British (rusty) Steel!



Point of no return:  muratic acid- meet rusty hood.

I had tried evaporust, but it was at or below the 65*F they recommended and didn't work too well
  I will try it on other things when it gets warmer
The yellow streaks are rust being eaten by the acid.  Boy does it smoke.  The fumes will
knock you the __ out, so wear a respirator , goggles, and gloves.
This took several wipes of acid to totally clean it.

Heres the hood sans rust.  If you don't dry off the hood immediately after
rinsing the acid, it will flash rust as you watch.
 

self etching primer thrown on.  Also used as a wet sanding guide coat to find imperfections. 
 

Heres some imperfections.  Where the tarp laid on the hood, pitting.

After the wet sanding with a foam board and hammer and dolly.
A lot of places could be flattened, but these areas needed a skim
of the old pinkish filler material.

the final panels....

Its not like they're completed, its just the last 2 to strip before sanding filling, priming etc...

Heres the "bonnet" in all its beauty.  Dents , dings, and waves galore.

The 3m stripping wheel is getting a workout.  I'm gong to pick up some rust converter for A LOT of pits in the metal. Every dent and part of the newer paint job that dissipated has pits under them.
The hood will get some body hammer work... Note the crater in the center of the hood.  Right under the support.

Here is the trunk lid.  It came out super shiny with nary a dent.  The only surface rust was at the inner bottom under the trunk lock- showing it was leaking.  Again- rust converter to the rescue.
  All of these will get self etching primer,  then after a day or so of drying, guide coat wet sanding, and red scotch brite before shooting high build primer.  

Did I mention I already got a gallon of paint for it?

 



Guess which one

1800cc of envy

So while doing bodywork, I started to realize how "bad" the lump was looking.  I never got into the chromed out engine compartments, I'd rather spend money on things that make a vehicle more reliable.  Chrome don't get you home after all...

The nylon wheel on the drill revealed the rest of the mystery sticker on the valve cover.  Presently the only kenspeed found was Tampa and LA.

Here is the beautiful and meticulously clean valve train. 

After an hour of brushes, screwdrivers, brake cleaner, engine degreaser, and simple green, here's the naked lump. Original markings??

The paint came off way too easily on the valve cover.  I just kept going with a nylon brush and it shined up nice. Then I put a coat of clear sealer over it.

Here's the lump after paint. I also clear coated the block side covers.  Now to get new gaskets for everything removed.

CrAcK oF dOoM fixed!

 So while finishing up the LAST BODY PANEL, yay,  I discovered the  CrAcK oF dOoM on the passenger door. Sure it's small now, but it just gets bigger. Why on the passenger side and not the drivers, I dunno.
So I got a piece of 20ga sheet steel and cut a chunk out.

 I missed the picture of the holes, but I drilled the end of the crack to stop its progress.  Then I went nuts and drilled 7 other holes .
 The patch piece went under this, held by a magnet until the first weld went on.  I pressed the patch to the backside with a screwdriver then welded away.
The bodywork, even on a low welder setting , welded odd by melting unless I let the tacks cool before filling in the plug welds.

Here's what all of this is leading up to... The front "wings" are back on and the seams are straight.

Progress as promised, More bodywork

I finally got some time (about 7 hours over 2 days) to get on with the bodywork.  Even with my humble settings and hand tools, I feel like the B is getting much closer.

I got jiggy with the palm sander and wire wheel on the drill.  Here's the drivers side sanded down. (far side for you RHD purists)
The acrylic repaint was completely gone on spots down to original primer, but the bottom of the door and fender wouldn't sand off!

Guess this car part.....
It's a view from above the rear fender at the taillights.  You can see how the respray cracked and flaked then got chalky .

This is the cowling between the trunk boot and the cab.  When purchased it still had what was left of the top in the upright position with a tarp over the whole thing. It also had a blue cover on it that helped hold in rainwater. Thus- pitting.  Sanded it down and hit it with rust converter.



I have to give credit to my helpers..a rigid hammer drill with a 3M grinder that powers through paint and bondo, a Hitachi drill with a wire wheel for corners, and what's left of a black and Decker 1/4 sheet palm sander.

This is the rear trunk boot valace.  it was muy dented, warped, and wrinkled- but with a hammer and dollie set it's pretty flat now.  The bondo on the lower right is part of a boo boo to the right taillight area.  Minor bondo needed after hammering.

And the worst panel on the car. It seems that somebody backed into the tail light area a little.
It was under the side marker light And towards the taillight about a 1/4" 6mm deep. And whoever knocked out the bodywork use a framing hammer and about 5 pounds of bondo.
Again after hours of grinding off the bondo , hammering and guide coating and more hammering, and more guide coating, and hammering, and ... it's acceptable looking and even looks good at 10 feet.  It will just need a skim coat of filler to make it flat vs 1/4" of bondo.

Getting closer to full primer...

I love bodywork. (not really) v2

After years of Sun, rain, hail, cows and goats in the field the respray perished.  I called a local shop to see what they would just spray it for and he said" I won't touch it unless I do everything to it" meaning putty on up.  So starts my arduous process of bodywork.

the sanding and grinding off aren't the problem, it's working the hail dents and dents from a cow on the driver fender out.  Some came out w/ a hammer and dollie (about 60% more than previous work) and some I'm still massaging. So far it's been 5 hours for 2 fenders.

O.D Green would be an interesting color, kinda like the almond green they had on the midgets
There was a ton of sanding to get it down past the respray and original color.  I'd do some minor filler, sand the next day, then go over it again to see if there were any more hail dents.  That took 4 days.  The drivers fender taking 85% of that time.  The passenger side had 2 dings.  That's it.
 I'd imagine that the fenders alone have 10 hours in them now due to the curves in them.

This is just the acid etch primer since it went to metal.  I've read a dozen  "use this, don't use this "  painting guides about acid etch vs epoxy on the internet.  Etch worked last time, I suspect it will work this time.
Next will be some high build primer, sanding, and then bolt it on for painting...




























The windshield "shelf" got the same treatment.  The original paint was pristine under some spots, peeling in others.

The dash-glued on vynil was removed also for renovation.

A little wheel paint and surprise

The wheels are finally silver, why? Because new tires are on the way.

I bought the masking for the black paint. They work, it would almost be as easy w some good tape though.  

They aren't extremely sticky so some places needed re pressing prior to painting and there was some overspray.

I didn't use satin black , I tried graphite.  Both duplicolor wheel paints.

A little more of a "ghostly" shadow on the wheels.  They recieved a couple coats of clear to top it all off and new center caps.

Guess what showed up on black Friday?  185/65/14 s, that's what.

The most weight used on a wheel was .75 oz in two different places.

Really surprised they balanced out that well.

If I could I'd go for a tow around the block. Its now starting to look like a car.

Prep work

Painting prep is horrible.  Scrubbing, Degreasing, dirt everywhere, etc..

All this cleaning, wire brushing, degreasing, removing old and putting on new body seam filler

It's a couple hours of fun, but now it's ready for a sanding and wipe down before paint, yes paint.

If only the rest of the body was ready...

New garage

Poor thing Sat under a tarp in a carport for 3 months, probably thought it was permanently parked again.

Amazingly tough to get it back on the trailer due to positioning.  The dove tail has more of a rake on it and that grabbed the jacking points solid.

Had to use a come along and ramps under the back tires to clear it.

Now for continuation of bodywork...

Your wiper system

I took apart the wiper system since it was over its 42 year/50,000 mile service interval.
To remove it you need a 3/4" wrench for external wiper shaft nuts & 7/16 wrench for wiper motor mount.
To disassemble use a 3/8 in the wheel boxes and 1/4" on the gear box.
There are c clips and bushings on the arm that goes to the cable , and the gear shaft that goes through the housing.
I cleaned the dried out grease & regreased and added some drops of synthetic gear oil

The internals of your wiper system:at the top, wiper motor w worm gear and gear housing, 

driven eccentric gear,

arm from gear to cable, the cable is like a low E string on a guitar-just mega sized to drive the wheel box, 

Then the cable goes through the tubes to the wiper boxes. 

The beauty of this system is that it can be any length and curved around objects.  The dark side: made by lucas.

Quick update: the car was rolled under cover for storage at a friends house while house hunting... May have it going by new years lol.

Heart implant

I got around to getting a hoist and moving the lump (engine) and transmission vertically for a change.

After hoisting, I used gunk gel engine cleaner.  Stuff works pretty good with a bristle brush.  It says on the can to warm the engine first, but since it's already 100* outside, I figured that would work too.

I didn't move the chain from the pull so the transmission down position was pre set.
I took off the shifter ring and 3 bolts so it wouldn't snag on the way in.

The only change was I had to lift the front of the B to get the hoist under it.

Here's part of the trick... It gets this far and you forget about the Damn crossmember that the tailshaft has to go over.  I didn't have enough hands to move the tailshaft and get pics. 

Almost in situ.  The front motor mounts are dead on, the transmission mounts are the biggest PITA ever.  I need to re pull the xmember to get the last two pad bolts in.

On to engine accessories.
 I can sandblast then paint around  the engine without pulling it I think.

Strippers, boots, and blowers.

I got your attention.

*I stripped the paint off the trunk "boot" lid, the blue paint came up immediately, most of the mallard green came off without any difficulty.

Crappy respray

Came out better than expected

Pre strip

*Took the heater apart to clean and paint, most of it went well.  I noticed the blower fan wouldn't spin one revolution by hand so I broke into the casing. 
There is a clip that holds the fan cage onto the shaft that wouldn't let go. I tried tapping the shaft out of the fan and ended up cracking the fan cage.  Figures.

The wires unplug from the end case, take note what side they plug into.
mark a side of the case to keep it aligned.

(2)  nuts come off, then the rear cover comes off.  Try not to lose the 3 shims that go on the shaft near the armatures rear.

This exposes the brush plate,  my brushes were in great shape. :)

  Clean out the rear bronze bushing, then I put some silicone grease and a drop of synthetic oil in it.

Remove the brush plate, don't lose the 2 spacer springs off the bolts.

I found that the armature contacts were tarnished, so I used a scotch brite pad ( fine sandpaper does the trick too, just make sure its clean afterwards)

The entire armature would not pull out of the front fan-side bearing- probably why the fan cage wouldn't come off either!  So I worked some synthetic oil down around the bearing and it started turning a lot easier.

To put it back together: put in the 2 case bolts, the brush plate around the shiny armature contacts,
the motor mount ring noting the little alignment tab, I put a tiny dab of silicone grease to hold the 3 shims, then the rear cover, lock washers and nuts, and plug in wires.

After this, mine would hand spin over a revolution without the fan on it. 

Test it out to make sure everything works.  Mine is quieter, probably because the gravel is out of it.
The shaft, while looking at it, should rotate "anti clockwise" or counter clockwise as marked on the fan .

Transmission and engine seals + clutch

So the front bearing shim was installed in the transmission, a .05 came out , I put in .06"

The rear transmission nut laughed at my attempts to put it back on, so I had to take it to a shop with a large impact.

 One dirty back plate. The rear main seal is the typical weepy orange type.

 I keep hearing about how much better these are so we're trying vitron seals

 The flywheel had the nearly new disc partially froze to it for decades.  Not glazed over, but probably the second disk on it.

Prettiest part of the vehicle and nobody is going to see it. $37.50 well spent.

 the pilot bushing

Was worn enough a 5/8 deep socket fit in it. Way too worn.  

I tried the grease hydraulic pressure method of removing it but ended up hand sawing a groove into it and pulling it that way.

New one went in with minimal exertion.