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.