Getting Back To It
Jan 2007
It's hard to believe how quickly time flys, and how little progress I've made. With the Miura moving forward with August 2007 in mind, it's time I get serious about finishing and selling the Urraco.
I decided to get back into it slowly, by starting with the louvers. As you've seen from the original photos, they were a copper/gold color, which won't go well with the orange paint.
Like the body, the side louvers have been taken down to metal. Overall, they are in good shape. Each is supposed to have two screws brazed in at the top to mount it to the car. Some of the louvers don't have the screws attached, and the loose screws are a variety of types. I plan to remove all of the screws and braze in a new, matching set.
Having a sand blast cabinet is really great. I started striping them using a chemical stripper, then used a wire brush on a drill, and finally blasted them clean. The sand blaster gets right into the tightest corners to get all the old paint and dirt out. Fortunately none had any rust.
This was a couple of half-days to get them clean. The large louvered engine cover is at a shop being blasted clean because it's too large to fit in my cabinet. Unlike the Miura, the Urraco louvers are welded into one assembly. On the Miura, each louver is seperate. I'd like to find the slightly-metalic grey color that some of the Lamborghinis used on the louvers. It would look proper and nice against the orange. If I can't find the right paint code, I'll paint them semi-gloss black.
This past weekend I picked up the rear louvers from being media-blasted to bare metal, and primered all of the parts. There is still some welding and minor repair work to do, like braze in new screws, but I wanted to protect the bare metal from any rust or other contamination. This way they are protected until the final coat of matt black.
The rear louver assembly was a bit too big for my sand blast cabinet at home, so I had it done at a shop.
And finally, here are the side louvers in primer. The rear louvers are primered too but I didn't get a photo.
