Another few days of jobs done but little evidence of anything achieved, I did get the bonnet on, with a little help from Lynne. Pretty straight forward this time as I have had it on and off so many times that lining it up was pretty straight forward, not so getting the nuts and washers on underneath, this was an exercise in contortion. I finally managed it but wish my fingers where a little longer.
Looks a lot better now, one of the jobs hidden away was the engine bay; after all of the work I had put into it cleaning and painting, it was a mess. This was in most part down to the sanding dust during the respray and being worked on and around for what seems forever.
I have moved all of the wires out of the way and washed everything down then repainted all of the black on the sides and rails, can't really see from this photo but its looking a whole lot cleaner. had the engine running a few times a day and it starts after only a couple of turns, would like to get it to start on first turn but maybe needs a little setting up.
The sun visors where just sitting around so I got these cleaned up and screwed on, the hinges had a lot of rust spots coming through.
The cost of new ones are in the stupid range so I put them on the wire wheel and they came up great, I had the old visors recovered by Ray and they came back great.
Another job was the windscreen wipers, I had bought a full set of TEX wipers from an MG supplier and there are not the best quality.
The wiper blades are ok but the arms are pretty bad so I got out the old ones and had a closer look at them.
These are of a much better quality and are adjustable, no idea why I bought new ones as I am supposed to be doing a restoration and these just needed restoring.
I first removed the springs from the underside and wire wheeled them to key the stainless and remove any loose paint.
Then a couple of coats of primer with a 1500 rub down between coats then sprayed with gloss black, I usually use satin but had run out which I am glad of as the gloss finish looks great.
I shall let the gloss fully harden of and fit them tomorrow.
Another item I should have restored was the side mirrors as the new TEX pair are pretty much rubbish. I knew this as soon as I had fit them as the securing section inside the mirror frame should have been tapered to securely connect to the tapered locking block but this was a straight flat on the casting which meant that it had nothing to grip to when the grub screw was tightened.
I had drilled out the grub screws on the original set as they were mild steel and had rusted in, this damaged the threads which was the reason for the new set.
I was going to try and modify these new ones when one just dropped off while I was fitting the hood so they had to go. After a good search on eBay I came across a set of WINGARD side mirrors at around £40 inc p+p and thought they would look good.
They arrived this morning and they look fantastic, they don't have the angled extension to bring them higher up but for the looks I can live with that.
They also match the plinth I fit to the side lights.
I am very tempted to splash out the £40 for a new set of chromed plinths and replace the colour coded ones, I shall keep the light colour coded although I have 3 spare chrome ones. We shall see.
I started the fit by removing the fitted set.
This left me with 2 holes in the door, unfortunately these holes do not match the fixing in the Wingards, as these have a slide on fitting and a bolt on hole. There was no way I was going to drill an extra hole in the door so I had to modify the Wingard fixing.
After searching for suitable material I found a strong piece of aluminium extrusion which I cut and shaped to fit inside the space. I marked of the door hole size then drilled and tapped a hole for a 6mm bolt and glued and riveted the piece in place.
I had to go to the local bolt shop to find a decent S/S bolt as only screws are provided and ended up with a couple of 6mm round heads with an allen key hole for tightening.
Good quality plastic seals are provided and it was then just a matter of winding the window fully up and getting my fingers to go to shapes they were never designed for and fitted rubber washers first then penny washers and nuts.
I really love these mirrors and they totally change the look of the side of the car, very pleased with them.
I have sat in the car to see how much you can see through them and with a bit of moving around they give good rear vision.
I guess the carpets and seat are next so busy day tomorrow.
See Ya Paul
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