Luv2Wrench Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 (edited) Happy to be back! Had a blast with my son and he's been playing really well. So well that.... yeah, I'm going to be gone a bit more. I do have the next two weeks here before we hit the road again so I'm going to try and get some work done. As a bit of a review... I have mostly stripped things off the car down to the major bodywork. I took both doors off to fix the wood frame inside. I got one done before the interruption and have the wood completed for the second one. I took some time today to hang the driver's side door and see how it fit. I've heard horror stories on getting these doors to fit properly as it seems they were somewhat custom fit to the car. Both the doors had some issues before I took them off so I was hoping that fixing the wood frame would fix these. I was happy to find that the driver's side fit perfectly. I'm not sure if I'll have the same good luck with the passenger's side door but at least I don't have to worry with this one. I need to fit the frame into the passenger's door, shoot the skin with primer and then re-assemble. Hopefully that's something I can get done this weekend. The next step is to remove any major dents from the fenders and remove them so I can focus on the scuttle and the tub. I need to patch both side of the scuttle where the windshield attaches and the tub has a bad area on the passenger's side just below the door hinges. Some wood will need to be replaced in this area as well so the entire rear quarter panel and part of the back skin will need to be removed. Edited June 28, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JV Puleo Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 (edited) Glad you are back Jeff! You need to finish this so we can get back or OLD cars. Edited June 28, 2019 by JV Puleo typo (see edit history) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 35 minutes ago, JV Puleo said: Glad you are back Jeff! You need to finish this so we can get back or OLD cars. Indeed, I miss the Metz more than ever now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JV Puleo Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 I am just pulling our leg. The MG is looking very good and, by my standards, you've gone through the job like a hot knife through butter. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Macartney Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Pleased to see you back Jeff, I've missed reading your posts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hursst Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 Welcome back, Jeff. you're still way ahead of me. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keiser31 Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 Looking great! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 1 hour ago, hursst said: Welcome back, Jeff. you're still way ahead of me. and me! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted July 1, 2019 Author Share Posted July 1, 2019 Got the door skin primed and the frame mostly ready to go back in. Still need to fill in some of the nail holes and then it will be ready to go back in the door skin. I think I'll work on the scuttle next. In prep for that I'm going to get the oxy-acetylene rig out and get some practice in. It has literally been years since I last did any significant welding so I need the practice. Since the last time I used the rig I've gotten the regulators rebuilt and the oxygen spring changed so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to dial the settings in better this time. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chistech Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 When I was younger and a maintenance manager for a large meat processing company here in the Boston area, I did a ton of Tig welding and could hold my own with the best of them. When I purchased my new tig welder last year I figured it wouldn’t take too long for me to be back in the saddle again. What I didn’t count on was my eyesight and how wearing glasses really sucks under a helmet. All kinds of reflections from behind my glasses plus the back of the helmet glass. I have to have the welding area totally dark behind me to see really well. At least now they auto-darkening helmets but you must have a high quality extra dark lense with Tig. No cheap harbor freight helmet when tigging. It’s a shame, when we finally have the knowledge, time, and money to play in this hobby, some of our most important faculties go on vacation! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adalah Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 (edited) Will be fun follow Edited July 1, 2019 by adalah (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Macartney Posted July 2, 2019 Share Posted July 2, 2019 13 hours ago, chistech said: What I didn’t count on was my eyesight and how wearing glasses really sucks under a helmet. Now I can blame any bad welding I do on my glasses! Wearing glasses is a real disability, to help with looking upwards, like under dashboards, I had some upside down varifocal glasses made for me. I don't wear them often, but keep them in my toolbox for when the need arises. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted July 7, 2019 Author Share Posted July 7, 2019 I put the frame in the skin and closed over the edges. As I got to the lower rear corner I noticed the wood giving some as I folded the edge over. While the frame in this area looked fine when I took it apart, the hammering over of the edges loosened it up some and I decided it needed to come out. Fortunately I was able to get access to the area and I cut out the questionable part, created a template, cut some new wood and put it in place. I folded the edges back over, drilled some holes in the new wood to match the old and that pretty much wrapped up getting the frame in the skin. There is a metal strengthener that runs along the inside that needs some attention and then I'll put it in. That will finish the door and it will be on to the scuttle. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chistech Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 Great Job! I scarfed a piece of wood into one of my Olds doors the same way and it's solid as a rock. I used slotted screws so the repair would be period correct even though it will never be seen. Have no idea why I went to that extreme?????? Probably because I have a big supply of slotted wood screws from working on all these pre-war GM's. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted July 30, 2019 Author Share Posted July 30, 2019 (edited) Still out of town at golf tournaments but having a great time with my son and managed to pick this vintage Leland-Grifford drill press up along with a nice bounty of other smaller stuff. I'll be driving back up in the next week or two to pick it up. This drill press has a sliding spindle which is a very nice feature. Instead of having to adjust the table a lot you can move the spindle up and down. The spindle and knee/table are also on dovetail slides so they are very rigid and the knee even has a nice acme thread to adjust the height. Probably from around 1920 yet was still designed to run off a line-shaft. Runs very, very smooth. I plan to remove the guards so you can see the natural beauty of the camelback style belt drive. Right guard houses a set of 3-step cone pulleys that allow one to change the speed. Edited July 30, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 Nice piece of machinery. Heavy duty and will serve you for a long time. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JV Puleo Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 I really like that machine. If it were mine, I'd look into assembling some sort of adjustable table with T slots to bolt to the table...which I notice is devoid of the usual holes and use it like a poor man's jig bore. I'm not sure what you'd use but I bet you could make something from a small horizontal mill headed to the scrap yard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, JV Puleo said: I really like that machine. If it were mine, I'd look into assembling some sort of adjustable table with T slots to bolt to the table...which I notice is devoid of the usual holes and use it like a poor man's jig bore. I'm not sure what you'd use but I bet you could make something from a small horizontal mill headed to the scrap yard. I have a reasonable T-Slot cross slide to use right-away... but yes, a t-slot table is now on the hunt list. I do know where I can get one but it is a bit of a drive even if the price would be right. Hopefully I still have the lady's contact info. I do like the HUGE size of the table. My 10" L-W Chuck Co. Universal Dividing Head will easily fit on there so that's super useful. Another neat feature on the table is that it setup for coolant. Notice from the pictures the edges are raised considerably and on the near side is the drain. A collector bolts to the underside of the table and goes around back to the base where the coolant is stored in a big box (motor is sitting on top of this) in the casting. A pump would fit in the left side of that tank to pump it back up. Very neat! Edited July 31, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinneyhill Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 What will accuracy be like with a long, skinny, not-so-stiff quill like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Macartney Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 A very interesting shape and design. Very period and looks to be in very good condition. It will look so much better with the guards removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 17 hours ago, Spinneyhill said: What will accuracy be like with a long, skinny, not-so-stiff quill like that? The head slides up and down so you can get the quill right on your work. I'm not entirely sure why the bottom part is so long, it might be adjusted incorrectly or maybe that was the minimum about needed for the #2 Morse Taper. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JV Puleo Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 The bearing surface for the quill is the fat part in the center. Since it is a drill, if used correctly all of the force generated is vertical so a big diameter isn't required as it would be in a mill. These old "camel back" drills are often surprisingly accurate. Mine, which is nowhere near as nice as that one, is so straight that when I checked it I thought the indicator was broken. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 If the chuck needs to be replaced get a good quality one. Buy the best and cry once. My 20" Grizzly (import) drill press and generic chuck has a bunch of run out. I don't use it for close work, just to drill holes. The mill is for the serious stuff. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Macartney Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 5 hours ago, Laughing Coyote said: If the chuck needs to be replaced get a good quality one. I wish now that I had! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted August 2, 2019 Author Share Posted August 2, 2019 The chuck is a nice ball-bearing Jacobs. I can't wait to measure the runout as I really think it will be better than the Buffalo which was nearly zero. I couldn't see anything with my eyes and I can see the 2 thou on the Buffalo. Could be wishful thinking though. I'm back at home now. I hope to go right back up but I don't think that will be an option. Probably need to go next weekend as there's a lot of stuff that needs attention around the house. Like an MG... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted August 11, 2019 Author Share Posted August 11, 2019 (edited) Drill press is home. Normally I over-restore these things as well as get them in top functional form. This time, at least for now, I just did a simple clean and service as I reassembled the drill press. The drill press was in such good condition and my schedule is such that I just didn't think it was the right time to do more than this. I have even more respect for this machine after going through it. The table is nearly 2' by 2' and the flat surface area is 15"x15" and 7/8" thick. Yeah, 7/8" thick. It is like having surface plate for a table. It weighs an incredible amount (I can't pick it up) but it moves up and down with just one hand spinning the wheel under it. The head slides very easily (chain goes to a counterweight) and it is trivial to adjust the height such that there is minimal spindle extension for the part you're working on. I'm going to work on a different mount for the motor and then it will be fully functional. As per the MG, I've started going over the body with 80 grit. I'm doing about a 3'x3' area and bumping any low spots I see. Once I'm done with this I'll prime the panels. I've got some repair work to do and then I'll go back over all the panels and get them ready for paint. Edited August 12, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted August 18, 2019 Author Share Posted August 18, 2019 (edited) Got some good time in the shop however it was spent on getting the drill press running. While not the subject of this thread, I thought I would make another post about the drill press as it seems interesting. While I had heard that you "needed" a sliding head drill press, I wasn't 100% sure it was really something that I would really use that much. I guess I couldn't have been more wrong. To illustrate why... let's look at the first project I did once I got the motor hooked up. I need to drill 17/32" holes in 1.5" plate. I needed to get them within a couple thousandths as well. As such I planned on using center drill to get the hole placed correctly, 1/4" drill for the first pass and finally 17/32" on the last pass. With a typical drill press this present a real challenge. It is hard to get the table in a position where these 3 different drills would all reach the workpiece as well as penetrate 1.5". This requires moving the table up and down which is problematic for the accuracy of the hole. With the sliding head this is trivial. Chuck up the center drill and drop the head right down on the work piece. Raise it back up, switch to the 1/4" drill, lower, drill, raise, switch, etc. The yellow handle just left of the head turns about 1/4 turn and you can move the head, 1/4 turn back and it is locked. Fast and effortless. Once you've used it a few times you pretty much can't imagine not having it. One other wonderful feature is the big wide belts. They are very easy to switch between the steps on the cone pulley making changing speed a breeze. With my other DP the v-belt pulleys were up on the top and cumbersome to get to and change... as a result, I set it on a low speed and left it there. With the big belts it is trivial to step around the corner and change them. I've got it setup so I can go between 360 and about 3000 using the 4 steps on the cone pulley and 3 steps on the motor.. so effectively 12 speeds. Edited August 18, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JV Puleo Posted August 18, 2019 Share Posted August 18, 2019 Now I want one! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted August 18, 2019 Share Posted August 18, 2019 You got to love old machinery. They really knew how to set things up back then. Glad it's working out. Now I wish I had one. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted August 18, 2019 Author Share Posted August 18, 2019 4 minutes ago, JV Puleo said: Now I want one! There is some irony there because I wasn't even going to get it until you said I should. I figured you knew something... sure glad I listened. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted October 2, 2019 Author Share Posted October 2, 2019 (edited) So roughly 8 months ago I took a little "time off" the MG TD project to get some things squared away around the house. One thing led to another and now here we are 8 months later. That's how life goes I guess. I have managed to creep along and get a couple of things done and I've also managed to get some new (old) equipment in the shop along with a lot of tooling and fixtures. From a capability standpoint I think I've made a lot of progress. The car, however, really hasn't changed much since the beginning of 2019. I have taken the front fenders off and started the minor bodywork required for them. I hope to be back in the shop and working on the MG next week... as I'm out of town again this weekend. One task I'll have while doing the bodywork and prepping for paint is plating all the nuts/bolts/washers used on the bodywork. I've already done that for the chassis and engine but didn't bother with it when I was test fitting the bodywork. I was using the Caswell CopyCad Zinc plating system and while it worked well to start with it eventually became a thick slurry and I had no luck getting customer service to rectify the situation. Since I didn't want to pay for that plating solution again and, most likely, have the same thing happen, I surfed around the web and found a nice alternative plating solution. I did some experiments with it and have found a solution that works well for what I'm doing. The solution is a simple mix of distilled water, vinegar, epson salt and zinc sulfate. For the zinc anode I am using zinc that is sold as a strip to put on a roof to keep moss at bay. It seems to work very well and at a fraction of the cost. After plating the surface finish is a little dull so I briefly and lightly buff them on a brass coated wire wheel on the bench grinder. I've done some corrosion tests and plating depth tests and I feel comfortable it will protect the hardware as well as look good. Here are a couple of washers I just plated. The camera on my phone is adding the blue shading on the two lower ones which, in real life, look like the one in the middle. These washer were pretty much junk before plating. Edited October 2, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 How did you remove the rust from the washers? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted October 2, 2019 Author Share Posted October 2, 2019 4 hours ago, Roger Zimmermann said: How did you remove the rust from the washers? Media blast with a fine abrasive followed by treatment with a chemical rust remover. The media blast takes care of all the rust you can see, the chemical rust remover gets down in pores for the rust you can't see. I soak it in a degreaser after that, then a quick dip in muriatic acid, rinse and then start plating. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 It seems that this process is time consuming. When I restored my cars, I did the short way: I gave the hundreds fasteners to a company which sandblasted them and plated them with zink. A few were lost and they were not so well looking than you washers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted October 11, 2019 Author Share Posted October 11, 2019 With the weekend just around the corner I've been prepping to try and get some work done. I have mounted the front fender to my workbench to get higher up in the air so I can easily access the under side while bumping out the imperfections. Overall the fender is in great shape but it does have some small dings. I could fill these but I think probably easier to get the metal as straight as possible and just use a couple coats of sanding primer to fine tune. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Macartney Posted October 11, 2019 Share Posted October 11, 2019 I am looking forward to reading your posts again. I am surprised how good the fender is - 'Wot no rust'! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted October 14, 2019 Author Share Posted October 14, 2019 Removed the rear fenders, plated the associated nuts/bolts/washers and got the bulk of the bumping done on all the fenders. The driver's side fender has some pinholes caused by rust right about where the end meets the step area. There are also some cracks in a couple of places where other pieces joined (like the back of the hood latches). As such there will be a little welding required before primer. I think I got a days worth of work done in three days... so the efficiency will need to improve. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hursst Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 Great to see the MG again! When you go to bare steel like that on the fenders, is there any pitting remaining? If so, do you put on any rust inhibitor, or is it clean enough to just primer? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted October 15, 2019 Author Share Posted October 15, 2019 13 hours ago, hursst said: Great to see the MG again! When you go to bare steel like that on the fenders, is there any pitting remaining? If so, do you put on any rust inhibitor, or is it clean enough to just primer? 90% of the bodywork doesn't have any rust, so there is very, very little pitting. With the little pitting there is I go over that with the media blaster (the indoor one, not the Clogmaster 2000) and then I use a phosphoric acid based metal etch. I blast that again to remove it and follow up with wax and grease remover. Epoxy primer goes on immediately after that. There might be some flash rust before I get the epoxy primer on but I've been assured that the SPI epoxy primer "loves" the flash rust. Experience has proven that out as well. 2K standard build primer goes on after the epoxy primer and then it is time for block sanding. After blocking is done a final coat of epoxy primer to seal it and color goes on! Looking forward to that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1lark Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 Good to see you are back on the MG Jeff!. But........more tooling for the shop is a good thing too. SPI epoxy primer.........I just ordered some a few weeks back, but have not had a chance to spray anything yet. Any tips or tricks that you have learned? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now