1958 MGA Coupe

[bobs77vet]

Wtf

thks

Imagine my surprise when we "righted" the body and I saw this fixed fender nut sitting innocently on the radiator support??????????? remember I did a full dress rehearsal with all the fenders and bolts in place. It must have moved during the fender bolt tightening process and then when we took off the fender to paint it fell off.

oh well just another excuse to weld, so two holes drilled to plug weld it back in place

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

panel bonding adhesive is your friend in those situations... a couple dots and bolt it in place... it will be the strongest part on the car.

 

[bobs77vet]

panel bonding adhesive is your friend in those situations... a couple dots and bolt it in place... it will be the strongest part on the car.

thats a great idea....i wish it occurred to me two holes ago.....

I will be using that on the body panel that bridges the inner rocker sill and sits on the frame of the car. i figured that was the easiest way to make sure the height of the bridging panel was perfect.

 

[bobs77vet]

welded the fender nut in place



and do some body work on those wavy fender sides.......I was watching a 3m video on using body filler and the instructor liked the idea of covering a larger section and then sanding it off he said it gave you less of a chance of feather edges and a better final product, I usually do it the other way and put less on, but lets try it his way for fun. I am sure his video was more for production shops where they go really fast, I am not so fast.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

slow.. HA... I feather the edges then paint the car with flattened paint so no one notices. I can't even imagine how long it'd take me to do it right.

Some say ADHD is a disease that one suffers from, I say ADHD is.... hey look, cookies!!!!!

 

[bobs77vet]

cookies ...........I like cookies
more work on the front shroud to make it nice and straight

 

[bobs77vet]

lets wrap this up... I had spent a lot of time previously on the front end so there really isn't much to do



spray primer guide coat



that is what a high spot looks like



that is really thin body filler



quick prime with self etching primer in case I hit metal any where


nice lines I think I am really close to paint time









I am going to let that dry for a while before I wet sand it.....there is so little left to paint I may just wet sand the primered areas and paint the rest of the car and thengo back and look for imperfections to fix. I bet the front shroud is not much more then 9 square feet of surface area and the top may be the same.

 

[bobs77vet]

so I pull the car outside and start sanding the top side with 400 grit paper and I realize its not raining there are no bugs and the temperature and humidity are perfect for painting......I am not sure I am done with all the feather edges but you can drive yourself nuts looking for stuff you will never see,





what the hell its about $12 worth of paint if I have to color sand it and fix a spot or two






pretty straight



let this dry for a while then test fit the grille





I will color sand it wet with 600 and then see if I have to touch any spots up. and go from there, the entire body will get the gloss coat at the same time. my goal is to have it finished before my 58th birthday in the middle of October

 

[bobs77vet]

then the Boss says at 12:30 .....I am going to take Mom to church and after that go to Joanne fabrics be back around 4PM........


I say ok I am going to finish what I started

these are flush pop riveters compared to a normal one



its get you nice and tight



sand away............did I ever mention I hate sanding







and play gumby and paint

 

[bobs77vet]

well they said it was suppose to rain but I don't think so lets clean the inner fenders and paint and clear coat them, 3 coats color 3 coats clear

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

my goodness - it's so amazing to look at where you're at and how far you've come. It looks amazing.:thumbs:

 

[bobs77vet]

thanks. that big ass elephant isn't so big any more....

I am not a perfectionist about body work. my guide is pretty simple if you can see it in the color coat you fix it....after that if it shows up in the clear coat you live with it unless its horrid.

there was a feather edge you could see here and 600 sanding took care of it


just to the right of my finger



more 600 sanding

the end of the paint stick is the same spot



feather edge in between blue tape



feather edge straight down from blue tape


600 fixed it but not to my satisfaction



so hit it with 150 grit and use a two stage glazing puddy



some how I missed a big feather edge and some pit marks




remember there is about $12 worth of color coat paint on the entire top end of the car, so its no big deal at this stage to fix areas and respray the areas.
I will color sand the entire top before the clear coat.

 

[Red77]

My hat is off to you. I look forward to the updates and make mental notes of all the work required to either help me on a future project or help me decide to not to do one. I admire your patience and especially your attention to detail. Keep up the great work.

 

[MYBAD79]

Excellent ?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

It's good that you gave yourself a completely unreasonable deadline to help you avoid perfection

 

[bobs77vet]

thanks,

I wont admit to most but I set a deadline on body work and after that its just done!!! or else it could go on forever.


wet/dry sand paper loves to be wet so I just leave it in the bucket



first hit 220 then 400 600 1000











and my cars first rain...well parts of my cars first rain, I needed the space in side to walk around the car.

 

[bobs77vet]

I guess we will have rain for the next week so my fenders can get their " first wets" in true fashion. so I played around with the grille tonight, if there ever was a use for cap screws this is it and I am going to the hard ware store first thing tomorrow to get them....

looks like I have an older poor fitting grill and after some massaging of the grill tabs I can get it to sit inside the preformed area. I will need to do some clean up around the grill area but not too much. but the poor fitting grill leaves some exposed areas of the preformed grill. I think I am going to leave what is original just as it is and if you can see the preformed area then so be it. I don't want to fix it to fit the grille and then find an original grille and go to put it in and have to redo body work. so I will fix/clean up the body work just up to the original pre formed area, there really not much to do









funny the MG logo looks off center, maybe I bumped accidentally in my man handling

 

[bobs77vet]

rains, wind, fenders under a canopy tent what could possibly go wrong????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????





a quick look makes think I lucked out





I cant see any big scratches, not sure about dings though although those fenders are pretty beefy

new resting spot



lets put to bed the grille area issue once and for all

didn't take much there was only small slight sanding required cleaning up edges




its so small of an area I just sprayed primer on a chip brush, and brushed it on. after all its going to get sanded with 400 one more time before it gets another couple of color coats

 

[bobs77vet]

more rain which is letting me be actively looking for things to fix before I can finish the painting....and I found one that I had never seen before. I am pretty sure its not from me





stick something up under the frame support to act as a dolly



and hammer and dolly away...got called into the house will finish later



I got the area really flat using a hammer and dolly, I am using a two part body glaze and spot puddy to make it smooth. I also spent some time pondering my engine shelf area and I really like the way flat shiny engine shelf areas look.....its pretty flat just pitted.....not enough pitting for body filler and too much for high build sandable primer.... ..........but just right for this body glazing and spot puddy, what the hell its just more work and more sanding....did I ever mention I hate sanding?

 

[bobs77vet]

cross one more thing off the list.......all sanded with 400

 

[bobs77vet]

I am so close to being done I am getting excited....taking care of the weld seam







found my two low spots on the coupe top, had to work on a ladder which didn't thrill me too much





sanded and then finished off with two part body puddy and glazing,

 

[MYBAD79]

Just looked at the first page to see when you started, May 2012.... Time is flying ... Awesome progress !!!

 

[bobs77vet]

yes it will be driving on streets before Christmas


everything is color sanded with 400 and getting three coats of color on the repaired areas











going after the big pits ignoring the smallest ones


use the body sanding block as a squeegee





so I turned the heat on in the garage and I moved the car in and out of the garage in between coats

 

[JPhil]

So what color is it going to be, Bob?

 

[bobs77vet]

That thing is a paint hog.....with 2-3 coats on every surface I am at about 3 gallons of paint so far.

 

[bobs77vet]

when I got home it was sunny and not too cold so I wet color sanded the entire car with 600, then washed it off with soapy water, hit it with the yard blower then a complete wipe down. its now in the garage with the heat on and ceiling fan. now for the stars to align for the final 1-2 color coats and the 3 clear coats

 

[bobs77vet]

passed another hurtle today....came home for lunch 68* and rising and 67% humidity.....that means paint time......so I wipe down the car with a tack rag, then prepaint prep
then 2 more color coats on all the exterior and interior surfaces.....then 3 coats of clear. so that makes 5 color coats and they were wet sanded in between coats 3 and 4. and three clear coats. took about 2.5 hours from start to finish...... those clear coats will get wet sanded once they are good and dry and then we will do another 1-2 coats

I did the extra two color coats just to make sure I didnt have any over spray anywhere from my piece meal style of body work. my do a little bit at a time style has inefficiencies built in to it. so you have to throw some extra work at it. if I had a larger garage I would build a spray booth and then do the work like a production shop does it. but that's for the next garage if I ever get out of the highest density county in Virginia.

so heres we left off..




and then done...











once the paint dries some more I will push it back outside and take some better pictures, I just done want a bird landing on it while the paint is still soft....

 

[bobs77vet]

70* and 60% humidity time to wrap up some loose ends after dinner

remember the doors clear coat got goofy because the spray gun setting changed and I didn't notice in time

wet sand quickly with 400 and then 600. and the 4th and 5th coats of clear, last one nice and wet

 

[bobs77vet]

time to clear coat the inner boot and bonnet









I think after looking in the sun at how nice the doors came out, all visible clear coated surfaces will get wet sanded one last time with a really high grade of paper and then a final coat of clear.

 

[denpo]

"final"
I love that word.