[Mgs] Sand, repair, primer

[Richard Lindsay]

Hello Friends,

Back in the garage today.  Yesterday we took the new grandson (and his
parents) to the Houston Polish Festival.  Great fun.  Great food.
Lots of music and dancing.

In the garage this morning my first quest was to remove the hinges
from the side curtain door.  One of the hinges was broken off, the
other so rusty that it would barely move.  I'll replace the hinges
with generic units.  The T-nuts are ruined but are easily replaced
from the bins at Ace hardware.

Here's how the door looks at the hinge point.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130506_103051.jpg

The wood will be repaired, redrilled to match the new hinges, and then
new T-nuts will be installed.  Only then will the door be recovered.

Next step was to remove the right front wing.  Fortunately, it came
off with only a minimal fight.  After that, the bolts holding the
radiator shell to the radiator frame were removed.  Some cake out
without much trouble.  Three had to be drilled out.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130506_105932.jpg

The rear lip of the radiator shell has been abused, all around, but
will be easily repaired with a little hammer and dolly work.

I then moved on to the windscreen mount area where the metal was rust
pitted.  Here's how it looked right after removing the windscreen.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/HPIM1090.JPG

The paint was stripped and the area was then sanded down to bare metal.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/HPIM1255.JPG

And then the rust pitted area was coated with Metal Ready then when
dry and cleaned again, it was painted with POR15.  I know there are
various arguments about POR15 but I have had GREAT luck using it under
paint.  After the POR15 cured, I added a tiny bit of body filler to
infill the divots left by the rust.  Yes, most of the damage is under
the windscreen hardware but I did put the mount in place and verified
that the damage was exposed ahead of the mount.  After sanding the
filler down to the metal contour leaving filler in the divots, I
sprayed it with primer - still wet in this picture.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130506_104944.jpg

Moving a bit down and aft, I cleaned and primered the the left front
and left rear sides of the tub.  The sill still needs sanding and a
little more work.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/HPIM1269.JPG

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/HPIM1271.JPG

Some work is still needed at the leaded joint at the top of the
B-post.  A little careful application of body filler will reshape this
area.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/HPIM1270.JPG

In that previous picture you can see the inner wheelwell undercoated
with POR15, awaiting sanding and primer.

Before moving back to the workbench to clean things up and put freshly
removed parts in baggies, I cleaned and primered the top of the dash.
Here's how it looks as the first coat of primer begins drying.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/HPIM1268.JPG

I did do one other test.  A kind listmember told me that the nasty
looking fuel filler would polish up nicely.  Here's a before and after
pair of pictures.  The 'after' picture is has not been polished at
this stage, just cleaned!

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/HPIM1116.JPG

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/HPIM1273.JPG

This work is not the final solution but the primer is a layer of
protection while working on the rest of the tub.  Once all the rusty
bolts are out, I'll lift the tub from the chassis.  Until then, I need
to put order back in the garage...and that's what I'll go do now.

-rick