First Pass At Exploratory Body Work

Got an itch today and decided to start the initial exploratory body work; locating more rust and filler. I ground down a few spots on the passenger side. There were some surprises and some confirmation of what I already knew needed major patch/weld work.

The most surprising was the lower forward fender arch; full of filler and little holes where a previous owner attempted a dent and rust repair. I made a pretty big mess in the garage, but it was educational, and I have a good idea of what is going to need repair on the exterior panels on that side of the car.

There is plenty of rust on the same side in the interior, but I'll deal with that later.

Below are the photos of the areas I examined today.

Gap, holes, wrinkles. Had about 1/8 inch of filler in this area. Needs patch panel

Holes, needs patch panel

Major rust on both outer and inner panels. Patch panels needed

Lots of filler. Wrinkles and some rust on lower apron. Will be a challenging area

Some Engine Compartment Bits Redone

I finished a few engine compartment items today, including the passenger pedal plate cover (painted and repainted twice), the washer bottle bracket, and some of the heater box pieces. Below are the before and after photos.

Pedal cover before

Pedal cover after

Washer bracket before

Washer bracket after

Heater box before

Heater box after

The heater box cover is one of the few parts of the assembly that is restorable, so after some careful thought, I am going to buy a new unit. 

Heavy Metal Rap

Despite the title of this post, the book pictured above is NOT about mastering the hybrid Metal/Rap music genre; it is supposed to be one of the many tools that will teach me how to shape the Sprite's body panels as I work through probably the most difficult part of the restoration. Yes, that's right; I am planning on doing the body work myself, including the cutting, patching and welding of rotted panels (more on that crazy plan in a future post).

And btw, I have not been idle since my last post. I did have a nasty cold over the prior week, but I spent the downtime reading about welding, grinding, etc. and I got some small parts painted. I'll detail those items when I have more time to write.

For more on Metal Rap music, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rap_metal

The Quest For The Horler Grail

I recently discovered there is a really great book about the history of and restoration of Sprites and MG Midgets. Apparently this book is commonly referred to as the Sprite/Midget "Bible," but unlike the religion-based Bible--some may say British cars are a religion--this book is out of print (for now anyway).

This is the book:

I went looking for a copy, only to be shocked and disappointed by the college-text-book-level prices being offered by those who have a cache of this book. Normally a $30 book, the average price now hovers around $150; some are asking over $200!

Sigh...

Hopefully the book will go back into print; there is obviously demand for it.

Botched Paint, The Continuous Flow of Small Stuff, And It's Awl Wrong

The clutch plate cover in a previous post was still in need of paint, and with the temperatures hovering around 55 F today I felt the time was right to take a crack at coating it with some semi-gloss black. Did I just make a rhyme?

Word.

Once I got the paint on it became clear that I did not do a great job, so when it dried, I had to sand it down a bit and try again.

Fail x 2 = D'oh!

Dirt and dust got on the finish on the second try; It was too windy to be painting outdoors.

Sigh...

I will try again next weekend.

This weekend I also continued the slog through small bits, such as these side curtain screws. It is difficult to tell from the crappy quality of the iPhone camera, but they are quite shiny; when I started they were crusty. From shiny to crust = good.

Also, I'm missing one of these, and I know why. The captive nuts that these things screw into are welded to the inner top of the doors; one nut is missing. That will be yet another thing to add to the body work portion of this project.

And on the subject of body work, I took an awl around the car yesterday and poked at some bubbled-paint areas in the usual rot spots for old cars. Some spots were solid, but others went straight through! Crap; more body work; awl wrong, man!

Another piece I am beginning work on is the bracket for the windscreen washer bottle. I'm looking for another painting project to get some practice on and this seemed like a good candidate. It is pretty crusty as the photo below shows.

After some sanding, the bracket is beginning to look pretty good (note the new vise!). Some minor corrosion, but nothing to worry about.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention how stoked I am about my new tool case!! I was a good boy and got a generous Sears gift card for Xmas from the misses.

And so onward I go, cleaning, painting, screwing up paint jobs, sanding, repainting, etc.

I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Passenger-Side Clutch Cover

After finishing the brake line clamps, I decided to tackle something a little larger. I rummaged through one of the parts boxes and pulled out a bag with a few bolts and a small rust-covered panel. The bag was labeled "p-side clutch cover."

To remove the old paint and significant surface rust, I had to make use of a larger wire wheel that I attached to my drill. Here is what it looked like as I was getting started with the clean-up process.

You may be able to see on the left where I had already begun grinding off the rust and old paint. The paint came off quickly, but the rust was fairly stubborn. There were a couple of spots where the rust was pitting the metal, but it wasn't super bad. I managed to get all the rust off and follow up with some 100-grit sandpaper to get the surface smoothed out.

The grinding job took about 30 minutes, accompanied by a ton of noise--not sure my neighbors appreciated it, but it needed to be finished!

The photo below shows the clean, bare metal just before I broke out the primer.

After a couple coats of primer, the clutch cover looked much better.

I'll give it until tomorrow to dry, and then I plan on a light sanding, followed by another coat of primer. Once that is good and dry, I will--as the Stones sang--paint it black!

A separate post of the finished product will appear later, once I figure out which paint I want to use.

Brake Line Clamps

This week I worked on cleaning up a bag labeled "brake line clamps." The bag had several "clips" that were obviously used for securing metal brake lines to the interior body, and a grab bag of bolts, nuts, screws and washers. All were very cruddy as evidenced by the photo below.

The clips off the rag are cleaned up, and the two on the rag are still covered in gunk, rust, etc. I used the wire brush and a pair of Vise Grips to scrub and hold each part respectively. This took a couple of evenings to finish.

After cleaning everything, I sprayed the clips with some white Rustoleum primer to keep them protected until I need to install them, which may be a couple of years at the soonest. I will likely paint them black to match a lot of the other black metal hardware pieces of the bugeye. This should contrast nicely with the color of the car.


Here are the clips all nice and clean, and covered with a coat or two of primer. The cleaned nuts, bolts, washers, and screws are also shown.

These parts are now re-bagged and labeled, and stuffed in a small-parts box (a shoe box) that will keep them clean and protected. I still need to add these to my spreadsheet, and figure out part numbers to cross-reference them with. I'm pretty positive that I am missing a couple of bits and some may ultimately need replacing.