'71TS build musings.

[Richard48Y]

Been reading Europa related post here and yon.
There are a lot of them to peruse!

Have found many examples, some nice and others not.
Same for modifications.

Hoping to get my car home soon but until then I've been contemplating the rebuild to fill the time.
I have come to several conclusions and a few questions.

Conclusions.
Repaint in the same Blue that is still there in the protected areas.
NOT going back to the original Orang/Yellow.

Not certain what was original for the inside of the body panels, seems they may have been left bare, or painted black.
My plan is a brushed on blue/grey Zolotone.
Sometimes called spatter paint.
Covers very well and hides flaws or repairs.
Also very chemical resistant and easy to wash.

Since mine has already been a bit modified with TS, Webers, header, wheels, and shocks plus at least a little documented competition history "Back in the day" I do not feel obligated to restore it to perfect originality.
But I do want to keep mods "Period Correct" and visually minimal.

Hope to freshen the engine with minimal new parts, bearings, rings, gaskets and seals.

Questions.
PO says he had been working on spider crack repairs.
No mention of prior accident damage, so crossing my fingers.
I notice that comments here on 'glass repair do not mention the "West System" epoxies.
Surprised, on the Marcos forum the West System is highly regarded.
Should I become the test subject for the West System repairs?

Read some threads on paint stripping.
I think I will be wanting to use chemical as I've had good luck with it in the past and an arthritic arm is not going to play well with manual sanding.
Recommended stripper?

Probably enough for now.

[BDA]

Sorry I don’t have any details but I understand that the choice of stripper is important. Some are supposed to wick down the glass fibers resulting in a poor paint job afterward.

[dakazman]

  I am passing this on from the advice of a paint shop owner of 43 years told me when I asked.
Do use chemical solvents on porous fiberglass, especially polyester base. The chemical will soften the voids in the glass .
 Spider cracks are a problem that needs to be addressed. A simple search of spider cracks will show an overwhelming results.
 The textured finish sound like a great idea and will help keep contaminants from getting lodged in the glass.
  Dakazman

[Richard48Y]

Some of the threads here are a bit scary.

"Unobtanium" thread is making me even more anxious to get my '71 home.
Want to see exactly what I have.
The feeBay listing did not show bumpers or luggage boxes. 
I believe my car did have them back in '95 as shown in the video I found and took my avatar screen shot from.
So hoping they are present.

Until fairly recently I had my own CNC mill and lathe, when I moved there was no place/3 Ph. for them so sold.
But I do still have some good contacts, including the guy I sold my machines to.

Good CAD files are the secret ingredient.
With winter here I hope to get back to improving my own CAD/CAM skills.
So may be able to draw up some items from samples.
Sample does not have to be perfect, cracked or even broken will usually work fine.

[Nisswa Collision]

 The last time I read the instructions on Zolatone, it pointed out that it was "interior" not "exterior". Which makes sense if you think about how it's made with 3 different kinds of paint. the light color is usually the latex, then laquer and enamel. It was used by the factories for decades inside trunks to hide the sloppy caulk jobs.

[gideon]

Opinions vary on the use of epoxy resins for repair of these cars.  The full discussion of considerations can get quite lengthy - you can argue that a like-for-like repair is a safer option, or can argue that better materials are, well, better.  Whether and how much those differences matter will depend on what repair you are making and how you are using the materials.  It seems that most prefer to stick with polyester resin and CSM.  Personally, I prefer to work with epoxy and long fibers where practical.

West System is one of the oldest epoxy resin systems that is available in retail channels.  It is formulated to be easy to use for boat repairs and Gougeon Brothers provide excellent documentation, technical articles and customer support.  But there are newer epoxy resin products available that perform better.  In particular the glass transition temperature, Tg (1), of West System is rather low with onset at 129 Fahrenheit (2).  So, cured West System epoxy starts to soften above 129 Fahrenheit.  By contrast, Fiberglast's System 200 resin has glass transition temperature of 180 Fahrenheit (3), and their System 3000 resin Tg is listed at over 300 Fahrenheit (4).

You can greatly improve the Tg of cured epoxy by doing a post-cure at elevated temperature.  This may be worth considering for parts you can fit in an oven of some sort.

There are lots and lots of suppliers of epoxy resin today.  Gougeon Brothers will happily sell you their high performance epoxies, under the Pro-Set brand, if you call them.  So, I guess my advice, if you want to use epoxy, is to find a supplier with good technical support and pay attention to the Tg value.

Links:
(1) http://www.epotek.com/site/files/Techtips/pdfs/tip23.pdf
(2) https://www.westsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/105-205-Epoxy-Resin.pdf
(3) https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.fibreglast.com/downloads/00343.pdf
(4) https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.fibreglast.com/downloads/00408.pdf

[Richard48Y]

The last time I read the instructions on Zolatone, it pointed out that it was "interior" not "exterior". Which makes sense if you think about how it's made with 3 different kinds of paint. the light color is usually the latex, then laquer and enamel. It was used by the factories for decades inside trunks to hide the sloppy caulk jobs.

I've used it in the past with very good results.
I would also think that the inside of body panels are pretty much "Interior" by nature.
Raw 'Glass or black paint just looks cheap and lazy to me.
Wheel wells probably need some sort of rubberized layer to prevent star cracks.

[Richard48Y]

There is some argument that old resin does not bond particularly well to new.

Good news is that the seller states he has seen no evidence of accident damage so it's just stress cracks to deal with.

[gideon]

The argument you mention is that new polyester resin doesn't bond well to old polyester resin.  That's one of the reasons to prefer epoxy which bonds more strongly to old polyester resin than does new polyester resin.

[Clifton]

Been reading Europa related post here and yon.
T
I notice that comments here on 'glass repair do not mention the "West System" epoxies.
Surprised, on the Marcos forum the West System is highly regarded.
Should I become the test subject for the West System repairs?

If you fill fiberglass cracks with epoxy, you will see them later if it is hot like parking in the sun. Epoxy expands and contracts at different temps than polyester. You also cannot put polyester resin over cured epoxy, it will not cure even you have clean, sanded and waited a month after the epoxy has cured. It does adhere better but you will not have bonding problems with polyester. I did a lot of repair on my car with epoxy before finding out these things.

Polyester is faster to work with, you can sand in 30 minutes. Epoxy has to wait a while longer after set up as it's still too soft to sand. I end up wet sanding it. To do again, I would have just used polyester and saved a lot of headache

[GavinT]

There is some argument that old resin does not bond particularly well to new.

I reckon if bonding new to old Polyester were a real issue, there would be heated topics/threads written all over the forum.
In reality, bonding problems invariably stem from poor preparation issues, IMHO.

I'm a fan of staying with polyester simply for the KISS principal.
Much of the restoration work will invariably involve chopped strand mat (CSM) or tissue etc. It's worth noting the standard readily available CSM has a binder which is incompatible with epoxy. There is apparently a CSM with no binder suitable for epoxy, but, hey . . .

I'm also a fan of Fibreglass Reinforced Filler (polyester based) - magic stuff for all those tedious scrapes and gouges.

[Richard48Y]

Made it home with my new toy!
Strange purchase, it came with keys and a title. 

Now I am way too anxious to fire it up!
I will oil the cylinders and let it sit couple of days first.
Then crank with the plugs out to build oil pressure.
Ignition is also modified, system was probably "State of the art" twenty years ago. 
Seller says points were unable to support the RPM.
Car is probably a little too race/hill-climb prepped for sensible street use.
But that's OK, I'm not all that sensible.

Pretty certain it has been substantially lowered.
Has adjustable shocks and rear lower links.

I will need to locate a way to do something about the missing bumpers and windscreen trim.

Anyone recognize these wheels? They appear to be in excellent condition.
Too bad the tires are so very old.