1960 MGA Restoration

[hursst]

Over the last two days, I made a body dolly.  This should make my life much easier getting the body in and out of the garage for primer (Photo 1).  Cost me about $85, had to buy wheels, two 2x4s, and few wood screws, the rest was stuff I already had.  Made it as simple as possible.  Made it lower than the current body set up on the saw horses, so I can get to the top of the body.  

 

Also bought some more primer.  The price of primer has gone up 24% in one year, when inflation is about 8%.  I think this is price gouging.  $234 for a gallon of Nason primer and a quart of reducer.  Insane.

 

Still have a lot of small time body work/repair to do, but will probably start putting primer on the good spots of the body as soon as I have good weather and time, which might be a while.  Hopefully I can do a little after work sometime.

[keiser31]

3 hours ago, hursst said:

Over the last two days, I made a body dolly.  This should make my life much easier getting the body in and out of the garage for primer (Photo 1).  Cost me about $85, had to buy wheels, two 2x4s, and few wood screws, the rest was stuff I already had.  Made it as simple as possible.  Made it lower than the current body set up on the saw horses, so I can get to the top of the body.  

 

Also bought some more primer.  The price of primer has gone up 24% in one year, when inflation is about 8%.  I think this is price gouging.  $234 for a gallon of Nason primer and a quart of reducer.  Insane.

 

Still have a lot of small time body work/repair to do, but will probably start putting primer on the good spots of the body as soon as I have good weather and time, which might be a while.  Hopefully I can do a little after work sometime.

Looks good, but I would add some diagonal bracing so it doesn't wrack.

 

[hursst]

Today, added some anti wrack strips to the body dolly (Photo 1).  As always, tips, suggestions, comments are always welcome and helpful.  Since the whole body weighs a little less than 200 lbs, I think I will be fine with this minimum setup.

 

Also continued on the body.  I sanded both front inner fender wells with 400 grit, but just enough to take the roughness off, not to the quality I would do with the outer body, since high build primer is the next step.  Next, I continued to shore up the inner part of the body and doing some more grinding, contouring, and mostly working on the horizontal cowl panel, cleaning up surface rust, weld issues, and sanding filler.  Here is the formerly worst spot underneath the horizontal cowl panel (Photo 2).  Lots of grinding, sanding and finally some rust inhibitor to stabilize the area.  Next will be some fresh seam sealer at the horizontal/vertical joint, as was done with the car originally.  The top part of this panel is pretty good, but will need some filler in the corners and back edge, to correct some imperfections and welding pinholes.

[bob staehle]

I think Keizer meant front to back in a X top to bottom and bottom to top.

[Laughing Coyote]

You want to make sure that your stand is sturdy and with minimal movement.  Even if the body is light you can still have issues with movement.  The last thing you want is it to fold like a lawn chair with the body on it.  Then you will be doing more body work. Moving it in and out of the garage and hitting one little rock or hole can shift it.

 

 

 

[hursst]

Thanks guys.  I'll add more supports this week.

[hursst]

More supports added (Photo 1).  Thanks for the advice and help.

 

 

[Laughing Coyote]

I see you have a step at the entrance to your garage.  I would let the casters of one end butt up against it and push on your body cart at the other end and see if it flexes back and forth.  You don't have to go overboard on pushing just enough to see if it wracks any.   Just hate to see anything happen to the body you spent all that time on.

[chistech]

And damn casters never seem to roll when you need them to!  Luckily about a year or so my company was closing a distribution building and the maintenance supervisor gave me a dozen new sets of four 8” casters, 2 swivel, 2 straight, that I’ve been making all kinds of carts and dollies with. Easily over a $3-4000 dollars worth of them. A 8” wheel tends to roll pretty good, even over toes!😁

Edited March 23, 2022 by chistech (see edit history)

[hursst]

Have had just about zero time over the last two weeks for the MG, unfortunately.  This weekend, I was able to put a little filler in an area with some pitting on the body and I also put on some further diagonal supports on the front and rear of my body dolly (Photo 1).  Should be pretty solid at this point with all the other reinforcements I've added at the suggestion of many of the readers.  Thanks!

 

Losesly related to this MG restoration in terms of welding is what I have been doing over the last couple days, almost non stop.  I have a daily driver 2007 Chevy HHR with 277,000 miles.  The passenger side rear fender lip rusted out because at some point, I was forced to drive thru some wet salt brine that they put down in VA.  Within 6 months, the fender quickly started to rot, that's all it took, after (at the time) 13 years of no rust.  In order to catch it before it went to far, I decided to fix it now.  A local body shop wanted $3,800 to cut the whole panel out at its seams , spot weld it in, like the factory did, and paint it.  Makes sense, it's faster and easier for them to do it right.  However, the car is worth about $2,000, so didn't want to blow $3,800 on just that.  So, I went to a local junkyard that had a completely rust free HHR, had them cut out a patch and I installed it this weekend.

 

Point is, I was pretty happy with my welding, which surprised me.  I think I started with the MGA on a scale of 1-10 at a 1, now I think I'm at about a 4.5 as far as my skills.  I actually got a fairly straight, somewhat flat weld that is strong and looks reasonable.  I was able to grind it down and get it in rust inhibitor (Photos 2-4).  In the near future, I will put in some body filler to clean it up, primer it, and paint it.  Too bad I didn't start out this well with the large amount of MG welding work I had to do, but I am correcting some of my earlier work to make it look a little better and probably be a little stronger before I apply final primer to the body.

 

With any luck, I'll be able to hit the MG hard next weekend.  Depending on the weather, I may get the body out and start to apply some primer to the front fender wells that are ready to go.

[Luv2Wrench]

Chris that looks awesome!   When you add welding to your "toolbox" it really changes what you can do.  Just wait till you get painting handled.  You'll be able to blend in some black and clear on that quarter panel with no problem.

[hursst]

Finally got to work on the MG again today.  First, did some more minor filling of pitted areas on the body (Photo 1).  These areas won't be seen, but it's such a low level of effort, I decided to clean them up a little.

 

Next, I focused on more cleaning up of my welding on the inside vertical rocker support panel.  Since my welding skills have improved in the past 3+ years since I did most of this work, I decided to improve on my original sloppy work.  I ground the whole thing down a little to make it smoother, then added about 20-30 welds per side where I thought it could use some more support; there were some areas I didn't really finish, and some pinholes, gaps, and general sloppiness that I cleaned up.  I think I made it, on a scale of 1 to 10, from about a 3 to about a 6.  It's still pretty sloppy, but much improved and I will have to call it good enough, since this area won't be seen, either.  At the end, I covered all the bare metal and ground-down welds with some Eastwood rust encapsulater, so this areas needs about 5 more minutes of light sanding per side, then it's ready for primer.  The next clear and warm weekend I get, I will probably put some of the body in final primer, I really need to push this thing along; coming up on 6 years pretty soon.  Very frustrating not to have enough time to work on this, but taking advantage when I do find time.

 

Have a great Spring Break and Easter everyone!

 

-Chris

 

 

[hursst]

Quick update, got out to the garage today after work.  Spring is finally here after a false start.  Will try to get in 1-2 hours after work now that Spring is on.  Sanding, grinding, and more metal prep was done on various places on the body.  Going well overall.  I will be ready to at least spray some final primer this weekend, as the weather is looking good and I have all the fender wells and rocker/door areas ready for primer.  

 

Still have some rough areas to work in the trunk area, mainly underneath.  The trunk itself looks pretty good, but underneath is still pretty bad with cottage cheese welding all over the place.  I think I will try to clean this area up more with some grinding.  Most of it won't be seen, but I think I can improve it and make it look acceptable.  Other than that, the rest of the body just needs some quick sanding with 400 grit, in the areas that won't be seen, then some more detailed sanding on the exposed body areas.   I still have more work to do on the fenders and doors, but they are at least 90% ready to go. Maybe there is hope to get this thing ready for paint this year yet.

[keiser31]

12 minutes ago, hursst said:

Quick update, got out to the garage today after work.  Spring is finally here after a false start.  Will try to get in 1-2 hours after work now that Spring is on.  Sanding, grinding, and more metal prep was done on various places on the body.  Going well overall.  I will be ready to at least spray some final primer this weekend, as the weather is looking good and I have all the fender wells and rocker/door areas ready for primer.  

 

Still have some rough areas to work in the trunk area, mainly underneath.  The trunk itself looks pretty good, but underneath is still pretty bad with cottage cheese welding all over the place.  I think I will try to clean this area up more with some grinding.  Most of it won't be seen, but I think I can improve it and make it look acceptable.  Other than that, the rest of the body just needs some quick sanding with 400 grit, in the areas that won't be seen, then some more detailed sanding on the exposed body areas.   I still have more work to do on the fenders and doors, but they are at least 90% ready to go. Maybe there is hope to get this thing ready for paint this year yet.

Have you decided on a color, yet?

[hursst]

Keiser,

   It will be Old English White, as originally built.

[hursst]

Perfect day today weather wise.  Was able to go forward with my plan to spray some piecemeal primer to the MG.  First, tested out my body dolly (Photo 1).  Seemed to work just fine, but I took it very easy moving it, just in case.

 

I was able to spray 3 coats of primer in all 4 wheel well/front fender areas (Photo 2).  The weather was so perfect, I decided to continue, so I did some more sanding, filling, and final prep to the back outer panels of the body.  It didn't need too much work, but there were a few very small areas that needed some fill and some additional sanding.  Four coats of primer.  Turned out very well (Photo 3).  Of course, this will need to be block sanded down again with 400 grit, then it will definitely need more attention as there will be high and low spots for sure.  The whole rear and driver's side body to the immediately left of the trunk had a lot of dents and other damage, so it wasn't a matter of spray it and forget it, but it's looking fairly nice so far.  Luckily, the bumper will cover a large portion of the formerly damaged areas.  Here's a "before" shot from 2016, to remind me of where I started (Photo 4).

 

I then messed around a little more in the trunk.  There is a little flash rusting going on in the areas where I welded, so cleaned that up a little.  There are also some hard to reach areas inside the trunk that I welded from outside that will be very difficult to clean up to a nice standard.  Seam sealer in the these areas, as was factory applied, will help a little, but I'll have a lot of small detail work to do to clean these areas up.  I'm also worried that the rust inhibitor spray is not good enough to protect some of the chunky welding that I did inside and under the trunk, so I may have to do some more grinding and welding repairs to bring things more up to standard.  Most of the rest of the body is ready for primer and I should be able to get another large chunk of the body sprayed the next time I have a day available and we have good weather, which may be awhile, as usual.

 

Overall, a great day with the MG and some reasonable progress.

Edited April 16, 2022 by hursst (see edit history)

[MjSieler]

Your project is certainly coming along very well! Question: are you spraying the primer in the great outdoors? If so, do you protect the body from wind borne dust, bugs and stuff?

Edited April 17, 2022 by MjSieler (see edit history)

[hursst]

I am spraying outdoors with primer.  I don't do anything special to prevent dust and bugs, as it is just primer.  It dries quite quickly and the top layer will be sanded off anyway.  Given my home garage setup and the 8 million metric tons of dust in my garage, spraying outside is a much better option and I just have to make due.  Ideally, I'd spray in paint booth, but I don't have that luxury  When I am ready for paint, I will thoroughly clean everything in my garage and create a de facto paint booth that should be quite clean, and I will do all painting indoors to prevent bugs and dust, which would immediately ruin a paint job.  I can't make a paint booth now, as I am constantly sanding and grinding, so it would be impossible to keep my garage clean while all the body work is being done.

[Luv2Wrench]

As they say... "You've come a long way, baby!"

 

Looking great Chris!

 

[MjSieler]

Thanks Hursst. That will help me out as I will likely do the same thing. However, I may defer to a professional for the final color. If you don't mind I'll lurk around and see how things work out for you then decide. I appreciate your detailed postings.

[hursst]

MjSieler,

   You may be waiting a long time, but feel free to lurk.  This process is difficult for me as I'm not a professional, learning as I go, and I have very little time to work on the car recently.  I'm hoping to get it painted this year, but I still have a lot of prep work to do before I get there.

 

   I'd rather have a pro do the bodywork and paint my car too, but the prices they charge now are literally insane.  I would posit that to just do the bodywork and paint on my car (including all the welding), it would be somewhere around $50,000 or more.  They get a good $150-$160/hr where I live and they gouge with supplies, shop fees, and taxes on top of that.  Then there's the lying, cheating, delays, and no communication.  I figure to do it myself, it will cost me around $4,000 total in supplies, equipment, and tools that I bought, and my labor is free.  It won't be as good of a job, but I'd rather have a 90% solution and keep $48,000.  I'm sure there are good shops out there, but most are dishonest or uncommunicative in some way shape or form.

 

   I will also add that it would be rare to impossible to find a shop that would paint a car over a customer's bodywork and primer, as they don't know what's under it and they usually won't touch it.  At the very least, you will get no warranty on the work.  Try to find a shop now that would agree to do what you have in mind to make sure it can be done before you decide on a path.  Just my advice.  I would also suggest you ask the other experts here in the tech section, or maybe even this forum to see what others say about what you have in mind.  They could probably recommend a good shop, too, unless you are way ahead of me and have it planned out already.

   

[Luv2Wrench]

MjSieler, 

When I was considering having someone else paint the car I learned that a good way to go about it was to call paint suppliers and ask for contact information of painters that did freelance work.  Most of those guys/girls will have access to a paint booth.  You're not going to get a warranty but if you find someone that is highly recommended you won't need one.  They won't paint your car if it isn't ready and they'll tell you what you need to do.  If I was only painting one car that would definitely have been the route I would've taken. 

 

Sorry for the detour Chris. 

[MjSieler]

Hey all, thanks for the advice. I can see why painting over someone else's work would be hazardous. Pursuing the freelance avenue is a good choice if one decides not to paint themselves. Chris (Hursst) describes a good approach for not having a paint booth - make your own. Besides, at that point most of the dirty work is done and the various dirty bits and parts not all spread out from here to there. (Ending my contribution to the noted detour.)

[hursst]

Did a half day at work today to take advantage of the nice weather.  Was able to spray more primer on the door frames, the outer rockers, and I got most of the inside rear of the car (Photos 1-4).  Still have some minor welding to do on the lower lip of the spare tire aperture between the trunk and interior, so didn't spray that yet.  Trying to get all the easy, finished areas in primer before I finish the body work in the tough areas, like the trunk, some of the inside of the rocker area, and the front cowl shelf.  Probably won't get to anything this weekend, as our MG club has a club event tomorrow, then I'm going to a large British car show on Sunday.  It will good to be somewhere beside work or my garage for a little while.

Edited April 23, 2022 by hursst (see edit history)

[hursst]

Found about an hour today, so shored up the lower portion of the spare tire aperture.  There was one section where I welded in a long patch panel last year that had very thin metal, and I never quite got this area right.  Had pinhole and just regular holes where I welded thru in the past.  I was able to add a lot more material and grind it down to an acceptable level.  I then hit it with more rust inhibitor.  It's now ready for primer (Photo 1).

[hursst]

Went on a short vacation a few days after my last post.  Got COVID while on vacation, but didn't know it until a few days later.  Went on a short family visit after getting back from said short vacation and that's where I got the symptoms and tested positive.  Was down and out for about 4 days, then started feeling better.  Still have lingering but minor symptoms, now 8 days in.  Had the vaccine and a booster, but was still pretty rough going for a little while.

 

Finally had the energy and time to get back out to the MG and other projects.  Didn't do much, but did fill in a low spot between where the hood latches and the top of where the grille will go (Photo 1).  Also filled in a small area with some pitting that I missed a long time ago, also in the front of the body.  This work is all continuing towards my attempt to get the entire body sprayed in primer.  Painfully slow progress, but still inching ahead.

 

Next weekend is Imports at Carlisle.  Wish I could take the MGA, but will be taking my '97 Saab instead.  Just got it back from the shop after 2 months of numerous major repairs to try to make it relatively reliable.  Had to spend some time on it this weekend making repairs on that, instead of focusing on the MG, so I can take it to the show.  Still has 17 problems I need to fix, but down from the original 135 problems I documented.  Hope to reserve next Sunday for more MG work, and probably some primer spraying if the weather is nice.

 

I wish everyone good health!  

 

-Chris

[keiser31]

Sorry to hear about the covid, glad you are on the upswing!

[Luv2Wrench]

Glad you're feeling better Chris, that COVID can be tricky. 

[STEVE POLLARD]

Good to hear that your feeling better !

 

Steve

[MjSieler]

Bummer about your COVID issue. Hoping for your full recovery. Be good to yourself in the meantime. 

[hursst]

Thanks!  I'm back to 100% now.  It lasted about 8 days, but was only bad for about 5 days.

 

Trying to get back on track due to COVID and not having any time in general.  Managed to get out today for a couple hours and strip the bottom lip of filler from one of my front fenders.  I had to bend it to conform properly to the rocker panel vertical support and the filler cracked, of course, which I expected.  Put on some new filler and filled in a bad part on a rear fender as well.  Also did some sanding of the front support area of the body behind where the grille will go.  I think this coming weekend I should be able to primer the rest of the front of the body and maybe the inner rocker area.  After this, all that's left would be the cowl horizontal support panel and the inner and under trunk.  Still have much primer to apply and sanding on about half of the fenders.  No photos this time as there's not much to see; same boring areas as before.

[chistech]

I feel your Covid pain. I was mainly extremely tired but mine lasted a few weeks. Both me and my next door neighbor that I hang out with every day caught it and it was long lasting in both of us with very similar symptoms. Neither of us had any vaccine or shots so we fought it with our own immune system. Had my blood checked for Covid antibodies and my doctor said my levels were very high. That’s the result I wanted by going vaccination free. I’d rather have natural immunity. Glad you’re doing well now.

[Lahti35]

Glad to hear you're feeling better! It can be a rough deal. I ended up nearly buying the farm, only my age saved me. I'll bet it feels good to be back in the garage, it did for me. Keep up the good work!

[hursst]

Finally got a full weekend at home.  Had a lot of other things going on today, and non stop other car maintenance, but set some time aside for the MG.

 

Spent some of yesterday and some time today lightly sanding the front of the body to get it ready for primer.  It needed a lot of small touch-ups, like some filler, heavy sanding, a quick weld, and some glazing putty.  Worked non-stop this afternoon to get it ready for primer.  By the late afternoon, I had enough shade in the driveway to apply primer.  I was able to apply some good coats of primer to the rest of the front of the body (Photos 1-3).  Turned out better than I thought, as I knew I had a lot of small issues with these heavily pitted and weld-repaired areas.  Much easier to see issues when it's all in gray primer, but it looks like I fixed most of the major issues.  Will still have some small pinholes and other irregularities, but overall, not bad.  The only areas left are the trunk and the panel under the trunk.

 

I also was able to put primer on the repro lower rocker trim strips (Photo 4).  The repros are aluminum while the originals were steel.  Originals or impossible to find.  My originals were half disintegrated when I bought the car, so I could not reuse them.

[STEVE POLLARD]

Looks great Chris !

 

Steve

[hursst]

Wishing everyone a good Memorial Day, including our international friends and allies on the site.  The sacrifices those soldiers made for us is what gives us the freedoms we hold dear and to pursue our hobby of putting these great cars back on the road!

 

Over the last couple days, sanded down, welded, and applied some filler to the trunk and area underneath the trunk.  These are the worst areas on the car.  I ended up leaving a lot of the garbage welding visible under the trunk, as most of it cannot be seen, and the metal was so thin that in grinding everything flat and making it perfect, it will just introduce a million new holes and pinholes I will have to endlessly chase.  The proper move would have been to replace the entire trunk panel and make much larger patch panels, but that was really out of the budget and I thought I could save what's left of the original trunk area, which I think I succeeded in doing.  That being said, I made the area as clean as possible without compromising the integrity of the acceptable welding I did.  

 

Next, I applied seam sealer on the trunk pan joints, as was done at the factory.  Turned out nicer than the factory, as the factory guys didn't seem to smooth the seam sealer out, they just applied it from the tube and left it, which is why much of it could just be broken off with your fingers when I started the resto; didn't have much surface area contact and probably didn't seal much of the seams at all.

 

I decided that the inside of the trunk was such a mess that the best move at this point would be to call it good enough and spray it with primer so at least everything becomes the same grey tone and it's much more easy to see the flaws than with bare steel, grey primer, green primer, white filler, light blue filler, black rust inhibitor, etc.  Very hard to make out the imperfections with a rainbow of ugly colors.  

 

So, I finished primer on the body today (Photos 1-3), although it will need a lot more sanding, filling, and more primer to make it look correct.  Had a lot of problems with the sprayer, the air holes on the side were getting clogged, so I had a bad spray pattern and thin coverage.  Went thru a lot of primer but didn't seem to get what I expected actually on the car.  Got a little better as I went, but there are some thin spots that will need attention in the near future.

 

Each fender still needs a little more attention and some more primer, but I think the heavy lifting with primer is finally finished.  Now comes the fine tuning and working towards the mail goal of getting it ready for paint.

[hursst]

Short update today.  Started blocking the front exterior of the body.  Applied some 3M guide coat powder and started sanding (Photo 1).  Results not that great overall, but not terrible.  Found a few high spots and about twice as many low spots (Photos 2 & 3).  Here's a shot of what I started out with (Photo 4).  Lots of dings, dents, rust, and house paint.  Should be some easy skim coats of filler to get the low spots up, then another few coats of primer.  I'll fill in the front sections, then move on to the rear of the body, where I expect to find about the same conditions, since the rear was even more mangled than the front.

[Andy J]

hursst,I like your body cart.I made one myself a few months ago and I'm finished with it now.Your project is shaping up real nice. That guide coat is the ticket,isn't it?

[Luv2Wrench]

Guide coat is super helpful though I'll admit to saying some unkind words about it in moments of frustration.   You'll be super happy you spent the considerable extra time when you're done.  A flexible sanding block is helpful for a car like the MGA.   A cool trick I saw was to lay the strip of sand paper on the curve of the car and then apply the foam sanding block while bending it to the shape.  The sticky backing on the paper holds the foam in the shape of the car.  YouTube video probably explains it better but I can't find it right now.  

[John S.]

hursst, the M.G. is moving along nicely. Great work. John