More rubber struggles despite the pain - 2

 So I left off last time explaining how an offset ring spanner was good for forcing the rubber apart and the trip strip in. No, its not easy. The trim strip twists and turns, pops out and back in again. Refuses to go into place and some places goes in rather easily. 

I must admit using washing up liquid did not help. Yes it helps things slide in easily, it also helps them slide out easier too.

So a week later I was ready to try the front screen, which I was dreading. Again this was in the loft so a very tentative lowering down of the aluminium ladder armed with glass was done ok, with a little helpm from wifey.

Spent a long time cleaning the glass and getting the old "glue" and silicone type stuff from the outside edge.

The fitting of the rubber around the steel lip of the windscreen was not so bad as the last effort on the rear. Ah, the bliss of experience. The same problem of too much rubber length in the middle of the screen top edge still presented but I expected this.

Lo

Also in view is the dash top Glued in position. I must admit before I glued it in place it looked presetable. Now after a week or so of housebricks weighing it down it does not look as good. Also one of thr vent slots has snirped rightb up. I know the steel vent frame will cover it but Im afraid the vinyl looks old. Hey ho, on with the master plan, dash in.

This was very tricky and took 2 whole days, each several days apart. Why I hear you ask ?

Well, attempting to adjust the handbrake cable on wifeys Fiat I slipped belly first off the seat and onto the sill, mighty crack in the left rib area and much pain. So rather annoyed, frustrated and pissed off I had a couple of days off work while the pain eased.

Then I did a very fufferfour thing, thought I could overcome the pain and get the glass in one bank holiday Saturday. It was about quarter way in at the left lower corner when I left it last and held secure with gorilla tape to stop it slipping off the car altogether.

Wifey did assist for a full 12 minutes before she got fed up and went off in a sulk muttering about more important things to do.

My fu@%&£~ word, what an epic struggle. Left lower corner sort of in, Right lower corner miles away. Lots of grunting, pushing, groaning and yelps of pain the right corner was much closer. 

Fu@%&£~ me, the left corner pops up and out. Repeat till your soul is ready for beelzebub and life appears meaningless x10.

All this time the sun was beating down on mi head, ribs hurt like f&%£ and the gorilla tape " handles" were starting to slide on the glass like Bambi on ice.

Progress was slow and very hard. But press on I did. After what seemed like eternity I had about half of the left and right vertical edges in the groove, just.

Then f%&£ me again, the top centre of the rubber trim had come off the edge of the ole. 

Words fail me at this point. However of all things that helped was two peices of dry garden cane. Twaz the only way to keep the rubber from popping off wedged on the dash top and the underside of the rubber edge.With a little lateral thinking and pushing the rubber up from inside onto the glass edge was some degree on sucess acheived. A little light pushing of the glass inwards and some pokey red rounded tool unfurling of rubber edges it was done. 

I can promise I will never attempt this again !

That night my rib was killing me and I had the worse nights sleep in a long time.

But it was done. I only have to put the  rubber trip strip in now...............eek ! 

That methinks my be just as tough too, maybe.

Next also on the agenda is the fitting of the dash and heater pipes, yay.

 I should have fitted all the lights this weekend but sadly the parts ordered from MGOC have not arrived, normally they get here after a couple of days. Boo Royal Mail. Still I had fun and pain, mostly, the kids came to visit and I fell in love with daughters Mercedes AMG , oooh very nice.

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More Rubber struggles despite the pain

 So, for some reason the typing interface appears ok for now so no crazy layouts. 

The rear tailgate screen cleaned up nicely by using an old fashioned razorblade, green fuzzy pad and windowlene ( glass cleaner) The terminals for the heated rear window looked a bit iffy and the spade connectors for the wiring loom a bit cruddy but hey ho, they'll not be seen. Anyway its a long way off me testing the thing and will I ever use it, as well as the fact the switch on the dash disintegrated  years ago when it was removed. All part of the master plan of " get it ready to drive on the basics" plan. 

Here it is halfway in and yet another struggle. The main problem was the glass groove in the rubber is relatively small and finagleing it caused the dreaded rubber surround to dismount. Not just a little bit either, it came off the frame in great swathes. Plus the glass lip being so fine and delicate I was afraid of damaging it.

Here you see the red trim removal tools that proved so useful in getting the rubber to behave (sometimes)

You might also notice the unique way I had of moving the glass when faffing with alignment (gorilla tape, yet again !) It worked though,,,,,,,,,,,this time, more later.

Anyways in the glass went......undamaged and seated, or so I thought. 

Next was to fit the central groove trim sealing piece. 

For this is required a special tool. Me being a Yorkshireman and a bit skint I thought I'd improvise. The groove trim is not a round section that pops in. Its diamond shape, sort of, with a roundish portion on the underside but angled on the top face.

Its job is to push the outer trim outwards onto the frame and the inner rubber edge in, onto the glas as well as pushing the glass into its groove. Since the rear screen is relatively flat appears not too a difficult job, especially with the gorilla tape "handles" and judisious use of washing up liquid, smooth round trim tool.

How wrong I was. In my infinite wisdom I decided to  make the special "tool" from a stout wire coathanger. However, when testing the force required to expand thr groove I quickly regretted this action. A Yorkshireman is not defeated so easily, or a skint devisive and determined chap. So I used this

SEE BELOW

A 13mm offset angled ring spanner. It worked fairly well. Enough meat to spread the rubber and by pushing down pushing the trim ............ sort of.

Time is tight right now so must sign off. More on this later.

New Rubber. .........A trial of patience and frustration

So, its obvious I,ve not yet got to grips with the new ipad, new phone and the several Google accounts since we got rid of the "old Laptop". And the way the new Blogspot interface works.

Someventually I downloaded all of my MG photos to Google drive and at least that seems sorted, if not the crazy way the typing settings work. I promise I,ll eventually work out how to get rid of the underscore.So on with the story. New larger shed has not improved things ! In fact its made them worse , There is now more places to look when I try to get things done.However, I think i signed off last time with..............errr I forgot.I have spent the last few months making lists of parts required, many lists, lists of lists and rethinks.The strong decision was to get the MG somewhat watertight by re-installing the rear screen glass   ( tailgate) by buying a new rubber trim surround and insert. The guy at the MGOC said " it may appear that its too large but its not, there supposed to be like that".He was not wrong ! Every inch of he way it was a struggle to get the thing to stay on. It has a double lip on the outer edge and a double lip on the inner.Starting at the top middle and working outwards on both sides it just kept slipping off. I gave up and left it a few days. On re-commencing  I decided to use gorilla tape to hold it in place. After many hours of faffing and cursing I was eventually getting somewhere.That is until I got to the bottom edge. There was way too much rubber to fit. As in  about six inches too much !!!!!!SeeAfter even more faffing and frustration, sweating and cursing, shouting and walking away in a sulk I eventually managed to get it all in with lots of strips og gorilla tape to hold it there.

So I left it a week to settle and got on with cleaning the rear glass which was stored in the loft and Id not seen for at least 6 years or so and convinced Id break it on the way down the loft ladders. Below are some of the tools I used. Not shown is the set of trim removal tools bought from Wilkos for about a fiver. They were a godsend and the only way I could proceed.

I also bought a new quarterlight surround rubber which was a doddle by comparison to fit, 20 mins max.

More very soon peeps.

It aint half hot mum

 

First off, ashtray. Its taken three attempts to get a good finish on the top edges. First time the paper covering protecting the workmate wafted up up rested on it, the second time I rested  it too close to the green scouring pad. So, wet and dried yet again. I'm waiting to do the final coat till I can find the missing dash top vent.

I should explain that I'm currently shed-less waiting delivery sometime in August, so stuff is spread everywhere and some things have become invisible. However, I have seen things I've not seen in years.

The missing vent top is annoying since I saw one in the conservatory before the grand emptying of the shed and I,m sure its not the one I have "found". Time will tell when the shed arrives and its time to put all the stuff back in.

I have also sprayed the air intakes a lovely gloss black and the ashtray lid. 

The glovebox armrest has had a clean and polish as has the vynyl dash top......again. Nothing seems to get it matt black and clean looking despite trying all manner household products, acetone/cellulose thinners, Armorall "really works" restorer and good ole WD40.

I did have misgivings about the dash top I removed years ago. The hardboard backing was broken in 2 places and the vynyl was coming unstuck at the vent holes. So I pondered long and hard , bit the bullet and decided to remove the vynyl from the tatty hardboard, buy some new hardboard and re-glue.

           Judicious use of the heat gun, masking tape and clamps ( wifeys clothes pegs) and job done !

Here is the vynyl halfway glued on to the new hardboard. The old board was used as an accurate template. I did watch on you-tube some geezer doing same to his TR 6, which was helpful.  Contact adhesive is very unforgiving so I did it with some trepidation. The secret is to get it aligned well and start from the middle, even though I started from the RH vent holes it all went well and even the snurpy edges of the vent hole slots in the vynyl stuck down well. I did it in 5 sections.

Not perfect, but much better and its flat and rigid. Luckily I had the wisdom to test fit the hardboard onto the dash before glueing.

Whilst waiting for the glue to be tacky I set about cleaning the rear bumper, bought on E-bay about 11 years ago from some bloke down Wolverhampton way. Again these are not perfect, slight pitting all over but they will do till the car is finished. Much scrubbing with wire wool, Brasso and Peek autosol chrome cleaner did their bit but alas not enough to make it look new again.

The next big thing is the  WINDSCREEN GLASS !!!!   eeeeekkkkk!!!  next month will see me buy the rubber surround, retainer and some headlamp rubbers.

All with the aim of fitting the dash, console and electrics. But that must wait for the shed to be up and functioning.

Not yet completed is the drivers side hinge/door alignment, glass fitting and locks. Also the brakes need bleeding as well as the inner wing splash plate to fit and underseal. 

The brake hoses still remain an enigma with no word from MGOC other that the standard template of Covid times blah blah blah.  I will not use them in future, especially since I found during the tidy up/ re arranging  the perfect Automotive porn, a Moss full catalogue giving BL part numbers. A must for toilet reading.

Just to prove.................I do have a brain...............usually !   More soon folks.

P.S   some good YouTube sites to see for restoration -:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ChurchHouseClassicsLimited         Very Funny with Range Rovers

https://www.youtube.com/user/mgbvideosdotcom         Very good.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8MBWMaGHLbGwDrrzbddevA   Love this man even though its all Triumphs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRs-4AXb9_U         My Favourite. Lotus, R Rover and Jag. Classy production. Great Chap.

https://www.youtube.com/user/urchfab     Welder and Mech par excelance