Ben,
Yes, do give us updates on your progress. While many of us have had the
pleasure of assembling a British car or two, few of us were the original
assemblers; or to put it another way, the OPOs (original previous
owners).
Bare aluminum will stay shiny for quite some time though putting a
protective coating on isn't be a bad idea. The real problem with
aluminum is the ease with which it can be dented. Unfortunately there's
not a lot you can do about that other than to be vigilant. I assume
your Seven will have plastic fenders so they should be less vulnerable
to stone damage than the fenders on my snake. Cobras and AC Aces had
aluminum panels pop-rivited inside the wheel wells to protect the
fenders. The bottoms of these panels and other exposed areas were
sprayed with a rubbery undercoat which not only provided moisture
protection but deadened the impact of junk thrown up by the tires.
Competition Cobras didn't have panels or undercoating and tended to get
quite a bit of stone dimpling along the tops of the fenders.
One thing to consider on your Seven is protecting areas that might be in
the path of stones and other debris kicked up by the tires. Michael
Sands has fairly wide tires on his Seven and I suspect a fairly wide
area behind them get "sprayed". This is certainly the case for my car.
The front of the rear flares are covered with stone pits and dings. 427
Cobras have protective covers on the front surfaces of their bulgy rear
fenders. The rear fenders on the Sevens I've seen appear to be even
more exposed.
Roland
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