1-26-2009

Broke the sandblaster out and got to work on the car again. This time, however, when it came out of the garage, it drove out under its own power! Runs rough as hell but at least she runs :)

I spent about two hours sandblasting on the car and in all that time, all I got done was the front right wheel and suspension and the trunk underside area where the gas tank mounts. talk about slow going. My compressor isn't small but it's not a big industrial unit either so you only have about a minute or two of effective sandblasting time before you have to wait for the air tank to fill back up again.
Plus, it's a Sears sandblaster which loves to clog up every 30 seconds or so...slow going to say the least.
I'm seriously considering just pulling the wheels off and spending $50 bucks to have them done at a sandblasing shop. It would be much easier and I wouldn't have to spend a few days picking sand out of every square inch of my body. Then I can just blast what needs blasted, the rest of the suspension, the underside of the car and the few random remaining parts that are too big to clean up with the wire wheel on the bench grinder.

I got my speed bleeders for the brakes and the clutch slave in today. They are basically bleeder nipples with built in check valves. you loosen them a bit and pump the brake pedal until the air is out of the system and the built in valves prevent air from being drawn back into the lines when you let off the pedal. Supposedly, it allows you to bleed the brakes by yourself.
I'm planning on flushing out the 15 year old silicone brake fluid from all the lines and replacing it (I'm sticking with the DOT-5 silicone fluid) by hooking up my Ezi-bleeder. It is a unit which sends pressurized fluid into the master via a special cap and on through the brake lines, pushing the old fluid out as it goes. I've never used one before but they are supposed to work fairly well based on what I've read on several MG forums.
When my latest parts order comes in early next week I'll be working on rebuilding the brakes so I'll let you know how the Ezi-bleeder and Speed bleeders actually work.

It's going to be cold and rainy here for the next few days so I'll probably alternate between working on small parts inside and working on the house. I still have to finish cleaning up the rust on the outside of the tank and seaing the pin holes on the top of it so that will probably be my next step.

I've also decided that in addition to documenting my restoration efforts photographically and here on this blog, I'm going to start doing them on video as well.
The videos will be a combination of how-to MG restoration and visual documentation. Hopefully, somebody out there will find them helpful. If not, then 20 years from now my kids can at least see what their lame-brained dad looked like when they were young.