REPORTS ON A 1914 HUMBERETTE RESTORATION

[Mike Macartney]

I am still getting used to using wood screws! The LH side of the bracket will screw into the plywood strengthening and the original side panel. I don't want to go any deeper than 30mm maximum. Normally on an old car I would not use Pozidrive screws, but that is all I seem to have and the brackets I am adding, for strengthening, are hidden away. I suppose I can change the screws later if they really offend me.

[Mike Macartney]

I am still getting used to using wood screws! The LH side of the bracket will screw into the plywood strengthening and the original side panel. I don't want to go any deeper than 30mm maximum. Normally on an old car I would not use Pozidrive screws, but that is all I seem to have and the brackets I am adding, for strengthening, are hidden away. I suppose I can change the screws later if they really offend me.

[Mike Macartney]

Sorry, I had to close the last post quickly. There I was in the living room quietly writing my report when the better half came in and put the telly on. I decided to move to the kitchen with the laptop still on and something slid onto the keys and changed the screen size. Still can't get my screen looking normal but never mind aye!

While I remember. This trunk lid hinge support panel is made up of two pieces. I attempted to try and undo the screws. I tried most of the tricks, including using a hot soldering iron on the heads - no joy. In the end I gave up and decided to let the screws stay in place. When I turned the panel over later, I noticed a crack had opened up in a line of filler in a grain groove. I used a Dremel tool to grind out the crack and squeezed some wood glue into the crack. I left it overnight with my BIG copper hide mallet weighing it down and closing the crack.

The next day after the glue had gone off, I made some wooden plugs to fill the 4 x holes that I want to get rid of, as I am going to screw this panel down to affix to the side panel with screws from the underside through the top metal bracket that I'm making. Glued and tapped the plugs into place and another wait for the glue to go off. You don't get this waiting game with welding. Anybody would think I'm biased!?!

Measuring up for the length of metal I need for making the clamp for the battery to hold it in place.

I now have run out of time to finish this part of this post. Just realised that I am meant to be going to meet the other Saga Louts at the pub. It's our weekly get together where we 'put the world to rights'.

 

[Mike Macartney]

When I retired, fourteen years ago I bought this drill/milling machine new. I find it is fine for drilling, but have never been very happy with using it as a mill. My previous milling work was when I was at college, a long time ago. I thought the problems with the milling were down to my lack of experience. Four years ago an old friend died and just before he died he asked if I would like to purchase his large milling machine and large lathe. Since I have owned these machines I have hardly used them. I think I was afraid of milling machine? I tried using it once for a small job and managed to shatter a cutter! Since joining this forum I have been following other restoration posts. One in particular is on a 1910 Michell. Joe does a lot of machining and he has given me the courage to 'have a go'.

I wanted to cut a slot in the battery tray I am making for the car to hold the battery clamp. I thought this would be a good time to try the Archdale mill again on a simple job. I drilled a hole each end of the slot and then cut the slot.

Success - thank you Joe , and this forum. If I had tried this on the other machine the cut would have 'wandered' and not been as straight as this. I am sure I will now use this milling machine a lot more now.

With the slot cut I could now tack the two bits of angle together with the MIG.

Checking the battery will fit before I go any further.

The hole was drilled in the strap to hold the clamp in place at the top and the strap set up in the vice to bend it at right angles.

Now to weld the end plates on.

Now to grind off the excess weld.

Checking again that it all fits and that the welding has not distorted the bracket too much. I will then clean this up in the blast cabinet ready for some paint and get on with the other brackets that are going at the top of the trunk.

 

[JV Puleo]

I shattered a big face mill very early on. It does cause you to hesitate.

About 90% of the problems with milling come from having to bolt the work down REALLY tight and "speeds & feeds". For my jobs, I find that it never hurts to go slower than the recommended speeds. I do use one of the online "feed & speed" calculators but they are optimized for industrial purposes. Often my machines won't even go as fast as the recommended speeds.

[Mike Macartney]

Joe, I think my problems with the 'cheapo' Clarke mill are; that the smaller milling cutters fit into the drill chuck. The accuracy is also compromised by slack in the bearings that support the drill chuck. I also found that the milling cutter would move down the jaws of the chuck and sometimes cut deeper than intended. Now I have started using the big mill with an Autoloc milling cutter holder I shall only use the Clarke machine for drilling and not attempt to use it for milling. I have yet to attempt using the power feeds on the Archdale mill, but I'll get there eventually! Thanks for your help.

Battery tray combined with lower bracket ready for paint.

Parts cut and centre popped for the screw holes.

At least with this Clarke drill/mill it has an adjustable table that makes lining up on the centre punch marks easy.

Countersinking for the screw heads. I don't know if I am doing this right? I use a drill just a bit bigger than the screw head?

A linisher is useful for removing the sharp burrs that you get with drilling.

Before grinding/sanding the burrs off with the linisher.

I decided to drill and thread the upper bracket so that the battery clamp bolt can fix to it. I have already welded the front part of the bracket on.

Tacking the top mounting bracket on was difficult to position it in the correct place.

It is easy to be wise after the event, but I should have thought about the position before I welded completely up?

Can you see my deliberate mistake! I've welded the plate on with the countersinks on the wrong side of the plate. I will have to live with that.

I fitted the brackets in with short screws for the time being - don't ask me why?!?

I made a better attempt of the RH top bracket.

Now my problems started! As there were so many screws I screwed this bracket on, again with the short screws. When I tried to undo the bracket the screw slots rounded. I had two screws that would not come out.

I tried these screw removing tools, they didn't work. In the end with drilling and levering I manage to get them out. One of the problems being that the temporary screws I used were stainless steel and they had work hardened with the drilling.

One knackered screw - I think I should stick to bolts and metalwork and leave screws and woodwork to someone else!

 

 

[Mike Macartney]

Today I started afresh after the problems of yesterday.

Gave the brackets a coat of etching primer. I shan't try fitting them again until I have epoxy primed the woodwork inside the trunk area.

Next job was to see what I could do to use the 1" 'half round' aluminium for hiding the join between the trunk and the body. I chose the worst side to do first. I cut it approximately to size, well just oversize.

The problem with the fit, was that if it fitted fine at the bottom, the top corner stuck out.

I didn't want to damage the aluminium. I thought I would try this oil filter removing strap to see if I could 'twist' the moulding.

After a number of attempts, I did get the angle of twist correct, although I had to use mole grips and protected the alloy strip with cardboard.

The ends were filed to get the exact shape required.

I think that will do the job. I will leave the drilling of the screw holes until I have had a chat with Robert about what screws to use to hold it in place while the adhesive goes off.

The moulding this side only took about a quarter of the time to get right.

Before I finished for the day I gave the brackets a coat of primer.

[Luv2Wrench]

Looking great!  As someone that's come into metalworking from woodworking, I think you're doing fine and will eventually get to where you feel you can do either just as well.  I do like the precision and deterministic methods in metalworking but I think maybe more room for art in woodworking. 

[JV Puleo]

Drill chucks are worthless for end mills if you want to hold any sort of tolerance. They are also a bit dangerous because they aren't really designed to hold a milling cutter and no matter how good the chuck is, it will always have some runout. That said, I have occasionally used an end cutting end mill to make a hole with a flat bottom but only after drilling the hole. Those moldings look great.

 

You'll get a better countersink if you use a single flute countersinking bit. I have one I use regularly that I bought about 35 years ago. I've used a drill but they tend to chatter. You can also use a center drill to make a countersink then drill the finish hole. I believe the British term for them is "Carpenter Drills" - for the company that invented them which, oddly enough was in Pawtucket RI, the town I grew up in.

Edited November 9, 2018 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Mike Macartney]

Thanks Geoff and Joe for your kind comments. I do feel a real novice when it comes to woodwork and machining. I am finding the 'big' milling machine much easier to use than the small Clarke drill/mill. I have been making a jig for drilling the holes in top moulding for the hood fixings this morning and have enjoyed my machining experience today.

First of all I painted the brackets and battery tray this morning. I met Robert in the local pub last night and told him about the saga of the stuck stainless screws. I got some amusing abuse and banter but he is going to come round on Sunday morning to see what a mess I've made. He did admit that he has had the same problem with stainless Pozidrive screws.

For painting small parts I tend to use aerosol cans. It saves having to clean out the spray gun.

Happy with these as long as I can get the screws to fit! I shall epoxy prime the inside of the trunk area before I fit the brackets.

I am going to fit this type of hood fixing along the half round moulding at the top of the metal panels. As I an drilling into the 'half round' side I thought it would be an idea to make a drilling jig. This one in the photo is chrome. I won't drill the holes until I have the nickel plated ones here, just in case the hole centres are different.

I found a suitable 'lump' of aluminium and stuck it in the vice on the milling table. Being a novice I took a small cut to see how level the vice was.

It was out by about the thickness of a steel rule. So ……….

…. I loosened the vice and stuck a steel rule under the low side and tightened the vice up again and took another cut. It worked!

I checked the depth of the moulding with the Vernier. I know it looks as if I am having a rest!

Machined the slot to the required depth and then attempted to work out how much wider the slot needed to be.

I did not know how I could drill a hole in the middle of the width of the slot. I couldn't work out how to fit a centre drill into the Clarkson Autolock 'chuck' on the mill so I found the smallest milling cutter I could find and moved the cutter to the middle of the slot and cut a thin line. At least this will give me a mark for when I drill the holes.

Well, at least it fits the moulding. I will now have to wait until the turnbuckles arrive.

I hope the jig will work.

[JV Puleo]

I estimate that I spend as much time making jigs & fixtures as I do making the actual parts. But, it is the only way to make the parts accurately and, of course, it is exactly what the original makers did. Many time when we look at a part and wonder how it was made, it's the result of a clever fixture and well thought out process. It was not at all unusual to have a part that originally included the piece which held it in the fixture and which was removed once the part was completed.

 

Here's a suggestion... if the fixture you are making now doesn't center the holes properly try milling a round-bottom groove. I've only just realized this but for milling aluminum, you can use a rounded high-speed steel router bit for wood. They are really cheap compared to bull nose end mills. I tried this a few days ago because I need to make a fixture to bend some 3/4" wide, 20 ga. steel and it looks as if it would work extremely well.

[Mike Macartney]

Thanks Joe for the advice. In fact my jig didn't work! The holes came out slightly below the centre of the curve. To try the jig, I just lightly drilled the holes to mark the moulding and then used a smaller drill to move the holes up slightly before drilling for the screws. When the hood is fitted, only the turnbuckle part will be seen, so a slight difference won't matter too much. It's just nice to be able to do things to the best of my ability if I can.

It's all a learning curve for me with machining. When I first drilled the holes in the middle of this block of aluminium, I was silly enough not to put the pedestal drill onto a higher speed when I drilled the pilot hole. It's pain to change the speed on the Clarke machine, as I have to get the steps from another shed to reach the belts on top of the drill. With only two holes to drill I left the machine on a medium speed and managed to break the drill in the aluminium. Then had to drill two more holes. I've now learnt my lesson. I also need to use a centre drill more often. In the lathe I always use a centre drill first. I need to get in the habit of doing that with the drill press.

I was going to add a photo of the first turnbuckle clip fitted. Unfortunately, Jane has taken the dogs for a walk and taken the camera with her, as it is a nice sunny Autumn afternoon here in the UK.

USING ROUTER CUTTERS ON ALLUMINIUM

Yes, I have used a router on aluminium before. The photo below is the wheel off my Perks & Birch motor wheel tricycle which I bought as a box of bits. Some time in it's history the aluminium between the spokes had been broken off.

What we did was to roll a ring of aluminium rectangular bar.

Make a jig to fit the ring into out of MDF. The make a pivot for the router and machine the edges with various curved router bits. The router did the job well. When both sides had been shaped the sections were cut out and TIG welded into the original wheel, as can be seen below.

I'll have to come back to this. For some reason the photo won't load!?!

 

 

 

[Mike Macartney]

It worked this time. I was pleased with the results.

For those that wonder what a Perks and Birch motor wheel tricycle looks like here is a photo taken in 1899.

[Mike Macartney]

My camera has now arrived back from it's walk!

Here are the photos I wanted to include.

Marking the positions where the existing screws are.

Marking the positions the turnbuckles that will fit on the half round moulding.

One turnbuckle fitted. Not perfectly straight. With the hood fitted (sorry top) all that will be visible when the top is up is the bit in the middle. I wanted to drill the holes for these turnbuckles before the body is painted. After all the holes are drilled I will remove the nickel plated turnbuckles.

[Mike Macartney]

My attention now turned to the bonnet. As this and the body will be painted royal blue. The wings and wheels, which will probably be painted black can wait until later.

The blasting had removed most of the previous repairs so that I could see what I was up against.

There is not much I can do about this badly welded area. I could cut the section out and replace it or grind off the worst of the welding and fill it.

I will try  and find some rivets that match the original rivets and replace the two odd rivets.

I'll clean up this rust slot and see if I can weld up this section of missing metal.

This strengthening bracket has come loose on the right hand side of the photo. The previous owner presumably did not have any welding equipment and attempted to repair this area with solder. Getting rid of the solder before welding maybe a problem?

I don't think they used pop rivets in 1914! Again more solder.

This is the other side of the 2nd photo. All I think I will do here is try and tidy up this area.

More of the  'Golden Body Lightener'  along this edge of the inside of the bonnet. I think I will cut out this section and weld in a new bit of metal.

Further along this edge is more rust. I may try repairing one small section first to see how it works.

I sanded the 2-pack primer to see how flat the main panels are. I was going to spray a coat of guide coat on, but decided not to bother, as I could see that the surface was like 'humpty back cheese cake land'! I might as well panel beat the majority of dents out first.

Checking the size of rivets needed to replace the two dodgy ones. I think somewhere I have a rivet set for this size domed head rivet.

I started by cutting out this section of rust. It's a bit of a mess behind.

I cleaned up the area and panel beat the edge of the bonnet straight.

Measured the length of new metal.

And measured the width.

Then cut a section of new metal to weld in.

 

[JV Puleo]

Have you looked at "The Complete Automobilist" site? They might have the rivets as I know they sell brass bonnet hinge.

[Mike Macartney]

Thanks Joe, I have just had a look on their site, the only rivets listed are flat top. I think I have found some suitable rivets on eBay. If I can't find any suitable I will make a couple in the trusty old Myford lathe.

I have tried joining the practical machinists forum, with no success, tomorrow I will get my daughter, or her husband, to check what I am doing wrong.

[Luv2Wrench]

4 hours ago, Mike Macartney said:

Thanks Joe, I have just had a look on their site, the only rivets listed are flat top. I think I have found some suitable rivets on eBay. If I can't find any suitable I will make a couple in the trusty old Myford lathe.

I have tried joining the practical machinists forum, with no success, tomorrow I will get my daughter, or her husband, to check what I am doing wrong.

 

Look forward to seeing you on PM, it can be a very helpful group!

 

[Laughing Coyote]

I'm on PM too. Not as much as here, but once in awhile. Lots of info. there too.

[DavidAU]

This company sells all types of rivets.

https://www.rivetsonline.com/rivets/solid-rivets#1

[Mike Macartney]

David, Many thanks for the link. Wow! Looking at their site they certainly do a lot of rivets. It looks as if the smallest quantity is 100. I'll wait and see if the rivets I have bought on eBay will do the job.

[Mike Macartney]

I ground off the back of one of the rivets that I want to replace and tapped it out with a pin punch.

Then to find the diameter of the hole I used drills to find the diameter of the hole.

Measuring the drill I estimate the original rivets would have had a 1/8" shank. The person who repaired this bonnet in the past must have used a couple of rivets he had lying around.

 

[Mike Macartney]

I had to end the last post as Pete, my son-in-law, arrived this morning and I got him to help me sign me up for the PM forum. Apparently I had been using a browser that did not work with the sites 'I'm not a robot' section of the online sign up. Another hour of my time wasted yesterday trying to sign up!

BACK TO THE BONNET (HOOD)

The bar going across the bonnet had cracked and had previously been repaired with solder. I melted the solder and wiped away as much of the solder as I could as needed to strengthen this area. To clean the rest of the solder off I used the mule skinner.

The same solder problem was in this area where the strengthening bracket had broken away on one part.

To repair and strengthen the centre brace I used some 1/8" plate that I shaped up to go each side of the brace.

Then welded them in position. I will do the same on the other side of the bonnet.

At the side of the bonnet I used a small steel rule to mark out the area to cut out.

Cut the section out and cleaned it up as best I could. I then liberally coated the inside of the section with Kurust.

Cut a new section of metal to fit in the gap.

Tacked the new metal in place. To help stop any distortion it is best to do lots of tacks in various places so as not to put too much heat into the metal.

Now I can go around filling the gaps with weld. Alternating where the weld goes from ends and sides, again to help the panel distorting.

Ground down and ready for filling.  It looks a lot worse in the photo than it actually is. I think it is the shadow that makes the welding look so bad. Well, that's my excuse!

For the bracket I drilled a couple of 1/4" holes in the bracket.

Clamped the two parts together and welded through to the panel below.

The corner needed some strengthening and repair. I made a cardboard template.

Marked the outline on the sheet metal and cut out the shape with the cutting disc in the grinder.

Punched 3 holes in the plate with my air joggler/punch.

Bent it to the correct shape and welded it in place. I also welded a few rust holes on the edge. The next job is to grind down the welds.

[Mike Macartney]

After grinding down all the welds with either the flap wheel in the angle grinder or a cutting disc in the Dremel tool it was time to do a bit of panel beating.

One important thing to remember with panel beating is that the face of the hammer must be clean. Most panel beaters have a hammer that is their favourite. The one below my favourite panel beating hammer, with the red handle, is one that has different replaceable shaped ends. This comes in very useful sometimes for odd shaped areas.

When you are by yourself in the workshop it is impossible to show the panel beating process as you need both hands. One to hold the dolly and the other to hold the hammer.

First of all I rubbed down the panel to find the high spots.

These are then carefully and gently hammered against the dolly to attempt to get the metal back into its original shape. I still need to do a bit more work on the side on the right of the photo as it is looking a bit bowed in the photo. Although spending most of my life in a body repair shop I still don't have the skill of repairing something like this bonnet with out using some filler. The area behind  one of the air vents at the rear of the bonnet is a bit 'floppy'. I will need to try and tighten up this area using a modified file to 'slap' the panel to try and shrink the metal. I don't want to do anymore work on this bonnet until I have replaced the two rivets at the front of the bonnet.

The back edge of the bonnet sits on this framework. The previous owner had fitted 1" wide felt on this, to insulate the edge of the bonnet from the metal frame. I decided to remove this and replace it with proper bonnet tape that I purchased from Woolies who specialise in trimming materials.

The felt was held on with these bifurcated rivets that I thought would be a 'piece of cake' to remove - they weren't!

This is the bonnet tape I will be using.

 

[Mike Macartney]

This is where the rest for the bonnet is screwed too. I wanted to clean this up. It is too large to fit in my blast cabinet and I was about to have a go rubbing it down and removing the old paint with the mule skinner when I had an idea!

If I cut it into three bits, blast them and then weld them back together.

The blaster certainly makes a better job than rubbing them down.

With the bits laid on the workmate ready to weld back together I tried tacking them and failed at my first attempt as trying to hold them in place was difficult on my own.

I then screwed the top part and the right hand part to the workmate which made welding a lot easier.

I welded both sides above and below. I just ground the top surface back flush and left the weld on the underside as it is virtually out of view when everything is back together again.

A coat of etching primer and that will do me for the day.

Just realised that I had forgotten this part that holds the brass pivot for the back end of the bonnet.

You can see in this photo how the part had been made. The angle had been cut, bent to the desired shape and then the slots brazed up. I took this photo half way through painting the etching primer. I had thought about filling one of the holes on the left hand side with weld, but I thought I would have a problem with the brazing melting. Looking at the photo now, I could have filled the hole up with nickel bronze welding rod, unfortunately I have used up all my rod and only have brazing rod, which I think may flow too much to fill the hole. Nickel bronze rod always seems to be very expensive to buy.

All back together again and ready for a coat of primer tomorrow.

 

[Luv2Wrench]

I have a couple slappers I made from files and they come in very handy.   I've never seen a hammer with interchangeable heads... that's a neat idea.   The older body hammers are starting to show up in the antique and flea markets now that body shops do more panel replacing than they do panel beating.  For a year or so I made a habit of buying any (reasonable) body hammer I came across that was less than $25.  I ended up with some very nice quality hammers as well as some very peculiar shapes. 

 

As always your work is fantastic and a real joy to watch! 

[Mike Macartney]

Thanks for your kind words. Your message has come just at the right time. I was just starting to get depressed about filling, rubbing down and filling again, add infinitum! You have given me renewed energy to carry on. Over the past week I have been doing a couple of hours in the workshop and don't seem to be getting any further forward. After two hours I'm knackered. I used to be able to do this job all day when I was younger. It's a real pain when your head is 25 and your body is over 70! This morning I read your post and managed to nearly get the wooden parts of the body ready for the epoxy primer. I even managed to get some parts finished and hung up ready to paint. Also started masking up again this morning, after I had cleared up the mess left from the last couple of days.  I hope I have now got just a little filler to rub down on the dashboard and the front bulkhead and I think I can then spray. 

 

As you asked about the hammer with the interchangeable heads I thought I would take a photo of them for you.

I bought the set new from eBay about 4 or 5 years ago. They make appears to be PREDATOR or PREDITOR (I forgot to write it down when I was in the workshop). They must have been reasonably cheap otherwise I wouldn't have bought them! The hammer hasn't got the 'feel' of a proper panel beating hammer but the selection of heads is good. I don't use the different heads a lot, only when I find I need a different shape hammer to my normal standard panel beating hammers. The heads lock into place and release with the button and spring you can see in the photo.

 

I suppose while I am on this post I might as well get up to date with a few more photos on the progress, or lack of it!

 

I had been meaning to take the door down to a company I know, that do TIG welding on aluminium, to get the corners of the aluminium mouldings welded up. As it's about 10 miles away I have kept putting it off. I looked at it again and thought I would try Araldite. I blocked the outside of the corner with masking tape. Ran Araldite into the gap and left it over night. It appears to have worked and filled the gap.

These parts are now ready for the epoxy primer. I know that filling wood with body filler is not ideal, but what options were available to me when the cracks and indentations were so bad. I suppose if I had previous training with wood it would have been possible to remake the parts, but with my limited 'wood experience' it was a non starter.

The front bulkhead was the worst area. If the filler cracks at least its under the bonnet and I won't get too upset. I have dome my best to try and keep the temperature and humidity constant in the workshop. I have had two dehumidifiers running constantly and one fan heater keeping the temperature at 15 degree C.

The rest for the rear of the bonnet got at last primed. Trying to fit it is going to be a two man job to get it in the correct position.

The domed head rivets I bought on eBay proved to be too small. They need to have 1/4" diameter heads. I ordered some more that were larger.

They fit the hole in the panel nicely, but the heads are too big. I think I can get the heads to look the same as the original ones by carefully removing some metal from the heads of the rivets in the lathe. I have a number of them so I should manage it after a few mistakes! I have ordered a ball end drill set (1/8". 3/16" & 1/4")  to try and make a rivet set to hold the head of the rivet. I have been looking on line for one, but they have been out of stock at the places I've tried. I am not quite sure what a ball end drill is, but I hope it will give me a concave 1/4" hole! I will find out when they arrive in the post. I don't want to do anymore work to the bonnet until I have put the new rivets in the front part of the bonnet. At the moment this area is too flexible to do anything with it..

With the jig I made for drilling the aluminium moulding at the top edge of the body, it didn't seem to be as accurate as I thought it might be. With Joe's idea of a curve at the bottom of the jig I thought I would have a go at making another jig. As it was difficult to work out the radius of the curve I thought I would turn down a bit of bar to match the curve of the moulding as a starting point. I could them bore out a larger bar to the correct diameter of the moulding and then mill that down to make another drilling jig. The photo above shows me checking the diameter against the moulding in between cuts.

With the filling I was starting to get 'white blindness' not being able to see the areas to fill. I sprayed the area with guide coat which helped to pick out the grey low areas that needed more filling.

I did a bit of filling on the door, but decided that I should consecrate on the wooden parts first so that they can be sprayed first with the epoxy. I hope I have enough epoxy left to complete the spraying. Having been out of the body repair trade since I retired in 2004, I was shocked at the price of a litre of epoxy primer, the hardener and the thinners - I think it was nearly £100. In the 1960's when I was at college, a group of us bought an MG TA to restored. The car cost us £25, the paint and sundry materials to paint the whole car was £5. A couple of years a ago, we found the note book that we kept details of the cost of restoring this MG and the hours each of us spent on the car. We sold the completed car for £165 and earnt ourselves 6d (2.5 pence in new money) per hour! How times have changed in my lifetime. 

[Luv2Wrench]

Modern paint and epoxies are more advance but the cost seems to have exceeded the advancements!!

 

[Laughing Coyote]

Don't start losing steam yet Mike. You've come a long way in a short time on that project. Looking good, keep up the good work. It will all be worth it when you get to drive and show it.

[Mike Macartney]

Thanks for your encouragement. I must admit I am looking forward to having a drive in the car when it's finished. As for showing; I'm not to bothered about going to shows, I find the general public, with nothing to do at a weekend, who go to these shows, rather a bore with there silly questions, such as "What's it worth". I am happy for old car enthusiast to visit me and if there is time, I will often take them out in one of my cars, or on one of my motorcycles. I get my pleasure from working on the vehicles, with no time constraints, and try and do the best job I can with my abilities. I also try to do the do the upmost to make the restoration last as long as possible with out having to revisit areas of the vehicle after a few years, as I get bored with having to do a job twice. The big problem I have is, that when I get stuck into a rebuild/restoration job I tend to stick at it. That's a problem when the spring and summer come, as I tend to carry on working on the vehicles, when perhaps, I should be using them more. I often say to Jane "Shall we go out in one of the cars" and she says "Where shall we go", and we end up not going anywhere.  I suppose we are very lucky living where we do,  with a nice rural outlook, on the outskirts of a small village, with no immediate neighbours to moan about any grinding and hammering noises.

 

I managed to finish all the repairs to the woodwork by lunchtime and got everything ready for painting.

Finished of the masking and . . . . . .

. . . . . . started hanging up the parts that can be sprayed off the car. I am now ready to start spraying. I just mentioned this to Jane and she tells me that at 9am tomorrow they are switching off the electricity to enable them to cut branches away from the overhead cables. Electricity will be turned back on at 5pm. Just a thought - as I can't spray tomorrow perhaps we can go somewhere in the MGBV8?

[Mike Macartney]

Sometime ago somebody asked on this forum how many cars finish the Veteran Car Clubs London to Brighton run. Today, a list of results arrived for this years event:

 

ENTERED 431

WITHDRAWN 14

DID NOT START THE RUN 44

RETIRED 54

FINISHED 319

[R.White]

45 minutes ago, Mike Macartney said:

Sometime ago somebody asked on this forum how many cars finish the Veteran Car Clubs London to Brighton run. Today, a list of results arrived for this years event:

 

ENTERED 431

WITHDRAWN 14

DID NOT START THE RUN 44

RETIRED 54

FINISHED 319

 

Hopefully there were no accidents this year?

 

Ray.

[Mike Macartney]

Last Thursday, with no electric, turned out to be a nice and peaceful day. No phone ringing, no internet and had a restful day catching up on some reading in front of the log fire. The next day I got on with blowing down the parts to spray.

Then cleaned all the surfaces to be painted with the epoxy primer with 'panel wipe' (a mild thinners).

Mixing the epoxy primer was strange to me, it is extremely thick, after adding the hardener 1 found I needed to add a lot more thinners than with 'normal' paints I have used in the past. I still don't think I thinned it enough as it sprayed on like treacle! Anyway, that said, I managed to spray all the wooden parts.

I also sprayed the back of this bulkhead as some of it will be open to the elements.

I got a couple of runs on dashboard - I hope they rub out OK.

The finish on the trunk area 'left bit to be desired'. It covered OK, but the finish wasn't 'orange peel' it was more like 'grapefruit peel'!

See what I mean. At least it should seal the wood and hopefully stop the paint cracking or flaking.

The next day I gave all the panels I had painted a guide coat of thin black paint to help with getting a smooth surface when it comes to rubbing down.

Attention then turned to replacing the two odd rivets in the bonnet. The ball end drills arrived, they were in fact milling cutters with a thread that fitted into my Clarkson Autolock chuck for the milling machine.

I marked the position that that dome of the rivet needed to fit in and then used a small centre drill to make the first hole.

Then drilled with the ball end drill until the rivet sat nicely in the concave hole.

Previously I had made up a rivet set to push the hinge part hard onto the rivet and machined the rivets in the lathe to try and match the existing rivets in the bonnet.

Pushing the hinge onto the rivet.

Before I peen the underside of the rivet I need to cut off some of the length of the rivet. They say that you need about half the thickness of the material you are riveting sticking out before peening. I cut the excess off with the Dremel tool with a thin grinding disc.

Not perfect, but they are a lot better than the ones that had been fitted previously.

The underside of the rivets that have been peened with the ball peen hammer.

 

 

 

 

 

[Luv2Wrench]

Looks great!  Thanks for posting the extra detail on the rivets, that's not something I've done a lot of and it is something that keeps coming up.  I've tossed some parts instead of messing with the rivets. 

[Mike Macartney]

It is a long time since I last did some riveting. I seem to remember that I made this tool box 55-years ago when I was at the Ford apprentice training school. It is now used as our letter box!

It looks as if it is overdue for another coat of paint.

 

[Mike Macartney]

This is a job I have been putting off, until I finished painting the epoxy primer, fitting the aluminium mouldings to cover the join of the trunk area to the main body.

I started off by marking on the outside of the mouldings two positions where the screws would not foul an existing screw or nail. I then drilled a clearance hole for the screws that would hold the moulding in position. The pilot hole on the body was then drilled into the ash frame for the screw to thread into.

I then measured the heads of the screws for drilling the countersinks into the moulding.

As the countersink was on the curve I was surprised how deep I needed to drill the countersink. I took this photo before I had finished the countersinking.

Once I was happy with the fit unscrewed the mouldings to paint. I may need to grind a little off the edge of the screw heads so they are flush with the moulding.

They got coated with etching primer and were left overnight to dry.

Meanwhile I got on with rubbing down the epoxy primer hoping, that I would not need to spray another coat, as I had nearly run out of the epoxy primer.

The brackets that would hold the trunk lid hinge panel were clamped into position and a screw put in.

Both brackets were fitted and the panel tried in place to make sure it still fitted.

Someone on this forum suggested that I use marine grade Sikaflex (291i) for the seal between the trunk and the body. For my first try of the material I ran a bead in the joint between the body and the plywood strengthening panel I had added.

I then squeezed it into the join that will be hidden by the aluminium moulding.

I also squeezed it onto the back of the mouldings before finally screwing then in place.

The left hand side, which was the problem side, needed a lot more sealer to fill the joint.

I then got carried away and sealed all the joins in the wooden panels to try and make the trunk area water tight - well, that's my excuse!

To my amazement it seemed to go well with the fit of the mouldings.

Even on the left hand side.

I thought it wise not to try the hinge panel in place until the sealer had ;gone off'.

Attention then turned to the bonnet. Before, when I had been playing with the bonnet, I was finding that it kept slipping of the workmate. I remembered I had these plastic plugs and fitted them into the sides of the workmate and that solved the slipping problem.

I am sorry that there are no photos of actual panel beating because nobody wandered into the workshop while I was bashing the metal to take a photo for me.

After a couple of hours of 'tin bashing' I was worn out. I had forgotten how tiring this can be when your in your 70's! Where there is strengthening underneath it was impossible to get every dent out. Hopefully I can get it good enough to only need a small amount of fine filler. I found a few more areas that would need a bit more welding - that can wait for tomorrow.

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Mike, got a question for you. Should the screws in the moldings be oval straight blade to be correct?  The 1928 I'm working on has no Phillips head screws anywhere. And I think an oval screw would look better than a flat head screw. Thanks mike

[Mike Macartney]

Mike, you are correct. The alloy mouldings are replacing wooden mouldings that were held in with panel pins. The heads of the Pozidrive screws will be hidden with a little filler and then painted the colour of the body, I have used slotted screws in areas that will be seen.

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Great. It will look good when done. Keep up the good work. Mike

[Mike Macartney]

Yet another duplicate post

Edited November 30, 2018 by Mike Macartney
Duplicate posting (see edit history)