Lead loading and yet more lead loading

Although the lead loading works well, it is very time consuming, and the blog is likely to get a little repetative for a while.

With the time it takes I wonder how carbodies managed to turn the estate shells out so quickly. I can only presume that practise makes the whole proceedure a great deal quicker, probably the blokes who did the shells were more adept at just putting the correct depth of lead on, and smoothing it better to the finished contours with the tallow coated paddles, I seem to put too little or too much on, both of which wastes time, if there is too little in parts, you only find out when you file it down, and then have to carefully melt more on without wrecking the rest of the work - too much lead means it takes longer to file down.

Even so I suspect that I am going to have to put a few hours in on the shell each evening, if I am to meet a commitment that I have for the car in November.

So todays work, the seams on the rear pillars, firstly showing all the stages,

clean the metal off

then apply flux and tin / solder solution

then apply heat to tin the metal

then melt the lead on

then using heat and a tallow covered paddle smooth the lead out

then file to shape

here's the other rear pillar done too

and finally the dents in the roof

That little lot took 7 hours, how long the rear hatch / valence area, and the 2 rear window frames will take is anybodies guess at present, I suspect a long time.

The blob of grey paint marks a small dent where rectification is needed - I have been marking body defects as  I notice them in grey primer, so I don't miss them later.

So hours worked now 597 - 7 hours today