Over the next few months, I completely stripped off all of the panels that were bolted on, removed all of the chrome, rubber, seals, etc in prep for sanding, filler, and paint.
Some of the time, I would work in the basement because of weather and had a little paint booth set up with blue tarps and a fan to clear the dust and smell. Here are a few photos of the hood, trunk, and front fender work.
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| back of hood prepped- I knew I would paint the other side in the garage later |
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| back of hood primed |
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| trunk lid prepped |
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| trunk lid primed |
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| trunk lid painted with new "bronze yellow" paint |
Work continued in the garage as well when the weather was warm enough. Basically, just sanding, hammer/dolly the dents, filler, etc.
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| door prep. You can see the "crack of doom" above the holes for the door mirror. This is a common spot for MGB doors to crack because of the stress of pulling the door closed with the vent window, and having the joint between the vent window and windshield frame too tight. The repair is shown later. |
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| trunk prep. This area was pretty beat up from an accident in it's past. I straightened it out the best I could and filled in the rest. |
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| pulling (with a slide hammer) a dent from the area in front of the trunk lid. There is no way to get to the back of this dent, so pulling was my only option. |
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| using "Cleco" pins to hold a new piece of sheet steel I am epoxying to the inside of the fender, instead of welding in new steel. There was a hole here from rust, so I ground off all the rust, and glued on the piece hehind the hole to give me something to apply filler to. This is the same process I, and others, have used the fix the crack of doom- next picture. |
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| "Crack Of Doom" repaired with steel back-up to stiffen up the area. |
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| rear bumper area with more filler than I would like- but the alternative was to weld in a new panel. |
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| I painted the wheel wells with stone-chip while they were open. |
After the body work was done, it was time for primer and color. This step was much faster that the sanding/cleaning/sanding, etc. Here are a few photos of the progress.
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| primed the sills and door jambs first for practice with the spray gun. |
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| prep continues |
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| all wrapped with plastic ready to be sprayed the next day. I had already degreased and tack ragged the entire thing, so I just covered it to keep the dirt off overnight |
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| primer has started |
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| door primed. The silver paint to the right of the door is a rust sealer caller Por-15. Some surface rust was just starteing to show here, so I figured it would be best to treat it while it was open. I looked pretty good for 40 years old, so I figured the Por-15 was enough for anoth 40 at least. |
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| primer products |
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| all primed and ready for wet sanding and color. |
Basically, I needed to wet sand all of the primer so the surface was smooth for my finished color. just some 800 grit wet/dry paper and a few hours was all it took.
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| fenders and hood all primed and sanded. The old wrecked fender is there as well- I used it as a test subject. |
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| trunk area all ready for color |
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| drivers side ready |
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here is what I did for hours and hours.....
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Now for the color. After a few test sprays, I was ready for the whole car.
It is actually kind of strange how many hours went into preparring for color, and applying the color took about 90 minutes total. I did get quite a few drips and orange peel, but most of them sanded out after letting the paint cure for a couple days. The sanding proceedure is even more time consuming with the final color: first 800, then 1500, then finally 2000 grit wet/dry. The professional painters would not need to do this as much as I do because their finish out of the gun would be much smoother. Oh well- that why I decided this would be a perfect car to learn on.
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| door painted |
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| hood painted |
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| the whole thing, including front right fender |
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| clasic orange peel |
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| more orange peel |
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| my attire for the "paint booth" as you can see by the filters under the overhead door. |
And, here is where she stands right now- fully painted, wet sanded, and partially compounded with a high-speed rotary buffer. After the compound, she will still need high-speed polish, and then some wax once she cures for a month or two.
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| fender looks pretty good. |
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| close up of shop light reflection- lots of wwet sanding and compounding can fix ALMOST anything. |
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| coming along |
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| pardon the dust on the lens |
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front end starting to get put back together. You can see where I stopped with the new paint- right at the radiator. It would have been ompossible to paint the engine bay with the engine instaled. That will just have to wait for later.....
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Next up, I'l lwrap up the body for now and start driving again.... I hope.
