11-22-08...In praise of CLR...Part-II

Well, the radiator and heater core have been soaking over the weekend now and the
results are pretty dramatic. The first picture is of the radiator as it was before this restoration began. It wan't too bad looking, just dirty and tired.
















The next is a picture of the radiator and core soaking in the hot bath of CLR and water. I soaked it for about 3 days and the amount of crud that came out was amazing!
















I took a hunk of super-fine steel wool to the the radiator top for only about 20 seconds and it shined up like it was brand new! I still have to fiinish cleaing off the old paint from the radiator support, painting it and then cleaning up the rest of the brass but that is all just a detail.

















I soldered the crack in the heater core and then soldered the upper part of the radiator support bracket back onto the passenger side radiator top.
















How I did it:

I took the core and used a wire wheel brush to take the area all around the crack to bare clean metal. The wire wheel expanded the damage from nearly invisible to a 1-inch long opening around 1/2 to 1 mm wide. I smeared solder flux all around the area and heated it with a propane torch until it was very hot. I then dipped the solder into the flux and onto the crack and the solder was sucked right in like it is when you are soldering copper pipes together.

I built up the solder on top of that and then all around it to the sides and it seem pretty solid. I hooked a garden hose to one end of the core and blocked the other opening and turned on the hose...no leaks.

Since the pressure from a home's plumbing system is much higher than that which the core will experience in the car I think I am safe to assume that this will hold over time.

I'm very lucky the pressure didn't blow the core apart but the solder held so I think it'll be okay to install back in the heater box.

11-19-2008 In Praise Of CLR

I decided to clean out my radiator and heater core myself thus saving at least 100-200 dollars. I bought a bottle of CLR (calcium, lime, rust) remover and a bottle of Lime-Away gel. I flushed the radiator and core with hot water and then poured half a bottle of CLR in the radiator and about a half a cup in the heater core. I put the core in the sink and filled it with hot water and then poured some Lime-Away in. I then put the radiator in the basement bathtub and filled it with hot water until it just covered the top of the radiator. I then dumped the rest of the CLR into the tub and some more of the Lime-Away and let it soak.

After just a few minutes I could see the brass top of the radiator begin to look like brass again.
I pulled the heater core out of the sink and shook it as it drained an huge gobs of crud poured out of it, even though it had previously been repeatedly flushed with hot water.

I’ll let them both soak for a few days and then post some before and after pictures.
There are still a few small pinholes in the core but since they are right along an edge and not in the area of the cooling fins I should be able to solder those up myself.

I took my alternator into an auto parts store today and had it tested; no output. The brushes or stator could be rusty or the thing could just be scrap. I’ll have to strip it down and check the insides but since it sat for 10 years I am not entirely hopeful. Alternators are relatively cheap but I’d rather not have to replace one if I don’t have to. And if I’m going to do so, I’d just as soon do the AC Delco alternator conversion so that I have higher output at low rpm’s.

11 16-2008

I started working on the wiring harness in the engine bay, cleaning bullet connectors with a gun barrel cleaning brush, sanding male bullet connectors and coating them with conductive grease, cleaning 35 years of old paint off the wiring harness tape…the usual stuff.

I noticed that the harness which comes off the main loom and goes down under the car to the rear near the starter had a bullet connector who’s wire had no sheath on it, just bare copper wire. I tried to pull the tape off but couldn’t because a wire was melted to it! It appears that a white wire in the loom had shorted out at some point and completely melted to the harness and to some of the other wires in the loom. I cut away about a foot of tape and every bit of the wire was melted. Apparently, the previous owner just put another layer of tape on the harness instead of actually replacing the bad wire. The scary thing is that I drove the car for ten years with it like that, not knowing that I was an inch away from an electrical fire.

















So add one more thing to my repair list. I’m not going to pull the harness since the rest of the wiring actually seems in good shape. What I’ll do is test the wire and see where it goes (I think it is the power supply for the fuel pump) and then run a new wire along the length of the harness and then cover it with a quality blue electrical tape that matches the color of the original harness tape. That will seal it up and add further protection to the older wires in the original harness. I’ll do that when I am under the car cleaning and sealing up the underside of the car.

Unlike the rear harness, the front harness seems to be in remarkably good condition. Even the bullet connectors are relatively tight and corrosion-free so a thorough cleaning should be all that is required.

Tonight I’ll be cleaning out the metal fuel line by spraying a whole lot of brake cleaner down the line from the engine compartment and then blowing it out with compressed air. The brake cleaner spray should break up and dissolve any gas that was left in the line and turned into varnish.

I’ll be taking the Lucas alternator to the parts store tomorrow to get it tested. I want to do the Delco alternator conversion but right now, if a part works, it is getting reused. While I’m at the parts store I’ll also pick up a few feet of fuel injection hose to use as the rubber lines for the fuel system along with some new vacuum tubing.

I started calling around radiator repair shops in Greensboro and Winston Salem since the shop I used to use years ago has since gone bye-bye. The radiator needs flushed and pressure tested and I already know that the heater core has a leak in it. I’ll also need the gas tank dropped into the cleaning bath since there are probably 35 years of crud and rust in it. I have to get all of this done in the next few weeks since I can’t really get the car running until these parts are finished.

I got the radiator support panel installed along with the intake and exhaust manifolds. They aren’t torqued down yet but, since I still have to connect the exhaust to the manifold, it isn’t vital yet. The engine is slowly coming back together and once I get the carbs reassembled I’ll put those back on and work on getting the rest of the car ready to fire up in the next few weeks. I hope to do that in the second week of December so it gives me about 18 days and $400.00 to go.

Improving MG heating and insulating the heater box.

11-11-2008
Since I’ll be using my MG as a daily driver starting next year, I’m trying to think of ways to get maximum efficiency out of the heating system. The cockpit will, of course, have sound and thermal insulation on the floors, tranny tunnel and firewall and I’ll be redoing the heater valve by either modifying the flow of the original one or replacing it all together with a ball valve assembly.

I’ll also have a fully carpeted interior and I’ll be making an insulated headliner insert for the convertible top. But one other area I’m looking at is insulating is the heater box itself.

I figure that if this box remains warmer, the air passing through it will have to be heated less than if it was passing through the cold steel of the box. I had considered using something like the stick on Dyna-mat but I’m thinking that the heat in the box will cause it to break loose and sag into the box, possibly blocking the core or interfering with the blower fan.

What I think I will try is to apply several layers of 3-M spray-on rubberized undercoating to the insides of the box and then sticking a layer of heavy aluminum foil to it while it is still tacky. This undercoating material has stuck well to the harsh environment on the underside of the car and has been subjected to high heat in the area of the exhaust system without coming off so it should hold up well inside the heater box.

The aluminum will provide a thermal reflective barrier and will leave a smooth surface so as not to increase the drag on the airflow through the box like the rough surface of the undercoating by itself would.

I think this should greatly improve the thermal characteristics of the box and increase the amount of heat entering the cockpit.

Of course, the best improvements would be a 3-speed blower motor and a hardtop…but one thing at a time as my budget allows.

11-10-2008

Spent a lot of time with a soft wire detail brush cleaning up sand that got stuck in the primer. Vacuumed as much sand out as possible and started spraying the area with white paint. Most of it went on pretty smoothly but a few areas wrinkled and lifted where they overlapped older paint. I’ll clean those up and make them all white and pretty. There was also a fair amount of overspray on areas that were not white but that should be easy enough to clean up as well. As soon as everything is dry I’ll be detailing the hydraulic lines with silver paint and touching up all the other detail painting work in the engine bay.

Once that is all done it’s back to reassembling the motor. I’ll be hanging the alternator, fan pulley and fan and reinstalling the exhaust and intake manifolds. I’ve got to get the radiator, heater core and gas tank to the radiator shop so they can get them cleaned up and flushed out. Then it’s more sorting out of the wiring in the engine by…oh joy.

I found the little arm on the heater box that controls whether the air goes to the heat or defroster ducts was broken off. So I got out my trusty pop-rivet gun and fixed that fairly quickly. I’m going to do a little experiment and insulate the inside of the heater box…I figure anything that adds to the heating ability of an MG heating system will help.

11-2 to 11-9 2008

A REALLY NICE DAY 11-02-2008
This isn’t the usual blog entry but I just kinda’ wanted to share it. Today I went outside in the early afternoon and started tinkering with my MGB on what was a beautiful fall day. My Wifey was inside studying and instead of her being in there and complaining that we weren’t spending any time together (which lately, we haven’t been due to our horrible schedules) she grabbed a chair and her computer, set them up right next to the garage door, and studied outside while I worked on my little British car. It was really nice. She was there with me and while we weren’t really doing much together, we WERE together. I’m a pretty lucky guy…I love my Wifey and we actually enjoy each other’s company. Just a really nice day.


















11-06-2008
While I did install the new thermostat and housing on the engine this morning, today was sandblasting day. I got bundled up in my hat, ear protection, breathing filter, scuba mask and nylon jacket and started blasting a bunch of the little parts that needed to be cleaned up I blasted the front and rear halves of the heater box inside and out, one of the front fender splash panels the inner halves of the air cleaner cans and their bases, the small oval shifter surround plate on top of the tranny tunnel, the fan belt pulley and the brake and clutch pedals Kevin gave me. After they were all blasted and cleaned I sprayed a coat of etching primer and then gloss black paint.

In an earlier blog I wrote that I had decided to not sandblast the entire car because you can never get all of the sand out and it invariably winds up getting in the final paintjob. Well I cleaned all the parts I blasted with compressed air for an amount of time almost equal to the time it took to blast the parts. I primed them and no sand showed up. Then I painted them and no sand showed up…until I sprayed the front of the heater box. Sure enough, as soon as I got it almost completely painted, sand appeared and totally ruined the finish. And, of course, it was on the front of the heater box, the most visible part of all. Oh well, so I guess I have to blast that part again. Since I still have the wheels, front suspension and a bunch of other small parts to do I guess I can live with that.

I’m getting close to finishing the engine bay cleaning and painting but I have a quandary; the area surrounding the brake and clutch master cylinders is filthy and corroded but it is too tight to get inside of with wire brushes and scrapers to thoroughly clean, prep and paint. I didn’t want to pull the hydraulics but it looks like I have no choice. The area really needs cleaned and painted or it will wind up a rusted-out mess in a very short number of years. I hate to pull the brake and clutch masters because they aren’t leaking and, when it comes to British cars, if it isn’t leaking you do not ever touch it!

Though I hate to do it, it looks like I’m gonna wind up pulling the lines of the masters and pulling them out as a single unit while attached to the pedal box support structure. It is held in by 8 bolts and may be a bit tougher than pulling the masters out individually but I think it will put less stress on the units.

And, as much as I also hate to say this, I’m going to probably have to sandblast that part of the engine compartment. I’ll seal off as much of the engine itself and other various openings in the bay as well as covering the majority of the car in a large tarp to keep sand from getting in ever little nook and cranny. The area is solid but there is enough surface corrosion and grime that it justifies blasting the whole thing. I don’t want to have to go back and clean and paint the area again in the next decade so it has to be well sealed now.


11-9-2008
Broke down and bought a MIG welder today. It’s one of the cheapo harbor freight 90-amp welders. I’m sure it won’t last long but, then again, it doesn’t have to. All I need it for is the bodywork on the car and after that, I really don’t care. It was on sale for $119.95 so not too bad a price. I also bought the welding gloves and small clamps to hold the pieces in place while welding. It came with a cheap-ass welding mask but that is better than none. I also bought a wobble extension set and a regular extension set plus a tap and die set. I got everything on sale because I am …(survey says) That’s right, Cheap!!!




















11-10-2008
Rolled the B out of the garage today and started sandblasting the engine compartment in the area of the clutch and brake masters. I covered everything with a tarp, covered the engine with plastic and another tarp and stuffed foam rubber in every opening I could (the car, not me). The results, of course, is that sand got everywhere! That’s exactly why I didn’t want to do any sandblasting on the car in the first place.

It took about 20 minutes to blast the area and then I spent at least an hour with the air nozzle blowing sand out of the car…the sand is still all over the place and when I primed the areas I blasted, it was, of course, polluted with sand. Oh well, at least it is all clean and de-rusted.
I loaned my Olympus digital camera to a friend of my ex-wife (ain’t I nice) for a scuba diving trip. I have the underwater dive housing for it and I’d rather loan it than see someone spend a butt-load on something they’ll only use a few times a year. And she’s a nice person to so it’s all good The only problem is that I am now without a camera to document the resto for at least 10 days. I tried taking a pic with my phone (see below) and that turned out shitty.

I’ll see if I can borrow my daughter’s camera because this no camera crap is for the birds.
I sprayed the front of the heater box and, as I wrote previously, sand got in the paint. So I took some 400-grit sandpaper and wet-sanded it and took off as little paint as possible while getting the sand out. Then, I resprayed it and, as my luck seems to be holding, it wrinkled and lifted. So when it was dry, I wet-sanded it again and noticed something that looked really cool. The letters of the words “Smiths” is pressed into the metal on the front of the heater box from behind and when I sanded it, I took the paint off just the letters. The contrast of the silver letters on the black box looked really good. So when I resprayed the piece, I wet sanded the letters again and I’m going to leave it that way. I’ll put a few layers of clear coat over it but the contrasting letters look really cool. The paint lifting off, it turns out, was a fortunate accident.

11-01-2008

I did some more sandblasting today and got a lot of the smaller parts of the engine bay cleaned up I started with the air cleaner covers and they cleaned up nicely. I then primed and painted them and (except for some small dents in one of the covers) they look brand new

I then got the brake/clutch master cylinders cover blasted, primed and painted. It looked great for about an hour but then the paint started to wrinkle. It looked like the crinkle-finish on the metal dashboards on the MK-I MG's...I'm gonna have to redo it and I'm still not sure why it wrinkled up on me...oh well.

I also finished up the opening into which the heater box fits. I had previously cleaned it out and applied a few coats of truck bed liner to it. Today, I primed and painted it thouroughly. I want to make sure this area is well protected because if it rusts, you have a world of trouble replacing the metal in there. It is buried inside of a lot of other metal and is one of the most involved repairs to make on the whole car...I'd rather avoid that!

I also got the radiator support panel sandblasted, primed and painted black. It also looks like new. I ran out of sand when I was 75% finished on this panel so I had to get out the broom and sweep old sand up off the driveway, sift it and reuse it. Got it finished, but just barely. I'll need a few more bags of sand since I'd rather pay $7.00 per bag than spend half an hour getting a half a bucket swept from the driveway...I'm cheap, but not that cheap!

I started cleaning the driver side of the engine bay inner fender well. I got it about half done and primered after I pulled off the brake hydraulics. I'm gong to have to get into the area surrounding the support frame for the brak/clutch master but it is really tight in there. I may have to go ahead and sandblast the area and spend the rest of the year getting sand out of the car.