Barney's Amazing Sand Scorcher Resto (not by Barney)

[jonboy1 2943]

So I've been a bit lax with my build updates as I've been juggling my bits and bobs (no, not those, I'm not that clever, or flexible) with commissions and family issues and work, so it's been a case of doing a bit here and a bit there as and when.

This is one I've been working on for a little while following the Ranger light resto for @barneys66 It's to be a slight deviation from a full box art, although the body will be full box art as per the one I did for Mark a while back.

As I'm finding is usual with projects from Barney, the starting package had seen better days:

But thankfully it was pretty much all complete. You'll all have seen hundreds of SRB resto builds so I won't clog up server space with more pics, but everything was stripped and cleaned, the shocks were refurbed, all the metal parts were either sanded, primed and painted flat black or given a brushed finish depending on where it was going. The chassis plate was also sanded and polished, as were all the plastic covers and boxes. Next up, the electrics were all cleaned thoroughly (for they were very, very grubby) a servo arm was replaced with a correct item, a replacement receiver box sourced and all assembled back properly. All original or equivalent vintage hardware was used bar the rosette washers which were new.

The chassis is on hold at this stage as I'm waiting for a couple of parts to arrive, so for now, it looks like this:

In the background, you will no doubt have noticed a rather unpleasant looking bodyshell. And you would be correct in thinking it looks horrible, for it does. 

May I present to you, the winner, of the "now that's what I call a bad bodyshell.....ever" award, courtesy of @barneys66

I mean - just look at it:

It looks like someone painted it with a 3" brush that they had just dug up from their garden, dunked in some wood gloss paint and then took the car for a run around a quarry without waiting for it to dry.

I don't know how you could possibly achieve such a bad finish without intentionally trying to make it terrible.

I mean, just look at those arches - there should be a beautiful trim edge all the way around - but they're completely covered over with a paint layer so thick and lumpy it resembles custard mixed with the contents of a vacuum cleaner.

and that green colour you can see on the inside is paint - not dirt:

....and Mr @barneys66 wants this to end up like this:

Should be interesting to say the least.

Watch this space....

[mman2005 443]

Chassis looks beautiful and clean so I'm sure the body is also in the right hands. Looks forward to seeing you save it and the process of removing the old custard  I imagine this is going to be very satisfying 

[ruebiracer 1046]

1 hour ago, jonboy1 said:

Should be interesting to say the least.

Watch this space....

Nicely done, but you should tell Mr. Barney, that he reversed the rear light reflectors. Painting is correct, indicator over brake light and reflector, but the glass is bottom up! This way it lights up the sky, not the road.

Otherwise it´s done outstanding with silver trim and black window rubber on the windows, never seen that done...

Kind regards,

Matthias

 

[barneys66 128]

@jonboy1 I think the original owner ran out of stickers before he could cover up the abominable paintwork..

Chassis looks amazing of course and come on, admit it, you must have giggled like a schoolgirl at the prospect of turning that sow's nostril into a thing of beauty.

 

@ruebiracer good spot, but that's another SS not mine, so I wait JJ's screams of indignation / tears of frustration.. 

[ruebiracer 1046]

3 minutes ago, barneys66 said:

 

@ruebiracer good spot, but that's another SS not mine, so I wait JJ's screams of indignation / tears of frustration.. 

Yes, that´s why I mentioned it! You can order your shell correctly!

I wouldn´t be the one, that has to take off all that old paint, by the way! Guess if you can manage this job, you can do everything...

[jonboy1 2943]

1 hour ago, ruebiracer said:

Nicely done, but you should tell Mr. Barney, that he reversed the rear light reflectors. Painting is correct, indicator over brake light and reflector, but the glass is bottom up! This way it lights up the sky, not the road.

Otherwise it´s done outstanding with silver trim and black window rubber on the windows, never seen that done...

Kind regards,

Matthias

 

😨😭😭😱🤬🤢🤮

oh blinking Nora!!! You know, I looked at that as I posted it and thought "that doesn't look quite right" and then "no Jon - you must've spent over 100 hours on that - you wouldn't do something so silly as to put the lens on upside down...."

I have an uncomfortable call to make to an unsuspecting owner.....

There is a reason why you've never seen the silver trim in the window rubber done before - it's a blooming pain in the backside to do!  

But you're right - it does look nice  Thanks for the kind words......and ruining my week!

 

 

[Peter_B 997]

See what happens when you get carried away with a shiny new Durga @jonboy1? 

In your defence, I expect the shine, from the aforementioned Durga, dazzled you for a second and caused you to mix up those lights.

 

[acprc 1443]

@jonboy1 i fear for your hands with that paint stripping!

[Carmine A 2046]

@jonboy1 That's probably the WORST paint job I've ever seen!!!  Well, if you like a challenge... 

I personally would immediately go looking for another Body - but don't fret.... You might get lucky, and they used HOUSE PAINT on it, which would at least be easier to strip. 😉  One can hope!! 

It's going to be INTERESTING to see how you sort this!! 😁

[jonboy1 2943]

Just a quick update:

I've done 3 applications on the body so far and made some reasonable progress. 95% of the thick lumps and grit have gone and I'm starting to see bare plastic! Unfortunately it's uncovering some nasties - it looks like at some point in the past someone has tried to remove paint with something that's attacked the plastic (or left it on too long and it dried in place) as it's very pitted in places and there's some heavy sanding marks on the doors.

This being a Barney build however, it's exactly what I would expect  

So I'll go and get some more paint remover and keep going until we get all the paint off. 

FYI - I found at least 4 different colours under there - it was white, green, red and then white again, with traces of blue and yellow too!

 

[Carmine A 2046]

Jon... You're making PROGRESS!! I'm starting to think it can actually be CLEAN again - even if some spot putty might be required. Good Show!!

[barneys66 128]

Shall we leave it there and call it Patina..? 

[jonboy1 2943]

1 hour ago, barneys66 said:

Shall we leave it there and call it Patina..? 

Oooooh I love that idea - can I still charge you a handsome amount for it though? 

[Carmine A 2046]

Idiots in California pay thousands of dollars for that "patina"!!! 😜😂

[barneys66 128]

 

2 hours ago, jonboy1 said:

Oooooh I love that idea - can I still charge you a handsome amount for it though? 

Wait, what, no! 

 

32 minutes ago, Carmine A said:

Idiots in California pay thousands of dollars for that "patina"!!! 😜😂

And some idiots in the UK pay to bring that stuff over here! 

[jonboy1 2943]

Imported?! Pah. 

That came from Dudley and were made usin' thousands o used teabags from t' factory tea rooms.

[jonboy1 2943]

Contrary to appearances I haven't just been spending all my time over the past couple of weeks building my Durga. Honest! No really!

I think I did another 4 applications of paint stripper on this and then resorted to a lot of elbow grease. 

It's getting there, but there are a few issues that need to be dealt with now. First, there's about 5 cracks in the body - one in the A pillar, one on the engine deck, one in a rear wing, one in the front wing and one around the front panel mount hole. 

I've managed to undo some of the very heavy scratch marks and pitting, but there's still a fair amount there, so I'm going to have to see what else I can sand out before cracking open the filler. The other issue is that when it was heavily sanded in the past some of the fine detail on the waistline trim line and window frames has been lost. I'm also worried about some of the panel lines disappearing. I'll get the scribing tool out on them and see if I can clean out some more paint and debris and go from there...... oh, and the rain gutters have seen better days too!

[Carmine A 2046]

You've the patience of Jobe my Friend!😲  I would have binned that Body weeks ago!!!  But then, you are making progress. All this is going to pay off in the end.

[jonboy1 2943]

It's been a while since I did an update on this. I took a break from it for a couple of weeks to do Grumpys Hi-Lux as that had been sat in a box in my garage since the beginning of lockdown I think and I could see this job going on for a while! I've also had a bunch of major family issues going on so spare time has been at even more of a premium, but hopefully things are improving there. 

Anyway, we left the Scorcher shell looking very bumpy and sorry for itself - aaaaaaaaand it still is!  It still looks horrible, in some ways worse, but honest - it's much better than it looks:

As you can see from how the guide coat has been sanded, the whole thing was just gouged and scraped and chemically attacked from front to back, so I ended up practically covering the whole thing with a thin layer of putty and flatting the life out of it with 800grit wet and dry. Once the worst of it was repaired I gave it a guide coat of pink and repeated the process until we got to what we're looking at now. It looks horrible, but up close and to the touch I reckon it's not far off a baby's bottom for smoothness. (Are we still allowed to say things like that? Should I reference my bottom instead?) There are still some issues to fix - the bottom of the windscreen for one - it just crumbled away, so that needs replacing, along with the quarterlight upright, and once I've got an even coat of paint on it I can look at what to do about the arch and body trim lines, as they might need some work to bring them back.

Overall though, I feel a lot better about where it is now than how it was looking in the previous update.

And there isn't a hint of an ESC or motor catching fire so I'm well happy with it!! 

[barneys66 128]

Ooh, patina'd pink. I wonder.. 

[jonboy1 2943]

12 hours ago, barneys66 said:

Ooh, patina'd pink. I wonder.. 

Stop that, right now!!!

[Carmine A 2046]

Jon, I'm properly impressed!! 👌👏👏👏👏 I don't know a lot of People who have put all that work into a beaten Body.... 

But in the end, it's a SCORCHER! Everyone loves a Scorcher. 😁 I may get one next year..... Don't worry, I'm not asking for anything. 😊 

If we get through the next few Months, things are going to be great after March. 😉

[jonboy1 2943]

Just a quick little update - mainly to assure @barneys66 that I've not left the country - I've spent another happy couple of evenings sat in my cold, damp, dark garage, working by candlelight and candle heat, sanding and filing the body of his Sand Scorcher. It doesn't look any different really, but I went over the whole thing with several needle files and sanding sticks picking out all the body lines and trim. Oh, and I also rebuilt the windscreen frame and side quarterlight pillar.

All going well, if I get a dry and not freezing cold day I will get a coat of primer on it to see exactly what it's looking like now!

[jonboy1 2943]

Morning peeps!  

I've been beavering away at this body in the cold, dark days over the winter break and, as a beautiful and convenient metaphor for spring - I can see brighter days over the horizon.....

Happy with how it was looking in the previous post I confidently gave the body a coat of primer and was horrified to discover that it was still as bumpy as a British B road. So, some extensive sanding later I gave it another coat of primer and it now looks like this:

 

 

There are a couple of little blemishes to fix and I need to re-fix the quarterlight upright again as I got a bit heavy-handed with the sanding block 

I don't think we're a million miles away from it being ready for a few colour coats - and of course, being a Sand Scorcher, that's where the REAL fun begins.... 

ps: apologies for the slightly blurry pictures - I think there may still be a bit of Drambue in the system  

[jonboy1 2943]

Wow - was it really January 5th I last did an update on this?!

Well, good news for those who had given up hanging on my every word and assumed I'd finished this ages ago and forgotten to update the build: I haven't finished it!  Apologies go first and foremost (and entirely in fact) to @barneys66 along with gratitude for being so patient. To be fair though, this has not been straight forward, and it's all his dastardly doing!

First, as you may recall, this SS was destined to become a beautiful, box art tribute. Somewhere along the road to that gleaming destination a bump in the otherwise smooth tarmac called resto was hit and it careered us off into a muddy ditch of fanciful ideas, more work and more Sand Scorchers being purchased. To be fair, I "may" have been partly to blame as I do recall saying at some point that I was concerned it might not be possible to get this body (bearing in mind its condition) to absolute perfect box art status, so suggested maybe looking for an alternative body and making something more fun out of this one. That progressed into buying a whole extra vintage SS to be a perfect "as built" box art (so with kit bumpers, not alloy box art) and getting imaginative with this body.

As you may have picked up on from the 1:1 van @barneys66 has (scroll up, then back down to here) he likes a bit of patina he does, so a plan was formulated for a sun bleached, sat in the desert for 50 years, version. After a lot of back and forth with pictures of rusty bugs a "look" was decided upon. Now, I know there are some people who love a good waterproof jacket that will say "ah, that's not possible because those parts would be fibreglass so wouldn't rust!" and I applaud you, for you are right. Or at least you would be were it not for the amazing bodyshop this particular baja was taken to in my imaginary 1:1 world, where every panel was hand beaten out of steel.  So there: Ya boo, sucks to be you. 

So - I'm really annoyed with myself here as I didn't take any pictures of this - but I painted the body in full Sand Scorcher livery, and have to say, considering where we started with it, it came out looking really rather nice. I then applied a set of MCI-Racing decals, sat back, admired my handiwork, and then set about ruining it.....