Sponsored by the Fire Dept.

I think I'll have to start negotiating with the local fire department about sponsoring my project because I'm offering them some positive visibility here. Destiny is starting to resemble chief's car now. Here is a set of pics after I mixed a liter of Spies-Hecker Permacron 630 and sprayed it over Destiny.

My old spray gun broke down a while ago and I had to invest 29,90 € on a new one. Though it's cheap, it works a lot better, with a lower pressure. But a good spray gun does not guarantee a good result. There is orange peal and drips here and there. 

I gave her two coats of paint. The second coat is always more difficult to me. For some reason I end up ruining the good result of the first coat. Maybe I'll have to excercise the technique so that I'll concentrate on only one good coat at a time.

This one below is my favorite. It's a shame that all this will (hopefully soon) be covered with by a carpet and seats. Zinnoberrot 138 really looks good on the seat platform.

Date Code 23A

Destiny's Date Code on the door data plate is 23A meaning it was supposed to roll out of the factory on Saturday 23rd January 1965. No-one knows if it did, but I spent her 45th Anniversary today. During the passed week I spent a couple of evenings sanding the epoxy primer gray. Then I applied seam sealer to each and every seam I could imagine would benefit of it.

It took two tubes of Dinitrol seam sealer which was brushed smooth after being squeezed out of the tube.

I decided to spray one more coat of primer. This time I spent some time to figure out the correct and the most efficient way to penetrate the primer into every gap. I managed fine as I started from the most difficult areas like the bottom of the trunk drop-off and the gap between wheel well and quarter panel behind the trunk lid hinges. In order to be sure hand-brushing some primer prior to spraying might be wise.

But I managed fine. Now you can hardly find a spot which would not be covered with primer or paint. I've decided the color for Destiny. She'll become Zinnoberrot 138 ( cinnabar red, that is ), which can be found from BMW's color scheme.

So, after admiring her for two days like this, I grabbed my sanding papers again and got her gray again. Had I been wise, would I have applied the last coat with red epoxy primer. In the next episode we'll see if Zinnoberrot 138 will beat the black-gray primer.

The final patch

Time to start the new decade. Today I welded in the very last piece of sheet metal. This honourable final patch was somenthing I had forgotten to do earlier. It is situated in the left-most edge in the corner of firewall and cowl side panel just above the torque-box's upper end and is about 1" x ½".

I've used two bottles of CO2-Argon and about 8 kilograms of welding-wire while knitting this vehicle back to the current status. Here is a picture of my old but faithful Kemppi 180C Mig-welder which I bought used years ago for 100 €. I still may need it with this project but hopefully only for minor jobs, not for patching or re-doing my earlier welds.

Looking at my welds which were done a year ago, in the beginning of the restoration, one might say that they could have been done better. I think I've gotten better and better and even might be able to restore a more challenging project one day. The question is where to find such a project ? From here maybe. There are three things a man does not forget once he has learned them. 1. How to ride a bicycle. 2. How to make love to a woman and 3. How to weld.

Destiny is now covered with primer and most of the body parts are being fit, almost ready for painter. I think I finally found a guy who'll perform the paint-job for her. He dropped by yesterday and estimated 100-150 hours of his work until the job is done. 20 € an hour and that'll be 2 - 3000 € plus the materials. We agreed this to be done in March. I just hope that there won't be slippery on the roads until that because all of the painters consider insurance companies better clients and in that case my project would be postponed. A couple of shot of how Destiny looks right now.

We agreed that I'll paint whatever is inside the car and he'll do everything that's on the outside plus the undersides of the hood and trunk lid. Next weekend Destiny is celebrating her 45th anniversary. I think I'll cheer her up with new coat of primer and seam sealer. So let's start sanding.