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Thought I would be busy with other things today until about 1:30pm, but that changed, and I was free after 9:30am, so decided to hit the MGA hard today. Finished all the sanding, some touch-ups, more sanding, a lot of cleaning, and some masking off. I then re-painted the battery cover reverse semi-gloss black to clean up a lot of mess and overspray from previous work (Photo 1). Next, I decided to go right into painting today instead of tomorrow. Spent a lot of time cleaning and prepping and got this round of parts ready. The painting started out great, but ran into a big problem about 3/4 thru the job. My sprayer started spraying out chunks of garbage consistently, along with paint. I stopped the work and cleaned up and took apart my paint gun. Here's what I found inside the reservoir and gun (Photo 2). I believe that there was still some dried paint left on the reservoir lid that loosened up and became weaponized when I tilted the gun to get up and under the inside fender. Had to use some needle noise pliers to reach the garbage, like playing "Operation," then I disassembled the gun to clean it all out. I then thoroughly cleaned the lid of all paint. Again, I'm glad I planned to start with parts of lesser importance, as I have room to make these stupid mistakes and it's not a big deal. A lot of it was on the front of the battery cover, so I used the razor blade technique again, once the paint flashed. Hit it with more paint after words. Worked perfectly, you can't even tell where the garbage landed. The paint went on extremely well, no runs, fisheyes, not problems from then on. I'm amazed at the quality of this paint, it looks great, it flows beautifully, and it seems to have a mind of its own and finds its way to a nice, even surface (Photo 3-5). Still not worth $1,200, though! I'm also very happy that my painting skills and techniques seem to be working very well. I was worried I would really mess things up, but I'm just barely messing things up, so very pleased. On to the clear coat. Same thing with the clear, perfect flow, self-leveling, it turned out much better than I expected with that aspect, but I did run into some problems where I ended up with about 6 spots that are either small fisheyes or possibly dust or grit. Luckily, they are very small in diameter. You could see them in the reflection after I laid down the clear. I will have to wait until it cures and get it out in the sunlight to see what's going on. These parts matter more, especially the gauge cluster, so I'll have to see what the problem is, then either try to razor blade the garbage out, or sand a little and try to respray some, if it is fisheyes. Of course, at this point, I noticed that I had forgotten to address the upper garage door gap that is created when I raise it about a foot to put the filter frame under the door. I suspect I am dealing with more dust and grit because of this error, so that may have been the cause. Another lesson learned. Next will be painting the taillight escutcheons and the front inner fenders, so I'll still have room for screw ups and errors if I'm still making them.

I had numerous folks on the MGA forums tell me that the back of the gauge cluster was always a darker brown (primer) from the factory, not black, but then the guy who said black was correct showed a photo of an original that was black, so who knows? The "brown" replies outnumbered the "black" replies by 5:1, plus on the BarneyGuru site, it says brown, so I decided to change to brown (Photo 1). No extra work as I hadn't removed the tape from when I painted it black. I cleaned and taped up the outside of the other rear fender, but I still have to sand the inner portion of that fender with some 400 grit before it's ready for paint. Next, I removed most of the body fasteners from the rear fenders and pressed them into a box (Photo 2). I'll first clean them with prep, then loosely install them in the body of the car to fill up the threaded portion where the fenders will attach to the body. I'll paint the fasteners along with the body when that time comes. Last, I finished drilling those two holes I needed for the rear fender splash guards, touched up the paint a little, then installed the other rubber splash shields (Photo 3). I still need to clean up the back of the battery cover, probably with a quick 400 grit sanding to level it out, then hit it with some more semi-gloss black before I paint the front. I will attempt to have both rear fenders, the gauge cluster, and battery cover ready for paint for early Sunday AM.

Not too late, haven't been to the junkyard lately, a little too hot and too busy. We still plan on going, but not sure when at this point, hopefully within the next month. Of course, no guarantee they will have the part, but there's a fairly good chance. One question I have first, your photo says "1954 Chrysler," but you say you need a 1949-52, so wanted to get clarification.

-Not sure what the grit would be with a scotch pad and what kind of contaminants could be on it. I guess it could work, but without knowing the grit, it may produce too coarse a sanding, or not coarse enough. -As far as the back of the gauge cluster, white would make sense, but I always defer to original as possible when I can. Nothing that a good flashlight, head band light, or shop light won't be able to solve. Didn't do any sanding or other prep today, was a little busy with other things, but did find some time to put the rubber splash guards on the two front inner fender splash panels, now that they are painted (Photo 1). I would have thought it would be easy, but it was not. Had to go thru all my tools to find the right combination of things that would work in order to be able to fold over the two sections of the fasteners that protrude from the back. Took a good 45 minutes to get the first one done as I experimented. Ended up with these tools and wood blocks to back the fastener from the other side (Photo 2). I think I got some tennis elbow and carpel tunnel trying to keep everything lined up on the blocks while using 4 different tools to fold over the sections. After the first two, I found a good method and rhythm and the others went much faster, but still took a lot of effort. Here's the finished effort (Photo 3). I still have the two rear ones to do, which are smaller, but I quickly realized that with my shoddy welding work, I had to fill in one of the holes and forgot to drill it back out. One the other one, I drilled a hole that is too small for the fastener, so had to stop for today. Easy problems to correct, so will try to get the holes drilled tomorrow and probably switch back to prepping the inner parts of the fenders to get ready for more paint. It hit me this week that I may actually be able to finish this car in a reasonable amount of time from now, so I think I will plan on having this car finished for Fall Hershey 2024 and shoot for a First Junior. That will make it an 8 year project, which is one year shorter than my last restoration.

Just caught up on the last 4 years of your work. Pretty amazing. Keep posting, there are a lot of folks watching!

Trying to keep the momentum going now, starting to get to the fun part where I can start putting parts back on again (apart from the chassis work I already did). Today I sanded all the parts again, they all need a lot more work than I first thought. I focused on the gauge cluster, as that is the most difficult one to sand (Photo 1). The reverse of the gauge cluster should be semi-glass back, as all body parts were shipped from the stamper in a semi-glass paint/primer (the manufacturer's (Pressed Steel Company) version of body in white). Sanding the reverse of that panel is very difficult and had to be done with a small piece of sandpaper by hand, going all around the many nooks and crannies. Got it finished, taped off the front part as not to get overspray on the nicely sanded front portion (Photo 2), and applied some Eastwood semi-gloss black chassis paint, which should be a decent match to the original paint (Photo 3). Pretty easy since it can't be seen and I didn't bother going thru the massive prep that I would do with the other parts that need more protection from the elements. I did the same thing to the battery box cover quite a while ago, but it now has a lot of overspray and residue on it, so I'll sand it a little and quickly hit it again to make it perfect. Now I can start some side projects gain; first one will be applying the rubber dust shields to the inner fender brackets that I just finished painting.

I will not be wet sanding or buffing the parts I just did, only the parts that will easily be seen; mostly the outer body structure. Thanks for the tip, I think I may go to 6 coats of clear, then, as I could easily see myself sanding thru 2-3 coats. Yes, I try to load up on painting/clearing the nooks and crannies first, or "cutting in" as some folks say. I'll make a conscious effort to make sure I hit all edges pretty well. Quick update, I sanded the battery cover and gauge cluster today. It looks like I forgot to sand the battery cover entirely before, so I knocked it all down with 400 grit. The gauge cluster is close now, but needs a lot of very small primer touch up. I also have some heavy scratches from all the fitment tests I did on one of the inner fenders that I will have to sand and touch up with primer before I paint, but should be able to have everything ready in a day or two.

Thanks for the tips. I am using some quality Eastwood degreaser, then wiping it off with a lint free towel, then running over it with a tack rag before I painted anything. The defects are not in the paint, they were not there after I painted. They only appeared when I sprayed the clearcoat. I've attached a photo, which isn't that great, but you can see the little black smudges. These are definitely not fisheyes. Somehow, I avoided fisheyes completely on any of the panels. Pretty sure I saw something coming out of the gun while I was spraying. This did not happen on any of the other panels I painted. Either way, I'm not concerned with this piece, as it won't be noticed. I will do a more thorough job of cleaning and flushing my paint gun, paint cup, and lid to hopefully avoid whatever this was again.

Went out to do forensics on my paint work today. Overall, it looks pretty good. I was a little light on the clear coat in some areas, so I'll have to work on that. I did have some type of contaminant in the clear coat on the corner of one of the brackets. Small grey dots, almost looks like grease. I remember seeing them appear as I was spraying, so it was something in the gun, not from outside. Maybe it came from my paint stirrer, something that dropped in while I was putting the lid on the sprayer, not sure. Again, it won't be seen, so not going to worry about it, but good lessons learned. Want to keep the momentum going, so next, I plan on spraying the inside of the two rear fenders and I'm going to take a little risk and do the battery box cover and the gauge cluster, two areas that will be seen (Photos 1 & 2). I can always slow down, make repairs, and respray if I get into trouble, but these are small pieces that I think I can tackle. I need to do some more light sanding on the battery box cover, it's not quite good enough, and I need to do some spot primer and more sanding on the gauge cluster, as it's tough to sand well with all the nooks and crannies, without sanding thru in a few areas. Hope to be able to paint all these parts sometime in the next 3 days. I'm going to place all screws and bolts into any threaded areas to keep them from getting gummed up with paint, but I will paint the numerous large fender fasteners separately, without clear coat, then use them again to thread into the body holes when it comes time to paint the outer front body structure.

Where (generally) are you located? I know of a few TR7s in a junkyard in norther central Virginia that may work for you.

Maybe you just want an existing one, but they repro red seat covers and finding a Firebird seat that you could recover should be available in any junkyard.

Great work, really interesting to see just some heavy maintenance rather than a full restoration on this car. A '73 454 is also something never seen at shows. Seems all the Chevy big blocks from 73-76 in 'Vettes, Impalas, Montes, and Chevelles don't seem to exist anymore.

I was able to research this on the US Patent website and I found it. It is a Wagon Jack, looks like just an aftermarket one.

Ok, I attacked the runs with a razor blade and that worked perfectly; no sanding needed. I was able to get a hold of a local friend who is highly experienced in this work to get his advice on clear coat. He said best to spray it now, considering the temperature has stayed relatively low and it's best to spray sooner than later in order to get a good chemical bond. So, went back out and sprayed clear on everything. I originally was thinking about skipping the clear on the parts that won't be seen, but it looks so flat when not cleared, the clear should add some additional layers of protection, and its low cost and low level of effort, so I think I will just clear most of the car. Some additional lessons learned, I realized that since I have the garage door up about 1 foot for the filters, there is now a gap at the top of the garage door where the top row of the door curves into the track at the ceiling. This is letting some bugs in, so will need to plug that area next time with a big comforter, tarp, or something, as I noticed no bugs when I started early this morning, but I had a few bugs by 10:30am. Had a few bugs or maybe contaminants that ended up on one of the pieces, so I'll have to see what it is and what happened after everything dries. At first glance, everything looks great, but we'll see when it dries and I can get it out in the sunlight. Here are the panels I painted (Photo 1 & 2); should be a difference between this photo and the non-clear coat photos in the previous post. Last, here's a photo of the section that had the bad runs, after the razor blade treatment, more paint, and clear coat (Photo 3). If you look very closely, you can see some minor blemishes, but since this is part of the inner fender splash guard, you won't see any problem from just looking at the car. Very pleased so far, I hope the rest of the paint work goes as well.

Got my first round of painting complete (mostly) early this morning. I did 3 coats (Photos 1 & 2). Everything appeared to go on great, with one exception. A few lessons learned 1) I've been hanging these small pieces from the garage door tracks. I cleaned the tops of them, but did not clean the springs. I came in contact with the springs when moving the parts around, so I got a little grit on the horizontal portion of the panels in the middle of Photo 1. No problem, as I can denib it and it won't be seen anyway. 2) My spray pattern worked well and the paint looks good (to me), except on one of the inner fender pieces, where I created some heavy runs (Photo 3). I guess I sprayed too slowly on this one, but curiously, I only had two small runs in the other piece. I guess my technique isn't quite there yet. I will say, I did have some minor problems spraying these parts as they are so light. If you just spray them while hanging, they will swing around due to the air pressure, so I had to hold them by the attaching wire and do the best I could in keeping the part steady. I'll have to use a razor blade, cut down the runs, maybe sand, and respray that one part. I painted from about 6:45am to 7:30am, temperature was 77 degrees, humidity about 69%. It's now 78 degrees and 70% humidity. It rained last night, so humidity is high and temp will be about 93 outside today. The temp inside the garage will not go above 80 during the day and the highest humidity I've measured over the last week is about 72%. I used high-temp basemaker with the base paint, which is rated at 80 degrees. Also, I sprayed at about 27psi at the sprayer. My next task will be to clearcoat the parts that look good. Due to the temp and humidity, I wanted to ask the group how I should handle that. Should I spray clear around 10am, which should be the recommended time to clear (2 hours after paint), or should I hold out until maybe 7 or 8pm tonight where it should be an environment similar to 7am was. That will be about 11-12 hours from paint to clear coat. Is that too long? Any other advice or tips about when to spray clear, my psi, and preventing runs, etc? Overall, pretty happy with my work, especially since these parts don't matter that much and I've never painted a car before. I'll still be able to get plenty of practice painting my inner fenders and insides of the body, other areas that won't be seen, before I tackle the outside panels.

I'm pretty happy with the test fender and I want to move along. Set everything up loosely in the garage today. Going to clean my parts tomorrow with the proper materials, do a test run, and get everything into place. Sun AM (the best weather of the week) I will attempt to paint the brackets that won't be seen/don't matter that much, as well as the back side of the front valance panel. These pieces I can mess up in every bad way possible and it doesn't really matter, so this will be a test and actual run at the same time. I will also apply clear coat to the inner fender brackets, since they can be seen if you look in the fender well., as just the base paint is very flat and won't look right. We'll see how it works out...

Definitely MGA. My MGA has the same exact speedometer.

Thanks, that's a lot of extra effort. I appreciate it.

Thank you, that at least gets me know the right path. I'll see what I can do with Sears catalogs and via the AACA library.

Hello, Recently found a very old auto jack. There is a part number of J3 and a patent date of Feb 5, 1901. IT has some original red paint on it. Would anyone know if this would have a specific application to any particular automobile, or is this just a generic aftermarket piece? Thanks for any info!

Wouldn't the cars and years just be the cars and years listed on your last photo, or would the shocks be somehow different, even though they share the same gasket?

Jeff, yes, I have a box of tack rags ready to go. I'll consider the dry spray technique as well. Will definitely do a logistical dry run or two to make sure of easy access to everything. Thanks.

Thanks Jeff, I will use your technique. I'll have to buy even more lint free towels, then, I probably don't have enough for the whole car at this point.

Thanks for the tips. The staples in the tape on the plastic sheeting works great, so sticking with that. As far as the paint, yes, I'll be starting very early in the morning to beat heat and humidity. I'm using a Devillbiss gun I bought at Eastwood. I had the pressure at 31psi, so looks like I may have too much, will dial it back on my next attempt. At this point, I'll probably do one more practice round, lower the pressure, try at a lower temp (in the AM) and add some clear coat and see how it looks. Good to here the base shouldn't have any real shine to it. Guess I've seen too many photos taken while the paint was still wet on other cars. Paint was quite smooth when I ran my hand over it early this morning, so I'm at least on the right track.

Big day today, finally shot some test paint! Hopefully no more boring photos of sanded primered panels. First, I discovered that my Basemaker for my paint was only medium temperature, which means 60-70 degrees, which is way too low, so I bought some hi-temp, which should be good from 70-85 or so. I did the painting test on my junk Camaro fender today (Photos 1-3). Color is perfect, so that's good. I used 1.5 oz of Base Color with 1.5 oz of Basemaker as a trial, mainly to dial in the sprayer and work technique. Didn't want to use much as paint is more expensive than gold at this point. I was able to dial in the sprayer to about 85% perfect, but will still need some fine tuning. I painted outside and the conditions were 87 degrees, but I painted under a tree, so it was in the shade. High humidity. The paint came out quite dry to start, but got much better once I dialed in the spray pattern and pressure. Paint went on smoothly, but was still pretty dry, giving it a very slight spatter pattern rather than a smooth even spray. The paint dried VERY quickly, maybe in 10 minutes. I did, let's call it, 1.5 coats until I ran out of paint. No runs at all, but probably because everything was hot and dry. The now dried paint is quite smooth to the touch, but looks pretty dry and not shiny. I assume that's because paint dried a little too fast and this is supposed to be clear-coated. Can't do more work on it as I beat the storms coming in by about 30 minutes. I'll check it out in the sun next week (I'm out of town for a little while) to see how it really looks. Maybe I'll do one more test run with slightly more paint and hopefully a cooler day, before I start on the unseen parts on the actual car. Any further tips or thoughts are appreciated, but so far so good, I think.