Thanks Dad

Okay,,, so the last post was about taking wings off and such but we'll get back to that.

On Sunday Dad tipped up wearing his work clothes and a "Stop messing around and do some man's work!" facial expression. I think his comments were along the lines of " Put the baking soda and lemon juice away, unless we're planning on making a citrus flavoured cake this afternoon!!"

Armed with a trolley jack, ramps and a plethora of spanners and other tools he decided we were going to take the engine and gearbox out.

Five minutes later I dragged him out from under the car and... politely suggesting he clean his glasses... I steered him away from my Astra and pointed him towards the MG. After that initial hiccup things went surprisingly well.

(At this point I also have to thank my more than generous neighbour Mark for the lend of his engine hoist . Cheers Mate I really appreciate it!!).

(And big thanks also to The Mighty Thor. Nice one!, the hammer came in really useful. Come and pick that up soon or it's going on eBay).

And between the space of two photos the engine was out.

Okay so it wasn't quite that simple.

A couple of hours, twenty skinned knuckles and a lot of colourful language later...

After a coffee and a ciggy we decided to crack on.

During the next couple of hours I learnt a few new profanities from the "old man" but thoroughly enjoyed myself.

All Done and as per the title of this post... Thanks Dad!!

On a wing and a prayer

First, here's a picture of the car again. The thing to note here is the absence of the "panel lines" around the front wing. Why?, because someone thought it would be good to fill them in with body-filler I guess. Why?, the answer is possibly revealed below.

"Luckily", some slight cracks in the dodgy paint job gave me an indication of where to start so I started chipping away with a selection of chisels, scrappers and a screwdriver.

Some hours later I had filled an old cornflakes box full of chipped and sanded out filler and I finally revealed the lines where the wing joins the rest of the body.

These panel joins are supposed to be visible.

I had done a "magnet test" on a lot of this area and was worried that because the magnet didn't stick to the car it meant there were large areas of body-filler and no metal. As it turns out, there was actually metal under there - "phew" - but the filler was 5mm thick and the magnet wasn't strong enough to find and stick to the metal beneath.

It was the same story on the driver's side. I decided to remove that wing first. I checked my workshop manual and started to remove the bolts as instructed and found several of them were connected to thin air. The metal the bolts were supposed to be connected to had rusted away. Now starting to understand why the panel lines were filled... probably holding the wings on. All the bolts removed as per the manual, I started carefully pulling and jiggling the wing - all the time expecting it to drop off on my foot... and then... nothing. Ten minutes of stronger pulling and jiggling and some gentle persuading with a mallet and it still hadn't budged. I read the manual again and confirmed all bolts removed. At a loss I started to have another look round and found two more bolts not described in the manual. Hey Presto! one wing off. unsurprisingly, there was a lot of rust on the inner wing.

I was looking round the net for a rust removing product and was drawn in to a couple of YouTube vids' about how to make your own. Thinking what the heck I headed down to the corner shop to buy some lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda. I mixed up a paste in a jar and painted it on to the top of inner-wing panel. I rubbed it in with screwed up tin foil (another tip). After leaving it for 10 minutes I washed it with water. To be fair, I was pretty impressed with the results.

Here's a picture of the same area after one application.

(Note the nifty piece of carpet gaffer taped to the wheel and some surrounding bodywork. There's a sharpish corner to the inner wing that i don't want to rip my car cover).

I repeated the process and then examined the area. The metal is still pretty thick and sturdy and there was no sign of any rust only black carbonised steel so i decided that the best bet was to protect the area from the elements for now and then decide later if i need to do anything else to it. When the water had dried I cleaned the area with White Spirit and painted it with two coats of Hammerite.

One job done but further bad news you may have already glimpsed in one of the previous photos...

This is the Outer Footwell (also under the front wing) from the outside.

And from the inside... Ouch!!

I don't think Baking Soda and Lemon Juice is going to be "man enough" for this one.

I did have some help after that though - for a short time - from my four year son.

The "J-Cloth" gaffered to the steering wheel... "There you go Daddy, that's so the steering wheel is nice and comfy when you drive the car".  

And so it begins...

I recently bought a 1977 MG Midget 1500 which I intend to restore to as reasonable condition as possible within the limits of my abilities. It's getting to that point in my life where i need a "mid-life crisis" and my wife says I'm not not allowed to have an affair ("spoil sport"). I did think about going with the affair idea but was surprised to find you're not allowed to sell your wife on eBay and that Cheryl Cole still hasn't phoned so I decided to buy and restore a classic car. Sadly, a Porsche 356 Speedster or Ferrari 250 GT California were somewhat out of my price range so I decided to go for a Midget (MG). It's personal taste i guess but  (much like the 356, the 250 and "the Cole") I like the body lines.

I plan to carry out as much of the work as possible myself but the car will definitely need a respray at some stage as it's had a awful "blow-over" spray job on the outside and also needs welding in more than a few places. I have no experience of spraying cars and no facilities in which and with which to carry out a decent job. Also, by the time the vehicle is ready for paint I will have likely spent a considerable amount of time (and probably money) on it and won't want to ruin my hard work with a bad DIY paint job. So, I will be getting the car sprayed by a professional (if it gets that far).

I've also uncovered quite a few holes and other problems that will need welding. Despite the fact I have never done any welding before I am going to attempt to carry it all out myself. (I'll have to see how that goes but I hope not to have to call in outside help other than perhaps a little guidance from a friend who has done a fair bit of welding in the past). I'll undoubtedly need to buy some tools and equipment too. A substantial hoist might be required - after laying on the floor to look underneath I'm thinking a little assistance in getting back up again might be required.

I'm not setting any timescales for the project at this stage and I expect the rate of my progress to be dictated largely by time, money and the weather.

The weather will be a very big factor as i don't have a garage and am carrying out the work on my driveway.

I bought a "breathable" material car cover which has to date been doing an excellent job of keeping the car dry ( and hiding my embarrassment from the neighbours), even through some pretty heavy rain at times (let's hope it can cope with the the high winds and other rotten weather that's likely to come our way when the winter comes). It's a bit of a pain to keep covering and uncovering it every time I want to work on it but needs must.

It is currently British Racing Green on the inside and badly sprayed Old English White on the outside. I think it will become apparent through the pictures I intend to add throughout the project just how bad the respray was and you'll be able to see that for yourself. I will try to include a few pictures of some of the runs and drips in the paint.

I bought the car with Tax and an MOT so I have had a chance to take it out and have a bit of fun in it. I had a few short "outings" but it has a "blow" in the exhaust and the brakes are really poor. I did intend to give the brakes an overhaul and put a new exhaust on it so it could get a few months driving it through the summer and start the work at the start of winter but in the end I decided to start checking the car out in more detail before I spent anymore money on what might turn out to be a "wrecker". Sadly, it became apparent very quickly that it probably wasn't such a good idea to drive it anymore after i took the seats, carpets and other interior trim panels out.

I've spent three whole days on the car so far and few odd hours here and there and at this point I am convinced that at least one previous owner ( 9 previous owners according to the log book) has tried to cover a lot of rotten metal and holes with tonnes of body filler, probably with the intention of passing MOTs, or "making a few quid" by making the vehicle look better than it is just to sell it on.

To be fair, I didn't spend a lot of money on the car and wanted a "project" and therefore expected to find most of the things I've come across and - so far - I'm not phased by too much and am not anywhere near giving up - let's hope it stays that way.

Anyway, as I have said, I have spent a few days working on her and have uncovered quite a few issues but need a place to start with the Blog so i will start with taking the driver's side front wing off and that will be the topic of my next post.