9 replies to this topic

[Alburglar]

Hello,
I have got my fibreglass mini minus!
But the cut down doors are metal and the car is on my drive way under a breathable outside cover.

How do remove the doors because I can't get to all of the screws that fix hinge to door?
Do I have to drift the rolls pins out of the hinges?

Plus,
What should I spray onto the bare metal doors to protect from the wanky rust fairy?

I know these questions are pretty basic, but I am learning as I go with my cars.
I would appreciate any advice from peeps

[Alburglar]

Also, should I put a rust treatment on like dinitrol first, as a precaution?

[adam c]

Erm...wait till woody comes on
But bare metal must be etch primed - speaking from experience!
I ordered some dinitrol on wed but its not arrived yet and it would be a few years before i could see if it had really worked so...??
The projects lookin good mate (have just read it in the projects section) Keep up the good work :grin:

[Alburglar]

Cheers adam...

...So do I spray with dinitrol first and then spray etch primer?
How many layers of each?
Should I wet dry each layer, including dinitrol?
And I also heard that I need to spray over Primer straight away too????

Sorry if I'm being thick folks.

[bluebottle]

if you are going to paint the doors you'll have to paint them first, as dinitrol is like waxoyl, it puts a protective film over the metal to stop moisture getting at it and causing rust.

if you dont have a lot of time, you can always just spray them comprehensively with dinitrol/waxoyl, this will stop them rusting.

[adam c]

Yeah - etch primer has to be topcoated within 24 hours, ideally after an hour or so since it draws in moisture. You would probably sand with about 400 grade before priming but since you have to topcoat the primer so quickly you probably wouldn't be able to sand it before top coating as it would clog the sand paper. It would probably be best just to top coat it and then forget it until you finally spray the entire car and then wet and dry it and top coat it as normal. Think you need about 2-3 coats of primer and then a few of topcoat???
Not sure what you mean by diitrol, they do various products including rust convertors and waxoil type products, my plan is to treat the rust with the converter and then sand back to bare metal and then just etch prime and top coat. Bluebottles idea sounds good but if theres no rust on them i'd just get a can of etch primer and then plain white topcoat and that'll do it for now.
I was in halfords the other day and saw that they do a zinc rich primer, i don't like halfords stuff but you could try it i spose??
Good luck anyways....

[Alburglar]

Thanks for that peeps. I think I'm just gonna prime and paint them.
But I still need some tips for taking the doors off.

[Woody]

The nuts that hold the door hinge to the body are under the wing, behind the "A" panel , plenty of WD40 (best left to soak overnight) and a 6 sided flank drive 7/16 socket but be carefull they can shear off .
I have used several rust converters , i dont realy know which is best as this test would take years !, they all seam to work the same way so i think it comes down to the easiest to use , the one made by Finnigans (the waxoyl people) seams as good as any, and i believe in plenty of waxoyl inside doors (and every where else as well !).

[Alburglar]

Thanks alot woody.
I might have a prob with those nuts under the wing though because I looked there and can't see the other side of the bolts at all.
They must be fibreglassed over, but I'll figure something out.
Cheers Everybody I think I can sort me self out now

[bluebottle]

try looking inside the door at the front, perhaps when the shell was built they glassed in the hinges to the shell, and used studs on the door