Gatordads Defender to multiwilliams build/restore

gatordad

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Well this project has been on my want to do list for at least 2 1/2 years now, I bought a Defender and it sat in my garage for over a year.

I am knee deep in the middle of it but I have made enough progress to start a thread.

Here is the cab I bought

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I know it looks good in the pictures but it was touched up with latex, in between the art and there were way too many scratchs and dings and imperfections for my anal self to be satisified, plus the bottom of the cab's plywood was splitting and breaking apart by being moved around without any leg levelers for way to long.


I started by gluing and bondo-ing the base repair seen here
I used a needle and syringe to inject wood glue into the splitting plywood, clamped it tight

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After the glue dried, I had a solid piece of wood to fix, so I started with the bondo.

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After the several coats of bondo to get the gouges splits and chipping done, I still am not happy......
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I thought about cutting out and redoing the base alltogether but I have a bunch of scrap wood in my garage, so I bring a piece of 1X4 pine to my brother in-laws and rip it on his table saw to reinforce the inside of the base.

Here is a shot of one piece in.
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Doing it this way cleans up the appearance and provide the base to fill the rest in with bondo.

I glued and brad nailed these guys to the origional base, it not moving anywhere! Looking a little better huh?

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I also had 5/8 of an inch to fill to swap this guy to a stainless steel coin door

My brother in-laws table saw comes in handy again
Ripped a piece that was nice and straight and traced the curve
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After a few minutes at the grinder, some wood glue and clamps I have a proper sized coin opening for the stainless steel door.
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Next come the part I hate the most all the bondo filling
 
I was hoping to save the origional art but the more I looked at it the more I realized I wanted this game to be perfect so off came the paint, and I ordered some Defender Stencils.

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Wow, you are sanding ALL of the art off, huh.
I'm actually in the middle of the exact same project, a Defender (that was converted & painted over) in to a Defender/stealth Multi-Willimas.
I sanded everything down until smooth and bondo'd all the dings & dents but there was still some art left. I just primered yesterday and it came out great...condidering it was the first time I ever used an HVLP gun to paint.
I plan on painting it the semi-gloss black base voat today.

Lookin' good. Good luck.
 
Just some standard Bondo pic's

If you seen my thread stating "I hate bondo" this is why, I am no pro at it, so it took at least 3 times of Bondo sanding, finding more imperfections, repeat bondo and more sanding, finding more areas that needed attention, bondo and sanding, I guess as I am getting older I am running thin on patients.

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Got it primed

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Bondo repair of the t-molding groove

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nice and tight now

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last one of these

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Rustoleum Semi gloss black, I rolled 2 coats, sanded down any roller marks then used, preval sprayers to spray on the final coat, I like to lay the cab flat and spray it, that way even if I screw up and apply too much paint on one spot it won't run and or drip, and it all levels out when its flat. Let it sit at least 2 hrs before standing it back up and I think it looks FANTASTIC.

I'll post more pic's about paint, after I get off the camera.
 
Did you thin with acetone? The only time I've used that paint, and I will again, was using acetone, as directed on the label. I liked how it turned out, it just seemed to take a long time to dry.
 
Did you thin with acetone? The only time I've used that paint, and I will again, was using acetone, as directed on the label. I liked how it turned out, it just seemed to take a long time to dry.

yeah, I'm using the same paint for mine. I'm thinning it with mineral spirits and it's working pretty god. Just sprayed on the last coat. It seems to take 24 hr's to fully cure.
I just got the stencils from Gamestencil.com today so I'll be stenciling this weekend for sure.

Lookin' good Gator.
 
After the first coat,

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I rolled 2 coats, lightly sanded with 220 any roller marks and or high spots, wiped it down and sprayed the final coat with those preval sprayer's.

When I sprayed the cab I like to lay it flat so if I screw up and apply too much paint in one area, it won't run or drip and the paint levels really well when it's thinned properly, so I just let it sit on its side for about 2 hours and then stand it back up.

Results are absolutely fantastic for the ghetto no-compressor, no paint gun garage restore.

Busy week this weekend so the stencils may have to wait till next week........

Perhaps I can build the power distribution block or tie off and group my harness runs this weekend instead.
 
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Wow, nice job! Looks to be a nice mirror finish, of which I can see a BMX bike in it!
 
That was the first coat
This is a mirror finish :D

Thanks for the comments guys!

Well I'm finally done with my last coat of black
took 2 weekends longer than I expected, I was almost done last week but a fricking bug ruined my perfect paint job so I redid it tonight.
Can't wait to start the stencils.........


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looks great...Love my Defender machine. I did not go into the detail you are restoring it, I just made it work, then it quit...something with the power supply...
 
What are you planning on using as the CP and Overlay? I thought about doing the
same to my defender but having to fab a CP to match one of the overlays made me
think twice.
 
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