Lazy

Didn't do shit today.

We don't need no stinking left shoulder!

The big-ish news is that I have apparently either torn the rotator cuff in my left shoulder or have something called peripheral neuropathy (some sort of damage to my nerves) I won’t know for sure unless I get an MRI but since I have no health insurance, it may be a while before I know. Not too easy trying to turn wrenches with constant pain and occasional numbness radiating from your shoulder to your fingertips and your arm in a sling. But such is life.

In spite of that I got some more done last night.
I got the suspension, drive shaft u-joints and parking brake cable greased (because I finally went out and bought a grease gun) and I installed the cotter pins in the parking brake cable clevis pins where they meet the levers as well as the pins in the clutch and brake pedals at the master cylinders.

Upon closer inspection I’m going to have to replace that clutch pedal again since the hole in the end of the arm that links it to the master cylinder via a clevis pin is noticeably egged out.
I pulled the starter out and cleaned it and its contacts and got it nicely painted. I’ll be cleaning and retaping the starter harness next and adding additional wires for more power circuits and fuse boxes.

The reason I pulled the starter was to be able to replace the flexible rubber hose to the clutch slave cylinder…fucking pain in the ass that was!!!
I finally managed to get the old line off and the new one in place but it was a huge wrestling match. I had to hacksaw off the metal of the hose where it meets the support bracket so that I could get a deep well socket on it since a wrench just couldn’t turn the fixing nut without stripping it.

I also installed an Ezi-bleed bleeder nipple on the slave and just “sorta” bled it. It seems that Ezi-bleed bleeder works as advertised. When I do the others on the braking system I’ll report back.

5-21-2009 Fighting a multi-front war

Well the brakes are all back together but not without a bit of struggle on one side.

I went to adjust the port side brakes and found that the adjuster was nearly impossible to turn. I wound up pulling the brakes off and removing the adjuster. I sprayed it with PB Blaster and that made no difference.

I finally but a big vice grip on it and heated with a propane torch. I then put a wrench on it and just worked it back and forth until it started loosening up. I finally got it to go all the way in and back out until it turned smoothly.

Still not idea as to why it was so tight as it looked straight and clean but it moves freely now.

I put a small dab of high-temp grease on it and ran it back in and out and then installed it back on the car. I put the brakes all back together and got them adjusted with no problems.

I tackled the parking brake cable while I was down there. Pain in the ass to do but not the worst job ever. Took the compensating lever apart (the one bolted to the differential pumpkin) got it cleaned, painted and greased. It is important to do that on a regular basis since most problems with the parking brake are a jammed or corroded adjuster.

I replaced the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear axle with the braided stainless one. A bit of a bitch at one point but it’s all nice and tight. The brake lines are now hooked up to the new cylinders and the parking brake cables are connected to the levers (but I do need to get some new cotter pins for them)

As I wrote in the title I am pursuing a multi-front war on the restoration. I’m trying to do as many things at the same time as possible.

I’ve started to tear the seats apart for then new foams and covers. Cleaning, painting and cleaning up the mechanicals while I also start tearing the rusted body panels off the car and cleaning up the wiring.

I had a nice little surprise when I pulled apart starboard seat. I found that the seat back was completely packed with old fiberglass and assorted junk, courtesy of a nice little mouse community. I pulled most if it out when I realized I should probably get a picture of it.

I got out the spot weld remover drill bit and started cutting into the car. This is going to take some time. I drilled out the welds on the top of the outer sill where it meets the top of the starboard forward kick panel. The welds were not even close to straight so I fear I may have gotten a “Monday-Friday” car!

The rear valance is going to be an absolute bitch. There are so many welds in so many places for such a relatively small panel that I may just cut the thing of with the cutting wheel, grind it up and weld the new valance over it. The way the old panel is installed will let me fudge it in that way and still wind up with a perfectly good new panel install.

Note on the new dashboard coverlay:
I put the new coverlay in place and it really looks good. The fit is great compared to the ones available 15 years ago and the texture, unlike the plastic-looking crap surface on the old one, actually looks like it is made of soft vinyl. I’m pretty happy with it.

Wednesday's work 5-20-2009

Received and installed the new axle hub oil seals. The day before I pulled the oil drain and fill plugs from the differential and drained the unit. When it was empty I sprayed brake cleaner fluid to clean any gunk out of the bottom of the unit and let it sit overnight. Letting sit that long let any little bit of old axle oil drain out plus it ensured that all the brake cleaner solution evaporated out.

I reinstalled the drain plug and refilled it with 90-wt gear oil. Half synthetic gear oil and half regular gear oil with Teflon additive.

Tip: removing the drain and fill plugs is easy if you just push a ½” wobble drive extension into the square opening of the plugs and turn them with a ratchet. You don’t need the special tool and the wobble extension has the perfect taper for a snug fit.

After the oil seals were installed I reassembled the split seal plate plates and rear brakes on both sides, fit the whole brake assemblies to the axle, put the hubs back on and hooked up the hydraulics. I doubt I got the 150 lbs of torque on the hub nut since it is so damned hard to so without brakes to hold the hub in place and with the car off the ground. I’ll do a final torque when the wheels and tires are on and the car is back on the ground. I haven’t bled the system yet since I still have to replace the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear end with the stainless braided Teflon hose.



















Thursday I’m going to replace the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear end, and the parking brake cable, adjust the rear brakes and do any final paint touch up on the differential. I’m then going to bleed out the hydraulics to test the Ezi-bleeders on the rear end. I also got a new engine oil drain plug with the magnet on it to pull any metallic junk out of the engine. I’ll install that when I change the engine oil before the next restart. I also received the second palstic battery box, yippy for me!

My dash coverlay came in and it fits perfectly unlike the one I bought in the early 90’s which fit like OJ Simpson’s glove. I also got the fiberglass “Special Tuning Air Damn” from Moss (part # 475-195) and I must say it is a huge piece of shit. It is one of the worst casting I have ever seen. The cutout in the center is not even close to symmetrical, there are creases and dimples all over it and it looks like this particular one was dropped on the pavement and dragged over to the shipping box. But it was on sale for around $75.00 so I really can’t complain much. I was gong to put a few layers on fiberglass on the back of it to reinforce it anyway so a little cleanup work isn’t such a big deal.

Put in another parts order today. Had to get new seat back foams (the ex wife threw my new ones away when she cleaned out “her” garage. I also ordered the urethane bushings for the tranny center mounting pin, splash guard extension seals, metal plates for the tranny stayrod pads and the poly bushings for the shock absorbers when I replace them.

Aside from some big items like the windshield, tires, battery and carpet, I have just about all of the small assorted parts needed to finish the car. Of course, not that I’ve written this, I’ll find out I need a buh-zilion other little things that I missed on this parts order…such is life.

Brakes getting close

I pulled the port side rear brake assembly of as a unit after pulling the hub and disconnecting the brake line and parking brake cable.

I then rebuilt the starboard side assembly right next to the one I just pulled off.

It is so much easier to rebuild these things off the car. Especially if you are replacing the brake cylinder since you have to use that little frakking that just loves to shoot off into the great unknown as you try to put it back on.

After that, I pulled apart the assembly I just removes, cleaned it all up and painted it. I used brake cleaning spray since these things are loaded with asbestoes and getting it all we with the cleaner keeps it from getting blown into the air and inhaled into your lungs.

I'm hoping my parts order arrives today so I can replace the axle oil seals and reassemble the axle and rear brakes. It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to put everything back together.

Unlike the front brake calipers, the Ezibleed bleeders I bought screwed right into the rear brake cylinders without the heavy resistance I encountered with the calipers. As soon as I bleed the system I'll post here how well they work.

I relplaced the axle rebound straps. It went fairly smoothly though the bolt on the axle for the port side strap was a bit of a bitch to get off.

Next comes replacing the flexible rubber brake line on the rear axle with the teflon stainless braided hose and then replacing the parking brake cable assembly. I'll bleed the brake and clutch hydraulics and then get back to cleaning and repairing the electrical systems.

The carbs are off and go in for their rebuild today and the oil cooler goes to the radiator shop for cleaning, pressure testing and any leak repairs if needed.

Not a whole lot got done last night…I has tired.

I got the battery boxes cleaned up. I cut off the bad metal on the starboard side box, wire brushed them both down and put on two coats of truck bed liner. I then put two coats of white paint on them because that’s what I had laying around. I bought some more silver paint tonight and sprayed two coats on the box frames.

I touched up the underside of the car, painted things like the transmission cross member black. I also finished cleaning up the rear suspension and painting it. I was going to wait to paint the rest of the rear axle until I got the cover gasket changed but it’s not leaking so I skipped that step.

Got two coats of ultra high temp paint (1200 degrees) sprayed on the exhaust system. It is 16 years old but still looks to be in pretty good shape. If I can get another two or three years out of it I'll be very very happy and getting the high temp paint on it should help protect it a bit.

The insides of the new sills and lower front fender quarters are lined and painted. I’ll probably put a few more coats of paint on them just to be sure they are well protected before I weld them onto the car.

The parts for the rear axle oil seals came today. Unfortunately, nobody was there to sign for them so I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow for another delivery attempt. I’ll be stripping down the port side brakes tonight in preparation for the oil seal install and brake rebuild. I’ll be pulling the backing plate off with all the brake hardware still attached so I can rebuild the brakes on both sides on the bench instead of on the car.

Didn't get around to pulling off the oil cooler or carbs for servicing. Hopefully in the next few days but I've got a very busy weekend so it'll be a bit here a bit there....

Clarification on left/right/driver/passenger side definitions

Since we are dealing with a British car here and driver’s side of the car means the opposite here in the States as opposed to the UK, I have decided to use ship terminology from now on to avoid confusion.

From now on the left side of the car (if you are sitting in the driver’s seat acing forward) is the PORT side. The right side is the STARBOARD side. The front of the car is FORWARD or BOW and the rear of the car is AFT or STERN.
Specific parts of the car offer a different challenge. Since a hood in the UK is the convertible or hard top and in the states it is the lid on the front of the car over the engine, we have to be very specific.
Here are the definitions, or UK to American translations

UK USA
Wing -------------------- fender
Hood -------------------- top
Bonnet -------------------- hood
Boot -------------------- trunk
Windscreen -------------------- windshield

Others terms
Petrol -------------------- gasoline
Spanner -------------------- wrench
Impulse extractor -------------------- slide hammer/dent puller
Torch -------------------- flashlight
Wanker --------------------jerkoff

Hope this was helpful :)

Wifey graduates from college!!!

Well I didn't get much done this weekend because my Wifey graduated Cum Laude (sounds dirty) from Winston Salem State University with a degree in Molecular Biology!

Most impressive and I am so very proud of her.

Blond, smart and hot. And as you can tell by her graduation cap, she is also a Battlestar Galactica fan like I am...I be a lucky man!

Please note that the colors on her cap, Black and Gold, are Steelers colors! And yes, we are both Pittsburgh Steelers fans!

Knocking it out!

Much done in the last two days.

Cleaned the entire underside of cars plus wheel wells
Put two layers of spray-on truck bed liner.
Painted two coats of silver paint on entire underside and wheel wells.
Completely finished the cockpit sound deadening and thermal installation install.
Applied two coats of truck bed liner to the inside of the new body panels- i.e. both sills, the lower front fender halves and the doglegs. When those are dry I’ll put at least three layers of rust preventative paint on them. When they are actually welded to the car I’ll pump paint mixed with Penetrol into all the body cavities and then finish it off with an application of Waxoyl.

I’m still waiting on the latest parts order to arrive so that I can replace the oil seals on the rear axle. Once that is done I can finish rebuilding the rear brakes, clean and paint the rear axle and refill it with 90-wt gear oil. Then I’ll be replacing the parking brake cable plus the rear flexible brake line and clutch slave line with the braided stainless ones. Then, of course, all of the hydraulics get bled and I can test out my Ezi-bleed bleeder tool.

Tonight I’m pulling the oil cooler back off to get it flushed and pressure tested and to get what is apparently a small leak repaired. I’ll also be pulling the carbs back off and sending them off to Butch at Imports Europa in Burlington so they can get rebuilt.

Work is actually going fairly quickly now and I hope to start the major body work and welding in the next 8-10 days

Oh, I also got a like-new set of autumn leaf seat covers from a member of the mgexperience.net forum. They were installed but not liked so they got pulled back off. They are just about new and I got them for next to nothing compared to the $400.00+ price that Moss Motors charges for a

new set.

5-09-2009

Did I tell you all that I got a new grill? Well I did from a member on the MG forum.. A brand new one with the black honeycomb inside…very purrdy.

I also just got a new in-the-box autumn leaf interior panel kit from another member on the forum. Got great prices on both so I is a happy little bee.

Finished installing the sound deadening material and thermal insulation in the cockpit. I think it will work out nicely and, again, all of it only cost a total of around $100.00.

I also got the emergency brake handle cleaned up and the metal part painted. The chrome was a bit pitted and ratty looking so I just sprayed it silver. I’ve also just about finished respraying the cockpit silver. Still some touch up and some painting behind the dash but I’m pretty much done.
I’m going to pull the shifter lever out and shorten it around 1½” -2” to give it a more modern throw. I’ll have to grind it down and use a die to make the new threads and then cut the top off of it.

Ordered the outer oil seals for the rear axle. Only the passenger side seal was bad but since the entire brake assembly and backing plate are coming off the driver side too, replacing the oil seal on that side becomes a “might as well do it while I'm in there” job.

I finished cleaning and repainting the driver side front suspension. I’ll still have to pull it all apart again to replace the shocks but I hate working on a dirty, greasy car.

Final cleaning, sealing and painting of the underside is going slowly, but it is going. The rear axle and suspension are all cleaned and repainted except for the area right around the differential cover. Since I have to change the lube in the differential I’m waiting to paint that area until it is refilled and the new cover gasket is in place.

Low cost sound and thermal insulation

Here is how I did the low-cost thermal and sound insulation for the cockpit and a comparison between it and a sound deadening material such as Dynamat Extreme.

Instead of Dynamat-type sound deadener plus an additional layer of thermal insulation, I did the following in the following order after stripping the floorboards, tranny tunnel, firewall and vertical metal of the rear deck of the cockpit. (This was not done to the following areas. The rear vertical walls behind the door, the rear deck, rear bulkhead and inner door threshold sills.) I also applied a layer of fiberglass mat and resin to the floorboards to repair some small holes.

A.---I sprayed on two layers of truck bed liner and let them dry.
B.---I painted all areas coated with the truck bed liner (i.e. the entire cockpit)
C.---Sprayed two coats of urethane sealer
D.---Sprayed on two layers of quality rubberized undercoating and let dry
E.---Applied the foil-backed butyl rubber (similar to Dynamat) on the floorboards where the factory sound deadening material was. Also on the entire transmission tunnel, vertical lower bulkhead behind the seats and forward vertical and horizontal panels of the firewall.
F.---Sprayed on 3M adhesive and then placed the mylarized sunshades as insulation.

The truck bed liner is really tough and, when painted/sealed with a rust-preventative paint, should offer good corrosion resistance. It also adds a thin layer of dense, sound-absorbing material to the metal.

A good quality, spray-on rubberized rust proofing adds not only protection from rust but also adds vibration absorbing characteristics. Two or three layers should make a difference in the area of vibration dampening but one or two more layers wouldn’t hurt. Any more probably wouldn’t help (though I could be wrong)

Instead of installing Dyanmat (or the like) sound deadener which would have cost several hundred dollars I bought some roll-on roofing material at the Home Depot. It is a butyl rubber material with a thick foil backing but costs a lot less. I cut it and placed it in the same pattern as the original factory sound deadening material on the floorboards. I also put it on the firewall, entire transmission tunnel and the vertical bulkhead behind the seats. This material comes in rolls 6” x 25’ and two of them will finish out the areas I described above if you are careful with it and apply it in the same pattern as I did, five rolls would finish out just about every square inch of the cockpit if you did the floors completely and not just in the factory pattern..

I chose the sunshades for the thermal insulation because I saw them first. Mylar bubble insulation which is the exact same thing (except it comes in a big roll and at a lower cost per square foot) is available at big hardware stores.

The only thing I would do differently is to glue down the Mylar bubble insulation with contact adhesive instead of the spray-on type. I just feel it would hold up better and be a stronger bond.
I’ll probably wind up adding the butyl sound deadening material to the inner sills but since I still have welding work coming up in that area I’ll do that after I have the new outers sills installed and the rest of the body work finished. It will add about $17.00 to the costs.

Total cost, as seen below, was $107.00. Quite a bit less than what conventional Dynamat-type material plus any thermal insulation would have cost.

Spray on truck bed liner, 2 spray cans------- $7
Rubberized undercoating, 2 spray cans--------$16
Urethane sealer, 1 spray can---------$6“Auto-Shade” dashboard sun shades, ---------$27
3M adhesive, 1 spray can-----------$8
Metal HVAC tape, 1 roll-----------$7
2 rolls roofing butyl with foil backing------36
Total cost---------------$107.00

For comparison:
Dynamat cost: $9.50 per square foot
Hardware store butyl with foil cost: $3.00 per square foot
Total cost for Dynamat plus thermal insulation and all other costs installed: $396.00

My total cost for the way I did it: $124.55 (includes extra roll of butyl material for inner sills, outboard footwells and inner doors)

Quite a difference. And yes, the Dynamat is thicker than the butyl sound deadener I installed. But even if I doubled the amount used and also did the sills, the total would be $178.10...still way less than half of the Dynamat (or comparable) material.

The foil on the two materials is the same thickness and both provide sound deadening and thermal blocking. And I have no doubt that the hardware store butyl material will stand up to the heat coming off the exhaust. If you’ve ever done any roofing work (and I have done a lot) you know that roof surfaces can reach temperatures of over 150 degrees on a sunny day.

The materials I used have comparable performance to the Dynamat-type materials and cost much less than half. In addition, I found that installing the 6” wide rolls of the butyl material was much easier than trying to cut up or maneuver the larger sheets of Dynamat.

I tried the Mylar bubble insulation on the floorboards of my Corvette and a single layer practically eliminated the previously substantial heat coming up from the floorboards.

Final assessment: This one is a no-brainer. While many things people do to save a few bucks often wind up costing more money, this one seems to actually be worth the difference. I expect that the sound and heat levels in the car will be dramatically reduced, especially if a hardtop is in place.

The Mylar thermal insulation works well at stopping heat transfer and the foil-backed butyl it basically the same, in practical applications, as Dynamat-type sound deadening materials.
For what it’s worth, I like it (but I’m a cheapskate)

NOTE:
At the last minute, after I was done with the passenger floorboards, I decided to glue down the rest of the thermal bubble wrap insulation with brush-on contact adhesive instead of the spray on. I had it left over from some other project so it didn’t add to the cost and it gives a much stronger bond than the spray-on stuff. It also costs less than the spray adhesive and a $6.00 can is way more than you need to do the entire interior.

INSTALLATION NOTES:
If you use spray-on rubberized undercoating make sure it is fully dried and painted. If not painted, dragging a brush of contact adhesive across it can loosen it or even liquefy it.

Before applying adhesive to the Mylar bubble wrap insulation or the foil of the butyl sound deadener, be sure to wipe it down. There are often manufacturing residues and oils on them (especial the butyl foil) that will weaken the bond of the contact adhesive.

Some shots of the cockpit

May 3, 2009...Back to work with a vengance!!!

My friend Kevin came over Sunday around noon and we started working on the B again. Put her up on jack stands, pulled the wheels and got to turning wrenches.
We started on the front brakes.

Here’s what we did:
Pulled calipers, cleaned and painted them with red, high-temp paint, replaced the pads, retaining clips and pins, flat tab washers and the flexible rubber brake hoses with stainless braided Teflon hoses. It all went back together without a hitch.

While we were in there we also replaced the rack boots (always a royal frakkin’ pain in the ass)and cleaned the inside of the steering rack and filled it with 90 wt. synthetic gear oil.
We also replaced the jounce bumpers (as our friends in the UK call them) which are the little things under the upper control arm with the 4 rubber nipples that keep the front suspension from bottoming out. That job wasn’t too tough but it wasn’t easy either since the aluminum spacer on the passenger side had welded itself to the old jounce bumper.

I later painted the passenger side suspension with a black metallic paint and it looks really nice.

Bad news:
The shock absorbers on both sides seem to be leaking fluid at the pivots which means bad seals. I’ll be calling around for rebuilt ones or good used ones.

We then started on the rear brakes and that’s when the work ground to a halt.

I pulled off the rear passenger drum and found everything inside caked with greasy gunk. Much of the she lining was gone apparently from oil contamination..

It looks like the oil seal is leaking and , luckily, it only costs about $5.00 so I’ll be replacing them on both sides.

After much head scratching and a call to my buddy Paul (my MG lifeline) we finally figured out how to get the old seal out. I’m pretty certain we looked like two monkeys trying to figure out an iPhone. I cleaned and painted all of the parts on that side of the rear end including the backing plate and then went inside and ordered the parts from Chris Roop. ( roopsmg.com ) great prices and a great guy to deal with.
Late last night I put down the sound deadening material on the passenger side floorboards and footwells and the tranny tunnel. I used a foil-backed butyl rubber that I bought at Home Depot. The stuff is for roofing but it is the same stuff as Dynamat-type sound deadening material. I cut it up and put it on the floorboards in the same pattern as the factory sound-deadening material and completely covered the tranny tunnel and forwards part of the footwell and firewall.
Total cost for the material is $36.00 as compared to the $200.00+ for the Dynamat-type sound deadening material.

I

I then glued down the bubble-wrap like thermal insulation and sealed it to the sound deadener with HVAC foil tape. I’ll do the same with the rest of the cockpit this week.

The total cost for sound deadening and thermal insulation for the cockpit will be around $100.00. Pretty damned good if you ask me.

For the record I did the following:
Fiberglass mat and resin on floorboards, two layers of truck-bed liner, two layers of urethane sealer, two layers of rubberized undercoating, one layer of Dynamat-type sound deadening material and one layer of the Mylar-bubble insulation.

All of that together should make the cockpit quieter, more comfortable and pretty much safe from rusting anytime in the near future.

SPEED BLEEDERS UPDATE:
They don’t fit…at least on the front calipers. The stock bleeder nipples seem to have a slight taper towards the end that screws into the caliper, the Speed Bleeders don’t so trying to put them in offered a great deal of resistance.

I decided to not put them in since there was a chance of stripping the threads out of the calipers. I’ll call the manufacturers this week and see if they have any suggestions. I haven’t tried the ones on the rear brakes yet or the clutch master. I’ll post it here when I get some more answers.