back on the road ..........fingers crossed

[chugga boom]

more..............

[chugga boom]

a little more progress, don williamson gave me a steering wheel for my belna that was pretty badly damaged but you cant complain for free  , general opinion of others was to send it away and have it re manufactured this was not my opinion, i used fibre glass resin to repair the cracks after it was shot blasted, let this cure over night then used a very fine body filler to repair the rest, this was then etch primed to adhease to the plastic, then 2 pack high build primed, then coloured

[chugga boom]

more............

[chugga boom]

the black dust coat is called a guide coat for rubbing down, any imperfections stand out when flatting off so you keep flatting until all the black has gone

[ncundy]

Great stuff, very impressive finish!

[DavidLaver]

An impressive transformation.

Is the wheel now black?  It looks brown in the photo but it could just be picking up a reflection of something large like a roll of brown paper - or Warby just off the sunbed.

David

[chugga boom]

i did it a very dark brown, when i did my dads wheel i painted it black and it looks fine on his car with a black dash and door cappings etc, my origional wheel seems to be dark brown so i sent some old bakalite radio knobs off to the paint man and got him to match the colour, personal preferance just thought the brown would suit my car better than a black wheel, i am pleased with the overall finish and paint finish myself its turned out well concidering the wheel was basically scrap and it didnt cost me £400 to repair which is apparently how much it normally costs 

[DavidLaver]

Are these for your other (one of your other?) Augustas?   Chance of a new thread for that one?

I repaired an Austin 7 wheel with the pink fibre/filler, could be 20 years ago now, and its still fine so I've every confindence your repairs will hold.

Just looked at my Augusta wheel - not having your skills am still minded to split plastic covering off and cord bind.  I also like that look.  Something for the "project in its own right" department as and when...

David

[chugga boom]

no these are both for this augusta, my wheel is a bit tatty and the dash is a mess!! i bought the spares for my belna so rather than take mine off the road to sort its dash etc i thought i'd repair these parts instead making the swap over quicker and the car off the road for less time, dash is painted now so hopefully i will get them all fitted soon, as to repairing your wheel david what i've done to this wheel is really not hard, if you do decide to break all your plastic off let me know as i have a wheel with no plastic on it and would do you a deal 

[DavidLaver]

My wheel is some sort of after-market Carlos Fandango thing - I'll take a snap next time I have the camera out. 

Quite similar to the MG Bluemells wheel here:

http://www.steeringwheelrestoration.co.uk/car_steering_wheels_gallery.php?p=7

David

[davidwheeler]

Well done.  My Aprilia is sporting a Gussie wheel (I've forgotten just how this came about but I think they are very similar)  I have patched it up crudely but now I am inspired to do a better job.

[chugga boom]

with tatton park looming up yet again (i always leave things till last minuite!!) i thought i'd better get the dash underway, i've stripped out the instruments so that the pointers can be re painted and fitted to the new dash, i've also moved the ammeter  and temp gauge to a seperate panel that will be mounted under the dash to keep the dash standard and eventually sourced the correct blue dash lamp for the indicator warning  , hopefully by next weekend i'll have the columb painted and new dash etc fitted , sounds so easy when you say it quick!!

[chugga boom]

after a few months of motoring in the gussey the rear axle just all of a sudden developed an oil leak, 1st impressions where that the oil seal had gone in the half shaft end and that oil was coming out of the drain tube, however after a little investigation it proved to be coming from the spring mount  on the spring is a metal pin that locates into the axle casing, the recess in the axle tube is welded in from the factory and after 70yrs of use the weld had cracked all the way around and started to leak, i ground it off and put a suitable sized drift into the hole and moved it back into its correct possition with ease the re-welded and ground off again,

[chugga boom]

..............anyway after the repair all seems to be fine, next trail was a wedding , my friend was getting married and his wife wanted to use the augusta, wedding went well , photographers were impressed with car especially with it being pillarless

[DavidLaver]

Soon you'll have the matching pickup for the bride's mum.

David