VA969 Mike's Early Sprint Restoration.

[hutch76]

Absolute respect for your thoroughness there Mike.

For me, the jury is still out on the dipping process. Still not convinced either way.

I take it you have new vinyl for the c pillars, or are you going to try and remove and reuse what's there?

Calum

[straylight]

great to see the progress mike, looks impressive all stripped out.

unfortunately still no news on your items here.

[tinweevil]

Dipping that shell would be madness IMHO...
Far better to just repair and prep the outside...flat back, repair and locally paint what you cant see inside...

I'm never convinced all those nasty chemicals that remove the paint are ever really got rid of...and they certainly aid and abett rusting in your newly stripped and unprotected shell..

Jonners

I disagree, dip it.
The SPL process is not just a random line of buckets, there's all kinds of technology there. Besides, they have been doing this for years now mostly on cars many times more valuable than ours. The owners of such cars tend to not be short of a bob or two an so are quite likely to have an army of lawyers available should the process not be sound. Rust will always return eventually but if it was starting unexpectedly soon, in unusual nooks and crannies or on cars that never see a drop of moisture then SPL would have been sued to oblivion long since.

In the pictures above light corrosion can be seen in areas no human hand can possibly reach.

The only kink in the SPL process I can see is that they are not geared up for double dipping it seems. Shells have to be dipped just before coating but sometimes dipping reveals corrosion. If I were running SPL I'd offer a new top tier of process. Dip & neutralise then the shell is available for inspection by your nominated expert. If corrosion is found the shell can be taken away to be dealt with. It is not totally unprotected after the standard dip process. On return you pay a reduced fee for a redip (less chemical consumed) an then it goes for coating. OTOH if nothing is found after the first dip it goes straight for coating and you pay a small markup on the standard dip & coat for the extra handling. SPL will do this two dip approach already (all but the discount on redip) but are not geared for it as a package, marketing opportunity missed IMO.

Do it.

[zombeh]

I'm not entirely impressed with SPL, there are dents in the bottom of my car that weren't there before I let them have it, and there are traces of the original paint under their nice shiny e-coat stuff. It has shown up all the problems though, which was the plan, and it's protected it enough that it's surviving quite nicely in a carcoon while Neil finishes his track dolly so I can get it back in the garage and start working on it again.

I would definately want to inspect the shell before it gets coated if I took anything there again.

[SprintMWU773V]

Overall they seem to have a decent reputation, I would assume they'd be long gone if they did a crap job. I've seen several projects in the classic press that have used SPL such a Jensen Healey which required some rework as the dip wasn't quite right and the current PC Jag project which has also benefited from the treatment. I visited the SPL stand at the NEC last year and also the year before. To my untrained eye the dip and coat process seems to have worked very well on their demo cars they had on display. Quite simply no amount of blasting, rubbing down etc will get to all the places that a liquid dip process can. The process is quite similar to what the heritage people do with their brand new shells prior to e-coating. These have been available for many years with no real problems reported. Like all "experts" it pays to get to know them and where possible keep on top of things to make sure the job has been done right. OK so the full process is expensive but actually far better value than paying someone to strip paint and underseal off of a car.

The way I see it there are essentially 2 options:

1) Find as much rust as you can and repair it, then get SPL to dip the car or

2) As above but examine the shell prior to any e-coating work and then decide if further work is needed.

Interestingly PC seems to have had their Jag dipped and is carrying out the work without any coating on it at all. I'm sure they suggested that this was possible, a dry workshop or garage is no doubt the best way to go on this. I'll be interested to see how the project goes.

The only thing that really annoys me with them is that they don't seem to be able to do a shall and removable panels such as doors and bonnets together and thus charge more for processing these, is this still the case?

I'm always keen to hear people's experiences with SPL as when I eventually get round to looking at one or other of my cars this is probably the way I will go.

[zombeh]

I was charged for the car as a whole, the shell, doors, wings and bonnet as a single item (Jensen GT, all the panels come off), then another £50 for a dolly boot lid that went up with it. This was september 07

[DavePoth]

The price has certainly dropped a lot since I had mine done. It was £1000 just for dipping and etch priming then. But then they had only just started doing "customer" jobs at that point. The double dipping is so that any repairs are protected to the same standard as the shell itself I think, but it is quite an extravagance.

As for delivery, I can see why they don't. Imagine what could happen to a bodyshell on the back of a truck, and then think about how much some of them are worth. The insurance would be crazy, and they would have to have insurance.

I was lucky that the place I did my stripping had a forklift, but if not I suppose you could roll the car onto a beavertail the normal way, and then drop the axles off it and lower it onto a big pallet. Failing that, just get it up there and take the subframe and axle off once you've unloaded it (bolts can be really loose for transport, you should only need the four subframe ones and the two for the trailing arms)

[hutch76]

As ever, looking forward to every update Mike.

[SprintMWU773V]

I'll be interested to see how they get on with removing the inner sills. Presumably they will have to brace the shell? I know the inners on mine are rather tatty and patched up hence why I took that spare pair of inners and outers off of your hands. You've certainly amassed a fair number of panels and it'll be interesting to see how many get used, you might certainly end up with some reasonable second hand ones if they do.

[sprint95m]

I'll be interested to see how they get on with removing the inner sills. Presumably they will have to brace the shell? I know the inners on mine are rather tatty and patched up hence why I took that spare pair of inners and outers off of your hands. You've certainly amassed a fair number of panels and it'll be interesting to see how many get used, you might certainly end up with some reasonable second hand ones if they do.

I'll also be interested to see what lurks inside the sills! 969 looks pretty solid so far.

It is a good idea to brace a shell if cutting a lot out (see the Jaguar in current Practical Classics restoration series for the results of removing structural strength without using a brace). Also, if you leave the doors on, you can use these to check gaps/avoid distortion as you proceed. When working on sills, I keep the car on its wheels as much as possible (obviously they have to come off to access sill ends, so leave these until last).

This is a field where those with experience make it look all very easy! And, they always have plenty of workspace, too.

[MalcGE]

Unless the inners are completeley shot, a part repair is the best option. Although, would you really need to cut the ends from the NOS sills & let them in, the end parts would be a reasonably easy fabricate and done well, which i'm sure your bodt man would do, you won't be able to tell.

[Autonet7]

What a familiar site Mike.

That shell looks pretty solid really. I agree would be better to to let in parts of sill rather than remove the whole lot, just depends on the severity of the rust I guess.

Looking forward to getting hold of that front end, then I can start to reassemble mine.

D

[straylight]

I am so happy that the problems you guys have with sills and chassis legs rusting out doesn't make the trip down here. Crikies there is a lot of work in that area. Still no news on the gear knob Mike, the rest of the order hasn't arrived either, but they are onto it.

stu

[hutch76]

Really liking his work Mike.

[MalcGE]

Craftmanship, excellent, i'd be pleased with that standard of work.

I once read an article in P Classics where a guy cut a section ou of an e-type boot floor, cut a patch with a 'specific gap' all around, Gas welded the patch, tack and seam, panel beating plannished the soft (compared to mig weld) down, sanded and it looked as though no metal had been let in. Always wanted to be able to do that