September 2, 2010

9-1-2010 to 9-2-2010

9-1-2010

Got most of the firewall and the engine compartment shelf cleaned up and painted. Some of it’s not perfect but it will do.

I pulled the battery out and cleaned out the battery box. There was a good amount of surface rust and one small rust hole. I wire brushed it all, sprayed a few light coats of rust converter and, when that was dried, primered and painted the whole area.

I took a few grades of steel wool to the wheels and then painted them with the parts store silver paint for wheels…meh.

I whipped out my new laser guided saber saw (jig saw to some) and cut out new door panels. After a bunch of trial fitting I think I got them about right. I also got the seat frames all cleaned up. I wire-brushed them, sprayed rust converter on them and then put down a few layers of gloss black paint. I can see now why the driver side floorboard was so rotted out. The car was apparently getting rained in for quite a while from a bad top leak or some other pathway for water. It must have been so bad, in fact, that the seat frame itself was rusted and the outboard tubing snapped in half. It has another piece of tubing shoved inside of it as a repair but this is just one more thing the owner neglected to point out to me

9-2-2010

The engine bay firewall and firewall shelf are all cleaned and repainted and all the stuff on it is reattached. Looks…well…not too bad.

I pulled the front right wheel off and cleaned and painted the hub and caliper. Found out, of course, I need brake pads for the front. I can only assume I need shoes for the rear but hopefully not.

Started working on the interior panels and seats. I got the door panels cut out. I also put down a layer of foam and then the checkerboard carbon-fiber-looking pattern material that my Wifey picked out. It looks really cool. I have to get the rear cockpit shelf built and a new rear bulkhead/fuel tank cover panel built before I make the rear quarter panels. Though they were originally covered with carpet, I think I’m going to make the front footwell kick panels and use those to mount the speakers.

As for a sound system, I just might go ahead and mount that AM/FM/CD player that I got when I bought the lot of MGB parts this spring. I already have speakers which I‘ll be “borrowing” from the MG restoration.

I got one seat rebuilt and recovered. I reused the base foam since I’m not paying $100 for a hunk of foam. I cleaned and painted the seat frames a few days ago. I then cleaned the foam and re-glued the parts together that make up the base. I then cut out a 1” thick piece of dense foam and glued it to the flat, square area in the center of the base. I glued down a layer of ½“ foam that I salvaged from an old mattress and the foam looked and felt pretty good.

I saved the rubber straps from the seat back. They were just a bit stretched so I crossed them when I hooked them up so they formed an x-pattern. Worked well and prevented me from having to buy more stuff.

I then took a big hunk of 3” thick from a that I saved from an old bunk bed mattress and cut out two pieces a bit bigger than the seat back. I wrapped the rear horizontal bar in the seat back frame with foam and then cut out and taped some cardboard from a Priority mailing box to the seat back frame. I cut out some angled pieces of foam to give the seat back surfaces some shape and then glued them to the front of foam which I then cut to the final shape of the seat back frame and curled the edges of the foam to the frame. If you’ve ever recovered an MBG seat then you are familiar with what I’m talking about here.

I then took a seat cover from an auto parts store, separated the top from the bottom halves and then glued and sewed the covers to the seat base and seat back.

I also pulled the headrest apart, cleaned out the original foam which had crumbled to a disgusting dust and then installed new foam and recovered it.

Helpful tip---use an electric carving knife if you are going to carve your own foam. It cuts through it like butter and makes shaping and carving the foam really easy.

The seat covers I used are a cloth material and I used them because they are cheap and because they are just going to be a sort of base. I also have a set of black vinyl covers which will fit over top of the seats.

I never realized just how small these seats are until I finished one and sat in it…it feels like a baby seat to me. It even looks small when my 11-year old step-son sits in it.
I’m going to pull the rest of the wheels off tonight and check the condition of the remainder of the braking system and then cleaning and painting it all. While I’m at it I’ll be giving the center caps to Kevin since he has a sand blasting cabinet. I’m also going to finish replacing the plug wires, distributor and (if I really feel like it) the radiator hoses.

Oh, the most important thing: I bought a chrome tailpipe extension with a square tip to cover the really ugly tailpipe…should add about 40 extra horsepower! J

9-2-2010 pictures