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  • Sandblaster works but it IS work to operate. The handle mod seems to be just the trick as it strips pretty well. I've reused the garnet media several times but it was cutting pretty slow so I'll pick up a couple more bags - the old stuff is now part of the driveway.

    The outer trunk floor is pretty well set. There are several spots with pinholes so I'll weld those up. Some abrasive stripper discs for the 4 1/2" grinder arrived today so I'll try those on the inside trunk floor and see what they do. They're also supposed to strip paint so I'll let you know how they work.


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    • Kind of a breakthru:


      One of the guys on the MG Forum suggested I try stripping discs and they're a home run though they make a lot of dust.
      The discs, before, during, and after. The used ones still have a bit of life left in them if stripping a flat surface. When new or newish the outer edges will get into a groove or edge but after they get some miles on them not so much. So I'm going to change my stripping process and use the stripping wheels first and save the sandblaster for the tight little areas that the disc can't reach.





      First I stripped one of the doors. It looked OK but will need a bottom welded in if I go with this one. This took no lore than 20 minutes and there was no damage at all though I did uncover some filler in it.





      On to stripping a wheelwell. We had scraped off the heavy undercoating but there was plenty of junk left. My preference is to start with more or less bare metal and build up a protective paint layer from there.


      Before (actually the other side as I didn't get a before of the side I stripped)



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      And after: This uses up the stripping discs more quickly as there are lots of little nooks and crannys.


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      Last edited by DanStokes; January 21, 2023, 02:57 PM.

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      • I've used those paint stripper pads for my last three car projects, and they work amazing, and very fast! I used to use the flapper discs and they were OK, but they take a lot of metal off at the same time, where the stripper pads take almost no metal no metal off. I was surprised the sponge looking pads could be so good, and last so well. I can strip an entire body of paint with 2 pads as long as it's not more than a couple layers. My passenger door on my '39 coupe had probably 5 layers of old paint and took more time than the whole opposite side!

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        • Today we decided to get after the rusted out bead (?) that runs along the top of the rear quarters (wings?). The cars were assembled with a T-shaped bead inbetween the quarter and the adjoining panels such that the only way to properly fix this would be to remove the quarters and start over - not gonna do that. The guys on the MG forum gave a couple of options including cutting or grinding off the bead, cutting a groove down between the panels, trimming the "leg" of the new bead (available) so that it's about 1/8" or so, then bonding (Fusor system or similar) the new bead in place. Thought about that but decided to go cheap and permanent by grinding off the bead and brazing the gap which can then be followed by SABF (synthetic auto body filler).

          An interesting aspect is that some feel like the bead is a part of what makes an MGB an MGB. My thought is that this car is so far from a restoration that this detail is no longer significant. Custom, Baby!

          The starting point - and this is the better side.


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          My trusty assistant grinding off the dead bead: BTW - I showed him how to braze and he did the majority of the brazing, too! He was SO proud.


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          And the brazed joint after grinding and trimming. The divots have brass at their bottoms so they'll be fine though I do need to make sure there's no flux hiding down there.. A thin coat of filler and it'll look like it never was.


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          Last edited by DanStokes; January 26, 2023, 08:43 PM.

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          • Customizing.......
            I Like to Call It "Personalized" !!!!

            And to any "Nay Sayers" when they want to
            Critique Your Build.......
            ​​​​​"I'm So Sorry.......BUT I Built this Car FOR ME !...
            Not For You! "
            "So Let's Go Look at the Car You Brought Today !"

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            • And it's GREAT you are Sharing Your Rusty Iron Knowledge with this young person !!
              My Young Helper has now grown up, Is Now a Foreman for one of the Larger Construction Companies Here, and I instilled the Rusty Iron Junkie Disease Well.

              Just text me the other night of the Process on the Restoration
              of his Dad's Firebird. His Dad had been "Putzing" with it for over 25 years......So, he and a couple of His Rusty Iron Junkie Friends took over and are getting at it with Earnest.
              I stop in once in awhile just to Share a Beer, and LET HIM TELL ME, how it's Going !!!
              (There's a point, where YOU are now the Student, and just "Kibitz" as needed. )

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              • Originally posted by Captain View Post
                And it's GREAT you are Sharing Your Rusty Iron Knowledge with this young person !!
                My Young Helper has now grown up, Is Now a Foreman for one of the Larger Construction Companies Here, and I instilled the Rusty Iron Junkie Disease Well.

                Just text me the other night of the Process on the Restoration
                of his Dad's Firebird. His Dad had been "Putzing" with it for over 25 years......So, he and a couple of His Rusty Iron Junkie Friends took over and are getting at it with Earnest.
                I stop in once in awhile just to Share a Beer, and LET HIM TELL ME, how it's Going !!!
                (There's a point, where YOU are now the Student, and just "Kibitz" as needed. )

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                Now that's some serious surgery! Unless of course they are planning on 1: moving the engine back for weight transfer, or 2: going to stuff a seriously large inline diesel in there.

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                • On to the other side.

                  Here's the groove after grinding off the bead and cleaning out the groove as best as possible. Note that at the bottom of the groove there are hints of dead rust - no way to get that out of there without removing the quarter.


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                  And brazed up. Pretty much like the other side except I had to braze in some pinholes. Not easy with braze but doable with a light touch. I flick the torch away to control the heat and add brass to the side of the hole, let it harden, then ever so gently melt mostly the filler rod while slightly heating the base metal and add more rod. Some of the wider spots in the bead are filled holes.


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                  The pic of it ground down looks pretty much like yesterday's pic so I didn't post it. Once ground I just HAD to see how it'll look once filled so I wiped on a load before calling it a night. Looks like it'll sand out well but we'll see maybe tomorrow or maybe Sunday. Tomorrow's my birthday so if much frivolity ensues I may not get out to the shop.


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                  • Odds and ends:

                    First of all, filling the rear quarters involves saving some holes for top and/or tonneau fittings. It's easy to lose them and it would be a stinker to get them back in just the right place so I came up with this:

                    Short lengths of appropriately-sized wire cut to length and sharpened on the bench grinder on the end that I want to poke thru the soft filler. Seems to be working as the holes were still there when I pulled the wire out.


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                    And more insidious rust. There were rust stains in this area and I couldn't really see this until I primed it and there it was between the left rear tiedown and the spring hanger. I'll patch this tomorrow.


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                    • Rust repair definitely has a rewarding feeling when it’s done. Looking good Dan .

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                      • Does this project have a schedule or desired finish date, or are you just going to go through it and it takes what it takes?

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                        • I like the brazed joints myself, and much cleaner than the original MG joint. Sometimes custom is a big improvement over stock.

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                          • Originally posted by Monster View Post
                            Does this project have a schedule or desired finish date, or are you just going to go through it and it takes what it takes?
                            It'll take as long as it takes. Being retired and old I work on it as the spirit moves me - and when I don't have doc appointments.

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                            • Today's task was to plug up the small bit of frame rot I showed a couple of days ago.

                              I wasn't sure how to cut out the funky stuff. The cutoff wheel wouldn't fit in the space but the lightbulb came on over my head and I figured that if I holdsawed out a spot I could maneuver the recip saw from there.


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                              So I was able to make an almost rectangular hole with the recip saw, like this:


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                              Welded, ground, and primed. I had a hard time getting a good MIG torch angle but got it done. Again, my superior grinder skills came to the rescue. Primer's still wet.


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                              • So what I've been doing:

                                They raised the MGB in the last years of production to attain the required bumper height here in the US (a sad day.....). I'll lower mine to the "proper" pre-bumper reg height. Turns out that MG could have installed a taller set of rear jounce bumpers (cheap and easy) or they could have done what they did and made up a complicated spacer to move the jounce bumper. There are several techniques to put the bumper back in it's "right" place or otherwise compensate for a lower suspension but decided to do what most MG guys agree is the "good" way to do it and simply undo the factor modification.


                                Here's the spacer in question. There is an inner piece that adapts to the frame rail shape and an outer piece that holds the jounce bumper - you'll see as I roll along.


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                                After I refined my technique on one side, here's the way to do this: First, cut away the disc that holds the mushroom that the jounce bumper pushes over. It's a little tricky but I was able to do it with the cutoff wheel, one in the 4 1/2 " grinder and a smaller one in the die grinder.


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                                Here I've cut the "top" (remember the car is upside-down) out of what I'm calling the inner piece. Again, mostly using the cutoff wheel though there are MIG welds at either end and no way to get a cutter in there so I drilled a series of 1/8" holes across the weld, cut the top in two, and simply fatigued the 2 pieces out.



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                                After the top is removed you can see the spot welds holding the lower piece to the frame member. Drill them out like usual.


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                                If MG had stopped there this would have been fairly easy but NO - they had to overdo it as usual. Here's the row of spot welds facing the wheel well and they go into the lower piece as well. Those all have to be drilled and then that joint pried apart - I used the air chisel though I suppose you could use a cold chisel.


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                                So here's the lower piece after I got it to give up. It takes a bit of doing! Yes, you have to reshape that outer flange.


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                                And here the inside of the frame rail has its former spot welds plugged with rosettes.



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                                And done. I simply welded the mushroom attached to it's plate back in place. I didn't see any reason to remove the mushroom plate from the mushroom and it's pretty easy welding that way. I may touch up some of those rosettes but welding in the wheel well is harder than it looks.


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                                Last edited by DanStokes; February 4, 2023, 08:10 PM.

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