Well it’s been over 4 months since word has been sent back from the front line on War Horse’s escapades.
Still battling on and has another ticket for another year of electrical fun and frolics.
It is with great pleasure that I can announce that War Horse is been awarded a new status for services rendered to King and Country.
Have I taken leave of my sense? Yes quite probably I have.
So the MOT saw some sill repairs on both nearside and offside. More was amputated than necessary but I wanted to sure we were going made to a good base so the new graft would take.
Eventful it was to say the least. One particular day saw me back the car up on my mate’s ramp and forget to put the handbrake on. When I stepped out of the car and pulled myself up with the ‘reins’ he bolted rear wards off the ramp, with the door open, and was stopped by the brick pier between the two garage doors bending the door in the process.
A few expletives later and the top of the door was bent back into position. And then it became a non starter.
So fun and frolics as ever.
I spent so much time on the sills that I decided a spruce up is in order.
For example, I opted for stonechip after my mate had previously said, Put some Schultz on it!”.
As he is ALWAYS pulling me up in things I reminder him that “Schultz was the artist that drew Peanuts! ie Snoopy and Woodcock.”.
Using Schutz is a nasty and cheap coverall and had I have known better those several years ago I would have done it properly first time around.
The quality of the original underseal and seam seller is superb. Sticks like the proverbial. We had abraded off this where we needed to weld.
Removing the schtuz went well. I had read on the net that brake cleaner is the best thing to remove it and it took 45 minutes of scrubbing to get those sills squeaky clean.
Apparently as schutz is solvent based, over time it shrinks and lets water in behind according to the local paint shop supplies owner.
The new stone chip went of lovely but there is a technique to it. At first, I was lightly coating the sill like top coat but it had no texture. So on the next passes I hit it harder and went a bit overboard but it did level out reasonably well. That was a week and a half ago so I am letting that fully cure before deciding whether to sand any obvious runs back lightly and the bit it again with a better technique.
It’s not cheap stuff at £10 or £12 a can (whatever it was) and one can should have been enough to do two sills adequately.
So far, in my inimitable style I have only done 1.5 sills as it wasn’t until doing 0.5 wills that I decided to remove the schutz completely on the offside.
I do need to get the remaining 0.5 sill of schutz off sooner rather than later because with this good weather forecast, I can redo the whole nearside and it will cure pretty sharpish. I’ll then hit it with the top coat and lacquer so it will be back to how it was when it left the factory.
I managed to pick up a brand new Edelweiss wheel trim for it last week too so that will be used to colour match the wheel trim colour.
Refurbishment of one of the other three in particular will be interesting. Errr! Shoukd that read challenging? Removing one to take the wheel off for the sill welding did not got well and it occasioned a fair amount of cracks and damage. It is the middle one in the photo.
So this afternoon, I jetwashed them, treated them to a snow foam and then scrubbed them with Autoglym Magma to remove all the rust marks and fallout. What a GREAT JOB that stuff does.
Unfortunately the jetwashing removed a good amount of original trim paint but if it wasn't that well adhered it surely deserved to come off.
I'll scotchbrite them and use a plastic filler for the scuffs and grazes. I plan to rebuild the edges that are missing by probably cutting bits out of a redundant wheel trim and welding them in thougb i think the spare S1 trims I have are only 14" so I may well have to find another donor for some PA66-MD15 material.
I may well try and jetwash off the remaining paint as I am not sure the paint edges that NOW exist will feather on easily and a DA is too big.
I am not entirely sure how I am going to handle the missing Chevrons. I have put an advert in the Free, For Sale and Wanted section.
Next up after the wheel trims will be repair to the wing and bonnet where a tree fell on it, sorting out the door trims and bumper scuffs and gradually bringing the paint back.
My issue will be knowing where to stop because it could end up needing a respray to get all the chips to the paint out.
Exciting times ahead!
Then I might even offer it up for sale at ridiculous money and see if I can ensnare someone. My main problem there is, that with our cars, a non- enthusiast is likely to scrap at the first sign of trouble with the hydraulics or anything that makes a repair less viable to someone who cannot so the work themself.
I had an odd thought the other day driving along in that in another 5-10 years there are probably only going to be 10 Xantias left on the roads.
It’s a labour of love keeping one on the road when it’s had as colourful a life as War Horse has.
And I’ll readily put my hand up and admit that I’ve not really given it a huge amount of love since rescuing it from the scrap man 12 years ago.
The times they are a-changing…
