[Mgs] Experiments with metal, etc.

[Richard Lindsay]

Hello Friends,

This afternoon I took a look at the wood and metal on the right-rear
side of the tub.  This pictures shows the good and the bad of the body
tub.  Fortunately, the bad is easily repaired.  The good is, well,
...good.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130420_154459.jpg

The view above, inside the rear quarter, shows the wood to be in great
condition except for the zillions of nail and screw holes.  Some PO
years ago, installed this interior without removing the tacks from the
previous installation - which may or may not have been the original.
That means that after pulling all those tacks, the wood is left full
of holes!  The screw holes are wallowed out or have split the wood.
Fortunately, it has no wood rot!  Therefore, the solution will be to
glue and clamp the splits and glue wooden toothpicks in all the holes
- including the screw holes.  Then, at installation time, a proper
wood screw drill bit will be used to drill new correct-size holes.

Please notice that the inner wheel-well has surface rust but the metal
is beautifully sound!  I'll clean it with MetalReady then coat it with
POR15.

Because the body metal here has bits of surface rust where the paint
has chipped off, I experimented with stripping a little of the paint
and sanding the metal.  Here's how it looks.  I've only done the upper
edge.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130420_154442.jpg

Here's another look where you can see the leaded corner, carefully
stripped of paint,

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130420_154447.jpg

And by this time, I was really tired so I put a light coat of red
primer on the bare metal and called it a day.  Sorry for the poor
focus.  In this picture the primer was not yet dry.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130420_155057.jpg

One last comment:  The screws securing the wood panel over the
differential, are terribly rusted and will almost certainly have to be
drilled out.  With a little luck, I'll be able to re-tap the threaded
metal and use new screws.  If not, I'll find some other cool way of
attaching the panel.  That's it.  Good evening.

-rick