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.