I went to pick up my shell from SPL this morning. It was waiting for me in the shed when I arrived at 8:30. Interestingly I was the 3rd person to collect already with an MGB just gone and a Metro 6R4 just being loaded onto a trailer.
Overall I'm pleased with the e-coat coverage and it certainly sems to have got everywhere it needs to.
After inspection and the dreaded payment the shell was quickly loaded onto the trailer (thanks again Stewart and John). I was able to keep it on the pallet which helped unloading at the other end. We covered the shell in case we caught a shower on the way back North. The doors were also ready and they were loaded into the back of the van and secured.
The shell is now residing at PF Autos in Tunstall who hopefully will be carrying out the paintwork. He's a regular commercial bodyshop but also works on a number of classic cars of all shapes and sizes. In there today was an MGA, some kind of Ferrari, a Bentley with the best paint I had ever seen, a Jag XK140 to name but a few. He's worked on quite a few Triumph's in the past but not a Dolomite. I think he was genuinely surprised with what I turned up with. When I said it was like a new shell I don;t think he realised just how like new it actually is. You can view some of his projects here -
http://www.pfautos.com/
Paul and his team will now trial fit the bonnet, boot lid and doors to get an idea of how much prep in needs. The e-coat really highlights any imperfections in the panels. one of the doors is particularly ripply whereas the others are pretty good. The bonnet and bootlid will need to be bare metalled separately as they were not dipped at SPL.
Hopefully I should know more next week!