Rebody Oh no. It's not another 507 Rebody. Oh yes it is!

[Duncodin]

Here you go @Duncodin. The bolts go through the door edges as show here. I got the tip from another coupe builder. The rivet nuts are in the door as the image shows. Its rough on the inside at the moment but who cares as you can't see it. I have the rivet nuts countersunk more than shows here so they are flush.

The bolts look better than the image. When the doors are painted and the bolts polished up they will look good imo. I'm going tonrun some black or chrome L shape trim to cover the gap between door and skin. They gaps close more than shown here as just lose fitting for now

My idea for the doors was to bolt 'L' brackets to the door. Problem with that idea is that the door gap at the back edge is quite close and skin is quite thin so not enough meat to recess the screw head.

So I cut a small sheet of GRP and bonded it to the inside to make the skin thicker at that point

Head sits below the surface.

Once that's smoothed over I'll find a little rubber disk to stick over the screw head. Should look fine once it's painted with easy access to get the door skin off and work on the handle when necessary.

I've prepared for 6 brackets per door but after 6 on the driver's side I decided that was overkill so passenger side is only 4. Feels really solid though.

 

[Duncodin]

I paid my little 'fakerrari' a visit today to give my seal of approval before the final stages of prep and then paint (and to pay the bodyshop quite a lot of money).
They have addressed all of the issues with the bodywork and have overcome a couple much better than I thought they could TBH.
It looks a complete mess now, but as the old saying goes "you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs".

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Your car really is going to look nice. @Pond Shut lines etc are just right.

I'm sure all the stress will have been worth it when it's done

I'm doing mine just a little bit cheaper.

Rattle Can Sunday. (Is that a real day? It should be) Shake, Shake,

Laying it on real thick. Give it a week or so then I'll flatten it with wet&dry then polish and jobs a good n.

Front clam shell - including tea and biscuits - £50 quid all in.

Actually I just wanted to check out the flat spots on the wings. Can't beat a shine for seeing dings.

I didn't fill the flat spot as others have done.

I couldn't help but think the glitch was not actually the flat spots but in highspots either side of the flat - So I sanded the highspots instead. I think it's (almost) OK. I say 'Almost' because there are still a couple of flat bits but I think that's more likely me going at the mould lines. Mould lines on the front wings really were deep.

I will bite the bullet and take it to the body shop eventually. But still have plans to make more body mods. Still not happy with the grill or the bonnet and I'd really like to chop the sides and curl them under rather than the 'slab sided' look that kinda grinds my gears now.

Then, one day, when I can't find anything else to mod I will take it the body shop.

What do these blow jobs cost nowadays?

 

[Pond]

What do these blow jobs cost nowadays?

I can't remember! It's been a while.
However; my bodyshop said 'paint only' (ie quick prep, primer, base coat and lacquer) would be around £3,000 and they are not particularly expensive from what I've seen.

Problem is if they find it needs more work, they will be reluctant to just spray it, as it won't look good and bodyshops' reputations are all about the end product.

It's the labour that costs the money, and prepping and painting a car is hugely labour intensive, as you well know. Even more so when they have to do it with the body on.

 

[DaveP]

I paid north of £3k for my kobra. One thing I did was rattle can it matt black for the summer. Try and get any bubbles out of the grp and gel coat before going to the body shop.

I miss it in its ratty look. Made me less worried about road rash

 

[Pond]

One issue I can see with painting it yourself and then getting it professionally done later, is that you will hide any problems there may be with the GRP.

I sanded, filled and sanded back all my mould lines, but my bodyshop (who only do GRP and are somewhat experienced) said I needn't have bothered as they took all those areas down much further and then built them back up. He did say why but I can't remember TBH. It was something to do with weak areas to craze or crack in future IIRC.

 

[DaveP]

Agreed on that. Mine was in black for 6-7 months so that I could drive it over the summer. When it was time to go to the body shop I had to sand off all the rattle can paint as it would interact negatively with their products. I had the choice of paying them or do it myself. I chose the cheaper but took all bloody week option.
After it went to the body shop they still took off a large amount of surface material to get their primers down. They also fettled with some of the transitions around the boot aperture.
Mine is red but a formula settle upon by the painter. I wanted (bmw) mini chili red as I like that shade. He didn't agree and changed it up. I was more than happy with the result. Have him a huge when I collected it.

 

[Duncodin]

One issue I can see with painting it yourself and then getting it professionally done later, is that you will hide any problems there may be with the GRP.

By the time I get to the body shop I will have done my own adjustments to pretty much every panel on the car so it's highly likely they'll need to machine the paint back to bare grp just so they can see what they're dealing with. Also they'll want to avoid any compatibility issues with my 1K aerosol paint so will take it all off anyway.

And having just said that it does sound expensive doesn't it. Looks like I'll be painting it meself.

 

[Zephyr]

And having just said that it does sound expensive doesn't it. Looks like I'll be painting it meself.

think twice before doing that.
i had a fibreglass bonnet once, thought I could do it but failed miserably. Thicker areas of it somehow looked more shiny, even after two coats of primer. Ended up doing four coats of paint but was not satisfied, still colour seemed different there, so I rotary sanded it, primer, and painted with a roller, two very thick coats of paint. Let is flash and bake under tne sun for a week and then rotary buffed it.
looked ok-is so I wet sanded and rotary buffed again…
Then the colour did not match exactly the rest of the car.
Decided to “carbon” wrap it and it was great, but finally sold it because it was clunking and vibrating over rough roads.
And it was an expensive one, not some knock off from ebay or such.

 

[10stb]

I haven't experienced any adverse reactions.....yet.

I ended up having to build up the the tops of both front wings to get rid of the flat spot. 20mm on one side and 15mm on the other. Think this is the reason that my bonnet is so heavy. I still need to wet flat it with 2000/3000 in some areas and then 2 stage polish but most people don't notice.

I went with the original Arctic Silver which I was advised against as silver is a difficult colour to spray for an novice.

How hard could it be. I'd just been on a weeks car spraying training course and had bought all the gear .

It turned out pretty well for a home garage job with no shade variations.

Only time will tell if it holds up