It aint half hot mum

 

First off, ashtray. Its taken three attempts to get a good finish on the top edges. First time the paper covering protecting the workmate wafted up up rested on it, the second time I rested  it too close to the green scouring pad. So, wet and dried yet again. I'm waiting to do the final coat till I can find the missing dash top vent.

I should explain that I'm currently shed-less waiting delivery sometime in August, so stuff is spread everywhere and some things have become invisible. However, I have seen things I've not seen in years.

The missing vent top is annoying since I saw one in the conservatory before the grand emptying of the shed and I,m sure its not the one I have "found". Time will tell when the shed arrives and its time to put all the stuff back in.

I have also sprayed the air intakes a lovely gloss black and the ashtray lid. 

The glovebox armrest has had a clean and polish as has the vynyl dash top......again. Nothing seems to get it matt black and clean looking despite trying all manner household products, acetone/cellulose thinners, Armorall "really works" restorer and good ole WD40.

I did have misgivings about the dash top I removed years ago. The hardboard backing was broken in 2 places and the vynyl was coming unstuck at the vent holes. So I pondered long and hard , bit the bullet and decided to remove the vynyl from the tatty hardboard, buy some new hardboard and re-glue.

           Judicious use of the heat gun, masking tape and clamps ( wifeys clothes pegs) and job done !

Here is the vynyl halfway glued on to the new hardboard. The old board was used as an accurate template. I did watch on you-tube some geezer doing same to his TR 6, which was helpful.  Contact adhesive is very unforgiving so I did it with some trepidation. The secret is to get it aligned well and start from the middle, even though I started from the RH vent holes it all went well and even the snurpy edges of the vent hole slots in the vynyl stuck down well. I did it in 5 sections.

Not perfect, but much better and its flat and rigid. Luckily I had the wisdom to test fit the hardboard onto the dash before glueing.

Whilst waiting for the glue to be tacky I set about cleaning the rear bumper, bought on E-bay about 11 years ago from some bloke down Wolverhampton way. Again these are not perfect, slight pitting all over but they will do till the car is finished. Much scrubbing with wire wool, Brasso and Peek autosol chrome cleaner did their bit but alas not enough to make it look new again.

The next big thing is the  WINDSCREEN GLASS !!!!   eeeeekkkkk!!!  next month will see me buy the rubber surround, retainer and some headlamp rubbers.

All with the aim of fitting the dash, console and electrics. But that must wait for the shed to be up and functioning.

Not yet completed is the drivers side hinge/door alignment, glass fitting and locks. Also the brakes need bleeding as well as the inner wing splash plate to fit and underseal. 

The brake hoses still remain an enigma with no word from MGOC other that the standard template of Covid times blah blah blah.  I will not use them in future, especially since I found during the tidy up/ re arranging  the perfect Automotive porn, a Moss full catalogue giving BL part numbers. A must for toilet reading.

Just to prove.................I do have a brain...............usually !   More soon folks.

P.S   some good YouTube sites to see for restoration -:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ChurchHouseClassicsLimited         Very Funny with Range Rovers

https://www.youtube.com/user/mgbvideosdotcom         Very good.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8MBWMaGHLbGwDrrzbddevA   Love this man even though its all Triumphs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRs-4AXb9_U         My Favourite. Lotus, R Rover and Jag. Classy production. Great Chap.

https://www.youtube.com/user/urchfab     Welder and Mech par excelance

Recycling old stuff and adding more parts

So, since I did things in reverse order MG wise on my week off due to the weather. What follows is the last bit of stuff I completed after the trauma of disposing of the shed. That warrants a mention since up until last week it housed most of the MG bits. After son No1 helped me dismantle it last Sunday
I had all week to chop up and take to the dumpit site. First trip on appointed "odd number day" and after waiting about half an hour to get to the front of a long queue, Geezer doing parking allocation say "wot yer gorrin there mate". Me replying it was a 7x5 shed chopped up into manageable  long lengths. " Sorry we can't accept sheds, its against the rules innit". Then a knowing wink from him he says " Looks like a fence to me, wot izzit again " A Sh................ fence my good man  I replies, " In ya go, park last on left, wood into bay 8. That's the spirit . Especially since I estimated another four trips.
Left the lovely Renault in a bit of a mess though and me knackered and tense from worrying how long it would be before it started pissing it down.

Just the minor matter of building a retaining wall below the neighbours fence where the shed will but up to it. Bags of Cement, Breeze blocks, sand and gravel bought and transported to old garden bottom shed base.
Loads of brownie points earned so onto next phase of MG doings, front splash panel fitting.
I've had both panels a few weeks with fitting kit, but alas no rubber seal for outer inner edges.
So I had a bright Idea, use the old door seal. I'd just fitted a new one to the passenger door frame a few weeks ago finishing off the door mechanism and hinges.

It worked a treat. I even undersealed the deep dark orifice before fitting the splash panels, look

The nuts were a real bugger to get in and squash the windscreen rubber enough as its fairly tough stuff. I had to  grind the first few threads off to get them located but after I did that bingo.

I even got carried away with the undersealing too................look at the castle rails. It must have been 10 years since I welded them on but only Red-leaded them at the time. 

Since most of the MG bits are now in the Conservatory outhouse they are much more accessible, so next job will be refurbing a few more plastic bits like crash pad, vynyl dash top and lower instrument binnacle.

The only problem now is that with so much stiff spread in and around the house, including the MG It makes doing anything a very long winded process. Ah well back to work Monday, however the pubs were open Saturday night so I treated myself. Well worth waiting for.

P.S  still not heard from MGOC regarding brake pipe lengths ( Bar standard format reply  bla bla bla)

Another major part ready to be fitted.

Yes, after many a long year stood on its end in the airing cupboard, the complete dash is ready to fit   

( minus four switches).

Spent the day dis-assembling the dash, cleaning, checking bulbs, polishing and refitting.
Yo....look see.

 It took best part of three hours, with lots of photos so I could remember where all the wires went.  Many many moons ago ( 12 years to be exact) when I removed the dash I remember the four switches falling apart when being unplugged. I remember looking at the prices at the time......nay bother I thought  roughly £5/8 each. 

Now one is £22 FFS, another £18 and the others similar. 

Using my Lostsock cunning and a little common sense the coloured  Bentley wiring diagram says they are :  Hazard warning switch, Heated rear window switch, 2 pos Fan switch + one other I can't identify as it just says "courtesy light/ door light " ?

There is only one bulb not working on the whole dash believe it or not. I bought one locally for £1...bargain. 

I actually bought two hoping one would fit the "unknown" lampholder . However I've wasted a whole pound as it did not

So, my resolution is " Do not replace if it works, Only buy whats needed to pass the M.O.T test.

I only did the above after a blitz of removing the 5"x7" shed which housed most of the MG parts along with tons and tons of other stuff.

Shed Gone !

Most of the stuff is hived away in about 5 other locations till the new shed arrives ( Late August/Early Sept),  Still, a little bit of Concreting  and floor levelling to do first.

I've got/had all week off so plenty of time.
I should have been fitting the splash panels and undersealing the inner front wings, fitting splash panels and re-aligning driver door but its been raining most of the week, bloody typical !

The pubs are opening on Saturday though .........Whooopeeee !

More soon.

Faffing before the onslaught.

Another day of faffing.......all's well that ends well.

No photos today sorry ! ( see later)

The plan was as I had a 3 day weekend to get the RH brake pads back in with the new rubber hose (even though I think the hose is too short)

Well problem 1/. was that the nut to undo the hose at the caliper end is 19/32" ???!!!. Whateever,  it spins rounding off the edges nicely. sawing through the  crimped end broke the junior hacksaw blade less than one third of the way through. Could I find the packet of hacksaw blades...........could I f***.
I definitely have some but where they are anyone knows. Hacked off using a pair of nippers.

In the end I removed the caliper as a whole and sliced most of the sticking out end with the scary thin wheel grinder thing..eek.,  even then the nut would not budge. After a lot of faffing with various sockets, chisels, screwdrivers and drills, yey-ho.........off it came TFFT !.

Problem No 2/.
How to get the pistons back in the caliper enough to allow the pads to fit.Sounds simple enough, " using a screwdriver prize them back with a little leverage". No, no, no. They were not moving. Fair enough it must have been five years since I fitted new pistons, seals and so on. And they've not moved one milimeter since, ( they've had no need to).
So I fitted the hose and pumped like mad, success, small movement, more pumpimg and more movement. Maybe too much.  The pistons had quite a bit of surface rust and some pitting. However now is not the time for another rebuild. How the F*** was I going to get the pistons back in to fit the pads ?  After a liberal clean with 3000 grit emery, WD40 and a good wipe to the piston outers a combination of a long thin chisel, wood scraps and  a big adjustable wrench...in they went ! Twas a big faff though. All the time from 10.30 am onwards it looked like it might rain so best thing is get head down and crack on with plan.

Needless to say halfway through 2/. problem, wifey came back from Morrisons to say " they have a nice container for your tools, its a patio container but big enough for some of your  crap stuff". After a quick think off I went. It was a welcome diversion from the problems of 2/.

Anyways after the haitus of thinking and scrambling round  container #1,  boot of MG and doorwell, eventually found 2 split pins and spring clamps.
Its funny how you mind retains some things and not others. I knew exactly where they were after maybe 2 or 3 years, but where are the  steering column bolts ( F*** knows, never come across them ever !!!).

I sent a friendly e-mail to the MGOC last week regarding the rubber hose being short. Not had a reply yet ( 7 days). Funny though they called me next day when I wanted to order something saying by e-mail I could'nt get through.

So whats next ?..................I dunno. Having Box .#2 has helped a lot. I've emptied the car inside ...almost. So all the useful tools are in box #2. box #1 contains all MG misc bits, lots and lots plus some aerosols and liquids and tubes n stuff.

Through sheer logic the drivers side door alignment must come next, but you know me.......lets mix it up a bit and get the interior ( dash and crash pad) fitted. Yeah baby !

Well lets see, lock-down and a 3 day weekend can do that to you, plus the exitement of a new bottom of the garden shed ( 10x6) a big improvement on the rotten 7x5. That's another story as that's currently where most of the expensive bits of the MG are.

Only emptying, demolition and disposal said shed  plus new concrete base to make...........not much then !

Oh the life of Fufferfour.  ...........................wow. the blog now connects with mi phone without asking, so go on just to keep it interesting.

More soon !

Lockdown plays its part or Not ?

So, as mentioned in previous thread, I have bought a few parts to Fit to the MG.

Namely LH door rubber surround,  Under quarter-light sealing rubber ( cheap foam), a bag of shiny 1/4" nuts, screws and washers ( methinks for window winder mech inside door- never used as yet, made do with rusty oddments as found there), Both inner wing splash panels + nuts/washers ( no sealing rubber for over their edges as they are all out of stock) and and and new rubber front brake hoses. This is the saga I mentioned in the previous post.

When I ordered the hoses only one arrived, even though I was charged for two. No bother I thought a quick phone call and its sorted. NO !  about 23 calls to eventually speak to someone, then easily resolved, TFFT.                         NO !  come the day of fitting the bloody things they are too short. The hose is almost stretched at 90 deg when on full lock. Deffo  not right, the hose at the caliper end is really squashed. So after a bit of spilt brake fluid and fitting the wheel to check if the suspension was out of kilter      NO ! The hose was wrong !

Look see

So, after another attempted 23 calls to MGOC trying to speak to a person, I get the happy chappy (not) who informs me " its 14 inches long innit ?  ", "Nah...all MG are 14" long mate". Despite me  informing him the overall length is relatively unimportant, its the distance between the upper and lower nuts that determine the working parameters...........and its shorter than the one I have removed !!!!!

So what shall I do ?   I don't think the "new" replacement is safe. For now I've fitted it and sat quietly fuming. Maybe I should send said photos to them which I feel demonstrates the problem. I'm getting quite pissed off with the MGOC as nearly always,  either the wrong thing turns up or not enough  quantity as ordered or what turns up is sub-standard but shiny and new.  Maybe I should sue them when I crash in a ball of flames !...            ...              ...           Rant over.

So at the end of the last sunny day all I had to do was resolve above and fit splash panels. I did decide to underseal the inner part of the wing hidden behind the panel. This has sort of been under-sealed and red-leaded, and as we speak I can't find the underseal and I have a full tin I've not seen for a year or two. Since its been decided by the family accountant we are having a new shed ( 10x6 ) better than the rotted 7x5 that holds most of the MG and a whole plethora of misc stuff ( including mice that have nibbled the sponge pads on the bike rack into utter nothingness) I found said under-seal and other parts MG wise that's not seen the light of day for years.

I did have a great idea after the half- hearted attempt at emptying the shed, why not use the "old" door seal instead of the out of stock splash pane rubber seal.......to be tried yet though as every day since has seen it pissing down with rain and a little wind.

I'll let you know how I get on with both little conundrums.....promise.

Back stronger !

First of all many apologies for not posting THIS YEAR  Time does fly !

The year started well till the second week of Jan when a bad Chest infection struck. Not that I'd be doing much on the MG anyway, but I did have spare cash to buy stuff.

My last effort was to get the passenger door aligned with A & B post equally each side. My last thought was to weld on a strip of £2.99 3mm round steel rod bought from Wickes, and yes they now have steel, aluminium  and brass stock in all shapes and sizes. I sat on this steel all through the winter months debating if I should weld it on or explore other Bodges  remedies.

So I did a very Fufferfour thing............nothing !
I faffed around with the winder mechanism, mounting brackets, quarterlight and lock mechanism. All seem to be working well-ish. What was not working was the key to the lock mechanism. I did have 2 spare doors ( scrap but that's another story, as I only have one now)
So in effect I have several keys. The Ignition key. Obvious which this one is. Then four others ? None of which appear to work FFS. A quick look at the MGOC website informs me a new one set (1 Pair ) is £60 ........ I guess I'll soldier on until I really need to lock the door then. However the lovely renovated door escutcheon ( sprayed metallic silver then clear lacquered, looks very pewter colour just like the factory finish) was missing a captive plate and screw. I seem to remember I had to drill it out moons ago. Anyways, some butchering of said spare door innards gave me a plate with the correct threaded hole and screw. The escutcheon has 2 captive plates, one large and one small.

So fitted it was and then promptly ignored due to above reasoning.
After perusing that Doyen of all things ..MG John Twist : Brilliant Brummie - Hammer and Spanner : and various BBS forums I had developed a plan for the doors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU77OVfWuys     SOUP - my Fave youtube watch
https://mg-cars.org.uk/cgi-bin/or17?runprog=mgbbs     BBS forums......a must
http://www.mgb-stuff.org.uk/hammertext.htm              Hammer & Spanner , Its got it all-Invaluable
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCFB510794339861C   The Daddy of them all


 This was  only 3 weeks ago.
I bought a new tool !!! and a set of new Door hanger screws. An impact driver ( Manual only, as I already had a big lump hammer). It was nigh on impossible to undo or re-tighten the door hanger Posidrives as they were mangled, mostly.

The plan was to place shims behind the A post door hinges to allow the door to be slid further back.

Viola ! Before and after.

Oh thing of great beauty. I love it when a plan works. It took some graft though. I made the spacers from the winder mech innard of the scrap door, 4 per hinge, galvanised and lined up perfectly. It transpires that I had put the rear wing on, many moons ago,  maybe 2 mm further back and bent the B post rearwards slightly as well as the new doorskin being slightly forward. HeyHo, done now. The door sits nicely, flat even with only an outward kink of 1/2mm at the bottom rear.  Twist the door I hear you say  !!....No, I tried this and suceded in unwelding the door top skin under the quarterlight. 

I have several parts to fit too. Namely Front wing splash plates with screws, Complete passenger door rubber and chrome clamping strip, Quarterlight sponge washer strip and new rubber brake hoses.
I did have to remove one brake pad months ago to allow me to push the MG fwd/back on the drive as it was binding and impossible to move so I have plenty more to finish off with this burst of post covid spring sunshine.

Also a neighbour donated a very nice and new car cover. This is a real help as previously I had to remove about four large and very tatty polythene covers rescued from the woodyards skip after a delivery of vaccuum packed soft wood in 30 foot lengths.

A rant is coming in the next post, after I've calmed down a bit and got the work on-calls out of the way. I also have just found the small captive plates for the door escutcheon whilst I was searching for an odd grubscrew to repair the spare bedroom door. Happy days.