hursst

I own a 30U as well. I'm no expert, but if you have any questions, I may be able to assist.

Can anyone recommend a shop that can do aluminum anodization on the East Coast? The closer to Northern Virginia, the better. Thanks!

Glad to hear you are doing rivets. That is in the spirit of our club, it will be authentic, and you'll learn yet another new skill.

Another weekend, another snow storm here in Northern Virginia. Finished rust inhibitor, primer, and paint for the side curtain (Photo 1). Seemed to turn out very nicely, back to the original tan color for the metal parts. Last will be to put the windows back in. Also sanded down the rear passenger fender. Had two small areas of sand-thru, again, on the edges. A friend has a small touch-up paint gun I am going to borrow so I can quickly touch up these areas inside the garage without having to make a big production of it outside (it's way too cold for primer outside). I hung this fender on the car as well (Photo 2). Panel gaps look quite good (I am going for factory quality, not perfection). Here is a before photo from May 2021 where it wasn't looking so good (Photo 3). Here is a photo now (Photo 4). Definitely an improvement in the curve without that divot in the middle of the curve of the fender. Repaired that with lead and a little filler to clean it up. I will still need to do another round of sanding the edges, wheel lips, and inner portions of all the fenders to get them smooth enough for paint, but I will not be going for perfectly smooth, just enough to knock it down to a mild orange peel, since most of it won't be seen. I'll be so happy when these fenders are complete, this has been, by far, the hardest part of the restoration.

Thanks for the encouragement, Jeff. I'll get there, even with this slow momentum. Doing it right is much more important than doing it fast.

Another good day in the garage. I got my kerosene heater out today and got things up to about 60 degrees in the garage. First, I welded up the crack on the bottom of the driver's side fender. Of course, this was a seam where I welded in the corner of the patch panel originally, so it wasn't a very good weld to start with. I ended up welding the crack 5 separate times, as each time I fixed it, an adjacent crack would appear. I owe it mostly to my bad welding, but I eventually got it right, the repair seems clean and solid now. I'll have to put some more filler on it and sand it smooth before I touch up the fender yet again with more primer. I moved on to the side curtain, didn't feel like doing more sanding today. I started by trimming the excess fabric from the new bracket I welded in, then using the 3M adhesive, glued the remainder into the slot by pushing it in with a flathead screwdriver, after heating the whole works up with a hair dryer. I then used a piece of cardboard wedged in the slot to secure it while it dried. I even surprised myself, this whole process worked very well and the piece looks pretty good (Photo 2). The only thing left with the fabric is to clean up the upper and lower portions where it was originally tucked into the outer frame fabric. I'll have to do some blending of what's left or/pieces of the original fabric to make it look right, or close to right, since it can't be perfect since I had to remove part of it to get to the welding. Next, I stripped the incorrect black paint from all metal bracketry on the piece, down to bare metal, cleaned it, taped it, and painted it with rust inhibitor to start with, as this piece was more rusty and poorly painted compared to the other side (Photo 1). Next, I'll apply some primer, then paint it the original tan color. Last will be inserting the windows, then I'll be finished with this side project. I should have time to revisit sanding of the fenders next weekend. After sanding, I'll have to figure out how to do another round of primer on the touch-ups, maybe in the garage, as it's too cold outside. The touch ups are very small now, so I should be able to figure something out.

Ask Ficken Wiper Service- https://rebuildingtricowipers.com/ May be able to give you a lead...I think he only works on Trico himself.

I vote the original blue as well. Keep it original, plus that's a really great color of blue, will really look good with all the curves of that truck.

Jeff, fantastic work, you are almost there! You'll be just in time for spring driving season.

Woke up to 3" of snow today, which, in northern Virginia means gross panic and shut 'er down. No work today. So, off to the garage to try to catch up a little. Finished sanding the passenger front fender (Photo 1). Have a couple small areas of sand-thru, but they are so small, I can probably just do a quick touch up later. Put the fender back on the car for a final fitment. Unfortunately, the bottom of the fender, where it rolls under to the rocker, is a little fat, so it does not conform to the rocker panel (it sticks out too much). I think I can make a few adjustments to make it work, though. I didn't really notice this during the first round of putting the panels back on the car, so not sure what happened. Next, I continued on with the driver's side front fender. I have about 7 very small areas of sand thru around the edges, so same thing, I think I can just touch them up and it will be okay. Also found a crack at the very bottom of the fender where my welding wasn't as expected. Should be easy to shore it up again. Will keep that fender off for now, since it needs that touch up and welding work before I put it back on the car for fitment. Next, I sanded the front valance panel, which came out very nicely. Not being super strict on perfection on this piece, since I can barely see it when it's on the car, but the main portion that you can see if you look looks pretty smooth and even. I think that last round of 3-4 layers of primer finally evened everything out where I could get a good solid sanding and still have the thickness I need for painting. As an aside, here are the results of the side curtain that I glued last week (Photos 2 & 3). Came out very nicely. The fabric is overall tight enough around the metal frame, although I'll take a closer look at it when I get a little more time. Last step will be to trim the excess fabric and tuck/glue it into the slot, and I think it will be good to go for allowing me to fit the windows.

Try contacting the Rolls Royce Foundation (if you haven't done so already) https://rollsroycefoundation.org/. They are in Harrisburg, PA. May be too far away from you, but they might have some interest. Being they are a non-profit, it may have to be a donation (with a nice tax deduction for you, though). Good place to get rid of it if you don't need it and no one else has purchased it since you posted this.

Still warm, so more work today. Had to spend some time with my Saab today, fixing more minor issues and getting certain warm weather tasks done before the "snow storm" tomorrow. Getting it titled and registered tomorrow, it now qualifies for the AACA. Ok, who cares, we're here for the MGA. Didn't have much time for the MG today, but made more progress with the side curtain. I tried various techniques to figure out covering this metal bracket with fabric. I tried wrapping the fabric around, and pulling it from the other side with various vice clamps (Photo 1). I heated it with a hair dryer to make it more pliable. This seemed to help a little, but I had to be careful of melting the first round of adhesive from when I tucked the fabric into the slot yesterday. I let it cool down a little, then tried gluing it with the same 3M adhesive after removing the clamps and unwrapping it a little. The adhesive comes out very cold, so I had to heat up the fabric again with the adhesive on it. I then wrapped it around again, put the clamps back on to hold it in rough place, then pulled on it by hand to try to stretch it as much as possible without pulling out the fabric that was already glued in the slot. I did lose some adhesion at the top, but used a flat head screw driver to tuck it back in. I ended up getting it fairly tight, I think, then I taped it in place, using painters tape (Photo 2). (The raisin bran box is so I don't get spray adhesive all over my workbench). The temp will go from 66 to 30 in about 6 hours total, so this should work to my advantage as the fabric and adhesive should shrink and tighten up over night. The last step here will be to trim what's left a little, then tuck it into the slot with a little more adhesive and hope is stays taught. The process of wedging in the new window should secure it quite well and maybe tighten it up a little. We'll see what happens in a couple days. No more sanding, I want to give it more time to cure, since the temp was only mid 60's today, which makes for slow drying times. I'll probably have time to get back to the sanding in about 2 weeks. Happy New Year, everyone!

Another warm day today, but it rained most of the day. I started sanding one of the front fenders, but I think with the humidity and relatively low temperature, the primer was not fully cured, so it was very slow going as the primer would marble up on the paper every 10 seconds. Made some progress, but eventually gave up. I'll let it cure for much longer before I try to sand again. I went back to the side curtains in the meantime. I used a piece from my original top, which is the exact same material as the original fabric for the side curtains. My original top had multiple large tears in it, staining, and it really showed its age, so I can't reuse it. However, the original material will be valuable for various reasons, like this. First, I cut a strip to rough length (Photo 1). I trimmed it so it would fit around the metal divider bar (Photo 3). Last, I tucked in the front top side into the middle of the metal bar and secured it with some 3M trim adhesive. I used a piece of box, folded over once, to wedge in the crevasse to ensure the fabric was pushed up against the metal (Photo 2). I'll let this cure for about 24 hrs, then I'll try folding it over and gluing it to one of the outside portions of the metal. I'll have to get some tension on it to ensure that the fabric is nice and taught before I let it cure. The only issue I'm having is that I had to cut some of the original fabric in order to weld on this metal piece. If I didn't cut anything up, I would have burned the fabric from the welding heat, so I'll have to be a little creative to make it look reasonably well fitted in the end.

Today it got up to about 65 degrees, which is amazing for New Years Eve. Was able to get all four fenders and the front valance re-sprayed with another four or so layers of primer. Now I'll have plenty more sanding to do when it is cold again, so I can keep some semblance of progress going. I'm really hoping this is the last round, but it seems unlikely, the way things have been going. I'm definitely getting closer, but it seems to be never ending. The valance just needs a quick sanding with 400 grit and it should be fine. Previously, I sanded it well, but the primer was too thin at that point and you could see some filler ghosting thru the primer. No photos, it's just more of the same.

The very early models didn't have it, but later models had it, not as a brace, but as the 4th "window pane" to hold in the front Perspex fixed window. The rear portion is much thicker than the front and slides from rear to front, so you can "open the window."

Finished sanding all the panels today, but there will still be some more very minor body work and primer needed for all four panels. Can't do any more work until the temp rises enough to spray some more primer. Getting closer... In the meantime, I worked on the other side curtain. I was able to weld in the missing diagonal fixed-window support piece back into its original position (Photos 1-3). I later cleaned it up a little and gave it a coat of self-etching primer. Next step will be to repaint the incorrect black bracketry back to original tan, like I did on the other side curtain, then, I need to cover the metal piece with fabric and to try to blend in the damaged fabric at each base of this piece. I have my original top (which cannot be reused), which is the exact same original material used on the side curtains, so I'll cut a good piece out to use to upholster this piece. Had to remove the sliding window so I wouldn't burn it with the welding. So far so good.

Prepare to be completely underwhelmed (1997 Saab, Photo 1). Before I bought it, it had sat for about 5 years and was covered in mildew, lichen, and maybe algae. Almost everything was wrong with it, but it ran okay and had almost zero rust. Spent a lot of time (but very little money!) in a short period of time bringing it back to life. Should be a great "new" DPC car and touring car. Enough about that; not a restoration. Today, I sanded down both front fenders on the MG. Driver's side fender is good to go, but will need some very minor touchups where I sanded thru at the edges, very small, like toothpick-sized sand-thru. The other fender, I still sanded thru in the main portion. It's much better than the last round, but still needs another 3-4 thick coats on the main portion to allow me to sand it down without sanding thru to bare metal. Good progress, but still more work to do. Continued with the driver's rear fender. Again, a few small areas of sand thru on the edges, but the rest seems pretty good so far. Now, I'll be looking for another warm day sometime this winter, so I can try to get another round of primer on these fenders.

I bought a '97 Saab 900 recently, which will be 25 years old in a little over 2 weeks. I plan to tour and show it in DPC. Bought as a junker, found 130 problems with it, but they are almost all small or easily repairable/replaceable/maintenance problems. Down to "only" 37 problems now. Anyone out there restoring a Saab, any Saab, currently? How about a Volvo? Would like to see more posts about the Swedish cars. Skål!

Hello, I'm looking for a 1930 Plymouth 30-U owner's manual. It must be the Third Series, which was printed in 1931, for the "newer" models. I'm not interested in any of the other series. Thanks.

Ron, how do you know where those fasteners go when you clean them up in a big pile like that? My method has been to do them one at a time, or in small batches of associated parts, because I barely know where things go even when I bag and tag them. Obviously, your method is much more efficient, but curious how you keep track of where each faster goes later on.

Looking forward to seeing progress on the Metz, Jeff. Good luck, looks like a fun project.

Got a couple hours to work on the MG today. Completed one of the side curtains (the easiest one) (Photos 1 & 2). Touched up some minor paint trim issues with the tan paint, cleaned the vinyl up, and installed the new "window" in the front portion of the side curtain. Took a good 45 minutes to install, although I lost track of time. It was very difficult, much like a puzzle. Not even sure how I got it in, but eventually I did. Tomorrow, I hope to finally get back to sanding of the body. I've been heavily distracted with many other car projects on my other cars, like a broken clutch master cylinder, broken power seat switch (it's great driving with the seat stuck too far back!), new rear shocks, general maintenance, and state inspections, among many other annoying small problems. I also bought a $1,000 side project car (a '97 Saab) a few months ago for touring/showing with AACA and the North American Saab club. Figured it would be a good winter project, since I can't do any painting when it's this cold. I counted 130 problems with the car after I combed thru it! Luckily, they are almost all easy problems, so I'm down to 36 problems left, most of which are still quite easy. Hope to have it "done" by Feb or so, and get it out of the way so I can focus on the MG when it gets warmer. All this wrenching is a little too much, but I think it's the best therapy to counteract all the problems we have in the world today. Keep wrenching!!! Chris

Got a little time today to work on one of the side curtain frames. Was able to repaint the metal bracketry in the original tan color (Photo 1). Turned out nicely, but I have to spend a little time correcting some light overspray and polishing the plastic window. Next will be installation of the missing front "glass" for this piece. This other piece will be much more difficult, as I need to weld in the missing middle bracket, cover it with fabric, repaint the brackets tan, and install the missing front "glass" on that unit, too. This will just be a side project I'll do over time. Did not have time to do any sanding today. Had a lot of work to do on my other cars to keep them in good shape.

Still fighting to get even a little time with the MG, but pushing ahead here and there. Yesterday, was able to sand down the other door and place it on the car. Now on to sanding the front fenders.

Nice work. That's such a beautiful car. Will look forward to more updates.