Tank in time out

 The fuel tank is fitted. It was easy enough using a bolt kit from MGHive. It was all painted matt black, twice and three times on its top surface. Offcuts of foamy sound deadening used as spacer cushions.

Fuel sender unit located easily enough in boot space. Attatching the hose to the fuel tank easy. Twas a new section of fuel line and quite a tight fit but eased on with some vaseline. However, attatching it to pump was not. Also I did not have the correct size jubilee clips, just a mish mash of clips and springs. To make matters worse fixing the new hose to the metal end of long fuel line and fitting the other end to the pump was not fun. It was very tricky with lots of swearing, during which I found the live feed which was crusty and brittle. It also ran a snaking route around the fuel line and earth connections. 

I bit the bullitt and added a new section of the correct colour from my " spares - electrical" collection, double insulated it well and heatshrinked it on .

But that was enough, it was cold wet dark and breezy. 

I left it there till the weather improves. I did want to run the engine but decided against. The water had been drained anyway. So a liberal dose of WD40 all around and thats how I left it.

It has a nice new multilayered waterproof cover over it, several lengths of carpet under that and a tight nylon over over all of that.

I may recover the rear seats or refurb the fuel cap. One good piece of news is I found filler cap key .

More soon-ish.

Fighting wind and rain

 Next up on the never ending list was the handbrake lever refurb. Gawd, what an ordeal. It was stiff as hell to move up/ down, very very stiff. I managed to mangle the slightly mangled workmake jaws even more gripping the lever plate and trying to move it. Left it it soak in WD40 for a while and levered some more, not much difference !. So I did what I normally do, ignore it for a while and get on with something else. 

Halfway through, still very stiff. Why I didn't re-attach it to get better leverage I don't know. Old age and senility probably. More of that next post, if I remember !

Some of the chemicals used of late

Namely the cable itself. It came away from the car easily enough, except for the guide under the battery box. That was a swine. A pozidrive screw inserted from the top which was impossible to see. It was only after being 15 minutes on my back under the car, freezing cold and getting all the rusty crap falling onto my face that it dawned on me the nut on the underside was spinning because the screw ( not yet seen) was turning.

The cable itself was also very very stiff, neigh on impossible to move back and forward. Some impromptu invention saw me attach one end to the hosepipe mounting and the other to a bush on the drive the spray with WD40, several times. Still very stiff, then I found out maybe why.

The photos a bit blurry, but, the nylon sheath over the wire had split about halfway along its exposed  end near the handbrake pivot. A little heat from the heat gun cured this "snag" but it needed many more soaks and slides yet. I thought f**k it, leave it to soak vertically for a few days. I took off all the hardware off at the pivot end and noticed the spring had all but rusted away, another little purchase requied then, pfft !

It was actually hung up in the shed with a finger of a rubber glove over the top end full of oil.

So on to something else while waiting oil to seep, small packet to arrive and weather to settle. 

All of this occured over a period of about 12 days waiting for the wind and rain to stop. UK weather is difficult to predict and reports often change between bedtime and breakfast so its a frustrating lottery.

Whilst I had on another subsequent day time, inclination and sunshine I tackled the seat runners which were easy to find as they always fell on my head in the shed when I was rooting out long stored away parts.

They were tightly bound together with very old dry flakey masking tape. The bolts and washers had fallen off the tape and languished behind my MT bike a 1.5 mtr drawing board 3 rolls of carpet in black binliners and other assorted " sizeable" items. That hunt was for another day, on with the wire brushing. 

Since I had made a good job of the seats I debated how far I should go with the runners. After all they won't be seen.

However I found a can of  Halfords nice silver long abandoned due to the nozzle being blocked and long since lost. Found a new nozzle also. Decision made. Result below.

I even found the bolts and spacers pretty quickly too. Well six of the eight spacers, I'm using two nuts which have the same dimensions as the spacers...result.

I even managed to run a tap down the seat bolt holes. 1/4" unf I think,or maybe 5/16".

Another task completed last weekend was the fitting of the under carpet deadening. What a joyous task that was. So great to work with, soft, sticky, easy to cut and pliable.

 Lo

This was acheived at quite a speed as the weather was looking very dark and brooding. Managed it just before the rain and darkness set in. My only criticism is that the covering ( neoprene like rubber) is quite soft and easily damaged but the glue backing remains. Its going to be a swine if ever I have to remove it.

I bought another two metres of similar stuff but with foil backing to finish off the footwells and rear seat/ rear wheel arches. This has not been fitted yet but feels much stiffer and maybe not as sticky. We shall see.

Amidst all this on another sunny day I cleaned the fuel tank ( also done several years ago ) but this time removed the fuel float assy to see the rust inside the tank. I was dreading this as its been out and back on when i first got the car but i never looked inside.

Good gawd.................. it looks good and just about rust free. The float assy looked brand new too !

About time I had some good luck with the project. As well as the small blob of Araldite I applied all that time ago to a small rust hole was solid as a rock. Just light surface rust staining in a few areas and it looks good as new.

The Araldite can be seen just left of centre, gladly painted over with slightly thinned down Hammerite.

The tank fittings had long since dissapeared so I ordered a kit from MG hive together with other missing nuts, bolt and washers. They came the following day, but so did the rain ! As did four days up in the NE of England seeing daughter #1.

The fitting of the tank and attendant tubes, wires and screws is another story, of frustration and weather watching. More soon.

,

Two steps forward one step sideways

 At least I'm heading in the right direction.

Fitted today ( after 3 days of absolutely pissing with rain ) the three fuse holders that wizzo auto elect Tony condemned. Took  2 weeks to get hold of them and used yet another supplier. MGOC had none in stock, Bhive didn't stock them and ANG/Mechspec neither. Only option was Moss ( they have the most info  on-line but are the most expensive) not to mention their tech set up for order processing , see last post !.  Trouble is I forgot to take a snap of them fitted, doh.

So on to fitting the interior sound deadening ( 6mm closed cell rubberised foam with adhesive side)

Gave the areas a good clean with white spirit and a light blow with heat gun whilst I cut out the shapes. See below for me trying to make the most of the 1 mtr x 3 mtr length. After all I am a Yorkshireman so I like getting my value for money.

One side had a newspaper template made comprising of floor, outer footwell, inner footwell, sill vertical, toeboard and transmission tunnel. The templates are simply turned over for the other side with only minor amendments for the drivers side inner due to the pedals. It took ages to maximise the 3 mts square mass with the templates but as it was getting late I was glad to finish, so in the shed it all went until a good day weatherwise.

Saturday dawned bright , sunny if a little bit breezy. I also felt a little better myself as since my Covid booster I felt rather tired and foggy. Onwards and upwards.

I really dreaded fitting the sticky sided closed cell rubber stuff. I was convinced It wouldn't stick or just unfurl half way through. No fears though, the stuff was a dream to fit. Test fitted before removing the backing, trimmed as necessary even with crap scissors.

According to the template planning I was toeboards and footwell outer shapes short ( both sides) so I did a very Fufferfour thing and ignored them all completely. Did the trans tunnel first, then floors, then  inner sides finally the sill verticals both sides. I used a couple of large offcuts to make the inner footwells in 2 pieces each and job done. Even had a couple of sizeable rectangles to do the door skin inner both sides. Well chuffed with the result.

Before

After

Next job is to refurb the handbrake mechanism as it looked a little manky ( rusty) as did the underside mechanism, spring and adjuster as well as the fuel lines looking flaky. Also to be done is the rear seat cover fitting and I've still not bled the brakes yet. Son No 1  ( I only have the one son, same as No 1 daughter, yes they are non identical twins) is 3 nil down in the favours stakes. Parenting means you are forever at the service of their needs. As he was ready to set a date for helping he had an urgent repair on his house that need my assistance. Hey ho.

Deffo next job is to protect the sound deadening as the rubber is rather delicate. I have tons of carpet in the shed left over from hallway refurb a couple of years ago. This will be used on the outer of the car under the new cover to give some air circulation. Also employed in the car over the polythene .

I had to add this photo from the dog sitting day for said son on what must have been the rainiest day of the year so far. It still makes me and wifey laugh at the sheer misery of us both out and about in that crap weather. Little boots enjoyed in not one bit, for hours.

I also purchased from Amazon a 6 layer winter cover which arrived nearr the end of todays efforts. Its massive, thick and silver. So gone is the Swedish thick timber polythene which has served its purpose well for about 8 years. It will be re purposed to protect the deadening whilst bleeding the brakes etc. 

More room in the shed too as an added bonus now the carpets gone. Sadly a load of  stacking crates being given away by out local bistro/ coffee shop has replaced them. But at least its organised storage yet to be utilised. I also took the opportunity whilst in the shed to review whats stored in there. F**k me , lots of MG bits. I did find things I knew I had, had lost and now found again. Like the seat runners. All taped up some 10 years ago. The writing on the masking tape had long since dissapeared and unfortunately so had the  8 spacers and nuts. They were found in a random ice cream tub in another  box. I think the writing on the crispy masking tape said " look in the ice cream tub" !.

More very soon..............depending on the weather of course.

One step forward three steps sideways.

 A few weeks back I fitted the new secondhand shorter springs and painted the suspensions in black hammerite ( at least the parts I could reach).

Whilst doing this I noticed a lack of castleated nut and split pin on the upper fulcrum LH side. A nylock nut was employed, this is an acceptable substitution according to MG OC. So I thought that whilst I was fitting the grease nipples and bleed nipples, I did an unusual thing. I looked in the Haynes manual for the torque setting for said bolt ( upper fulcrum ) 40 lb/ft.

No way could I get the nut to anything like this as there must have been only two threads engaging on the nyloc nut. 20 ft/lbs was the max I could manage without the nut spinning. Very risky indeed so used MG Hive for a new pair of bolts, castleated nut and split pin. The threads on the old one were badly cross threaded.

So easy to order, efficient staff and quick. Not so with most other vendors. And the part came in 2 days.

Some vendors are painfully slow, inputing details, doing the search even when you know the part number, checking address, da de da ditto. I'm whinging now because with my new found enthusiasm and funding I've tried most of them lately. The chap from Moss was very nice but painfully slow on a circa 1970's ZX spectrum computer, was confused because my name and postcode showed someone else !!!!!!!. In fairness it sounded like it was his first day. One of many to come it think with their computer set-up.

Back to the adventure. Fitted the bolts easy peasy. I expected trouble aligning the slots in the castleated nut with the hole in the bolt, but no, job done, torqued up to 40 ft/lb, more grease pumped into nips.

Cor what a faff fitting the lower grease nipple though. Its angled about30 degrees from the vertical and impossible to get a nut on due to the proximity of the brake dust shield. Managed it eventually with a bit of medeival sourcery and derring do attitude. I also found the location of the third nip whilst fitting the RH fulcrum bolt. On the RH side its at the front middle. On the LH side its at the back middle. Another task complete.

Next job up was seam sealing along the footwells and inner sills plus any other ( lots) of misc patch welds in the floor area.

No.

A step sideways. I'd read that if new doorskins are fitted ( mine has, several years ago) that seam sealer shoud be applied on the upturned inner edges. It took ages !

Couldn't find the caulk gun in the bowels of the shed, found one that didn't work then one that did.

Caulk all dried up in tube. Trip to Wickes to buy another tube. Got home the knocked white spirit over so back to Wickes again for another !

Did LH door on back and lower edges, front edge impossible without taking door off. No chance of that.

Cleaning the footwells was another matter. Tried Meths ( methyated spirit ) first. Rubbish, took ages to dry and didn't clean very well. Tried  "Gunk", I had high hope for this but same as meths, rubbish.

The problem appeared to be the original rubber sound deadening. Iv'e decided to leave it in situ, whats left of it , around 70 %. Its only been removed on the outer edges and footwell ends where I welded years ago. Fortunately I'd Red leaded soon afterwards. Cleaning just seemed to soften the edges of the rubberey stuff and make it snotty and smear. Lots of dust and crap was also ingrained into it as well. You could be sweeping the grime up till doomsday and it will still keep coming.

So I bought another tin of Hammerite from Halfords ( yet another trip out) but this time I'd read you could  thin Hammerite with white spirit, not the very expensive Hammerite thinners. I gave it a try. It worked. Still all the fluff and grime got into the seamsealing but by this point I didn't care.

Sat in the shed is 2 mtrs of sound deadening bought a few weeks ago after lots of soul searching and guilt at the amount I'm spending of late, not to mention the hours wifey don't see me as I'm a man obsessed.

My choice would have been Dynamat, or Noico or some other horrendously expensive stuff, but considering most of my original sound deadening is still there I bought sticky 8mm rubberised foam for £26.00.

Whilst waiting for the paint to dry in the LH footwell area I moved on the th RH cleaning. But first remove the handbrake lever. Two very tough Phillips screws, one other Impossible to move with ensuing gnarled slots.

This meant drilling out carefully with three drill sizes, then inspecting said lever and deciding it needs a clean-up and refurb..........another row on the to-do list.

A view halfway through the Hammeriting.

Almost finished

I decided to tidy up the wiring in the engine bay whilst waiting for the paint to dry. In real time I did this the previous day as I tend to have several thing ongoing at the same time. 

 

Before, as left by me and wonder auto electrician Tony, waiting for new In line fuses to be delivered.

After.

Took all day to do this, under the new fuse box, relays and ignition box. As usual I spent even more time wondering what the three stray wires are. I also hooked up the horns. Pfffft. One pair of purple wires gives a constant voltage thus loud horns, the other pair of purples does nothing.

More to follow later on in the week on other trials and tribulations.

Amazing progress at last

 The seats are done ,

I think they look rather good. Not perfect, but no wrinkles and fairly firm.

Let me pass on a helpful tip. I was going to buy new seat base foams but that would bo approx £55. I may still do yet but thats for much later on in its life. 

I used a wallpaper steamer on the old foams and poof  !!

They came up like they were inflated pretty much.  Bear in mind it won't make them firm again just back to its almost new size. Time will tell how long they keep their shape.

I couldn't resist starting her up after the electrician had finished but alas it was not to be. There was a constant leak from the gatorade bottle lash up tank and a big drizzle from the butterfly pivot hole.

So I decided to really splash out and buy a new sealing washers for the spindle at the grand sum of £1.25 each. Sorry to say that didn't work, it was still leaking this time much worse.

So I splashed out another £30 odd quid on a seal kit from Burlen fuel systems. 

Meanwhile removed the carbs to clean and fettle. What a struggle. He RH lower carb nut is really difficult to get at and it has to be unwound about 1/2" . The thread was very tight and it took a lot of effort, bent over the wing legs splayed. The other three were not as difficult but nevertheless a long back aching job.

There is a very good Youtube vid by a nice Irish chap named Endfloat who refurbs his HIF4 carbs so I followed this and it proved a great help. The RH needle spindle was stuck solid and float bowl full of a white chalky residue everywhere. So The cleaning was well justified as it would never have run properly anyway.

I'll not bore you with the details but several chemicals were used to get a cleanish looking finish. They all failed. I put four of the seals in the wrong way round then after fitting had to remove them again as the throttle spindle lever was the wrong way round.  Repeat for the choke lever assy, dohh !

One further tip I would reccomend is run a 5/16 unf die down the studs and re-tap the nuts too. This made the awkward nuts fairly spin on.

Looks much much better now and hopefully now no leaks as the gatorade bottle has had a smear of silicone sealant.

Also fitted a new front hose easy peasy. Fitted new fusebox and new starter relay. Bound the behind grille wiring after a bit of tidying up and now have only six stray wires to sort out for the horns, all Purple and purple/black but thats for later. 

Fitted new front brake bleed nipple and grease nipples because after a dog sitting favour for my son he promised to assist me at the weekend.

The lovely 6 month old Boots, an Italian greyhound ( a tiny whippet)

Just ordered a quantity of sound deadening so next up is a thorough cleaning of the inside, a little seam sealing then maybe test fit the seats.

Before all of the above happened though I fitted the dash and dash top and crash pad. This was by far the most knuckle grazing and frustrating job. It took all day and at one point was ready to walk away through frustration. Its in now though and looking good.

Just the heater controls to sort out and a few switches and it may be time to turn attentions to bodywork prep, bumbers/ brackets and front spoiler.

 More very soon folks.

Cover kerfuffles and carb conundrums

 The seat frames are all painted, webbing replaced and sat patiently in the shed whilst the wheels were finished. Now they are done I called the local upholsterer to see how he was doing with replacing both front seat deckchair orange/brown mess.

He was charging £200 for both covers with fluted seams. Fair price I though and was perfectly willing to pay except ; before I called him I was surfing good old ebay over breakfast. There I saw a set of fluted black vynyl covers, front and rear......£119.00 from Watford classics. 

Read some reviews which were mainly good with a few sniffy comments regarding made in China etc, blah blah. I'm not looking for a concourse show stopper, just some reasonably priced items. I called the upholsterer and told him to stop work on them. Nice chap but wasn't in, passed the bad news onto his wife who runs the biz whilst he's out delivering.  He'd had the new vynyl and old covers 4 weeks but fortunately not started them due to Illness etc. Collected them and the new vynyl an hour later and ordered the new covers from e-bay, around 11.30 am.

They arrived the next day after 3 pm. They  are fantastic. Well made, finished well with quality vynyl.

I couldn't wait to fit them. But first I had to fit the foams, add a little side foam and lumbar foam support as well as some 10mm thick very soft " wadding" which I cadged from the upholsterer when I first went to discuss my requirements. I had enough to completely cover both seats and backs.

Wadding applied

Foam side bolster additions

How to shape foam.

Yes an electric carving knife and the scary grinder with 80 grit flap wheel. The flap wheel worked great but made such a mess with fine particles of blue dust everywhere, and I mean everywhere. 

The first fitting of the backrest showed I'd been a little generous with the blue foam side bolsters and getting the cover all the way down was not possible. 

So thats when I had a brain wave ( yes another) I knew wifey had an electric carving machine. She's never used it as she has always been a vegetarian, I've used it once in 20 years, at christmas to slice a beef joint.

So I had no qualms in using it. Besides I needed to slice most of the bottom half of the blue side bolsters in a nice flat straight-ish line. It worked a treat. Nice even and tapered nicely at the bottom where the covers were at their tightest. Finished off with the scary grinder and on with the fitting. Once I'd got it on and looking nice I realised I needed  to remove it again to add the headrest hole and ferrule, damn.

Ferrule fitted. It was rescued from the old covers and was a swine to get them off and  bend back the

Tabs holding in place.

I made the hole in the cover top by using a soldering iron. That too did a good job. I was very nervous about getting the hole in the right place and making a mess of the whole cover alignment. Fortunately I could feel for the hole through the vynyl and used the deep slot in the seat frame to guide the soldering Iron

 This shows the blue foam prior to trimming.

Getting the covers streched and clipped in was a right faff. I did the logical thing and did the passenger seat base and back first. Lots of swearing, cursing the sky as it looked like it would rain at any moment, bruised and stabbed fingers. But got there eventually...........until I bolted back and base together.

Look closely at the very left or right flute alignment. The left outer flute seam base is about 1/2" to the right of the seat back seam. How annoying. Was it that the  covers were made incorrectly ? Was it the wrong foam ? Is it the correct back frame or base ?. It took some pondering to figure  it out eventually.

Sorry, final reveal soon and a carburretor story. Its been another long day, but this time gardening and tidying up for winter with wifey.

Wisdom comes from having some money and enthusiasm.......usually

 Well, finally got the wheels coated in Nimbus grey ( 3 coats) and a couple of coats of clear lacquer before masking up for the black quadrants before I buggered off to Greece for a well deserved retirement present of 2 weeks at a 5 star. It was great, now its over and back to the grind. Well not really, since I don't have to go to work anymore.....yay.

First job was to take the wheels now well and truly cured after sitting the conservatory for  2 weeks for their new rubber. Before that though the black quadrants needed attending to.

Normal masking tape proved too wide to go around the tight corners, inside or out so a trip to the local craft store saw me buy a box of 3mm wide luminous craft tape. £3. Bargain.

Each wheel took around 50 minutes to mask, phew. x5 . 250 minutes just masking. By the end of it I was getting quite good. I did have to use the normal tape to and newspaper. A lot of masking. What I did was a sort of logical production line, masking one, masking the next one, back to first one for  light first coat, same for second one, mask third, coat first wheel fully, mask fourth.....ditto....ditto.

Twas a long job, 3 or 4 coats of Satin Black. I lost count near the end as I think some had four coats and some two, maybe. Anyways they looked great.

Except...........some corners had bled under the craft tape, pfffft. And one wheel had been missed altogether with its top insert horizontal craft tape......doh !!

Soon fixed a couple of days later with 400 grit sandpaper, more masking and delicate touch ups .

You might just see some of the bleed at around 1 o clock position, it happend on 4 of the 5 wheels, more or less similar. This shot was taken before the touch up, so Five rims are all looking perfect.

New boots fitted. Fat, hard, shiny and ROUND , for the first time in about 10 years.

Look.

You will note that the front end is a little high.This I knew would be the case since I fitted some new secondhand springs bought on e bay several years ago from a nice chap who lived about 5 mins away.

The springs were definitely shorter, but alas when fitted compressed a lot lot less, as in not at all,

so I left them for a few years so I could get on with other things.

Since I didn't want the brake calipers to disgrace the new wheels and tyres I decided to give the front corners a clean and paint. Removed the calipers to paint in nice Hammerite direct to rust Black.

It was then I noticed something quite startling and a little embarrassing

Amongst the various cast in markings on the caliper was a distinct "arrow".  Was this a direction indicator ?or just some random manufacturers mark. Then a thought dawned on me. When trying to bleed the brakes all four corners were difficult and I never quite managed it. 

I thought it was my " helpers" lack of perseverance, viz, wife and son got bored after 5 mins and buggered off. Also, and a very big also is that how the calipers were fitted meant the flexible hose was attached to the caliper at the bottom. When I purchased new flexible hoses from the MGOC and fitted them the hoze was bent at 90 degrees and definitely too short on full lock of the wheel.

So I spoke to MGOC and the bloke was adamant all MG's had the same hose length. 

They must be wrong !. Since the bloke was rather condescending at the time and my daughter confessed to buying me a gift voucher from them and at great difficulty as the " salesperson" on the phone was rather rude to her, I sent a snotty email to the chairman expressing my displeasure.

Never got a reply.

Now it dawned loud and clear. A confirmation from tinternet piccys of calipers showed  the flexible hose is at the top of the caliper. Many years ago when I re-furbed both sets of pistons and seals I fitted them wrong way round on opposite sides. Ooooooops. What a dick.

It gets worse. The pistons were a swine to push back into the calipers. 

Made worse by the fact my "4" G clamps were cheap pressed steel crap that always went sidways when being used. It was at this point, wrestling with many configurations of heath robinson attempts with the piston/ caliper that I broke one half of the workmate jaws. New workmate jaws !!!!

 The old ones only lasted 15 years, these lasted less than 6 months.

I managed to repair them with PVA glue and a section of  2" thick worktop screwed to the underside.

Back to the pistons. Since the crap clamps would not fit inside the caliper pad orifice I decided to slice the top off the G clamp so it would, inserted a socket into the  inside of the piston, clamp and push in. Done !

This time I fitted the calipers without the pads then fitted the pads. Three of the four pads went in easy peasy. The inner drivers side would not go in. The piston was about a millimeter too proud. I had the same problem  when I originally re-furbed the caliper so after some debating I removed the caliper and pushed the piston in more. But not enough though, it still was impossible to get the pad in.

Then a brainwave, loosen the caliper to gain a little more room between it and the disk. Job done.

Scary grinder with knotted wire wheel employed on disc ( new but lots of surface rust) outer hub and upper/arms and a coating of Hammerite.

The fitting of the new springs was an ordeal, at times it seemed impossible then bingo, in it went. Same for the other side. 

I spent a long long time filling the grease gun. How can such a simple tool be so confusing and very very messy. To cap it all no grease was going into the nipples on the suspension at all. Hey ho, new nipples needed then.

On a final note I the fitted the wheels............excitement !

The measurement before the new springs were fitted was floor to wheel arch inner was 26 ". Too high as can be seen from the picture above. After all that faffing of  calipers traumas, spring fitting, upside down calipers and broken workmate the new height was

24 7/8"        FFS.

But, and a big but. It now looks level and flatter so all is good. I'm sure it will settle more after a drive or to, to be slightly lower.

Much more to tell regarding the seats and engine bay and dash.

Here's a hint.

Watching paint dry

 So, Tony the auto electrician came. A day early as it happens, I was just cutting the grass and he happened to be near bye so he thought its worth a visit. Stayed about an hour and got loads sorted. Firstly the ignition relay was no good, he fitted a spare he had and bingo a spark, of sorts. He thought it was weak so found the HT lead was not connected correctly at each end ( my doing, years ago). Advised me to get a new one. 

He didn't like the fuse box spade connectors, ditto. Or the fuse box.

Since he had just called in to recconoitre the job he had make remarkable progress in just 45 minutes or so.

As he was leaving I commented that the sidelights we on permantently. Another 45 mins and lots of head scratching he found the green wire was feeding the fusebox and somehow making the bottom two fuse holders connected.  Yes, deffo need a new fusebox.

I can't say at this point that this was my fault. The car has always had a parasitic drain, never started from the battery, only jump leads. But now its cured. This took another 40 mins at least. 

He even called back the following day to present me with a new HT lead and fitted it. Also to give advise on next steps, to call him when all new bits are fitted before starting the engine, what a guy !

So now it has ignition, dash lights, working indicators, hazards, and high/ low beams and good spark.

That soiree a day early made the wheel refurb a day late and time is getting very tight. I need the wheels with the correct colour on before I depart for my holibobs so it can cure a while.

Firstly though was the small matter of my retirement and wifeys birthday. It all went well so this week I set to sanding the wheels with 400 grit to get the silver/white/ protective coating smooth.

I also wire brushed the edges and inner part of the wheels as I had the tyres removed some days earlier.

Cor blimey, what a faff. They were in a right state. One was very rusty indeed.

I'm obsessed with getting the edges near the tyre and very outer rim looking good and smooth.

I used a good smooth file and the scary steel wire wheel in scary bosch grinder.

Two coats of primer and job done for today. I was lucky the weather held out with no rain, as the forcast was for rain all day. That would have set me back and scuppered everything.

Just managed to get all five wheels in primer and wet sanded one with 1500 grit before the staedy rain set in.

Just about done. Needs another quick smooth over tomorrow x4, then on to the final silver .

More after holibobs hopefully with a set of new boots and looking good.

Much binding in the marsh

 I reviewed the seat webbing after I completed the 2nd seat frame. 

Not happy that it would be up to the job.

I took the old seat bases and backs to my upholsterer. Nice chap and was willing to replace the orange deckchair Nylon with black vynyl and 2" pleats in the centre.

I did first enquire at a local automotive upholsterer with good reviews online. However, the female on the other end of the line did not seem keen or helpful, topping off with " well the earliest I can start them is after christmas". WTF.

Anyways, another 2 mts of vynly sent directly to the upholsterer and job done, really friendly guy and gave me some wadding should the foams be a little reduced. 

He also gave me 6 mtrs of polyester webbing used on sofa backs. Game on, a new set of straps sewn up easily on the ancient Singer.

No. Not at all. They were flimsy, taut as a drum and that was their downfall. I didn't think they would be up to the job, especially the shock loading. The last thing I wanted was to have to remove the seat frames again after the car is done.

So I ordered some 2" wide nylon webbing ala seatbelt type stuff but not as wide.

What a performance that turned out to be. Getting the correct tension was a nightmare.

What I should have done is fix the inner frame and clips all round with one end sewn up, stretched it ( very little stretch on these) clamped up then unassemble and sew the loose end.

I only discovered this technique on the last two cross straps. Before that was a series of stitching, fitting, not being tight enough or too loose, cutting four rows of stitching , retightening and restitching.

Bugger,bugger and more bugger. Iv'e just got a new phone and somehow not able to show the correct images.

I did intend to show the staps on both seat frames looking good and taut.

So here are some images of the frames underway. The drivers back frame was by far the worse but was soon fettled

with the brass wire wheel in trusty Bosch drill, primered and sprayed gloss black, twice.

Lots happening though. 

The seats will be complete by mid/ late Aug.

The Auto Electrician visits this Friday ( says one hours work should be more than enough)

Wheels away having tyres removed then paint nimbus grey before hols, tyres booked for fitting 10 Sept after hols.

Found boot lock AND KEY ! Cleaned and ready to fit.

Need to paint front and rear brake drums and mask tyres for black infills.

So no posts for at least 3 weeks but hopefully then more exciting news. 

Oh............ and I retire in a couple of days. Yay. TFFT.

Seat struggles and material wealth .....or not !

 Well, after last post I was undecided as to what to do.

The wiring still needs resolving. The wheels need coats of Nimbus grey + lacquer the new Avon tyres.

Guess what, I did neither of what I mentioned. I set too tackling the passenger seat. 

Here's the before shot/s.

Loverley......Deckchair Orange mixed with grinding spark holes,  12 year old spider webs and gawd knows what else.

Easy enough to dis-assemble though. Trim clips prized off and cover gingerly removed. 

The foam was not in bad nick. One tear down one edge and thats it. A bit on the thin/ soft side, so I put them to one side whilst I tackled the seat base frame.

The diaphragm frame came out with pliers, the webbing looking a little saggy and worn in parts. Again that was put to one side whilst I wire brushed the base frame. 

The brass wheel in trusty old Bosch drill did the trick in about 10 minutes. A quick coat in Kurust then nice grey primer. It looked good so I let it dry and tackled the webbing frame.

The "webs" were frayed at some ends, a little stretched but otherwise good. I selected the ones the a frayed end and undid the stitching. The intention was to stretch them by - how much ?  1", 2", 3". In the end I decided on 30 mm.......................guffaw.

I decided to do it the old fashioned way, as I didn't think the ma in laws ancient Singer sewing machine would cope.

Tough going pushing the sailmakers needle through two layers of rubber twice. But finished at last and much more taut.

Here it is inserted in the newly gloss black frame. 

 

Trim triumph and wheel wins

 Just a short one today. I needed a leisurely day after another long week at work.

Started Sunday leisurely with a nice gentle 5 mile yomp from Hassop station to Monsal viaduct and back.

Home for a nap then up and pondering what to do.

Before I forget here is a picture of Workmate disaster which I forgot to include on the last post.

The replacements should arrive tomorrow, hope they fit.

Since I'd already marked out the new hardboard for the dash top I got to work with the jigsaw and sandpaper. That done I cut the vinyl and applied the aerosol glue. It was a new type, i.e not the usual Evostick so I was a little aprehesive. 

It worked a treat. It wasn't stringy and applied easily. The instructions said wait 10 mins for instant "grab" 20 mins for "adjustable "semi-permanent to permanent bond. 

It worked well. It was German, must know Mr Bosch. The dash top looked great. I'm not fitting it though until the electrics are sorted. So in the shed it went into to the RFFL  ( ready for fitting later) pile.

Whilst all that was going on I extricated the 5th wheel from the passenger compartment and set too with some 800 grit wet and dry to smooth over the debris around the rim/inner disc primer stuff. It sanded well with plenty of water and left a finish as smooth as a babys botton. The only area that needs attention is around the tyre valve, which will be adressed " en masse" when the tyres are removed.

Just a couple of shots of the new vinyl glued on.

No more bloody wheel shots as its been a long haul and they dont show much detail of the hard work anyway. 

Maybe/ deffo upload shots of the completed wheels prior to and post black quadrant attempt.

Another long week at work for me but a long weekend to follow so I have to arrange stuff.

Maybe do a bit of minor welding, maybe review the door gaps or Hammerite underside and wheel hubs.

I have some dosh to spend so front springs should be first and as another diversion I may fit front spoiler, or then again I may review rear cant rail.

Such is MG ownership and I love it.

Trim trials and workmate wobbles

 The wheels all have the first of 2 phases done. That is all the insides done in black gloss, all the outsides done in very bright silver. The silver was rather annoying in so much as the nozzle became blocked on both cans halfway down the volume and proceeded to drop big blobs in random places. 

But since they are having a final coat or two of Ford nimbus grey all that remains is to have the tyres removed, some liberal wet and dry to get the finish right, spray and have the tyres fitted.

I have purchased the Nimbus grey already ( only one can as that was all Halfords had in stock ) and couldn't resist a little test spray. It looks perfect. Just the right shade . No pictures though as I'm fed up of photographing them. I'm not sure the camera phone would to be good enough to capture the true quality as the grey primer looked exactly like the very bright silver.

After the tribulations of the power tool issues I thought all the annoying little troubles were over.

No, not at all. During the wheel refurb I had two disasters. 

1/.  With the constant flipping over of the wheels complete with tyres one of the workmate wooden jaws snapped. What caused it mostly was my annoyance of all the tiny crud wedged into the small gap between the wheel rim itself and the inner section. Despite blowing out the debris with the leaf blower ( amazing power ) still crusty bits remained. I even tried to load the gap with aerosol grey primer and silver paint but to no avail. 

I then had a great brainwave. Fill the gap with decorators caulk ( same as seam sealer) and smooth over with a tiny flat bladed electrical screwdriver. It worked a treat..........sort of.

Then excess stuff just lingered around the edges and trying to clean it off just dropped more stuff into the smooth recess. Attemts to re-smooth it just made it worse. 

So I had to remove it all, scrape away, re-sand and re-clean and think again.

Pictured is said crevice with dried gunk from seal sealer/caulk prior to cleaning. Plus a few spots of drippy silver from errant aerosol.

What I did next was again a little off kilter but glad to say it worked. 

Skulking in the shed I found a tin of  primer/mould killer/ sealer that I used for the bathroom ceiling. It was very thick and dries quickly and permanently. Using a small thin art brush stolen from wifeys stash it was applied to all five wheels and it left a smooth finish with minimal sanding of the excess on each edge.

Yet to be sanded but at least all is done. Five wheels done and not to be touched till the tyres are removed.

2/.

Next up was the workmate replacement wooden jaws. Easily found on the internet, £ 12 for a pair including delivery. The fact that a brand new workmate from Aldi is only £16 means I've saved £4. Win win.

The vinyl I purchased was another matter altogether. I'd used some for the rear armrests which worked great. After reviewing the state of the current dash top I decided to replace that too with new vinyl, together with a new hardboard backing as the earlier new one didn't come away cleanly.

Well it looked awful. I'm sure glad I decided to replace it with lovely new vinyl. £18 for a large peice and I only used a small amount for the rear armrests. Also I was going to use it for the door cards. The cards themselves are rubbish with lots missing/ disintegrated areas but enough to fashion new hardboard backs .

The big question was though did I have enough vinyl to recover the dash top and two door cards ?

Well in short....... did I f ***. Not by much but still not enough. I must have been trying at least an hour to try in fit the three pieces on the remaining vinyl but every way I was about 2" short  in one small area.

Typical. Here's a shot of my best attempt.

So a big decision had to be made. I decided that the bottom 5" or so of the door card vinyl would be made up of black carpet. That way using less vinyl I would be easily able to cover all the new hardboard pieces. BTW the door card hardboard has not been purchased yet but I did have enough hardboard to make the new dash top. Well at least draw out the shape. The weather looked a bit iffy so I resisted in cutting the board with the jigsaw and did a lot of staring at the parts and rooting around in the shed. Thats maybe for tomorrow.

Here's a view of the boards with the  (theoretical reduced size ) of vinyl layed out. 

Loads o room.

Next big thing is the ordering of the tyres. What size though ? I'm thinking 176  x 65, although 165 x 65 would work. I have the advantage of having several sizes of tyres fitted to the wheels and the 175's look the best. Avon tyres look competatively priced and were originally fitted to many Birtish cars of the era.

In still yet to have to set a date with the mobile auto electrician, need to remove the tyres so I can do the final wheel colours and glue and fit the dash top and fit the dash complete. 

I'm hoping to get these done in the next few weeks, along with then dreaded cant rail then start on.........

Well loads.....new proper road springs, new heater matrix, chrome bumper mounting bolts, etc etc.

More soon folks, its picking up pace.