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colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Fri, 13 Aug 2010, 9:58 pm
by 53catalina
Here's the van when collected on the Isle Of Wight
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Back at home and waiting for a few gel coat repairs to the roof where it had started to craze.
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Undercoat (Crown X-treme Grip primer) being applied by child labour. :thumbup:
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Top coat applied, to match car colour, with fins masked off.

Fins now painted.
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More to follow.

Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Sun, 15 Aug 2010, 5:21 pm
by bigbird
Wow, she looks fantastic, and what I can't believe is how you found her two miles away from our house!! We had to travel to the New Forest to get ours!! and yours is in super condition, well done!! Just looked at your photos with hubby, we can't wait to see her completed and to see what a fantastic car is going to pull her!! :clap:

Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Sun, 15 Aug 2010, 9:07 pm
by 53catalina
This is the towcar, Very little workon the van this weekend as I was fitting a towbar to the Pontiac. It is a modified toyota Hilux one, just needed extending about 4" eac side to reachmy chassis rails. Just the wiring to go now. I am also on 6 volt electrics so must remember to change the bulbs in the caravan, then run a second wire and hide some lights for when using the daily car to tow. I guess I could just rig up a light board for those occassions.
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Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Sun, 15 Aug 2010, 9:40 pm
by bigbird
What a fabulous car, from such a great era...she'll look wonderful towing a colour co-ordinated porti. Very nice!!

Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Thu, 30 Dec 2010, 3:24 pm
by 53catalina
Ok, so after a lull and snowy weather I got stuck in again yesterday, in a nice big dry, heated workshop.

Masked up the windows and parts of the handles, and put on the primer coat.
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Gloss coat later today.

I also swapped the wheels to these.
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Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Thu, 30 Dec 2010, 10:13 pm
by DanBoy
That is looking great. I can't wait to start on mine. What size are those wheels? I have looked at buying some alloys (I know yours are steel) but they all sem to come in a 5J size as opposed to the 4.5 inch standard mini wheel. If you tell me those are five inch wide by ten inch I will be one happy bunny!

Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Sun, 02 Jan 2011, 1:52 pm
by 53catalina
i ll check the size next time i am over there, but think they may be 6J rims. way wider than the standard ones 8)

Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Thu, 27 Jan 2011, 5:14 pm
by aallen
Hello,
I am a new member of the forum and have just purchased a Portafold.The pics of yours looks amazing so--
Can you tell me what paint you used for both undercoat and gloss and does it stand up to the weather well.
My roof has got some crazing--the gel coat you talk about-What is it and how is it applied.Mine has not been painted so what surface treatment is needed.
Sorry about the mass of quaetions but as they say if you dont ask you dont know
Thanks
Tony

Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Thu, 27 Jan 2011, 7:41 pm
by Admin
aallen wrote:My roof has got some crazing--the gel coat you talk about-What is it and how is it applied.Mine has not been painted so what surface treatment is needed.
Tony,

Don't be in a hurry to paint yours. The standard gellcoat covering (which is the shiny layer top surface) of the glass fibre is very durable to all the weather conditions, even if it has cracks and crazing. Mine has plenty and it's fully watertight, even in extreme conditions such as golf ball sized hailstones and 3 inches of snow.

With a good polish (not too abrasive) and wax it'll last for years more.

In order to properly repair stars and crazing in the gellcoat requires major surgery and removal of the gellcoat right back down to the fibre underneath and then rebuilding. My GRP guy really did not recommend it when I asked him to 'fix' mine. He said it would end up looking like a patchwork quilt because he'd never be able to match up exactly the colour of the sun bleached GRP. He said he could get it close but you'd still see the repairs.

From experience, I'd wash it with a good car shampoo, polish it with a good car polish, then get some expensive car wax on it. Then sit in it when it's raining and see if it's leaking. Unless you've got a really badly cracked roof I'd safely say it should be watertight.

Painting wise, once it's done, it's done and it'll need maintaining. Also, if you sell it on it will never be the right colour for the new owner. I know of one for sale at the moment with a dark blue roof, which suits the current owners requirements, but it's putting potential buyers off.

Re: colour coding 1974 Portafold

Posted: Thu, 27 Jan 2011, 10:10 pm
by 53catalina
aallen wrote:Hello,
I am a new member of the forum and have just purchased a Portafold.The pics of yours looks amazing so--
Can you tell me what paint you used for both undercoat and gloss and does it stand up to the weather well.
My roof has got some crazing--the gel coat you talk about-What is it and how is it applied.Mine has not been painted so what surface treatment is needed.
Sorry about the mass of quaetions but as they say if you dont ask you dont know
Thanks
Tony
Hi Tony

As Matthew said, if its ok try polishing first.
I had a few chips here and there, and polishing compound wouldnt bring a shine, so I opted to paint the van to match my car.
I used Crown Weathershiel gloss, over Crown Extreme Primer.I went over the entire surface with wet & dry to give a key to the primer, before painting. I used 600 grade.

The Gel Coat repair is an Isopon product and available at most car spare part outlets (Halfords etc). It goes rock solid and takes a good amount of time to flat back down if not applied smoothly. I believe some marine outlets will offer different colour gel repairs, but opted for white.

hope this helps, and feel free to ask as many questions as you want!

regards
Dan