After finishing work early and eating a nice healthy tea ( fish again,,,,,,,,,,3 days running, I'll soon be swimming) I set too with some little jobs.
Finished spraying the bowls outers and inner lip with trusty £1 tin black gloss from Poundland/Buywise/Costco etc. I must have spent £30 in grey primer and black gloss over the years. But for me it makes perfect sense as its cheap, always available and does the job. I also sprayed the window slider brackets I fabricated a few years ago. They have been skulking in a box I recently found, fortunately with a nice coating of Red lead on them. Next to them is the rusty sad original one with rusted on nut and bolt. I've no Idea where the other bolts are. Probably in one of the several bags of bits marked "Misc nuts and bolts" I seem to have hived away in some strange places.
The photo above shows the tools of the hobby that most would be restorers on a budget know. Wilko White spirit. I use gallons of the stuff. WD40 miracle fluid, 1000's of uses especially cleaning and light lubrication. Celebrations plastic container with sealable lid. Used today as a wash and rinse bath. I also filled it with White spirit and put the locks in, sealed the lid and gave it a good shake to loosen all the old crud, grease and other stuff (Cat hairs ?......how did they get there !) Small poking screwdriver (obviously) Green scouring pad ( sorry....Ed China calls them Scotchbrites) and wifeys kitchen towels . Not shown is the wire wool.........I couldn't find it ( found it when I was tidying away everything...normal for me !) and lastly Swarfega with nailbrush ( 60p from toolshop)
So the Idea is to get the door locks mounted and the actuating rods. Striker plate and door handle, all in a working order. Also to fit the door glass, winding mechanism and quarter light ON BOTH SIDES. Not necessarily in that order though
The keen eyed among you might notice that I am cleaning two Identical locks ( i.e both LH side ) That's because I can't find that either. I've seen it during the weekends.........somewhere..........with another bag of Misc parts but I didn't have time to seek it out tonight. I'll clean these two up, see which looks/works best and use that one.
A good few years ago I bought LH & RH complete doors from West Yorkshire on good ole E-Bay for £15 total. I collected them one Saturday morning. The trusting vendor was not in, told me to put money in letterbox and the door were in his garage ( left open for me) It contained a very nice MGA.
On Inspection of said doors many weeks later I found the bottom half of both to be rotten and full of filler, about a ton and a half. No wonder he said he would be out at the appointed time. Caveat Emptor !!!!Still all the parts were salvaged off them and that's why I have two of most door parts. The trouble is they are all rusty to some extent but I suppose at least I have some choice. Apart from the window glass felt runner and latch plate ( don't know why I removed it as I had to drill out one bolt thus rendering it useless......doh) all I need now is that precious commodity.......Time, second only to Money.
Joy of joys, MGB restoration.
