I'll never make a body man

Yet more sanding and wet/drying the front ST spoiler.
Had a good couple of hours with 240 grit emery and trusty half milk carton of warm soapy water. Got it smooth as silk everywhere............or so I thought.

With my trusty £1 rattle cans of pound-land grey primer, I gave it a nice even coating. On viewing it after and even during I could see the glaring areas I'd not smoothed and flatted enough.
However, after a couple of hours I circled all the areas needing more effort. Approx 15 of them varying in size from a thumbnail to a whole thumb. So I set to work flatting again and did about five of them till the next one would not feather out, it just came off in tiny wet fragments. Obviously not dry enough yet then !. Never mind, the finish is good and compared to how it looked last week a major improvement.

Peeped at the spark plugs. All show signs of last run last summer of it being too rich. I knew that anyway. Also removed the alternator to check all the pulleys and the cause of the alarming rattle/squeak last start up. Water pump pulley seems fine, water pump is newly fitted (3 years ago! ) this also was the source of a major noise, on investigation the bearing and impelor was well and truly shot, hence the replacement. Can't be this again surely?. Alternator bearings good and free with no wobble and crankshaft pulley seems ok ( hand turned when plugs were out )

So just have to wait till I run her again. Looking at the engine bay depressed me. A bit oily, a bit rusty, a bit red leady and a bit dirty. I'm determined to get it all running fine before I attempt to renovate this area first though.

After spending a small fortune having bathroom totally renovated its time to paint. I'm gonna have to do it as wifey tends to lallop it on a bit and is a liability anymore than 1/2" above solid ground.

Its going well though and enthusiasm is returning slowly.

A view of last years spoiler before I ruined it by applying primer by brush....looks good dunit !

And yet another list of to-do's

Alzheimer's must be setting in. I just realised I've repeated most thing in the last two posts.
So here is the definitive list I made this morning on the status so far, in no particular order.

1/.   Replace both rear tyres.
               It would appear these have only lasted 15 years plus and can no longer hold air. What I did with the front cost me a tenner ( £10 =$ 14.5) having a local company fit 2 good but bald-ish scrappers. Albeit they are low profile, but sealed up to the hilt and with new valves. Next day off will see me visit said establishment for a repeat ( but not low profile though)

Sadly I see no point in buying real tyres yet.

2/.    Buy and fit new brake servo. Had the money for it last year but frittered it away on god knows what. Commonsense say to replace rubber hoses to front too, and free of the cylinders. I replaced the caliper pistons, seals and discs ( rotors ) a few years back so I must add more effort to make them work and appear new again.

3/.   Weld/repair lower valance. I converted from RB to CB and the new holes for the side lights/indicators looks a bit dogs dinnerish with little support below.  I have to find the Jigsaw first, no mean feat as I've not yet done this years clean up of the shed and outhouse.

4/.   Yet more expense. The small heater radiator is leaking. I'm not letting this bother me yet as I'll bypass it with some jiggery pokery of hoses and it won't affect the running of the car. ( Thats if it will run after this years lay up)

5/. Buy and fit Indicator stalk mechanism. Nuf said, broken through sheer stupidity and Lostsock logic.

7/.   Re-set tappetts. Sounded very noisy when last run, or was it timing chain rattle ?

See what you think

8/. Check oil/water levels......... !!

9/.   Check dash bulbs and replace.......fit dash.........re-paint in crinkle finish ?   naah, its good to go and has only a little patina of  " old car"

10/.   Re-cover dash top panel. Not as easy as it sounds. Need hardboard, foam and jigsaw !!!

11/.   buy front bumper fitting chrome screws. A little vainglorious but hopefully it will at least look like being finished............from the front....low down, anyway.

12/.Clean engine bay..........big job and difficult with engine and all ancillaries there   !

13/.   find/acquire starter motor bolt.........for some reason the top bolt is different from the bottom and I can't find it..............or remember weather its the top or bottom I need.

14/. Sand spoiler. Well documented in previous posts. Did 3/4 of it today. Sanded off most of the ...nay all of the real primer that reacted. Even managed a quick tickle with rattle can of primer. Wish I had not. Shows up all the flaws in "too course sanding". Mostly wet an drying this today but getting there.

More next week folks.

Wot a faff

So, the saga still continues.

Sorry I've not posted of late. The trouble is good ole Google. I have over the years got several google accounts + the kids accounts set up on this laptop. And that's where the trouble starts, trying to log on now its all controlled by Google.

Anyways, I've written down the log on Name and password and linked it to my iphone, so, hopefully some posts on my progress with images directly from my phone. I did say hopefully, as I always have trouble with the youngster specific apps like itunes and Google+.

To fill you in regarding the MG. Nothing has happened since the last post last year.  I've still not purchased the master brake cylinder yet, but since it was birth month I may have enough cash to buy and fit.

The nice weather this week has seen me cut and strim lawn, replace 6' x 8' trellis panel after hammering in 2 fence posts, blow away leaves from autumn, paint said trellis and archway + shed front. I had only one day for MG stuff and that was spent removing all the tools and stuff, cleaning, oiling and re-organising as they suffered a major ingress of water this year due to a leaking outer cover.

Next job up is to get 2 tyres ( scrap ones) from local friendly tyre fitting company so I can at least roll the MG fore and aft to sweep the drive. Then fit master cylinder and maybe just may be run her up/down our little cul-de-sac. Todays fact..........the word Cul-de-sac is not recognised as a word or entity in French.

p.s The spoiler looks nothing like this now. In my wisdom I coated it in "proper" primer. Its reacted and needs sanding off again.....ho...hum !

More soon folks !