horizontal, I probably wasn’t careful enough riveting the corner.  At this point there was little I could do as the glazing silicone was already setting so I strapped it up in the right position and filled the hole with silicone in the hope it would all set in the right position – which it appears has worked ok.  Had I glazed it using rubber as per the original method I might have been able to repair it, however that seems unlikely.  I started to polish the newly-painted switch cover with a view to cutting back the gloss a little but discovered some flaws in the paint so repainted the sides.  I rubbed down the trapdoor and gave it another coat of undercoat, another rub down then some cherry undercoat and its ready for top coat.  I applied chrome wrap to the droplight frame I had assembled earlier in the week, with the usual difficulties.  I chipped one of the otherwise-perfect long pieces, much to my annoyance.  I filled the chip with chrome paint from a marker pen but I may replace the whole piece if there is any wrap left over.