Resto: Front doors are hung

Friday Night

Righto, I'll admit once again it took a little more time than I thought as this is something new and unknown to me but you just can't rush a fine work of art in the making....
I put em on, I took em off, I put em on, I took em off, you get the picture of how the proceedings went and then they were still sitting up a little high  GGGrrrrrrrrrr,  so after some more intense tweaking of the old hinges here and there, some measuring of this and that to keep both sides all square with the front cowl I was finally happy and satisfied with what sat before me under the bright fluosencent lights of my little rustic workshop on this humid December night as the family splashed about the swimming pool no more than 15ft away and what the hell was I thinking!! I should be in that pool cooling off, dropping my usual bomb or two off the deep end to wave up the waters a little and enjoying the good times but no, I was sweating it out, covered in shed grime and dust while constantly getting my feet tangled and then  triping over the air compressor hose, one day I will buy a retractable hose reel for that thing as it annoys me no end, anyway here's a few photos, they both swing well and are sitting all square so the next thing to do is to cut and check out the two centre post slots in the main timber rails that the rear doors swing off...... Cheers

Saturday

Saturday morning came and went pretty quickly as I completed a few jobs around our home but by 2pm I was back out at it again as I had this mad plan in my head to get all the doors and the centre posts installed this weekend and it was surprisingly starting to unfold that way and look like I just might get there.

As always the first attempt is a little slow on the first side due to me being unsure of how to tackle it, but with constant measuring and also keeping a steady hand and head I was pretty bloody happy with the final position of the drivers side centre post, with the front door alignment to the post and also the angle of the post (they lay out at the top).

Soon I was tackling the passengers side centre post with more confidence and after a quick group discussion with Ray on the phone to sure up a few if's and how do's, I knew what and where to measure and it all fell into place quite quickly, job done!

Measurements were taken from a centre point on the car chassis to both sides on the upper sections on each post and I was spot on, lucky guess!!...

I have installed some temporary brackets onto the lower part of the centre posts to the main timber rails just to hold them in place while I install the rear door hardware and then hang the rear doors, this way if I have to make adjustments I can easily do it and then when all is correct I can bolt them up properly, also the panels or tinware are just siting on the timber frames as I have not nailed them in to position yet, thats the last thing you do, well thats the plan anyway...

Sunday will see the rear doors being installed, I hope!..

Today I felt like an old time mastercraftsmans in his workshop, felt but not operating his tools like one...it all went rather smoothly which can be a little bit of a worry as this means I generally have missed something, time will time folks - Cheers

Sunday

I was up earlish and by about 8am I hit the floor running to the workshop, opened up the double doors, flicked on the lights, radio and the air compressor then I was into it.

Firstly the old hardware had to be screwed off the two old rotten centre posts, then I buffed up all the metal plates, old screws and the backs of the hardware to remove any old surface rust, then they were given quick spray of lanolin, again I want to keep the whole thing looking "as is" and rustic...

This was all then transferred over to the new centre posts which I had mounted up yesterday onto Monty so that now I could open and close the front doors by using the handle, after I had completed this I then again had to remove the old door hinges from the disused sections, buff and clean them up and as always a little more chiselling was needed to get them to sit just right onto the new timber, this hammer and chisel work is a bit of fun....

By 3pm I had it all knocked on the head with the rear doors both fitted up nice, they were sitting level with them both swinging well, they cannot lock into place just yet as the locking/latch mechanism is located on the rear tub section of the car and this is far from ready to be installed yet.....That's a big job and one that I think about often now as I am nearing the rear of the car

After my weekends work I had to roll old Monty out into the daylight for a good photo opp and also so that I could walk around it and study it's lines and panelwork placement from a distance.... All looked good to me :)

Thanks for taking an interest and following my progress as I got a few emails this weekend.... Cheers