Bodywork and paint continues

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.

back of hood prepped- I knew I would paint the other side in the garage later

back of hood primed

trunk lid prepped

trunk lid primed

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"Crack Of Doom" repaired with steel back-up to stiffen up the area.

rear bumper area with more filler than I would like- but the alternative was to weld in a new panel.

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.

primed the sills and door jambs first for practice with the spray gun.

prep continues

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

primer has started

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.

primer products

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.

fenders and hood all primed and sanded.  The old wrecked fender is there as well- I used it as a test subject.

trunk area all ready for color

drivers side ready

here is what I did for hours and hours.....

 

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.

door painted

hood painted

the whole thing, including front right fender

clasic orange peel

more orange peel

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.

fender looks pretty good.

close up of shop light reflection- lots of wwet sanding and compounding can fix ALMOST anything.

coming along

pardon the dust on the lens

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.....

 

Next up, I'l lwrap up the body for now and start driving again.... I hope.

Bodywork and paint Part One- Spring 2013

Well, I have started the dreaded bodywork and paint on the Beast.  I originally planned to just bondo out the few areas that needed it, get some matching color, and paint those areas.  As most jobs like this, it has now spun into an uncontrolable tumble towards full body spray.....

So, with my normal youthful idealism, I dug into the front left fender to get rid of the old bondo, repair what I could, replace the filler, and then paint the repaired area.  In the photos below, you can see that it didn't look too bad at the start, but as I peeled off more filler, the worse it became.  After a few hours of this, I knew I needed an entirely new fender- this one was just finished.

just starting, after removing chrome, lights, etc.

this does not look so hot

it doesn't get any better from this angle either....

So, I looked around for a replacement panel, and actually found one out in Vermont for $100.  The seller (his friend actually) was conveiniently coming through Maine in a few days, and offered to drop it off at my house!!  Just more confirmation that most British car nuts are extremely friendy and generous to fellow nuts. It was even the same color as my car- not that it matters since I'll be painting it anyway.

I removed the original fender in prep for the new- and that unfortunately means the dash and the windshield need to be removed.  The support leg of the windshield runs through a hole in the back of the fender, and the dash really needs to come out to remove the windshield. Obviously, I've had the dash out in the past, so this was really no problem for me.

Removed.

Another shot..

Once the fender arrived, I began the minor repairs, hammer/dolly work, filler, primer.  This went pretty well, but is really only the 2nd or 3rd time I've ever used a hammer/dolly or filler- so there is a steep learning curve here. After repair and filler, I sprayed on some primer to protect it while I worked on other areas.

New fender- needs work as well- but not as much

Progress

sanding off rust spots or dents in prep for filler

filler going on a dent

Test fit- this needs some attention later

interior primer

hi-built primer, after self etching primer on any bare metal

more primer

 I removed the rest of the chrome in the front, and then the lower valance that sits below the front bumper.  I figured this would be a perfect piece to practice painting.  I brought in an inner fender wing that would have never seen the sun for NAPA to scan for a paint match.  After priming the valence, I tried the new paint.  It did not match my original paint at all- but I was not suprised.  The beginnings of the "uh-oh, I might need to actually paint this entire car" thoughts started to creep into my head.  Once I wrapped my head around the idea, I jumped in full speed and started to remove what I would need to for a full respray.

more stuff removed

sanded valence

primed valence

painted valence

wet sanding

after sanding and polish- not too bad for a hack like me

another angle after 1st polish.  I wore through to the primer on the edges.

 As this was going on, or paint was drying, I polished, cleaned, painted, lubricated, etc the parts I had removed.  I received a bench mounted buffing wheel for Christmas (wow- the perfect gift!!) and this made the polishing much easier and higher quality.

polished overriders (bumper)

buffing wheels

polished bumper, side trim

polished turn signal trim and lens

 So, for the next few weekends, as weather permitted, I removed all of the chrome, vinyl top, right fender, hood, trunk lid, door and cabin vinyl, sills, all door hardware, rear exhaust, and many others. 

ready to remove right fender and hood

fender is gone

progressing around the car

door panel and window mechanism is out

pretty much stripped and ready for sanding, hammering, filling, sanding, cleaning, and more sanding.
 

 Next installment- more body work, filling, sanding, cleaning, sanding, more sanding, more cleaning, etc.....