I have spent the last two days at the paint shop helping to get the car ready for transporting home, the main job was the fitting of the doors, which didn't happen as planned. I took both doors down for the edges to be re-painted, which was done by Rob the apprentice, who has done most of the spraying for his NVQ 3 qualification and has made a great job of it and once finished I took the passenger side door home to finish.
I am much happier with the edge finish than before.
Unfortunately the quarter light seal for that door has disappeared, I have searched everywhere and all I can think of is that its gone out with the re-cycling, so I was on the phone yesterday and ordered a new set of seals which I hoped would arrive today but unfortunately did not, so hopefully tomorrow.
All of the door furniture arrived and looks great, I really should have attempted to polish up what came of but there was a bit of damage with the drilling out of the screws and rust. The only part I could not get was the inner door handle surround in chrome, nobody I have called recognises the part as being from an MG, I shall make other inquiries.
Still, there is a huge amount to get finished, yesterday was also spent fixing all of those little scratches and chips in the fresh paint work. Because the paint is solvent based it takes around 3 weeks to harden off as the solvent has to evaporate and the paint fully cure, which makes it very vulnerable to the likes of me fitting wings to it. Plus the car has been getting pushed in and out of a working paint shop for a few weeks now which makes it easy to damage. Which is why I want it home.
We managed to finish of the scuttle yesterday and Rob let me do all of the painting, I rubbed it down with 800 wet, gave it a good clean and got spraying, off course I was not allowed to put the clear coat on.
That was yesterday, so today instead of fitting the doors I got on with fitting the scuttle and bonnet, this is for practice and for transport as I am sure it will all have to come of again to fit the heater. I am very pleased Ant suggested colour coding the scuttle as it really look great, there are still a couple of areas that show the reaction with the Hamerite I originally sprayed on the scuttle but in general not a bad job.
I have just used bolts to secure as the bonnet stops need a little work on them as the threads are damaged, I will no doubt replace them.
Everything in the engine bay will need re-painting as the paint shop dust is ingrained, I shall try hand cleaning and a bit of steam but no doubt a lot will have to be done again. The engine ain't coming out again though.
The bonnet wasn't to difficult to fit as I had lots of bodies who didn't want to repair chipped paint and were real careful.
I fitted the bonnet U trim surround which is a few inches short at the back, (I will try and track some down) and the two rubber bumps at the front. Then with 3 of us we lifted the bonnet into place and positioned the hinge bolts through the scuttle and I got it slackly bolted down.
The engine stay was fitted then the bonnet was closed and the front locked down into its spring clip hole, this gave the forward position then it was just a matter of evening up the sides and tightening down. Of course this took nearly an hour to get it right.
I gave the bonnet a rub down and Mick got to pose with some of his work.
There were still a few places we found that needed repairing and one of these was on the edge of the bonnet and as I left this afternoon that was being re-sprayed.
Tomorrow is finishing the machine polish and I also hope to have the doors finished if the seal arrives then hung on Thursday for transporting home on Friday, then the rest of the colour coding can begin, The rear valance along with all the interior plastic is to be the ivory body colour and Ant has also suggested colour coding the wheels to ivory which until I can afford and justify the cost of wire wheels will look great.
See ya Paul
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