Subject: [Mgs] Working on the body

From: Richard Lindsay <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 May 2013 17:34:51 -0500

Hello Friends,

Today was a good day in the garage, but it started out kinda weak.
Please allow me to explain.  The first quest this morning was to load
the right front and rear wings, plus the a running board, into the SUV
and headed off to the painter.  A quick stop for coffee had me in a
nice mood.  Upon arrival at the paint shop, the guy met me out front
and said, "My boss told me that we're not taking in any more work."
When questioned further, he stated that he didn't know if that was
because guys were going on vacation, or if the shop was closing!
Either way, I don't have a painter - right now anyway.  Not to worry.
Lots of options here in Houston.

I did get a chance to look through the PPG color book and found the
closest thing to Autumn Red that they offer.  I then went to Tasco and
bought a quart of that color in their ShopLine product.  Its a
urothane paint, single stage, and none too expensive.  I've used it
before and its just fine - especially for a car that was originally
painted with gawd-only-knows what kind of paint.

Back in the garage I decided to work on the body some more.  I
stripped the rest of the paint from the tub (except for under the
bonnet) and sanded the metal smooth.  I then applied a coating of
MetalReady, just to coat the steel with zinc.  While it was drying I
went to the passenger side sill to prepare a thin coating of body
filler over the surface rusted metal, now cleaned, zinc coated and
ready for 'smoothing'.  Here's a picture of the sill with the filler
curing.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130513_144658.jpg

The wood behind the metal is quite sound so I'm okay with this solution.

After sanding the filler smooth, I applied a coating of primer.
Here's how it looked with the primer still wet.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130513_155537.jpg

And from another angle.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130513_155555.jpg

And yet a third.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130513_155602.jpg

I also did the same process on the driver's side but in that case, the
repair was just a small spot.  Here's how it looked with the primer
starting to dry.  The repair is right above the running board mounting
hole.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130513_155831.jpg

Of course, everything will get a nice hand sanding with #220 paper
before paint, but its nice to have the bare metal covered and
protected.

In between the various steps, described above, I cleaned and
refinished various mounting brackets (e.g. the horns, starter switch
mount, etc.) and the headlight dimmer switch.  Here's how the dimmer
switch and its mounting panel look after the cleanup.

http://www.aubard.us/MGTD/20130513_152039.jpg

Spray can 'gloss black' dries to somewhere between gloss and matte,
despite its name, and that makes it perfect for these bits.

And with that, I swept out the garage, pushed the car back over out of
the way (4-wheel casters are GENIUS!) and pulled Nancy's SUV back into
the garage.

Happy Monday, after a frustrating start,

-rick
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