Sunday, July 29, 2007

Tool trouble then rapid progress

Here's the part I'm damn proud of.

It involved bending a section of the curved rear valance ( above the square hole) then welding in place and having a 5/10mm lip to place the flat plate onto.

The large vertical weld is where the rear valance and wing end did not meet exactly.

I placed a strip of steel approx 1" wide to the rear, bent to fit the curve and welded inplace.

I managed to fill most of the non meeting edges with weld.

The flat plate that rests in the base of the pointy thing and upto/on the rear boot corner was quite tricky. I got through lots of cardboard making the right shape template.

Still, it all went very well with no probs...............the secret to welding is grind all the things nearby shiny, get a good earth and listen to the weld..............like rapidly cooking bacon.



The only Blot on the landscape was the angle grinder dying.

Ma in Law bought it for me last x-mas from screwfix. Not a top make ( NOTE..always buy Bosch if your serious) but its been the most used tool and definitely a requirement.

However, one day it just did not switch on.

Checked the fuse....ok

Checked the kitchen socket....ok

Unpluged and removed the disc and guard...........scary stuff as this tool scares the life out of me.

Then I noticed two protrusions each side of the main body with a large screwdriver slot in the end. Removed these and the commutators sprang forth with a tiny blob of an excuse for a carbon block.......................Disaster, should I persue the probably frustrating and longwinded course of new parts through Screwfix, or should I source locally.

Anyway, since the rains was still with us I decided on local. B&Q ect, shed no light or idea on tool spares.

In fact I dont think any of the staff even knew what a motor commutator was.

Now, may I get on my high horse here. B&Q ect may be cheap, convenient and always open but there not a patch on" proper" hardware places. We have two in my town.

One just like"open all hours" for hardware only. Its amazing. Ask one of the elderly staff for a lock and they will have it all, and explain about 2,3 and 5 lever mortices, ease of installation and price and insurance complications and reliability. Same goes for aluminium ladders, parrafin,

Chicken wire, hinges, wheelbarrows, hammers, bolts and screws + trillions of other stuff.

All served by people friendly and happy and willing to talk and dressed in regulation stores issue Brown smock. Thats just one place.

The other place is for things electrical/electronic.These guys know it all, have it all, but are on a slightly different planet. It scares me a little.

So in I waltz with one mangled commutator. Have you got one of these ?

No, but we have on similar that you can "modify"

Well, for £2.30 why not.

Thats when the probs started. The carbon block was too large so I filed it with my swiss file, on the worktop in the kitchen.......................Big mistake, the dust is immoveable and gets everywhere. Wifey not happy.

Moved outside to workmate and rushing due to fact that imminent heavy storm due.

Still difficult to insert and remove carbon block. Then cover screw would not screw in totally.

Snipped spring shorter. Still no joy. Bent copper ends from carbon block/copper wire in several shapes, still no joy. However, shaking said grinder did momentarily show some life.

Anyways, to cut a long story short I buggered one and re-used the old one which was OK and fiddled the other eventually after lots of shaking and "gentle taps on the plastic retaining screw".

It now works...................thank **ck for that. It was almost touch and go between throwing it away and being electricuted in the rain outside.



Now we've had some respite in the rain the progress above has been made and not a small amount of filling and sanding.

Look......................................rapid progress.




Hours of sanding the rear lower valance applied by the previous owner left no nasty horror sories. Only a 50p sized hole in the very centre of the R/H crossmember end. Easily remedied by some fancy shaping of a 1mm thick steel and good welding/ filling skills.

Even after a good coat of primer some low spots were evident, so another round of filling and sanding. I must say this is very ffffrustrating. The different grades a sandpaper, sanding block, dust, mess, armache and annoyance that a pristine shape don't emerge.

So I moved onto removing the complete exhaust. Easy enough on the length of the car.

Easy enough on five of the six nuts under the manifold although three were a bit fiddly.

The six'th (NOT SIKTH, which is how annoying people pronounce it) however seems impossible to get to. The shaft of the ratchet extension is too thick, the engine base/sump flange won't allow the the socket to sit on fully since the extension is not perfectly vertical.

So a point to ponder on whilst the wifey tries to fill my head with DIY projects and things to do of a summer day in the garden.

More soon folks......................oh by the way visit Ricks site.........He's got more money and tools than me and is making a real good job of it.

http://rick-mgbgt.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A different corner

So I'm moving onto the rear corner now. Most of the LH side body is DONE !!!


The wing fits as well as its ever going to fit, and is covered in primer and red oxide. The doors in the correct place ( not quite but the Phillips screws in the hinge need drilling out and I ain't got any replacements, so its near enough for me at this stage, it closes and looks neat all round)


The all shiny new wing attaching bolts fitted.


Rear wing welded in position. ( almost. Need new inner outer section, see earlier re incorrect item purchased.)


I'm ignoring the 50p sized hole in the rear window edge. It looks fiddly to repair and is covered by chrome trim eventually.


That means a quick fix for me then.........maybe, and some time next summer.




Oh by the way have we had this summer yet ?????


Here's a view of what I've been up to.







Since the car is being converted to chrome bumpers I have to add the RH side pointy thing at the base of the lights. This is another item I purchased NEW from MGB Hive a few months ago on a rare spending spree. I actually comes complete, so I just chopped off half.


I have to add a couple of patches to base of rear valance where its welded to inner boot tray .


The fiddly bit is the horizontal section inside the pointy thing and up to the valance.


Mine has completely rusted away under the gauze and deep body filler that was there.


Still, I'm becoming quite accomplished at cutting cardboard templates, jigsawing sheet steel, grinding and welding. Thats for the coming weekend if we have no rain or something that resembles summer.


Must stop complaining though,as last year when it was red hot ( ah.. a distant memory) I couldn't be bothered to make a start on cutting, welding and grinding.


Just to keep it interesting here's another photo of the rear end. Note the lower valance, completely covered in filler by the previous owner. Had a little poke around and spotted rust at the bumper mounting holes. So, maybe I need to sand all this off before starting the above. If its bad news though that means a complete rear lower valance at £80 quid, ouch !




That reminds me. Since I,m over 18 months into the project I decided to have a review of the most useful tools to date. This is prompted by the fact that when I started I had absolutely no tools. In fact it never occurred to me that I would need Imperial sockets and spanners

Well it did really occur, since I'd worn out at least one toilet seat reading all things MG.

So here's the list, in order of usefulness for restoring old BL cars on a budget :-

1/. Trim tool remover.

Its a cross between a narrow paint scraper and a wide screwdriver. I got it for free as a print sample during a customer visit. I use it all the time for a/. Poking rusty holes, b/. separating spot welds, c/. smoothing bubbly paintwork, d/. removing underseal and rubberised gooey stuff, e/. prising panels and stuck down trim bits, f/. Phillips and standard screw removal. g/.wrapping J cloth round to clean inside light lenses and various parts.

2/. Penetrating Oil

As a matter of habit and long standing ritual I spray every nut and bolt I can see regardless of when I'm working on them or not. This is done at least every 2 weeks.

3/. Trolley jack

The cars been up/down so many times in so many places this has proven invaluable together with the axle stands. Remember I have no garage to work in so positioning the car for long periods is important.

4/. Electric 4-1/2" Hand Grinder

Scary tool to use. Very noisy. Needs love and attention and several types of discs. The Flappey layered one has been good but also the thin slicing disc is just as valuable. Good for heavy steel removal, light polishing of steel, de-rusting and shaping steel.

5/. Hammerite Ku-Rust

When panels are inaccessible and too awkward to remove/replace or just covered in surface rust, just paint it on and it does its stuff. I use it loads.

6/. Heavy Aluminium faced hammer. Nuff said.

7/. Quality Imperial socket set.

See earlier posts for my folly at cheap and cheerful

8/. The wonderful Mr Porter and his MG restoration guide, closely followed by the DVD of the wonderful Mr Mark Evans "Is born" series of MG restoration.

9/. E-bay My main source of tools and parts, especially the MIG welder.

10/. Time and money.....................unfortunately I have very little of either.

More next week folks,

Sunday, July 08, 2007

As you can see, or maybe not some things have been achieved.


I have spent lots of time getting the wing ready and prepared, mostly on the inside and adding filler to the sill/B-post join.
Why is it that things that seem to worry you most and up being the easiest to fix.


The wing mounting holes for one.


The beading and wing fit for another.


The fitting of the of the wing for yet another.


Anyways, back to the order of things since the last post.


I had applied lots of filler to the B-post/sill join and to the scuttle where it meets the wing top.


I must say that I ended up sanding most of it off.


Then the rain came....................and boy did it, in bucket loads.


So not much happened for the last two weeks, except for the rain.


Sunday evening saw a veritable monsoon, from 8pm onwards till about 10.30 next day.


During the brief interlude I noticed..........Horror of horrors that the blue cover over the MG had blown off some time Sunday evening/Mon morning and left the car open to the elements.


Well, elements is a pretty light word so I'll say pissing heavy torrential rain.


Luckily, only the outer edges of the inner car were damp with light rusting on the floor & sill areas. And for some strange reason one bucket in the back containing all my precision hammers 3 inches deep in water !!.


The blue Poly cover is pretty porous though, particularly where its been dragged over the roof on the ariel base. I did have a tennis ball over the protrusion but that's long gone into the void of disappearing restoration parts.


So Monday lunchtime off to good old B&Q during a firm but constant drizzle.


£3.99 for same Blue poly cover, 3 mtrs x 4 mtrs with fastening holes, what a bargain.


Gawd.......................what a size !!! You could cover half of Derbyshire with it.


Try fitting it in a drizzle and breeze enough to get you out of the harbour.


It was everywhere on the drive, Still its not porous (yet) and the biggest ball of wifey string helped to keep it in place, with the old ( porous yet much more manageable) cover over the top.It did its job for at least 2 weeks. Yes, that's how much rain we've had.


The work done to the inside of the wing worried me lots before I started.

It wasn't until a work related detour via Cambridge that I actually bought some more new stuff from the MGOC. A wing fitting kit to be precise, a 5/16 UNF nut, a 1/4 UNF nut and a headlight inner re-enforcing ring.

Spent all Saturday welding the 5/15 UNF nut under the wing top inner edge, making a cage for a strange British Leyland round 5/15UNF nut and welding up in same top inner edge, welding the 1/4 UNF nut to the inner wing mountings ( having first spent ages drilling out broken bolt and grinding away old nut ).

All just so the wing can go back on and be bolted in all its places.

Sunday saw me paint good old Hammerite Red lead all the inner wing rust prone areas, sand the sill B-post area, try again( 38th attempt) to remove the door hinges from the A post.

This but was aborted yet again.........which is a pity because the great big f**k off screwdriver I have has a hexagon on the shaft where it enters the handle so a ring spanner fits great and offers fantastic leverage. The phillips head is buggered though, thus it stays put....maybe !!

Ran a 5/16 UNF tap down the wing edge holes then undid the wing fitting kit.

Yipeeeeeee...........loads of new shiney screws, washers and spring washers + 3 nuts too !.

Fitted wing in a trice.......could even do the nuts up with fingers mostly.

Only had to use jack to press up bottom of wing so I could drill 3 holes to accept 3/16 screws with nut to attach to castle rail and jobs done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes it fits and looks good!!!!

To think I started this blog and spent ages in deep mid winter removing the wing, and now here I am still in July deep mid winter fitting the wing.

Removed it though and sanded and cleaned everything down one side.

Sprayed lovely clean Grey primer on door, wing rear wing, B-post and sill area, A post and finally inner front wing area.

Here have a look..............................................


How good it is to see it looking like a car again........Its given me a real sense of achievement.

Next session should see the door hung, sort of, maybe finally or time to reconsider the phillips screws again, maybe leave them.

Wing fixed with all new shiney screws and bolts.

Sill finished ( still some slight filler spots to add to get nice even gaps) and to wing too, suffering collateral damage from being removed and trial fitted too may times.

Then weld rear wing and turn attention to rear of car..........Yes a new chapter, hopefully.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Its a little damp outside dear

What can I say other than the title. Since last applying filler to the B post/sill join and filler to the wing/scuttle join its been........................well I'll say .................... wet!

The last two weekends, nay weeks, has seen torrents of rain fall, all day,all night and in between. During last Mondays deluge a quick glance at the MG and its forlorn flapping blue poly cover saw lots of rain get inside. Mid-day off to B&Q to get a new Poly cover( in the pouring rain) .

My present cover has a hole where the roof section has an ariel base protuding.

Despite having the clever idea of wedging an old tennis ball on it, the constant removing and tie-ing down has made it as firm as a vicars handshake. Not to mention the elastic bungee cords frayed to within an inch of their life. In fact on Sunday the poor old MG spent the evening till Mon Morn with the cover hiding between the fence and the driveway gate.

Fortunately I got the last blue Poly sheet at B&Q and cheap it was too (£ 3.99) .

The trouble was thought.................................Its Huge !!!!

3 metres x 4 metres. Seemed OK when I bought it. But try covering a car with it in the pouring rain, using frayed and limp bungee cords and a howling wind.

I ended up using about 70 metres of string, over, under, around, between, up and round the MG. It looked like a drunkard had tried to wrap up a Holly bush there was so much Blue poly cover. However, it made it water proof ready for the onslaught or rain we had, er........still having actually.

Prior to thison Saturday, I did remove the front wing several times to try and get a good fit between the curvy scuttle base and wing top edge............ Impossible............!!!!

In desperation I fixed the front wing with the 5/16th UNF bolt nearest the said position.

Then added filler to the join and bead ( I previously welded the bead to the wing)

So my thinking was if the join was rubbish( uneven with gaps) bolt them together, add filler, let dry, remove wing , sand to perfection and re-fit wing nicely.

WRONG

On removing wing all the filler broke off, some filler stuck to inside of wing beading and some filler was well just ..........crap.

ABANDONED...................................time for a re-think.

It needs all its bolts and holes in wing ready and clean so it can be clamped tightly, then re assess.

So, on a trip to the far SE corner of our wind and rain swept counrty I diverted via Cambridgeshire to the MGOC.

I actually bought some new ( YES NEW ) stuff, a wing fitting kit containing all the correct screws , washers and bolts. Nice and shiney.............Lovely, and only £ 6.25 !

Also got the 5/15th UNF Nut which I had to gring off the wing when refurbing it and another nut 1/4 UNF which has a sheared bolt in it on the wing.

Whilst there I also bought the headlight re-enforcing panel. This part took the best part of a whole day to remove from the wing as it was rusty and deep inside the wing.

So...............................My plan is simple.

Fit both new nuts by mig welding them in place.

How to remove the existing nuts with broken bolts in is another story.

Then fit the wing with all the bolts and nuts. To assist matters I even bought a 5/16 UNF tap.

Please dont faint, its not new. It was £1.99 + 99p p&P on..........yes you've guessed good old E-bay.

So when the rain and wind stops I'll get busy. Oh and do the sanding of the B post too.