The Wipers Times and Grommet grumbles.

 The title didn't take much thinking up. 

It's a tale of lost and found and lost again, rubber sculpting and grunting. No it's not about the latest Jilly Cooper effort at lustful narrative. 

I left the newly covered door cards in the shed and resolved to get the Important things done, namely fuel filler cap and pipe sealed and secure, fit rubber fuel hose onto fuel pump ( this time with a jubilee clip) then start the engine with catch bottles on the carb overflows. Methinks it's gonna result in removing the carbs again and find " stuff" therein. Sadly a result of my eagerness to fire up the car after the wiring Issues and not fitting the fuel filter ( I've had it skulking around for years but lost it !)

So with great determination I rose early on the promise of a fine and sunny week, very sunny. 

So what did I do ? Nothing much. It was too hot. I did rearrange some of the MG bits strewn around the shed, outside storage box, outhouse and conservatory desk. I was looking for the two chrome triangular door trims ( that fits on the door end top)..... found ONE. Windscreen wipers.....found THREE.

Here is a view of the shed packed to the gunnels with "stuff".

A padded box liberated from work to store the expensive chrome parts. It did contain an Aortic stent delivery device worth about £ 4500 so it will take care of the chrome nicely.

 

A view of my man size vice and work area......guffaw. It's tiny, it's crap and used rarely. You may notice it's rather dark and cramped and that's after I got rid of loads of stuff like carpet scraps, empty paint tins and useless MG crappy rusty stuff. Right at the back is a rather stylish and expensive 1.5 mtr Draughting machine with stand and 20kg counterbalance plus the mountain bike not used for 18 months. Anyways more story.

Since it was so hot I sought shade on the patio table under the brolly

I cleaned up the wiper blades with good old WD 40 and steel wool. Getting the arms off was a fiddle though but with a small bradawl I managed it by only stabbing myself twice releasing this little bugger.

Below is a shot halfway through.

The actual rubber blades were in a bad state. I did read somewhere that you can replace just the rubber part but it was a fiddle. Looking at it and the new type blades it looks near on Impossible. Still, you know I like a challenge. 

Original blade ( big one ) next to a more modern version.

Since I only had the one "new" blade ( left over from the ill fated Peugeot ) that had been in the outhouse for about 10 years. So I called it a day ready for another one whilst wifey was out touring the coffee shops  and garden centres of North Derbyshire with pal Jean. 

Above you can see the teeny tiny slot that the rubber should fit into. Well Mr Hunt of Hammer and spanner MG guru par excellence, you may be wrong on this.  More of this in the future.

A new day was met with sunshine but not as hot, clear skies but not too bright, perfect weather really.

First job fit the new outer rubber grommet on the fuel pipe and tighten new spring clips. Much easier said than done.

The Original grommet was ok really, just covered in some primer overspray ( not me but previous owner) and looked old and tired. 

I wish I'd not bothered.

The new one was thinner and harder with a very small slot for the bodywork to slip into around the outside. The main issue was the bodywork hole in this respect was not just a hole pinched into the rear deck. It was punched and had a lip on the inside of about 3mm/ 1/8". No way would the new grommet slip into the groove without some modification.  So out came the precision Chinesium scalpels and after about an hour test fitted it with the metal filler tube. It and the tube were ok, but it didn't look right.

After some quick research proved it was wrong.  That's how it should be. I thought the cap protruded out too much or the tube needed to have its larger flange inside the grommet. Alas there was no inner groove for the outer flange to fit into to allow the main tube to move inwards. It needed to go in about another 3mm to make it look right.

So I set about cutting an internal groove with aforementioned scalpels. It took ages and very fiddly. It took two attempts and about two hours of cursing, pushing, pulling and prising, hoping I don't damage the inner and outer edges.

Here it is halfway through.

N

It was tricky trying to get the lip over the larger metal flange and not damage it but eventually in it went and looked good. However, I still had to fit the large tough internal hose to the back and onto the tank vertical flange.

Boy what a struggle, even cutting some chamfers onto the inside of both ends it was still a struggle and hard on the hands and fingers.

Then bugger me, when it all fitted together it pushed the steel tube out a little and back over the large flange. Despite what I did it would not go in any further and the lip was looking delicate and stretched as well as not in far enough. After a lot of thinking I bit the bullet and removed it all  ( just as difficult to remove) and tackled the cut-outs I'd made to make them wider and deeper. It was when refitting I noticed that maybe I'd had the big tough hose on the wrong way round. Well I must have done as the vertical flange was a little easier, not by much though, to fit on. The grommet was also easier a bit to get in the hole as was the lip to get inside the larger tube flange.

See the difference. I think it looks a lot better even though it's not as standard, but that's not going to bother me.

Since the roof of the house is to have scaffold around it next week I have to really get the fuel leak sorted in order to move the car forward onto the vacant garage base.

So more soon.

Door card doings

 Started with the passenger (LH) side and test fitted. Some slight adjustment of the bottom holes were required, and let me tell you, hardboard is rubbish to cut, machine and knife trim. It just goes all raggedy and delaminates somewhat. In my infinite wisdom I gave them a good coat, both sides of 50/50 PVA to stop the flakeyness and help prevent water damage, if the car lasts that long.

The door top padded capping cleaned up well with no visible rust on the chrome end caps ( at least no visible rust, only on the rear face) So out of sight out of mind. The best stuff I found to clean the old vinyl was a good scrub in warm soapy water, another scrub with green sponge and Cillit Bang (  Bang the grime is gone as Barry would say)  finished off with " Hob Brite " a mild abrasive cream.

Used up the last of the spray on contact adhesive adding the Hobbycraft  2mm  thick foam  sheets. Fortunately 3 sheets placed vertically did the whole card, not bad for £3 per side.

Twas then I had a moment of craft inspiration. Why not emboss a large MG logo onto the vinyl.

This was accomplished by drawing out accurately the logo on tracing paper. Then taped this to the stuck down foam and cut around with a scalpel and steel rule. I had the foresight to make the logo 20mm wide, and decided against having an Octagon around the outside as this would be tricky to align accurately.  I then cut and shaped some very thick card to 20 mm wide, made from a length of edge protector on something we had bought, I can't remember what.

The tracing paper template in place

The foam cut carefully with the very expensive Amazon craft knife set and "impression die" cut using the tracing paper again

The cut shape with the 20mm wide die (very thick card ) taped together for rigidity and positioning (shown upside down) 

Next job was to stick on the vinyl leaving about 40/50 mm overlap quickly followed placing the " die" into the recessed area. The was embossing was pressed by my digit first which gave enough " feel" to accurately locate the die. One of wifeys flat bottomed saucepans was used with 5 kg dumbbell weights to aid the impression.

I thought after just pressing with my finger it looked good enough, however the finished result below. I'm well chuffed.

It was at this point I ran out of aerosol adhesive so I left the final tuck over glueing for another day.

Next day I started on the drivers door ( RH) and expected this to be done much here quicker, alas not so.

I made a couple of errors cutting out the final shape of the door card so I had to do some "Frankenstein"  stitching on corner/s I'd cut short.

Covered with old fashioned brown gummed paper tape it worked well and another covering of Gorilla tape and it was fine to sand and shape. It's not as thought it's structural, it's glued to the foam and wrapped over with vinyl so it'll be good enough.

Spent today cutting to size the outsides and glueing the edges using the tin of contact adhesive. I must say the liquid stuff is very unforgiving and difficult to spread evenly. The aerosol was a doddle to use but tends to get stuff everywhere.

All in all a good few days. Both door card tops vinyl are not turned over and glued down on the original, I presume because the door caps fit over the top, so I've not glued this yet till I decide what to do. For now they are buried back in the shed till I get round to re-aligning the LH door.

As I type this I realise that I've not drilled the 2 missing holes in the passenger side door bottom to accept the clips. Gawd knows how I"ll achieve this with the door cards covered in vinyl and templates gone in the bin. I did intend to use the RH template ( inspiration) however fufferfour strikes another conundrum.

More soon folks.

When things come together Nicely, especially Lucas wiring.

 So spent a day determined to make some positive progress after the last disappointing session. A bag of bits arrived from Moss containing misc screws, nuts , bolts, grommets, relay and a pair of window handle winders. Much joy.

Bravely, I tackled the errant relay. I had also bought a spare from Halfords so if I destroyed one so what. It would have to wait for wizard Tony's visit.

I'm thinking now that I had some duff info from one of the MG forums regarding the relay PIN numbers.

They are numbered 30, 85,86 and 87. Strangely all the wiring diagrams show W1, W2, C1 and C2 and this  is where,  I think I went wrong.

A big thanks to Paul Hunts website " Hammer & spanner". I should have gone straight there as I've been reading all things MG on there for years and it has everything you need to know, well written and loads of links.

Anyway back to the job in hand. Fitted new relay carefully ( after looking at Advance Autowires wiring diagram) about 30 times and Mr Hunts W1/ 85 pin locations.

Bingo........... Wifey even filmed it for me happening.

https://photos.google.com/u/1/partner/AF1QipMsv3jZCqGmm-IqJBI7ODXkMYvo/photo/AF1QipNl_rJoK2pLyL-3zUqOWr1YkjOe5stGXg0tJ__5

So, the annoying settings of Blogger, AppleMac and Samsung Android won't allow the lovely video, however I'll keep trying. 

Back to the story.

Engine runs albeit very rough, fuel pump pumps, wheels and tyres lovely and shiny, brakes work ( handbrake very weak though) So I took it for a spin up and down the little cul-de-sac where I live. Engine was stuttering lots, steering was heavy and clutch/ gearstick a bit iffy. Reverse works but moving forward I never got above 2nd gear.

Ah well at least it's moved. Twas then I spied a long thin trail of fluid showing where I'd been, and a bigger puddle where I'd stopped to turn round, bugger !

I'm going to try again though but this time with a fuel filter fitted and a catch container on the carb overflows. I hope it's not a fuel line issue and now wish I had checked the fuel line tank connections more thoroughly.

Hopefully it's the carbs that need a proper setting up after their thorough cleaning and dismantling a few months ago. Before that though I have to do the due diligence thing and check for the spark/ plug fouling issue/s and timing.   But at least now I know I can move it and have a good battery and wheels.

A day or so later I set too making the door cards. It was fun trying to fit a 2.5 x 1.2 met sheet of hardboard into a Toyota Yaris. ( I cheated and broke it in half knowing each half would be big enough for the roof  of 43 inches x 43 inches, just. The other Half more than enough for the door cards.

The above shows how skanky the old door cards were with the bottom 3" missing along most of its length.

The vinyl was ripped too and just as skanky. They were seperated easily and old card scribed round on the nice new stuff. Since the old cards were very warped I had no confidence that things would line up when cut out. 

I devised a cunning plan. I made a brown paper sheet and taped it to the door and by utilising wifeys charcoal art sticks and used the "dirty finger" method of finding the mounting holes.

Once the pencil centre lines were scribed onto the paper I cut out a square around the holes and offered it back up to the door. I then used a red pencil to mark the template where any slight changes were needed.

It is important to note how far off the original holes were taken from the crappy old door card, in fact not one lined up.

What to do about the "missing" holes along the bottom though. What missing holes ?

I forgot to add that the door had been repaired by me years ago by welding in a section at the bottom about 9 inches long, where some of the mounting clips go.

Then another brainwave. I assumed the doors would be symmetrical so used the paper template turned over to get the new holes that were missing on the other door. And it was a success. Transferred it to the door card and used this as a template to drill the 2 new 8mm holes for the missing clip holes.

Fortunately I saved the old door clips and managed to locate them amongst the many boxes scattered around the property ( in shed, of course ) bad news was I only had 13, but that's just enough for one door. A trial fit just using four clips, a bit of fettling of the board and Bingo , fitted.

It was easier than I thought it would be even though It took most of the day On and off,  It went on with a nice little click and also comes off with gentle persuasion from a proper trim tool.

Next job is to trim the outsides, stick on foam and then vinyl.

The handles cleaned up great using hob cleaner, however the mounting hole and screw need some jiggers pokery to make them secure and nice.

Engine wise, I have to check the fuel lines, fit tank outer grommet and inner tube clips, fit fuel filter ( I know as soon as the newly ordered one is fitted I will find the original one that was never used). Check timing ( Tony's first job when he arrives), and so it goes, endlessly.

Or I may just try making the roof lining board, or the other door card.

Fun fun fun.