A Highland Z3 1.9 roadster

[Pls]

Today we had a trip into Dingwall for the dentist for Sara and library and haircut for me. At this rate I'll be washing the car after every trip!

Anyway on return, it was also time to check fluid levels, so I opened a bottle of Corbières.

While that was breathing, I checked the oil, coolant etc on the car and topped up as necessary.

As the gloaming gloamed more, I snuck round and admired the boot light!

Cheers

Paul

 

[ktnez99]

Great landscape backdrops for the Z! Looks a great place to live and drive the Z in @Pls

 

[Pls]

Great landscape backdrops for the Z! Looks a great place to live and drive the Z in @Pls

Aye, it's a bonnie place to stay@ktnez99



Sunshine today so we ran up to Dornoch for lunch by the shore. Very bracing!



And it stayed nice for the trip home.



Round to Ray's tomorrow to consider some preventative maintenance on the slightly scabby sills. I was going to wait for the spring, but they really need seeing to.

Cheers

Paul

 

[ktnez99]

Beautiful images again - I’m wishing I was there!

 

[Christ87]

Beautiful images again - I’m wishing I was there!

I'm heading up next Wednesday. Can't wait.

 

[Pls]

Today we had a busy day in the Black Isle ZedShed, despite a snowy start.



Ray and I spent some time discussing a plan of action, and with the snow getting heavier we went for lunch. The snow then eased off, so as the plan included installing a replacement gutter at his place, we got on with that.

Then we shuffled cars around to use the lift to put Ratty up onto tall stands, giving access to work on the sills in situ.



One wood block under a sill can be moved at a time to give access to the underside of part of that sill, whilst remaining safe, but at a comfortable working height!

These sills had been taken off a couple of years ago, cleaned out and made good, with inner sills cleaned up and treated etc, etc, but there are some bits of surface rust on the underside which I want to sort out before they get any worse. I've started cleaning up and treating one side. I'll probably finish that and do the other side over the weekend and then stone-guard both sides.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Redsheep]

Come on Paul.....
Nothing since Thursday...
I treat this like an Oor Wullie read in the Sunday Post
Looking forward to the next instalment..

ps...you not coming on this years Scottish run?

Dave

 

[Redsheep]

Or was it the Broons?

 

[Pls]

Come on Paul.....
Nothing since Thursday...
I treat this like an Oor Wullie read in the Sunday Post
Looking forward to the next instalment..

ps...you not coming on this years Scottish run?

Dave

Well, it's been a busy couple of days Dave! Friday was a day out (in the Volvo) with chums till late, then today it was back to work on Oor Ratty! A bit chilly in the shed though, so



As recounted earlier, the sills are a patch up job, as the budget doesn't run to new ones. So today I wire brushed and Ku-Rusted the other side, and while that went off, did some general tidying around the shed and its attics, before going to lunch at the village hall. There they run regular 'Soup and Sweet' lunches, with the comestibles all cooked by villagers, and donations invited. Today they made £3700 to help a village family whose child has a brain tumour.

After lunch, I cleaned the areas down, dried them and sprayed them with ACID-8 Self Etch primer rattle can,



The sills are masked to take stone guard underseal as per the originals. The corners of the wings needed a little work too. More filling and sanding work is required before painting and lacquering, but it's getting there. How I miss good old cellulose paint when doing patch repairs, but I'm sure acrylics are better for the planet, and my health! Anyway, more family business tomorrow, so the primer will get a good chance to harden!

And we won't be able to make the September Scottish run this year, unfortunately; even for a day visit - Glencoe is 2 hrs 45 mins south of us here! But perhaps we can meet up again some other time?

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

Back to work again today, spraying the lower half sills with their layer of underseal or stone guard as they seem to call it nowadays.



I noticed the UniRoyal RainSport tyres have an interesting logo:



Most appropriate for a Z3! Meanwhile, Ray's Z3 was languishing outside under the carport with the old Landy: as reflected in Ratty's bumper:



So with that all done, it was time to plan tomorrow's adventure.



Slàinte!

Paul

 

[Pls]

It has been a busy week in the Black Isle ZedShed, as I've continued on Ratty's bodywork. New sills, panels or bonnet are not in the budget, so I've been treating corrosion and making good, until one day they may be!



The sills have had Cosmos black applied, while the rusty areas of the lower corners of the front and rear wings, plus the top edges of the rear wheel arches, have been taken back to bare metal, treated, primed and also painted black.



The hydraulic lift was briefly lowered just long enough to allow access under the sills for spraying, leaving the car on four rather high axle stands! Next up was the offside bonnet area above the wheel arch. Apparently the car had run for many years without front inner wheel arch liners, with the predictable result that corrosion set in. Last year I patched the area, with a fibreglass mat beneath the holes, but this year I have taken all the old filler out and again taken it back to metal.



It looks fairly terminal, but as a replacement bonnet isn't on the cards just now, I treated the corrosion with KuRust, blowing the liquid right in between the bonnet and its underside strengthening metal with an airgun on the compressor.



With that well cured and dry overnight, I did the same with some epoxy resin, ensuring that it coated the whole area, above and below and in between.



With that cured overnight, I worked Isopon P38 into every nook and cranny, to start building up a first layer. A bit like decorating a Christmas cake really.



With that well cured, I did a succession of thin coats of filler to achieve a reasonable profile, sanding down after each. After four coats, it was beginning to get there, so I wafted over the area with primer to show up the imperfections. So tomorrow I shall wet it with much diluted Fairy liquid, to show up further profiling work to be done.



When that's done, I shall re-mask the car and respray the bonnet edge black, back to the strake line (?). Then after rubbing the black down on all the areas, I shall go round with the clear lacquer coats. Meanwhile, on Ray's car,



he has been working away on his paintwork too, and was also pleased to receive a pair of brake back plates to fit on the rear of his car.


Cheers

Paul

 

[t-tony]

Some good repair work there Paul, I have had to do many similar jobs on cars I've owned when money was tight when we had a young family. Only thing I would have done in addition would have been to cut some of the scabby rusty bits out to slow the return of bubbling on the panels. Keep up the good work mate. Soon be spring

Tony.

 

[Pls]

Some good repair work there Paul, I have had to do many similar jobs on cars I've owned when money was tight when we had a young family. Only thing I would have done in addition would have been to cut some of the scabby rusty bits out to slow the return of bubbling on the panels. Keep up the good work mate. Soon be spring

Tony.

Thanks Tony. Yes, it takes me back to repairing my first cars, nearly fifty years ago. We may still be on a tight budget, but we are certainly rich in every other way, especially with a Z3 to gad about the Highlands in!

I expect you're right about cutting more of the rusty bits away. I was probably wanting to keep as much of a guide to the profile as possible. Anyway, if it lasts a couple of years I shall be happy.

And it's frosty outside, but looking quite spring-like this morning. I'll need to get the wood burner going full tilt when I start today!

Cheers

Paul

 

[t-tony]

There was a frost here first thing but it’s almost like spring now, tee shirt weather

Tony.

 

[Pls]

I've spent another enjoyable couple of days gradually getting the scabby bits of Ratty's paintwork sorted a bit.



So I have now sprayed two coats of lacquer over the Cosmos black on the sills and bottom corners of the front and rear wings on both sides, without getting any runs. Then it was on to the bonnet side, again with two coats, and no runs!



So now I shall leave it till Monday before bringing it home, when it will be good to inspect it in daylight. It's not perfect, but I think it will pass everyday muster. Then I shan't touch it for a further week or two leaving it all to harden off before buffing it to get rid of the edges with over spray and bring up the shine. But it's looking a lot better than before, and it should last a year or two hopefully. Tomorrow is therefore a Black Isle ZedShed day of rest!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

After a day of rest, I took the bandages off Ratty this morning, being careful not to pull the tape off too harshly so it wouldn't hurt! Or pull any paint off.



So, before any cutting or polishing, the bonnet edge which had the open wound looks a lot better. If you peer at it, it's obvious that it's been filled, but Ratty doesn't do catwalks, so it doesn't matter! The "strake line" where I masked the area, needs a little cutting back, but isn't too obvious.



The wing bottom corners and rear wheel arch edges came out looking much better too.



But the main thing is that the scabby bonnet edge no longer catches the eye. So all in all, I think the time spent over a few hours each day for a couple of weeks will have been worth it, with an overall cost of about £35 for rattle cans of primer, Cosmos black and lacquer. The other consumables were around in the garage anyway.

Lots more time is now required for detailed tidying up with T Cut and then polish. Happy days!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

This morning I dealt with the area just above the n/s rear wheel arch. I had gone back to bare metal to remove the rust blisters in the paint, treated and painted it, with the final coat of lacquer going on beautifully. However, when I started cutting it gently and then polishing it, there was a hint of the grey primer showing through the edge of the Cosmos black under the lovely finish of the lacquer. So yesterday I had rubbed the whole area down, and resprayed it black. This morning I rubbed that down and resprayed the area with two coats of lacquer. Fortunately these went on ok, so just some gentle cutting and polishing tomorrow. In between this, I cut and polished the other areas.



The sills have come up quite well, but on the wing there is still a ding just above the indicator repeater which would need the panel off to deal with properly. Next year perhaps!

At Sara's prompting, I have also started on the small areas of rust just below the quarter lights. Again, they really need the windows out, trim out etc to deal with them properly.



Anyway, I chiselled (!) the paint bubbles and rust off, rubbed down and treated with KuRust, running it well in under the rubber trim.
So tomorrow, a little filling and some careful masking and painting!



But Ratty is definitely champing at the bit - it's nearly two weeks in the shed! Mind you the weather's been pants, but should be perking up at the weekend. Maybe. I'll be very glad to be driving it again!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

TA-DA!



After two weeks having it's various skin conditions treated in the Black Isle ZedShed, Ratty emerged today, happy to be out in the sunshine.



Sara and Margaret look suitably impressed (!) But we soon had the hood down and went for a run in the sunshine.



I forgot to get the black and white numberplate screw covers in Halfords. When we got home, the rain held off long enough to wash today's road grime off. I also decided to do what I could to delay the nearside of the bonnet rusting through, although it's not nearly so bad. So I used my airbrush to spray KuRust into the inaccessible cavity between the bonnet skin and its supporting panels underneath.



Spraying it in from the highest opening, I angled it around until it was seeping out along the bottom edge.



I'm not sure how much good it will do, but you never know. I shall deal with the accessible rusty bits in due course. One day I may find a decent Cosmos bonnet within a hundred miles of Inverness!

Anyway, the weather forecast is quite good for tomorrow, so we're off for a day out with the hood down yippee!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

With a weather forecast of dry and sunny periods, we set off to Fochabers on the road down to Aberdeen, where we had coffee and bought fresh vegetables and herbs at Gordon Castle. A nice fast run, helped by the improved aerodynamics resulting from the removal of rust bubbles in the paint!

We then came back to Lossiemouth for lunch - a bit surf and turf: turf all over my shiny new paintwork,



And surf coming over the harbour wall,



Not over the Z3 fortunately.

According to the BMW options listing for the car, the "production date" was 18 Mar 1998. I know there's discussion about what that actually refers to, but it's good enough to count as Ratty's birthday, so he'll be 22 next week: half my son's age and a third of mine! So about a grandchild's age really! Anyway, I've ordered a surprise birthday present - a Front Bumper Number Plate Mounting Backing Plate! Used, from eBay. The front number plate us currently just screwed straight on to the bumper, but it's not straight, and the screws are scabby. So anyway, it may or may not turn up in time, but hey.

Lovely to be driving the car again after two weeks: hood down all day, except when parked up.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

Spontaneous trip in to Cromarty this morning, the Farmers' Market was on. No signs of panic buying, although the guy from the organic farm up the road sold out of local garlic just before we got there



For various reasons, it looks as though Ray's blue Z3 is going to change hands, with the new owner an acquaintance in Cromarty. It was the one that I was originally going to buy, but Ratty was road worthy more quickly. Ray's done a great job on the car, so it's good that it'll still be around, no doubt visiting the Shed when required.



Perhaps I should have lent him my tyre foam!

Cheers

Paul