hursst
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Posts posted by hursst
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Hello,
With many of our old cars, we don't put enough miles on them to facilitate fluid changes based on use, but it ends up being based on time. How often (in years) do folks change out their rear axle fluid, manual transmission fluid, and brake fluid, when the cars are not driven enough to hit mileage requirements? I am wondering if I may be going too long, or changing too short. Thanks.
Chris
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And here is the mostly completed job (Photo 1). I still need to clean up the very lower parts at the lip with a dremel grinder, then I have to even the metal out a little more to eliminate as much use of filler as possible. Note how the lower flange is significantly wider on the repro panel than on the original. I'll have to trim it, then make some new holes/expand the existing ones. Enough welding for today, moving on to some more hardware refinishing.
Cheers
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Another two weeks of work, sleep, a short weekend vacation, repeat. Got another free weekend.
No word from the British car shop about my engine; we had originally planned on having it delivered Nov 2nd weekend, but postponed to Nov 9th, as I was out of town Nov 2nd. I had to call them to get an update. This time it's the flywheel ring gear that is slightly out of alignment with the starter teeth, so it's going back to the machine shop. Yet another delay. Going on month 15 for the engine work.
Now that the cold weather has arrived, I'm shifting back to body panel repair. This weekend I'm tackling the driver's side front fender. Here's what I'm starting with, pretty severe rust out (Photo 1). The rest of the panel is in great shape. The repair panel is made in Taiwan, and guess what, it doesn't fit properly, of course. I decided to just cut out the bad section instead of cutting the whole lower section out, as the replacement panel is the entire length of the lower part of the fender. Here's where I decided to cut (Photo 2). There is some pitting outside of the box, but the metal is quite solid there overall. I cut out the same shape from the repair panel, so now I don't have to worry about the rest of it not fitting. Here's what I cut out compared to what I cut out of the patch panel. With a little more adjustment and cutting, I was able to cut a very good fit (Photo 4). As you can also see, I really couldn't cut any higher on the fender, as there is a large support bracket in the inner part of the fender, plus it's in excellent condition. I also left a small strip on the far end of the fender to ensure I got the proper contour, plus this little strip is mostly rust-free. I'll be trying to weld it in this afternoon.
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Jeff, great progress!
Don't mean to hijack the thread, but, chistech, this sounds like a good idea. With my MGA resto, I have the same issue with my wooden floorboards against the metal chassis. I was going to go with an eastwood sealer, similar to body seam sealant, but seeing your post, I may reconsider.
christech, do you think 30 weight tar paper would be a good replacement for the felt originally used between my metal chassis and plywood floorboards? Seems the answer would be yes. If so, where do you get 30 weight tar paper? Thanks guys.
Chris
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Congrats, another classic gets back on the road. Great work!
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I vote #1 and #4. I don't think anyone really pays attention to what's in the reflection. Unless you are photographing an olive drab military vehicle, you have to live with reflections, especially when your paint reflects light like Larry David's bald head.
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I am selling a Delco Remy 943 J Generator, restored about 2 years ago. Adjustable functioning third brush, new wiring, new oil fill caps, new bearings and original ID tag, all as original. Works great, has maybe 200 miles on it. Comes with pulley and cut-out switch mounting screws as well. I do not know if this is the original pulley, but probably is. Is correct for 1929 -1933 Chevy 6 cyl., 1934-1935 Studebaker, 1929 GMC T11-T19, 1930-1932 GMC T11-T15- T19, 1934-1935 GMC T16 T18 T23 and 1929 -1931 Pontiac 6 cyl. Also can be used as a replacement for similar generator models, such as the 943 R and S, and maybe other models. Please check your parts interchange guides. Asking $200 + shipping costs via FedEx. Far cheaper than buying a core and having it rebuilt professionally. PM Chris if interested.
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Back to the MGA again today. First, got a call from the British Car shop. My engine is still not ready. They had another engine on their test stand that had issues, so everything is pushed back. I'm okay with it, as the shop is now communicating with me properly after my complaint. Now it's looking like Nov 9th when the engine will be ready.
In the meantime, I'm going to attack the outer body panels and get them in better shape. I started back up with the front valence panel, which has been very challenging before. The initial large tear in the metal has re-opened 3 times now, so I've cut out a patch around it instead, the metal is just too thin and it's become a patchwork of patches (Photo 3). With about 2/3 of the tear, it has still kept, but this 1/3 keeps opening up. I also cut out some other bad areas and have welded in some fresh metal (Photos 1 & 2). I feel I've reached another level with my welding, I think I'm getting the hang of it and (with good metal), I think I can call myself "satisfactory." Still have a long way to go to get to the level of some of the folks on the site. I did some further banging on the panel and applied a nice coat of filler over the lower portion of the panel to see where I stand. I've done a lot of hammering on it, so it's not that bad, really. The upper part, which was spared from damage from the bumper being in front of it needs minimal pitting fill. I just need to weld in one more patch where the large tear in the metal was (again, photo 3), and it should be ready for a couple coats of etching primer, then I'll start sanding. Here's the whole panel (Photo 4), just before I cut out the square area and called it a day. Not bad so far, considering it looked like someone drove it through a parking lot full of anvils when I started.
Last, I'm working on cleaning up the dozens and dozens of nuts, bolts, washers, and shims that hold on the 4 fenders. As always, will always try to reuse any part that's original, restorable, and safe, rather than use new or repro. Pretty easy work, but it's something like 270 individual pieces all told.
Still thinking about how great Hershey was this year, too. Found an NOS door striker for my 1930 Plymouth in the bottom of a crate, an NOS vacuum wiper motor for my the same car, and found an NOS overflow tank cap and NOS oil filter for my '74 Camaro, among other great parts, signs, and other deals. A lot of good deals if you dug a little deeper and haggled, amongst all the rip-off artists there. Also saw some amazing cars that give me a really high bar to live up to with my resto.
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Late to the game, but congrats on the award(s)! I was able to see your car at Hershey and was simply blown away. Just a fantastic restoration.
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An MGA guy figured it out for me. Nash Metropolitan, for the record.
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Finished spot welding on the lower portion of the driver's side outer rocker today. I had to use a heavy-duty hand clamp to try to bend the radius of the panel enough so that the bottom lip of the rocker was flush with the bottom lip of the vertical support panel (Photo 1). I also had to make a wood block with a deep hole for the one side of the camp and a channel for the top side of the block, so the clamp wouldn't slide off the bottom of the rocker. I got it about 90% of the way there and that was about all it would go. I decided to call it good enough, as I don't really have any other option. I think it will still work okay. I will probably grind a little off the bottom to make it close to even. I will still need to have some width to attach the rocket trim pieces, so I can't grind too much.
I also put together the freshly chromed parts from Librandi's for the adjustable steering column (Photo 3). Turned out very nice as well, but overall, this small section was a lot of work between re=chroming, replacing the telescoping chrome piece, and replacing the severely bent and warped primary sliding piece with key way. It all works as new now.
Last, I put in the aluminum rivets that secure the outer rocker top side sections to the door pillars (Photo 2). The back one will be covered with a long scalloped "outer" pillar piece, so I think only the fronts will even be seen. Had to drill a few new holes for a few of them, as the repro outer rocker was so far off from the original.
I still need some cleanup work, like grinding down the newer spot welds, fixing any pinholes that appear, grinding the bottom section, as described earlier, and I think I forgot about 3 spot welds in one of the corners of the outer rocker. I'll also need to bang out the small creases I put in the driver's side rocker when I tried to bend them. The main goal was to get them both on the structurally so I could move the body without worrying about too much flex.
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I bought these at Hershey for a very good deal. I thought they may be MGA (I'm restoring an MGA) and they look almost exactly like an MGA, but they have curved cutouts for the bumper instead of a fully contoured shape, as on the MGA. They are also very slightly different in size and there is a bracket that mounts on the interior fixed bracket inside of the over rider. From the front view, they are virtually identical to the MGA. Any idea on what these fit?
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Great work on the interior, looks fantastic and very comfortable, too.
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Really looking forward to seeing the resto of this Cleveland. I don't think I've followed a link for a car that old yet. Good luck on your work.
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Great work, getting close to the finish line.
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It's been about 3 weeks since my last post. Between Carlisle, Hershey, and working overtime, there hasn't been much progress. Hershey was very successful, picked up some good parts in general and picked up my latest batch from the chrome shop. I mostly use Librandi's in Middletown, PA and they've done nothing but perfect work and service. This time I got back my rear bumper, part of the front bumper assembly, and some odds and ends. This morning, I was able to piece together the entire rear bumper assembly, with outstanding results. Here's a before and after (Photos 1 & 2). I'll be doing "Year of Manufacture" plate on the car as well.
My engine is slated to be finished on Oct 22nd, so my next step will be to get back to the rocker panels and get all the rocker work finished before I have to shuffle the chassis and body around when I receive the engine. I'm having a lot of problems with fitment of the driver's side rocker due the the curvature of the repro panel being WAY off. I have a plan to fix it and we'll see how it goes this weekend.
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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?
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I think we all had some good hauls at Hershey this year. Perfect weather, good turnout.
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Still for sale! Will sell for $200 and will deliver to Hershey for free.
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How much for the 1975 Corvette(s)?
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Today was even more productive than yesterday. Got the Clogmaster 2000 out again this morning. Lower humidity today. I also loaded the blaster up with more media than usual and I changed the ceramic tip on the blaster nozzle, as the current one had worn thin and the side chipped off. This made a big difference, the blaster worked much better, faster, and much less clogging today, so I was able to complete blasting all 6 fender brackets (Photo 1).
It was such a nice day and I made such good progress, I went right on to priming the parts as well. My sprayer is really dialed in now, and I'm getting better results than when I started. Here are all the brackets (Photo 2). I have all the hardware refinished and primed as well, so these are ready to be installed on the body (when the body is stripped and primed) to be painted all at once.
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Another boring week slaving at work and finally another weekend. Got my new top from Moss Motors yesterday (Photo 1). Overall, it looks pretty good, fairly authentic. Even comes with a card signed by the person that hand-made it at Moss In Petersburg, VA. Nice touch. I'll have to farm this out to get fitted and have all the fasteners professionally installed. One mistake and you ruin the top with all the fasteners, clips, and snap placements.
Took advantage of the cooler mornings and broke out the Clogmaster 2000. The goal was to blast the 6 inner fender pieces and get them ready for primer. The morning turned out to be fairly humid and the Clogmaster did what it does best, clog up, but I am now able to unclog it and get it going again for a while fairly efficiently. Got about 2/3 of the way finished, then it started to rain, so that ended that. When I emptied my compressor, it looked like it had about 2 gallons of water come out with the evacuated air. Too humid.
In the meantime, I welded in the top portion of the outer rocker on the driver's side. Went okay. Once I got it in and sized properly, I found the lower portion to be quite far off, even after I bent the curve in tighter. I decided to fit the door and try to get it spaced enough to get some type of door gap (Photo 2). I got it pretty close, then drilled some fresh holes in the vertical door pillar to re-install the factory aluminum rivets on each side of the outer rocker. The factory holes would not match up properly with the new outer rocker. That gave me a decent setting at the top, which should hold well, but the bottom is still quite far off. I will probably try to buy a large clamp and see if I can continue to bend the radius of the outer rocker tighter so the bottom will line up with the inner rocker support panel. Will be happy when these rockers are finished, probably the biggest pain in the neck on the car.
Also continued on some more smalls. I'm now refinishing all the mounting hardware for the 4 fenders. I think each fender has about 80 individual hardware components between nuts, bolts, washers, and shims. I looked at my two parts storage areas and they are looking a little sparse, so making great progress on all the small parts. Once I get the body painted, it should fly together. I'm now thinking I may be able to get close to finishing the car in maybe another year to year and a half.
Lastly, no word on the engine. I will call them after Hershey to get a progress report.
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Regardless of venue, has there ever been a night-drive on one of these tours? I would think it would be different and interesting, especially for pre-electric light vehicles, to run these cars at night, at least for one night of a tour. Seeing gas lamps, kerosene, or pre-sealed beam headlights, wig-wam tail lights, use of spotlights, opera lights, various early colored lights would be something very unique to see. We never see them during the daylight or in most shows, the lighting is always off.
Fluid Changes
in Technical
Posted
Thanks for the tips. I think I'm probably okay with my gear oil, then. I'm up to 14 years in my more modern car, but it's only been 9,000 miles since then, plus I'm using synthetic.