Stopped by the brushes...almost

 Day off today so after a leisurely morning coffee and big shop, short nap and lunch I set too on the wheel refurb. Originally done ( well three of them at least ) a good few years ago they had a liberal coating of rust on them. I have already done one withe the drill and several small-ish brass wheel shapes. One has been sprayed black on the inside which has crazed a little but I'll go over it again some time. The outer face was coated with two coats of primer and stored in the car so they don' t absorb any moisture.

First job was to get some real paint on said primer. I only had some silver wheel paint in aerosol form so I used that. Just to get it covered and protected.

Wow. What a silver. A very bright light silver. It looked good though and nice to know l'll not have to wire wheel it again, hopefully. The photo doesn't do it justice. Its very very bright.

It appears there is no exact original Rostyle silver colour. Minis, Range rover, Rovers and Fords all used these style wheels and most have slightly different shades. I'm of the opinion that Ford Nimbus grey is the closest colour shade so maybe I'll  nip to Halfords and give that a try over the bright Silver. Unless one of the cheap poundshop silvers is acceptable, worth the risk for £1 a tin.

One to the next wheel. The one I'd not touched to date. It looked like it had been overpainted too at some stage, but not by me.

After removing the wheel from the car...........phwarrr.

The inside was rusty AF. Look

And that photo was after bothering it for a good hour with the brass wheel in drill.

It was that at this point the drill gave up the ghost. It sounded a bit ropey the other day doing the previous wheel so after a quick disassemble and re-grease it appeared to work ok, for a short while, then only work by shaking violently. Not good. The trusty Bosch drill has lasted me nigh on 20 years, drilled evey hole in the house and lots of other stuff too but, a big decision had to be made.

Do I jump into the 21st century and buy a super battery operated one ( preferably another Bosch) or another unit or try to repair the existing one. Being an extreme tight wad I opted to repair the drill with new brushes. The first ones I selected were only £2.99.........but £20 shipping cost...wtf.

Eventually found some on Amazon for £7.50 delivered.......lets wait and see.

I don't think I've mentioned before but I'm taking early retirement so will finish work mid August. That entails being in reciept of a lump sum which has allowed a boost to the restoraton budget. Yay, and more time to restore, hence the burst in activity and enthusiasm as well as the good weather.

So no more of this malarky.

Back to the wheels. What to use to get the wheels back in shape meanwhile ?

I had no option but to use the scary grinder thing. This thing frightens me to death. Its fast, noisey and brutal. Fitted with the steel wire wheel disc almost lethal. 

That too is slightly f***ed. I have to keep the sliding "on" switch pushed forward to keep the disc spinning at full rpm. Not easy when your weilding it into all the nooks and crannies of the wheel and are already scared of slicing into your wrists and fingers. I had a slight mishap last year with it and skimmed the side of my finger which hurt like hell for weeks and was more than unpleasant.

Anyways, I managed half of the untouched wheel outer and left the hard to get at areas until the drill is back in action. The back had been completed with drill, pre conk out and coated in ku-rust.

Pre Ku-rust coating below.

The untouched wheel prior to bothering with scary grinder.

It did an excellent job though. Much quicker than the drill and a better shinyer finish, but no go in tight areas and hard work due to the " fault" with the switch. So as I said only managed half of the wheel front and gave it a light covering of primer. 

Next up is to purchase a reasonable set of proper chrome bumper springs to refit in place of the MCC I purchased a long time ago when I was young and inexperienced MG wise. This should make the car look and sit level and not nose up.  Oh, and a new heater matrix which has sprung a leak and been bypassed. The heater box also need a clean up and respray as the gloss black used looks shabby now, as does the boot floor after the asrts and crafs episode.Three step forward and one step back and so on.

More soon folks

Arts and crafts Pt 2

 As usual it started with a diversion. Well the there is so so much to do It would wouldn't it. 

Some time ago, and I mean years, I downloaded a very useful drawing of the rear bumper mounting brackett to hold the sub- brackett directly behind the chrome bumper.

It came from a forum named MG Experience, I think. Its  American and very informative and friendly. After I "aquired" some steel plates, albeit only 1/8" thick, I decided to make four of them and weld two together by puddle welding from the rear plate. 

So spent about 2 days on and off cutting, drilling, bending and grinding. Not tried them yet but they are exactly as the drawing, the holes line up so into the "ready to use, to be fitted when ready" box ( Its getting bigger at least)

Back to the rear cappings. Even though the shape looked good some work was required to the ends. The rearmost areas have an angled rebate I presume the allow it to cover the angled C post covers. The front has two 1/8" thick blocks to allow the whole to sit flat against the inner wall and level with door cappings. The old ones were ok so I simply prized them off and re-stuck to the new ones with PVA and held overnight with a tough spring clamp. I'd taken the liberty the day before of giving both bare wooden shapes a coating of watered down PVA glue to act as a barrier against rot and adhesion promoter for what was to come.

Below shows the pathetic attempt to use the fibre glass fibres and resin to " fill" some rotten areas, large nail holes and damaged straight edges due to rot in the original pallett. It was easy enough to remove. So then I filled with normal body filler, waited 10 mins (:the weather was warm and sunny, for a change), sanded smooth and was overall very happy. Now ready to stick on the vinyl. 

Not having an Industrial stapler or nail gun I bought some small blue head tacks to hold everything together (Wilko's, £2,35) including the piping strip, which was good enough to re-use after a quick clean up with WD 40 and removal of the very rusty small staples. 

I used the old tattered cover as a template and got to work with the Evo-stick aerosol. It went great. The vinyl was pliable and easy to cut with a slight stretch if required. Bobbed in a few tacks to be sure then tacked on the piping. This was not easy to align as the underside is well rounded and I was determined the piping would come out true and straight, otherwise I would have been better using the tatty ones than an half arsed attempt. I wanted better than it looked. The piping was ok but could be better. Someone must have heard me muttering and cursing.

Twaz then that Wifey piped up from the kitchen window " I've got an Industrial stapler, somewhere among my art stuff"

WTF. I didn't know if this was a good or bad thing ! Her "art stuff" is spread over the whole house, shed, attic, bedroom wardrobes and outhouse.

Result!!!!! First place I looked, outhouse ( it was also the nearest). 

It worked a treat, was easy the align the piping straight and true and staple accurately.

The only scary moment came was when a big black cloud hovered over and started to drizzle just as I was putting in the last of the staples, the WD 40 was almost exhausted and so was the Evo-stick. As you may be aware, I have no garage, so all the tools and stuff are stored either in the car or in two large plastic storage boxes. So any downpour is disasterous. But the cloud passed and all is well.

Very happy with all that. A quick clean up with WD 40 and they looked brand new. Hence back in the RTU,TBFWR box.

I gave the spare wheel another coat of primer and stored inside the passenger footwell. Just so you know, car primer is porous ! I'd wire wheeled three wheels a few years ago  and coated with primer, as well as red leading the insides but alas the elements have not been kind to them, they have rusted badly so will need redoing.

Look at the difference between a previously primered one and an untouched original wheel.

More soon folks as I'm buying 2 new tyres so at least 2 wheels need completing, not to mention getting the auto electrician in...hopefully.