Ulster body painting

[David.H]

Hi Arthur,

Yes, I know 'overthink' very well....it's that thing which happens when you spend all day at work dreaming about working on the Seven, then come home and realise it's not quite how you pictured it!

Radius arms seems to have been covered. On the topic of painting, I'm just completing an 'overhaul' of my Ulster rep. It's a slightly different situation as I was re-painting but maybe something of interest. I should start by saying I have no clue what the original scheme was.

The floor: I stripped inside and out to bare clean metal and treated with POR 15 & Blackcote. This included the scuttle & footwell area. I'm not sure I would do this again, it's difficult to get a nice finish brushing on Blackcote & the whole thing was quite an enterprise. I reckon Hammerite would be just as good. I also put a couple of coats of underbody seal on the underneath. I feel pretty confident it will last forever - it has been running the last 35 years with nothing but a coat of underbody seal and only rusted where this has finally dropped off. Paint the floor before you paint the body colour.

The tail (interior): I gave it a clean up, a squirt of etch primer, and a coat or two of 2-pack from an aerosol. The finish is not important here but I think it looks better in body colour.

Body interior: I didn't paint the interior body sides, but made some wafer thin trim panels from aero grade 1/16" ply, which I then covered with black Rexine. You can easily fabricate a couple of clips to hold the panels in position, mostly I used existing bolts and holes, the cockpit edge trim, etc. The beauty of these is you can run wiring for the tail lights behind them, secured to the body sides with tank tape.

Body exterior: Whatever you paint it with, ally will need a thin etch primer coat to begin with.
I was quoted £1500 to spray the body shell alone with 2-pack, which sounded a bit rich to me (though I gather this is a fair price). I'm not a fan of 2-pack paint either (in my experience it chips easily). I chose to brush paint my car with Craftmaster enamel. I will happily write you an essay about this if you choose to follow the same path. I warn you though that it's a major undertaking, which will eat at least one summer! And that you will not finish the job without some endearing imperfections. If I had another car to do I think I would buy a spray gun! The plus side of this is it's cheap (a couple of hundred quid perhaps), and when all's said and done, I hate 'restored' cars with flawless spray jobs, it's the single thing in my opinion which kills the character of a vintage car most effectively.

By the way, something which ought to be better known is that Ulster bodies are not particularly strong and eventually crack alongside the windscreen irons, and below the spare wheel aperture (especially if you carry luggage in the tail!) If building from new it is worth incorporating a bit of reinforcement in these areas. Make sure the dash supports fit well and consider bonding a patch of ally under the dash ends to increase the thickness of the body sides locally. At the rear, I installed thin steel panels on the inside of the body which bolt into the floor and bridge the gap between the front and rear of the spare wheel well, boxing it in. I also connected the (steel) floor panel of the tail to the back of the spare wheel slot using shelf brackets, making a strong and continuous floor. I have seen pictures of original 'Ulsters' which were modified (or repaired) in a similar way.

Chris

Excellent, many thanks Chris. Your idea of thin internal panels is good, indeed I've seen millboard used. On my three wheelers, I've started bonding carpet to the inside of the main side panels. At first I used the wrong type of carpet, and found that it simply "cracked off" the aluminium after a month or so, so found a much thinner black carpet from Automobile Trimming Co in West London. Yes I've noted already a degree of flimsiness in the body in certain places although I paid Rod Yates extra for a stiffener panel behind the seats which has a large cut out in it, but it is still flimsy around the spare wheel aperture and just behind.

Rather than use the slotted screws and nuts (not sure what the size is yet, not being used to imperial stuff...the thread is approx. 3.9mm) on the detachable internal panels including the afore mentioned stiffener panel, I shall use riv-nuts....which I'm sure had they been around in the 20/30s would have been used. Again in my cars, I use masses of riv-nuts and even pushed the boat out for an expensive air riv nut tool.

I take your point about areas which might crack, so will also stiffen. I will unbolt the dashboard and take out the slotted screws and replace with socket button heads and also riv nuts, thus making it easier to remove in future.

I've gone for a louvred LH upper bonnet side panel as well, rather than the plain type that so many use, as I saw in a photo that the Earl of March and "Sammy" Davis in their Brooklands racer had a similar panel. This will need stiffening internally when I cut an aperture for the exhaust branch.

Originally my idea was to have the body professionally polished (I might still ask my polisher for his advise) but where the panels are gas welded and ground down there are some small pits which obviously would be filled with primer etc if painting. There was a bare aluminium Ulster at the 750MC Seven meeting at Beaulieu in July, which looked quite good in a semi tarnished/polished state, but mirror finish polish would look good until it tarnishes....still not sure yet.

Arthur

Arthur
As I recall (from having made literally millions of Aluminium Rivnuts under licence from BFG to use the name!) the Rivnut  was invented in the late 1930's, by Louis Huck in the USA for the BF Goodrich (rubber) company to put a thread inside a blind panel...initially to hold inflatable rubber de-icing "boots" onto metal aircraft wings. When the patent ran out the product was copied by every man & his dog with a workshop!. Most are churned out in the far-east, but reliable & reputable ones are available (Dejond's Tubtara, Avdel's Nutsert & Gesipa & Bollkhoff's Rivet Nut) usually more expensive than the generic, but you get what you pay for! Just make sure the hole is a good fit & you use the right grip for the material thickness. My sales engineers' party trick was to break the head off an R quality bolt in an aluminium Rivnut before the Rivnut thread stripped ! Land Rover specified a 3/8-24 UNF Aluminium Rivnut to hold the front winch onto the chassis!
David
David Harrison