I promised a blow-by-blow of my experience fitting
Sebring valances to my MGB, and although things were
delayed a bit while I moved, I am finally able to make
good on that promise.
The front valance arrived today from Moss. They don't
really have any pictures of the front valance on the
website or in the catalog, and I have seen a few
different styles of valances, so I was a little unsure
of exactly what I would get. Although I suppose
everyone has their own style, the one they shipped me
is the EXACT one I was hoping to get. It has the two
rectangular center openings and the large oval side
openings for the brake ducts, with the intake area
riveted on.
The overall quality of the fiberglass work is really
quite good. The way the text is in the catalog makes
it sound like you're going to get some total piece of
crap, but that's not the way it is at all. It's
smooth and unblemished and the lay up is really quite
nice. For $149 by way (apparently) of England, it's
not a bad deal at all in my opinion.
Not much got done on it today. I took measurements of
the clearance at a number of different points along
the front for comparison later, and I took lots of
"before" pictures which I will upload to my web site
later when I have some "after" pictures to go with
them. Then I painted.
WARNING:
Those of you who are serious about paint work are
probably going to retch when you hear MY approach, but
remember that this is going to be an occasional
vintage race car/occasional street car, and I wasn't
too freaked out about getting the best possible
finish.
First I sanded the surface of the fiberglass with 600
grit just to clean it up a bit (although it really
didn't need anything cleaned up) and treated it with
some fish-eye preventative. Then I primed it with
spray cans of acrylic enamel primer that I bought at
Lowe's. Nothing fancy, but the primer went on smooth
and nice. I laid on quite a bit of primer - the whole
can - in about four coats. After it dried, I wet
sanded the primer with 600 until it was pretty darn
smooth. I did this without a sanding block or
anything, just by hand.
Then I started spraying paint out of paint cans that I
bought from Tower Paints (www.towerpaint.com). My car
is blaze, and I got the Dupont paint code from
Teglerizer (sp?) and ordered the custom spray cans
from Tower for about $14 each. They arrived in a few
days and the color is (as best I can tell) a virtually
dead-on match. The color looks bloody perfect.
I laid on a very light coat just to cover a bit, and
then one serious coat. When it dried, it actually
looked decent, but with that typical (uneven) gloss
that comes from painting with spray cans. After it
dried, I wet sanded with 600 again, and kept
alternating a coat of paint and a wet sanding session.
It took quite a bit of time...
After five coats with the spray cans and five wet
sanding sessions, I have to say I'm quite impressed
with the results. The color is even and glossy, and
the surface looks smooth and nice. Not quite as good
as if it was professionally painted, but it DEFINITELY
doesn't looks like I shot it in my driveway with spray
cans (even though that's exactly what I did...)
Tonight it's sitting out in the garage, and then
tomorrow morning I'll shoot it with clear.
Granted, this whole process took about five hours and
cost me a total of about $60 in materials. I probably
could have had a body shop paint it for not TOO much
more than that, so if you're looking for the best
time/results value, don't do it yourself. But for me,
it's like therapy. I like getting out and messing
around in the garage, so I'm quite pleased.
My sister is in town this weekend, but early next week
I'll be ripping off bumpers and tearing into valances
and drilling like a madman and all the rest of the
good stuff, so stay tuned.
Safety Fast,
=====
Paul Misencik
1971 MGB Vintage Race Project
www.sopwithracing.com
Huntersville, NC USA
www.paoloroman.com
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