Jowett Kestrel Rebuild & Restoration

[julian]

The bumpers were missing from the car when I received it and hoped to be able to find some. As a backup I had visited John Follows some time ago to make some measurements on his Kestrel and make templates of the various bumper curves and fixing brackets. I found a local engineer who carries out a lot of heavy metal repairs to farm machinery and he has succeed in making the bumpers from this information and photographs I had taken. After a bit of adjustment and remaking some smaller parts I fitted the rear bumper in place on the support plates:

and then mounted the luggage rack in place:

I'll probably get the parts powder coated and look at getting the bumper sections chrome plated once they've been sanded & polished

[julian]

I've been busy working on the front wings since my last post, and I have to say this has been a labour of love, but will see the bodywork repairs nearing completion.

So here and the following posts show the progress in pictures!

RHS wing - front view

RHS wing - rear view

[julian]

.. and on to the LHS wing, which was even worse than it looks!!

RHS front - before

RHS rear - before

[julian]

..and then after many house of grinding, sanding, metal bashing, riveting & MIG welding, photos of some of the repairs.

[julian]

.. views of whole wings ready for filling:

LHS front - after

LHS rear - after

[julian]

... and then filled/sanded, filled/sanded and ready to spray:

LHS front

LHS rear

[Tony Fearn]

Looking good.
Tony.

[julian]

Thanks Tony. Yes, slowly getting there!

I’ve spent the last few days spaying primer and several fill/flatten/spay cycles and the wings are starting to look ok, but need a bit more work yet before I can think about a gloss coat. I'm going to mount the wings and front valance in place soon to check mountings and alignment & will post a photo.

I took a couple of pictures of the underside repairs, before applying a liberal coating of Hammerite, which might hold back the rust a few years!

[julian]

So, as promised here are photos of the filled and primed front wings mounted on the car along with the front valance. This is the last of the bodywork repairs completed so its now down to painting the whole car. The weather will probably stop me completing this work to the final finish, but I should get a few coats of paint on before winter!!

[julian]

Having experimented with various spay guns from friends and cheap ones I bought from the well know German owned supermarket, I decided to splash out and buy a more professional gun - the difference is noticeable, but there is still a lot of variables and I'm just about getting the right pressure, volume & paint mixture under control.#

I had already sprayed the black section of the body and have now moved on to the front and rear wings, which are starting to look OK, but I am sure will need more work flattening and polishing. Eager, though to move on to painting the green sections, the photos below show progress on the doors and bodywork.

The shade of green is lighter than the final finish - I have a limited quantity of colour matched paint, so will keep this back for the final coat.

More coats needed, but there are limited opportunities at this time of year. I've found temperature isn't too much of a problem, but humidity is!!

Plenty of other work to keep me busy though.

[julian]

It's been a while since my last post due to slow progress over winter and other projects of the decorating kind

With the better weather I've been able to resume spraying and have now deposited lots of paint on the body panels. I still haven't mastered getting a gloss finish from the spray gun, so a fair bit of flattening and compounding will be needed to improve the finish.

Time though to start putting everything back together! Some time ago I asked about the fixing of the lower rear body panel I finally got the answer by taking a photo of the underside of John Follows' Kestrel which showed a small bracket bolted to the panel bracket, which I duly manufactured as shown below. Wood screws are then used to mount to the timber on the side of the body.

Fiting the bonnet will be next which requires making a central mounting bolt - thanks to Tony for one bolt which I can use and also use as a template. The bonnet latch mechanism from both sides is missing, so again thanks to Tony for the cardboard templates taken from the parts on Mary Ellen

[Chris Spencer]

Julian - It looks like you are applying a cellulose paint finish - I can probably help you with achievement of a good quality finish - but can you advise me on what thinners you are using - not particularly the brand but looking at the results that you are obtaining I am guessing you are using a 'Standard Cellulose Thinners' - can you confirm ?

Thanks Chris

[julian]

Hi Chris. Yes I am indeed using cellulose paint. I used standard thinners for the primer, and fast thinners for the gloss coat. I bought the paint and thinners from Nu Agane and the thinners is marked SWS high quality antibloom thinners on the can.

I'm using a A.N.I. F150 PLUS-S HPS gravity Spraygun with a 1.4mm jet and a Clarke Panther 10/500 compressor set at around 3 bar. I've set the fan to a "hand span" and the flow control is opened about 4 turns. Any help and tips on getting a good finish would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris Spencer]

Julian - Apologies for the slow response - I think that you have two things working against you - firstly the time of year that you have been painting in - you now have a good base on your panels from a paint prospective - if you now flat this back with some 600 / 800 wet & dry to provide a good key and now paint it but forget using the anti bloom thinners that you already have - what you need is a branded 'High Gloss Cellulose' thinners - HMG, Glasurit, Lechler, Sikkens, Octoral, Max Meyer, Mipa, PPG, Spies Hecker, Nexa Autocolour, RM, Lesonal, Pro Spray are all well known quality brands - and should give you a superior finish to what you have achieved to date - with higher air temperatures and the air less damp you should get some good results and it will be far easier than attempting to polish a finish onto what you already have - good luck - Chris

[julian]

Thanks for the advice Chris. I will get hold of the high gloss thinners. I have a limited quantity of colour matched paint and intend to use this as a final coat at some point so will do as you advise. In the meantime I have set myself a target of driving the car to the Jowett Employees Reunion on 12th August so I am pushing ahead with re-assembling the car and making parts as needed.

I've had the parts for the rear bumper for some time and have finally got these powder coated. Again in the interest of getting the car on the road, I've polished the steel quarter bumpers and will varnish to keep the rust away for a while at least. Longer term these will be chrome plated.