10-27-2008

I finally got the sandblaster out and started blasting away. I love the Sears sandblaster, blast for 30 seconds, spend 30 seconds unclogging the blaster, blast for another 30 seconds…and so on, and so on…

Still, it’s better than sanding or using a wire brush. First, I got the valve cover sandblasted and cleaned. I decided to paint it gold but the only paint I had was lacquer and I didn’t know if that kind of paint would hold up to the conditions in the engine bay. So, being the impatient person that am, I went ahead and sprayed three coats. I then sprayed three coats of lacquer over that. It looks pretty good and I guess I’ll see if it holds up once the engine is running.




















I still have all of the other stuff to do (clean the rest of the engine compartment, cockpit, underside and get them all sealed and painted) so I won’t bore you with that until it is done. What I really want to do, however, is get the car started. Now to do this, I’ll have to get a lot of stuff done. I admit that one of the main reasons that I want to get the car started is just because she hasn’t run since 1998 and I just want to hear her running.

But, on the more logical side, since she has not run in 10 years, I’d like to get her started sooner rather than later because I just have no idea of her mechanical condition after she sat so long. I’d hat to get everything done and then start her up in the spring, just to find that there is something seriously wrong and I have to pull the engine.

I figure that I’ll have to do the following at minimum: Get the wiring cleaned up and loose wires safed so there is no shorting out, get the fuel tank cleaned, repaired and installed, replace the rubber fuel lines, gaskets, hoses, etc. I can borrow a radiator so I don’t have to get it or the heater core flushed, pressure tested and repaired yet and I can pull the battery out of my old, unused Chevy van so I don’t have to buy a new one yet. I’ll also need to adjust the valves and get the distributor cleaned up and reinstalled. As for the carbs, they seem to be in fairly good shape after 10 years of inactivity. I’ve cleaned them out, adjusted the float levels and I’m replacing the float chamber and throttle shaft seals so, hopefully, that will be enough to at least get the car running..

I also got the distributor cleaned up, haven't relaced the points, condenser, rotor, etc, but I'm hoping they are good enough to get the car running. I lightly sanded the points to make sure they were corrosion-free and reassembled the unit after cleaning.

I also got the dashpots on the carbs polished until they are nice and shiny...it won't last long but they sure look good now!


















I have parts orders placed with Moss and Victoria british. Mostly small stuff-screws, rack boots, hoses, etc. I'm concerned about the quality of the parts as most MG owners on various forums report that they get stuff that doesn't fit or is just low-quality crap...We'll see...I'm not one to pay good money for something and not bitch if it isn't worth the $$$ I shelled out for it.

10-25-2008

I Spent last night making gaskets for the engine. The only ones I'm not making are the valve cover gasket (which I already have) and the exhaust manifold gasket (shich is made from metal) The rest I'm making myself...$20.00 for a sheet of treated fiber material and 1/8" thick sheet of cork is a lot less than just a few of the gaskets and I'll also have plenty left over for future repairs.

After making the gaskets, I reinstalled the cleaned and painted water pump. It seems in good shape and if it winds up failing it only costs about $50.00 for a new one and is easy enough to swap out.

I pulled the side tappet covers off of the engine and cleaned them up. I put the rubber gasket I had on the rear cover and a new, home made cork gasket on the front cover. I used Indian Head gasket adhesive on both and reinstalled the covers back on the block. They get tightened down but not much. If they are overtightened the gaskets squish out and the plates warp which is what usually causes them to leak.

Once they were back on I went ahead and sprayed them with the high-temp engine paint so they're all nice and purdy.

I'll finish up cleaning and painting the rest of the engine bay as well as pulling the valve cover and cleaning and painting that too. I still have parts to sandblast for the bay...so much to do, so little disposable income.

The exhaust manifold is ready to go back on. I wire brushed it until it was down to bare metal, cleaned it thoroughly with acetone and then sprayed three coats of the 1500-degree (supposedly) high temp silver paint. I do know, however, that no matter what, the heat of the manifold will cause the paint to "go away" sooner than the marketing claims say it will. Such is life with a red-hot mainfold. It looks nice now though!

10-21-2008

I got the remainder of the engine block cleaned and painted. I purchased one of those “as seen on TV’ battery-powered rotary bushes that look like a giant toothbrush. It works okay but the most useful part of it is that the small, circular brush tip has very stiff bristles. I sprayed brake cleaner on a part of the block and then scrubbed it with the brush. On or off, the brush seemed to work about the same.

I got the driver side of the block cleaned and put down two layers of the black, high-temp paint. While I was in there, I also cleaned the steering shaft and rack and got them sprayed black as well as the engine cross member.



















Tonight I’ll get under the car and finish cleaning the underside of the engine, the oil pan and the rest of the cross member and engine area. I’ll spray those with the appropriate black paint and then move onto the remainder of the driver side engine bay. I’ll be cleaning, priming and then painting it white after I have the fun of pulling off all of the stuff attached to the inner fender well on that side of the engine bay.

I’ve decided that I’m just going to replace the rear wiring harness with one that my MG friend Kevin pulled off of his 73 parts car instead of trying to repair Stevie Wonder’s work on my current harness. Kevin has many parts that I’m gonna wind up needing so I think he’s going to have the opportunity to sell those parts very, very soon…yay for both of us!

I also got the back half of the heater box out. The area below the heater box was pretty caked up with dirt and small debris. I got my little rotary brush out and cleaned and vacuumed all of the crud out, washed it down with brake cleaning fluid and then sprayed a coat of truck bed liner. When dried, I’ll primer and paint it.

















Above and below: heater box opening




















I have to go do early voting tomorrow so I may not get much done before I trundle off to work but some things must supercede my MG project…I’m so patriotic:)

10-19-2008

I rebuilt my 74 engine in 1988 at 62k miles. swapped out (p.o.s.) Ansa exhaust for nearly stock exhaust with stock exhaust manifold.


My work on the B (which sat from 1998 to 2008) has resumed and one of the items on my list was to repair the side covers which were leaking oil.


So I pulled the carbs, manifolds, etc. and braced myself for the hell that is getting the six bolts out of the bottom of the exhaust manifold that connect the flanges to the exhaust system.

I slide under the car with a can of PB blaster figuring I'll soak them and come back to them tomorrow. I shine the work light on the bottom of the manifold and notice 2 things.

1. one of the nuts is missing from a stud...no biggie, that just means one less nut for me to wrestle with.

2. the rest of the nuts are shiney and clean.

I spray PB blaster on them anyway but decide to see if they have welded/rusted themselves tight like manifold studs and nuts usually do. I put a deepwell socket on one and turn and it slips free with almost no effort. I quickly try the rest of the nuts and they all turn easily. I removed them by hand with one stud coming out intead of the nut. I then proceeded to turn all of the studs out by hand!!!
Not one was frozen or rusted in place.

Then I recalled that when I first went through the hell of replacing the exhaust over 15 years ago, (broke an ear off, cracked the manifold and had to get another one!) my MG mechanic Butch told me to get special studs and nuts so the next time I would have no trouble. I did so though I recall them being somewhat pricey at the time.

I assume I used some type of high quality stainless steel stud and nut set though the nuts appear to be brass. I wish I could remember what they were so that I could recommend them but if you are going to replace yours (again, assuming they are stainless and/or brass) then use these.

10-18-2008

SCHEDULE NOTES:

I have now been working onthe car, primarily the trunk, cockpit, wheelwells and engine bay for two months now. I planned on ten weeks so I'm right on schedule.

I also planned another month to clean, undercoat, seal and paint the underside of the car. One month for the major body repairs, six weeks for the engine and drivetrain, electrical and hydraulics and six weeks for the body and paint work.

I then planned on six seeks for the final assembly and finishing work.

Adding all of that up puts me finishing sometime in late April/early May 2009. Adding in unexpected occurences (and they always happen) and, with some luck, I should finish up by my target date of June 2nd, 2009.

Keeping all my body parts crossed!

10-17-2008

I finally got the passenger side floorboard fiberglassed. After restripping the primer from it and cleaning it thoroughly with acetone, I started to glass it.

















Instead of patching just the holes like I did on the driver side floorboards, I covered the entire passenger side with glass mat and poured the resin on.

Since there were only a few small holes in the driver side, I felt the patching method was justified. while the passenger side was by no means really bad, I decided since there were so many little holes spread around the whole area that a complete covering would be better.






















Fiberglass provides a strong and nearly moisture proof fix for that area provided you apply it to a clean surface and make sure there is no air between the glass and metal. You do this by working the resin-soaked mat with a small brush, pushing the air bubbles out and making sure that it has good contact with the metal. I did that for about 45 minutes until the glass was starting to set up. I then put a small space heater under the car and allowed it to heat the floorbaords up a bit from underneath. Not too hot, just warm enough to aid the curing process of the resin. It was a bit chilly tonight (around the low-60's) so I felt that the additional warmth would help.























Much later on in the evening after the fiberglass had enough time to cure completely, I put down the first layer of spray-on truck bed liner. Tommorow i'll apply a second coat and let that dry thoroughly and then I'll finish stripping out the transmission tunnel and the rest of the footwells. I'll apply truck bed liner to those as well.

After I have all of the cockpit finished with the truck bed liner, I'll roll on a coat or two of urethane sealer and finish it off with a layer of primer and two layers of paint.

Spray on truck bed liner is great stuff. It is durable, tough as nails and really protects the metal. However, it is also not great at preventing the transfer of moisture at the molecular level so an additional step is needed to be sure the steel is prtected from rusting. That is what the urethane is for. The primer and paint layers add an additional barrier to moisture as well.

10-14-08 TO 10-16-08

Continued work on the engine compartment. I pulled the wiring, fuse box, coil, etc. from the passenger side of the engine bay and started cleaning it up for painting. At first I sanded it and vacuumed out the dust and debris but then decided to use a cleaner on it even though it had all been degreased and steam cleaned.

I just wanted to be sure that there was no old grease or oil on the inner fender wells so I got out a can of aerosol brake cleaning fluid. I sprayed it on the inner fender wells and the top and front of the firewall and was reminded of something I had forgotten: brake cleaner makes a great paint stripper! Sure enough, after a minute or two, the old red paint I had applied in 1988 started to lift and bubble up like I had sprayed paint stripper on it. After that, I took a series of scrapers, wire brushes and the drill-mounted wire brush wheel to the areas I sprayed with the brake cleaner and it all cleaned up nicely.

I also scraped away a much of the factory tar-like rust proofing and seam sealing material that appeared to be applied rather sloppily. After the final cleaning, I put down two layers of etching primer followed by two coats of Krylon white gloss paint.

















I’m going to pull out the heater box frame tonight as well as the brake/clutch master cylinders cover and start working on cleaning and de-rusting those areas. I’m not going to do the driver side of the inner fender wells until I get the exhaust manifold pulled off and that side of the engine completely cleaned and degreased. Until that is done, there is no point in cleaning the inner fender well on that side since the cleaning process will probably kick up oil and debris which will then have to be cleaned as well.

















Sears finally saw fit to send me the ceramic tips for my sandblaster…two day shipping only took eight days…swell! I’ll have to pick up a bag of blasting media but I’ll be able get a lot of parts cleaned up like the radiator support, valve cover, heater box, etc. and get them painted by this weekend.

I’m running out of warm-ish weather so I want to get everything painted that needs painted (with the exception of the body which I will do in the spring) before it turns cold and rainy. I don’t mind doing the mechanical/hydraulic/electrical work when it is colder (I can always get a small kerosene heater for the garage) but the painting stuff can’t be done when the weather turns so I have maybe a month left to finish it if I’m lucky.

10-12-08

I started working on the aft wiring in the trunk today. What a freaking mess! Four layers of electrical tape, paint overspray, wires that were twisted together with no connecctors and no solder. I'm gonna have to print up the color wiring diagram and go at it because, as it is, it is a fire waiting to happen

Starated working on the engine compartment today also. I took the portable steam cleaner to it and competely cleaned off the passenger side of the block and the front of the engine and the timing gear cover. I then washed everything down with acetone and put on two coats of high-temp black paint (1500 degrees supposedly)

It looks really good though it is hard to see in the picture below since it is a black engine and the picture was taken at night. I also sprayed the timing gear cover with high-temp silver and it came out pretty nice.

I didn't do the driver side of the block yet and for good reason. After I pulled the intake and exhaust manifolds off I found that there was an oil leak on the two side covers of the engine. These are also called the tappet covers and the are notorious for oil leaks. Judging by the amount of oil it was a small leak but over the years, it was sufficient to put a light coating of oil all over the side of the block. It also allowed the paint on the covers and the block to peel off.

I haven't yet cleaned up that side of the engine because I have to break the exhaust manifold to exhaust pipes bolts loose and pull the manifold out. There are six bolts on the manifold studs and I can guarantee that several of the studs will get broken off when I try to remove them. I sprayed them with penetrating oil and will let them sit a day or two before I try to break the bolts free and I'll put a small torch on the manifold to help it expand away from the studs some. Unfortuantely it will probably be for nothing. Over so many heating and cooling cycles and with so much moisture exposure, the bolts and studs are almost universally "welded" in place.

I'll wind up taking the manifold to a machine shop to have them remove the old studs and replace then with new stainless steal studs. I could probably get the old studs out on my own but the manifold ears are very easy to break and I don't want to risk that.

Once I do that I'll clean off the driver side of the engine and get to work trying to seal up those tappet covers. There is probably a 50% chance that they will leak again no matter what I do so I might just have a set of thick aluminum plates machined to fit. The old covers are pretty thin and they flex so much it is hard to get a good seal.

I also got some of the parts for the engine cleaned up and sprayed with high temp paint. Since Sears has not yet seen fit to send me the ceramic tips for my sandblaster that I orderd a week ago I had to do the parts cleaning with the whire brush wheel on my bench grinder and drill followed by a thorough cleaning with acetone. In the picture above, the top two are of the intake manifold and the bottom left picture is the heater tube which attaches to the valve cover bolts and carries the hot antifreeze to the heater box. On the bottom right are the water pump and thermostat housing. They all cleaned put pretty nicely.

I was going to leave the intake manifold unpainted polished aluminum but no matter what, it would have tanished and looked like crap again in just a few months. That is the nature of aluminum. So, I just put the high temp silver paint on it and it looks like it is brushed aluminum but it isn't.

I also stripped down and sprayed the two radiator support brackets white to match the car's future color.

My idea of using a smal .17-.22 caliber gun barrel cleaning brush worked perfectly on the female bullet connectors on which I tried the brushes...worked perfectly, that is, until my dog stepped on one of the brushes and got it completely tangled in his paw hair. My wifey had to hold him while I cut the brush off with an exacto blade...what fun!

10/6/08

I finished spraying the truck bed liner in the trunk. I put down 3 coats and it looks pretty good. Its dried as hard as a rock so I don’t think I’ll have to worry about rust for a very long time.

When it set, I put down a layer of sandable primer, sanded it with 220-grit paper and then sprayed the first coat of white paint. The liner has a rough texture as compared to a regular painted surface but it still looks good. Besides, I’ll be putting carpet in the trunk anyway so the surface texture really doesn’t matter much.

I put down a second coat of paint tonight and it looks nice and even. I’ll let the paint harden for a few weeks and then spray on a final coat of white.

Next comes stripping the paint from the tranny tunnel and the rest of the cockpit, primering and painting them and fiberglassing and finishing the passenger side floorboards and spraying the truck bed liner.

The more I think about it, the less inclined I am to remove the dashboard. Not because I really don’t want to (I don’t) but because, unless there is some major work to be done on the wiring harness behind the dash (which I don’t think there is) I really think that my limited restoration funds should be going to more important mechanical necessities. A replacement dash cover will cost over $300.00 while the dash-top cover only will cost me about $50.00. That $250.00 difference will buy me a lot of little parts that will do more than just make the car look good.

After the cockpit is completely finished, I’ll do the final cleaning on the engine and engine bay. I’ll then paint the engine, manifolds and the rest of the bay and get started on cleaning up the wiring until I get the new wiring relay systems for the high-powered electrical components (headlights, heater fan, sound system, etc.) Then its back to replacing the sills, rear valance panel, doglegs, front fender quarter panels and driver‘s side door skin…still need to get that mig welder

Sometimes bad things lead to good things.

10-01-08

So I decided that I wanted to put down the spray-on truck bed liner in the trunk though I have already primered and painted that area. I figure if I spray a real light dusting of the liner several times and slowly build up layers of liner, it won’t lift the painted surface below. Well, of course, it didn’t work out that way. While only about 10% of the paint bubbled and lifted up, it is in an exposed area that I want to look good and since it is lifting up, it means that the metal underneath is not protected. So I get out the scraper and start taking of the lifted parts since figure I can respray those areas like I did when I had the same problem with lifting on the driver’s side floorboards.

As I start scraping off the liner (which pulls the paint off with it) I find that the metal under it is rusting, even though it was primered and had two layers of paint over it! Then I remembered that I didn’t use zinc etching primer, I used regular sandable primer instead. The etching primer does a lot to help prevent rust from forming over bare metal. In addition, I sprayed on very, very humid days and that does make a difference.

The more liner/paint I removed, the more rust I found. So I guess it was a good thing that the liner bubbled the paint or I wouldn’t have seen it until the metal was rusted enough to really piss me off.

Luckily, the liner/paint peeled off very quickly and what didn’t came off very fast when I used the twisted wire brush wheel on my drill. I stripped out the old liner/paint, made sure to get up all of the surface rust, sanded it all down and started over. After I cleaned up the area with acetone, I sprayed a layer of the bed liner over the metal and let it set up. I’ll probably put down two more layers tonight and then let it set for a week or so. When I’m sure it has fully cured, I’ll put down a layer of primer and a layer or two of paint and that should be the last I have to worry about the metal rusting. And with no hurricane remnants rolling through the area, the humidity is way down compared to the first time I did the trunk, so the liner should do a good job protecting the steel.

Of course, I’ll have to do the same thing on the underside of the trunk floor since that area holds a lot of water on the top of the gas tank…

After I took the trunk down to bare metal this time and I got the first layer of liner down, I conducted a little experiment. I scraped off some of the paint in the cockpit in an area where it was prepped and painted in the same way that the trunk was. The only difference is that I used the etching primer instead of the sandable primer. I did them both around the same time and the condition of the meal in the two areas was about the same before I started working on them. However, the area where I used the etching primer showed absolutely no rust when I scraped off the paint while the trunk area showed considerable rusting.

ALL RIGHT, TIME FOR A RANT!
I have a Sears sandblaster and I was going to use it to start cleaning up all the parts that need blasted. Well, the sandblasting gun has a replaceable tip in it made of ceramic. It is a sacrificial part designed to wear away as the sand passes out of the tip so that the metal of the gun’s tip doesn’t get eaten away. So I go to Sears to buy it…only about $6 bucks for two tips, no big deal. Well, they don’t have it in stock. Fine. I go to another Sears, again, its not in stock. So I call the Sears part supply store and they don’t have it either. So I’m going to have to order it online and pay $6.95 shipping on a $5.oo part! And every person I talked to said the same thing; “Well just buy a new gun, its only about $25.00...) Yeah, I get the scam. Don’t sell the tips and maybe the customer will just buy the more expensive item because they’re in a hurry. No wonder Sears only has like nine customers left…

9-28-08

I finished prepping the metal and the fiberglass repairs on the driver’s side floorboards. After I did, I sprayed on the first layer of the truck bed lining. I left it to dry overnight and came back and found that about 30% had bubbled and lifted. It did so where the metal had primer applied to it. The bed liner spray, especially where the layer was slightly thicker, just ate through and loosened the primer. It was easy enough to fix. Since it takes at least a day or two for the liner to fully harden, I just took a wide wire brush to it and the lifted parts just sort of rubbed right off, taking the primer with it and leaving bare metal. I did a light wiping with acetone to make sure it was clean and then sprayed a new layer of liner and there was no lifting or bubbling at all. The spray on liner doesn’t affect old or fully cured paint or fiberglass but it lifts new paint or primer right off. You can be sure that when I spray the passenger side floorboards, I’ll have taken any primer or paint off before I do.

Before and after of the driver's side floor pan.

I sprayed three more layers since and it looks like it will work out well at protecting the metal. Truck bed liner is tough as nails, easy to apply and is way less toxic (and way less expensive) than Por-15. When I prep the metal in the rocker panels I may still use Por-15 to protect it but I may go with the truck bed liner…haven’t decided yet. I figure it will take 6 cans of the spray cans of the bed liner to do the entire cockpit (not counting the rear deck area which is already primed and painted) and at about $7.00 per can that’s pretty cheap…just like me.

One of the guys I met on the MG forum (mgexperience.com) stopped by to look at a part I have as reference for some panels he needs to cut out of a parts car. He’s a really nice guy who pulled up to my house in a red B that looks like mine back when it was newly-restored. (I am jealous) Its really nice to be getting back into the MG community again after being away for around 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever met an MG owner who wasn’t a really nice person. Maybe it just goes along with being an owner of such a unique little car. By some unusual coincidence, there happens to be a very large number of MGB owners on the forum who live within 50 miles or less from my house…and a large number of those live within 15 minutes of me. I’m really looking forward to getting to know more people on the forum.