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The primer is on but a missing rear panel is proving a pain for Ian and Matthew Budden as they work to restore a 1972 Valiant Charger.
This is the third instalment in our series which will track their progress as they aim to have the vehicle on the road by Christmas.
The rear panel was ordered in January but still hasn’t arrived.
“They said it would be here in two or three weeks but it’s more like two or three months,” Ian says in frustration.
And as we can all relate, life inevitably gets in the way and there was a three-week period when Matthew was unable to work on the car as he had a sick child to help care for.
Despite the setbacks they achieved their goal of having the main body in primer by the end of March. Before doing this they had to remove lots of rust and straighten a section that had been poorly repaired following a previous accident.
“The guy that originally crashed it used a dent puller to try and straighten it out and this did more harm than good,” explained Ian.
Another win for the father and son team has been the removal of the roof support which had been secured using bitumen based adhesive which absorbs water and increases the likelihood of rust. The support will be replaced using a urethane based adhesive.
Their next challenge is to restore the doors – working on trestle tables out in the natural light. Then they plan to focus on the underside of the car and will build a frame on casters to lift it up high enough rather than clambering around underneath.
Stay tuned to see how they go – will it really be on the road by Christmas ?