Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Specks of Honor

Hey Everyone!

I'll get to the title later, however, as of tonight - 7:35 PM - Grover's chassis has been PORed. To me this is a big step. After a top coat of paint is applied (to protect the POR-15 from UV rays) things will start to be put back on the chassis.

While finishing up the prepping I realized the rubber axle stops hadn't been removed. Three of the stops are intact and one missing and all four plates are rusty.

Here's the three stops that are intact as well as the plate of the missing one.






Here are the backs - the part that seats up against the chassis.

The axle stop at top center came from under the battery tray. It is extremely corroded to the point I knew there must be a hole in the chassis that it covered - fortunately there wasn't.

The axle stops might need replacing. I'll take a closer look at them to see if it's warranted.

This is me hard at it.

SWMBO was off work today and said she would help me. Instead, she fell asleep in the sun while laying in a trailer next to the chassis.

So, when she woke up she decided to 'help' me by taking pictures using here cell phone camera - that's why they are fuzzy.


Just another one of the same.
















And another...

And there it is - Grover's chassis with the 1st coat of POR-15.












Not sure why this picture is fuzzy; I'm using a digital camera. However, I am trying to balance on the tire of the trailer next to the chassis - that could be the reason.











Here's a picture that's a little better.

The chassis doesn't look too bad does it?













The engine area.

The gray colored POR-15 had the consistency of watery milk and smelled like gas. I'm not sure if that was normal or not.

Luckily I didn't get too much on me. The stuff does not come off!! According to the instructions nothing will remove it; you have to wait for your natural body oils, and dead skin, to get rid off it. Supposedly it will be gone in about 3-5 days. We'll see.

Here's the tub area.

You will notice that the parts holding the springs on have not been painted. I've decided to wait till the parabolic springs can be installed to do this. Hopefully that'll be this Winter or early Spring.

At the same time I will finish PORing the parts of the axles that didn't get done this time around.

And there it is with the 2nd coat of POR-15.

This coat is a semi-gloss. That, and that fact that it's still wet, is the reason it's so shinny. The camera flash really makes it shimmer!

As you can tell it is a bit darker in the garage. The sun has set by this time and the shop doesn't have the best lights.



Here is the last picture for the post.

For some reason the black POR-15 didn't seem to cover as much area as the gray one did. Also, the black was a bit thicker than the gray one was. It also seemed to have more air bubbles than the gray. I did stir the stuff, but not vigorously. I'm wondering if the tackiness of the gray coat had something to do with it. The bristles on the brush seemed to want to stick to the gray stuff.

According to the instructions you apply the second coat when the 1st is still tacky, but doesn't stick to the skin. I waited almost 4 hours and tested it. The gray coat was still tacky but didn't stick to my skin. It did make it harder for the brush to glide though. I imagine this is the real reason the black POR-15 didn't cover as much; the tackiness prevented it from flowing freely.

Anyway, as you can see, I wasn't able to get all the rear cross member covered with the black coat.

Thanks to the picture I noticed a couple more spots that didn't get covered. Can you tell where they are?

POR-15 isn't cheap so I'll pass on opening the second can of black to cover these spots. I'll wait till the springs get replaced.

Okay...now to the title. While on my creeper, applying the black coat to the underside, I sneezed. When this happened my painting arm shook causing several tiny, tiny drops of the black coat to land on my face. So here I sit now with black freckles.

I mentioned this to the members of the Land Rover Owner's Group and one of them suggested I consider them 'Specks of Honor'. So I've decided to look at them this way and use it as the title.

Thanks DJ!!

Now let's just see how long I have them!

Up next I'll be cleaning the engine, transmission and drive shafts. My brother is coming over tomorrow to give a good look over the engine and transmission. We should also be able to start replacing seals and gaskets tomorrow as well.

I'm hoping that by Friday I will be able to have the inside of the chassis taken care of.

Well, it's getting late and I'm tired so I'll leave you all alone for now.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry ~

1 comment:

Morgan Aldridge said...

It's been a few months, so I'm sure you've found that it doesn't take too long for the POR-15 to come off, esp. on your face (which generally produces more oils). They certainly prepare you for the worst on their packaging!

I've never done a project this big with POR-15, but it's nice to see someone else that is willing to brush it on like this. I love the stuff, but the process can be tedious (esp. trying to judge tackiness to make sure the next coat adheres). I've seen the same issue with black bubbling profusely, no matter how much I stir it.

On opening the extra can, it'll keep for a very long time in the refrigerator, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've been using the same can for many, many years.

Unfortunately, while I'll be doing some patching and POR-15-ing on my Rover's frame, it'll need a new galvanized one by the time I ever get the thing stripped down this much.