Its over.............here comes summer !

Hello peeps

Many apologies for not posting for so long but its taken a good few weeks to overcome the lethargy, depression and general goings on. Still thats what holidays are for, and guess what. Its done the trick. So to prove it here I am smiling the Sunday before new years eve ( the day after the wedding anniversary also)

Yes I know its all Bluey tinted, but daughter number one took it, and was cold standing in bare feet, so rushed it meI thinks. Still it was very cold and getting rather dark though.

Had a very good Holiday so far, with no family Illnesses or other disasters. Had lots of prezzies and booze and snoozes by the fireside. The new additions to the fold Ralph and Ruby ( 5 month old stripey Tiger type cats) are sending us nuts with their antics and ruining the house. In fact we've given up replacing the baubles on the tree after Ralph decided to launch himself from the sofa to the tree innards. Well, actually as punishment to the kids ( They always deserve SOME punishment - almost 14 year old twins, boy- girl, lots of time in the house/bed/bedroom/internet/i-pod/x-box) we decided it was their chore, or no free time.

Clever little dicks, they just banned Ralph & Ruby from the room.

Back to the resto. Finally motivated myself to get stuck in and welded the floorpan strip in.

I did think I would have to spend hours making the strip a perfect fit, but, as in new year resolution, JUST GET ON WITH IT. So I did. No fussing and worrying. No over thinking the Issue.

Here it it tack welded in position...........Note the Hi-Tech clamp of hammer and wood offcut.

And finally welded. Can you see the join yet ?

Its the longest weld I've done so far. Only tricky for half its length because my head, the welding helmet, right or left arm and Steering wheel all wanted to be in the same place.Its dark in there too. And smelly with thick black smoke from the underseal underneath. Counted seven little welding fires which all needed me to extract myself from my semi prone hernia inducing welding position and flap wildly with gloved hand to extinguish them. The photos look nice and clear because of the flash, but in reality it was difficult to see, hard to reach , cold, damp and uncomfortable. But i did it. And without complaining.

Next on the list is this little hole near left foot position and small hole near rear spring hanger. Soon though. Fufferfour's back on a roll and he's got money for new panels !!!!!!!!!!!

See you all soon folks..............................+++++.Rick thanks for the e-mail re moments ect++++

An indifference to life in general

Well readers, as you may guess by the title I've been a little preoccupied of late with life in general.
Work is as tough as ever, my health has been suffering a bit of late and family issues seen to be getting more complex and frustrating. Not to mention college which has moved up a gear and left me feeling vulnerable and a little stupid.
The MG has been left well and truly bottom of my priorities, occasionally flapping and waving its errant blue poly cover whenever rain and wind appears.
The weather since my last post has been very good, however my drive and enthusiasm has not, so several weeks have been wasted. I feel I'm going to regret this when winter finally arrives together with enthusiasm, cash and happiness.
However I'm determined not to let the car be one of the many abandoned projects for sale on E-bay. I must say my doppelganger Rick has given me the impetus not to fail as he is restoring a real basket case and is making a good job of it in similar circumstances, if not with a little more cash and garage.
So why the depression Fufferfour ? you ask.
Well I don't know really.
A level physics at college did not help. Full of young kids all able to grasp thirty five ways of transposing formulae, knowing the answer is in Nm, m/s ( -2) Kj or wotsits.
The other evenings are not the same as I feel its a waste of time as they are catering for the newbies ( combined class from the two last year) who are a year behind a small minority in class.
Still Biology continues to be good and I'm beginning to understand how all the body parts work together.
Work wise has not see an influx of machine orders, the ones won have took ages to build and the other side of the biz has seen a few small victories over the competition. Still its a hard and lonely life on the road with such a large area to cover.
Seven days in Dusseldorf working the "k" show proved to be very tiring and not as exciting as previous. Staying with an old couple in the suburbs was really nice but our new French owner had decided to gatecrash over the weekend so all my French colleagues were very tense and very well behaved, almost boring, for my liking. It still took me at least five days to physically and mentally recover. I think this was the start of the great depression.
That and the lack of activity from British industry on the stand.
The wife and kids continue to argue, bicker, winge, demand and generally frustrate any attempts I have of a happy life.
One event of note in our household is the arrival of Ralph and Ruby. Two tiny kittens that look like darkly striped Tigers. How we love the way they frolic with their tiny skinny legs and button noses.
How I hate the smell emanating from the Poo tray in the dining room.
Still, that was a few months ago and now they are turning into whirling dervishes of mass destruction. It's still funny to see their antics though. Unfortunately their poo still stinks the house out. Roll on Feb when they can leave the house for the big bad world outside.
The MG was left with a long strip of about 1" wide cut from the floorpan where it meets the outer sill, and the last 3" of the outrigger cut away. I've since bought a new outrigger and jacking point during a brief diversion to the MGOC last month. Whats difficult is welding the repair panel ( Cut from the opposite sides unused repair panel) in. The steering wheel is in the way. I tried for about 2 hours to bash it upwards from its splines without damaging the soft plastic base. It transpires one of the famous BL service tools ref BL-vb10073 part 6a is required. I say famous because no one has ever seen any of the recommended service tools. There is also two further small holes in the drivers side floor. One near the rear spring hanger, which has for some reason been repaired previously without trimming the excess steel away, and another at the base of the transmission tunnel/floorpan, near where your left foot would rest. I don't think these will present too much difficulty though. ...........................famous last words !
I have a inner rear arch panel to fit ( Birthday present in May) together with a new rear wing and maybe rear sill repair section and complete outer sill ( yet to be purchased). I also need to fabricate a section of about 10" long with two 90 degree bends to repair the window frame base where the wing is welded to.
Then the major bodywork is almost complete....................hehe.....easy word almost !

Getting there

The last few weeks ain't seen much activity.

However, the A post nightmare has ended. Yes I bit the bullet and welded, cut, ground, templated, cut, ground & welded ad infinitum. + not a lot of body filler.

I must say sanding filler is not my favourite pastime. God is it boring. Unfortunately its necessary and vital to get a good look to the finished car.

So, the A post then......................see the finished result below !

This is the finished result after lots and lots of very fiddly welding in of small curved pieces of steel. Its integrity is good and the filler only hides the welds too inaccessible for the grinder.

However, its the wing join that I'm most proud of. This took some welding in of curved steel and was much easier than I first thought. In fact I pondered hours and hours on how to repair it and kept putting it off till the last moment. The filler sanded a treat and lots of offering up the wing made the join perfect.

What was a constant source of frustration is the front RH wing. The LH wing had lots of welding done on the captive nuts and a new bottom rear edge.

So I was prepared for the worse.

After venturing to the bottom of the garden and behind the shed to unearth the wing I had a pleasant surprise. The captive nuts were fine...............yipeee.....some luck at last.

Booo.................................................................. remembered the wing also had some accident damage to the front around the grill aperture.

But, thought this would be easey peasey to repair, a few whacks and job done.

Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

The area affected is in a sort of zig-zag shape, so I thought a few whacks would sent it nicely back from where it came.

Well about 2 weeks later, several bleeding knuckles, C1 compressions of the spine and picking up a fallen wing from the trusty workmate I'm somewhere near.

Panel beating complex shapes is definitely NOT easy. This was made worse by the fact that whichever way I positioned the wing it needed to be nose down ( on the floor) and tilted up about 70 degrees whilst simultaneously beating it with the precision hammer, which in turn caused the wing to fall over and/or slip sideways. I think I moved 15 yards down the drive whilst beating, and suffered at least four good bongs on the head from the wing falling.

Its back to almost as new now.

The Ironic thing is that since I'm converting to chrome bumper, this area has to be cut away and smooth pieces welded in.

The wing then has been rubbed all over, inside and out, sprayed in grey primer several times between applications of small amounts of filler.

Still, at least all the captive nuts are all ok.

Next job on the list is fitting a repair panel to the RH footwell where it joins the inner sill.

Andy from Doncaster donated this part when I bought the LH sills from him on good ol E-bay.

Even though the panel is for the wrong side I'm only using the inner 1" so it will match perfectly.

See the devil wing below, and I promise to post more often.

More soon avid readers

Rust........in all the wrong places !

Well..........removed the RH outer sill rather easily. Six spot welds and a few easy whacks with the multi-tool ( scraper/chisel/upholstery/screwdriver thingy) and off it came.

The good news is the inner membrane is in near perfect condition, as is the castle rail.

So I've decided not to replace these. The inner sill is also good too !!!

Its not all good news though.

The front bulkhead, where the sill front meets is well.....as mess !

Its really weird that the car has rusted in all unexpected places, as well as expected places on different sides.

I decided to chop off all the rust with the newly refurbished grinder ( having replaced the carbon brushes with the proper items)

So look see.............

The upturned flap on the castle rail is going to be tricky to repair. Its in good condition.

However, its the top most part of three layers of steel. The next layer is the front bulkhead ( rusty where cut away) and behind that is the upturned flap on the end of the inner sill.

Also another tricky part is the end of the membrane. I cut it away a bit and bent it out to investigate the inside.

I think I may replace the first two or three inches of this and it will allow prior access to the end flappy area.

In a fit and flurry of DIY we have re-painted the whole of the dining room.

Well, wifey started it.......all ar*e about face and in a terrible mess. Still credit to her she stuck in there and cried HELP when it got tough.

So, early last Saturday I got stuck in, moved shelves and heavy objects etc, and completed it by Sunday late lunchtime

Trouble is now though she's already planned another two rooms for the next few days, for the same treatment. Cunning devil has been saving it for my Hols without letting on. I'm sure it was all a scheme to keep me away from the MG. I think she knows how to make motor brushes wear and welding gas to evaporate ( witchcraft ?..... feminine intuition or just plain bad luck ?)

Considering I'm on holiday now for two weeks and spending them at home I can't see where the rest/relaxation is going to come................................Ha!! Wifey says...........spend a day in my shoes anyday you like Mr " I've had a long busy day at work, too tired to do DIY but enough energy to fiddle with your hobby" ( No....."hobby" is not a euphemism for that precious and rewarding universal boys toy we discovered in early teens)

Once that round of DIY is now complete I removed some more engine ancillaries and even had the foresight to "borrow" a large plastic storage box from work ( we specialise in machinery to print them so we have lots skulking around the factory)

It looks rather empty in there.

Whilst Wifey is still to the forefront this holiday I used some female logic on her !!

And guess what................................................................It worked.

As I explained how much the three part LH sills cost and my joy at not having to buy all three , hence SAVING on this part of the project, I can now go and buy another RH rear wing complete like last time, you remember dear, back in May, my birthday, when we had a fun day out together and visited the MG hive............

Yes dear, what fun that was............we'll go again soon. But not until you've finished all the decorating, spent time away in Chester next week on a shortened holiday, been to see your beloved team play with No 1 son, and with whats left you can buy all the panels you want.

Well it sort of worked. Lets get in the good books first then apply more tactics.

More soon.........Thanks for the link Rick