This is so great.
This is so great.
Another little bit done today. Cut the original rear tunnel out of the bulkhead. Welded in a driveshaft loop. Makes that section quite a bit bigger but still fits in the new tunnel. More room for exhaust.
lots of little bs patches and fuel cell mount. More detail of cart rotisserie.
Got a guy to call me back regarding blasting it in my driveway. It will be so awesome to not have to weld paint (that I cant get at with any tool to clean off). I had resigned myself to mechanical/chemical stripping, but hopefully this dude comes through and I preserve a few years of lung health. Been using some rust oleum green self etching primer to mark where I'm "done" with repairs. I'm really hoping that blasting doesn't open a bunch of new holes, but I'd rather have it now than after I've painted. Panel replacement/bodywork is tough.
Still a fair amount of welding and grinding. This is the tough part.
Edit: "done" is a very relative term. I'll be revisiting almost all the areas that I've painted. Especially after I see pictures of them. F.
Finally had a mobile blaster by yesterday. Long day. Huge mess in my driveway. Car blasted. New rust found. Sand in every crevice. And the mg manages to have many, many crevices.
new beginnings.
black stuff is rust converter. There was a fair amount of flash rust ever after the phosphor rinse. I'll be picking sand out of this damn thing for months.
So, ive had a car blasted before. However....
Phosphor rinse? And how did he do underneath? I didn't have either of these done on the one i had blasted
Would love to hear some more on that.
It's basically like phosphoric acid which is supposed to delay flash rust- mixed in with water. I looked at the bucket, and it looks like its a 1.5% solution with hose water. I've heard of this as a post-dip for when folks acid dip their bodies. The underneath- like the bottom of the car? Those vertical pieces of my "cart" actually hold the body up on its side.
The sand. Oh, the sand. So much. I'm going to be diligent and get every grain that the car gods will allow. I predict sill rust in a few years just because I know I won't get it all, and it holds moisture. At this point, I'm not sure blasting is the answer, but I'll let you all know the verdict when I can look back. At the very least, its awesome to have the car clean.
Teh E36 M3 said:My parts were pretty simple, but I found the software pretty easy to use, and loved the instant pricing. Really- the setup is the expensive part. I think it was like $45 for setup and $6/part. So I think with tax was like $115 for ten brackets. I mainly did it to just try it out, but man it saved me a bunch of time I spent elsewhere. And I'm really happy that I can depend on them to be exactly alike.
$115 is money well spent compared to spending hours to whittle imperfect parts out of plate steel using a torch and grinding wheels. I "bill myself" $25/hr for shop time. If the cost of a finished product is close to or less than the cost of "charging myself" for the work, then I'll pay for the product.
"My MG is truly a thing of beauty," he mused, pina colada in hand, as he watched the sand blaster guy go about his task..... :)
Haha. I need the reference pushrod!
gas arc- that's a pretty quality way to look at it. I would have gotten the blast job done at 1/4 the price billed out that way, but one painful day and we are "done", and I can get on with the business of finishing body work and paint. Still not sure I'd do it this way again, we will see how much leftover sand there is. I 100% would do the brackets again like that.
After blasting, I have a few more tasks before I get it primed. Lots more holes to fill in. it's a little overwhelming but I'm biting a small piece every day.
roll bar: bolt in or weld in? I like the bolt in idea because I really like the way they look without. Argument for weld in is that once it's bolted in the probability of my ever unbolting it is right next to zero. Except perhaps for painting.
regardless, 12 years ago I bent a hoop up for the now gone '69. It fits the 62, and I still like the shape. It has the ever so slightest twist but I don't think it's really noticeable and will still work.
Any feedback on design is welcomed. Tubing is 1.5x.125 which I realize now is way overkill. The rules say I could use 1.5x.095 for 1501-2500lb and 1.25x.090 for 1000-1500 I think I'll be in the 1400lb range. Tubing as it sits is good for 2500+ lbs.
In reply to Teh E36 M3 :
No one has ever crashed and thought. I wish my cage tubing was smaller and thinner.
My MG joins you in the hella oversized Cage tube. Mine is 1.75x.095 (It may be .125 wall it's been some years).
This is one of my favorite builds I'm following. I'm glad Everytime I see if move forward.
Well thanks man. F, is this going slow. You seem to blast right through stuff and I'm pretty jealous. Hopefully I'll get better at real progress.
Run the big tubing, weld in. Add rocker bars for stiffness, and benefit all the way around. As long as its far away from your unhelmeted dome in all normal seating positions.
Ive been hit too many times, and too hard, in cars with inadequate occupant protection measures to berkeley around for style anymore. Ask me to lift my left shoulder, or look over it to merge. Or migraines. Or.....
A midget is the worst combination of sheeple visibility and occupant protection i can think of. Its worse than any miata. Or any of the 50s and 60s cars that ive had totalled while in them.
Roger that. I'm treating it like a four wheeled motorcycle from a safety standpoint; as in- head on a swivel and have adequate protection. Your point is well made and I'll look into the rocker bars if I can make them fit with the seats. Although I still may go bolt in for the ability to paint, and possibility of modifying the bar if necessary
Ok, found a tiny pinhole on the drivers sill post- sandblast. Got after it a bit with a very coarse wire wheel. Made some additional tiny holes. Decided to bite the bullet and cut it open.
good night. This picture is after I removed about five inches of rust dust/crap, just filling the cavity. I guess I'm glad I did it but now I'm worried about every enclosed space on this west coast car.
I'm really eager to get this to the point of making loud noises that aren't me grinding and cursing at it.
Teh E36 M3 said:
I just saw these pictures (They didn't show on my phone for some reason).
For the front tubes I would build up a box that goes to the floor and ties into the sill. I know the area behind the seats above the floor is a large box section that transfers the loads laterally from the suspension to the sills and tunnel. Have your plate as you show but on the front side cut a piece of 2x2 in half or make plate that just takes the platform down to the floor and weld it to the inner sill. (Unless you are doing door bars, if your doing door bars it would be better to bring the rollbar all the way to the "floor")
For the rear downtubes I would bring them inboard to land on top of the "frame rail" that is inboard of the wheel tub. The wheeltubs are structural ish in the Midgets but that tube next to them is much more structural and thick. Idealy if you could bring them to that cross tube at the front of the trunk panel that would be great but I can't remember what you did for suspension and I seem to remember that area is occupied.
Allright, rog. I'm looking into all. For the front downtubes, I agree- with some angled stuff, I can build a nice platform for the tubes. For the rear downtubes- it's a tight situation, but I'll take a look and see what I can do with what I've got.
Yeah, the area is occupied. I think if I put the downtubes on top on the wheel tubs I'll be good. The coilovers occupy the top of the crossmember there.
Junior Varsity progress. Got some more rust repair done. Also, berkeley sandblasting a car. For the love of god could I get more sand out of this berkeleying thing. I actually cut a hole in the body to get some out.
Pictures don't show, but she's buttoned up on the sill. Had to cut a hole out of the front section just right behind the front wheel- there were two tiny holes you can probably see in the last picture. Opened it up, and it was just full of sand. That's a massive rust problem a few years down the road.
The sill- got that done as well as I can. It's a good repair. Ready to tack on the brake line tabs, roll bar plates, and a few other little bits and bobs and we are on to bodywork- the non-welding kind.
Ok, a little more today. Still boring stuff, so strap in. 23 rivnuts to hold the trans tunnel down and the parcel shelf. Also got the harness mounts welded down. Got the lower roll bar bases welded in. Seems like this should only have taken about an hour. It did not. I don't know how NoCones gets so much done, or any of you challengers. I'm not doing a challenge budget, and still the E36 M3 is sooooooooo slow.
So, welding remaining is:
Fuel cell hold-down (probably just rivnuts actually)
Brake line tabs
throttle cable firewall thru hole/mount
shoulder harness mount tabs
front sway bar doubler (forward bar mounts)
1 piece hood mount (still in progress from England- ETA unknown).
Various suspension links to finish weld.
Most of that should be pretty straightforward. At my pace, no longer than a month.
Oh, and obviously I'll clean up the welds a little. Just a little tired tonight. They are sound.
Well that was cool. Thank you GRM for the little picture on the "your projects" page. It was a really cool surprise. I'll do my best to keep it up. Probably should have put the Ferrari on top though.... my build is amateur hour compared to MKE.
Not much new to report. Bodywork is a long slog and it's just not super interesting. I got the doubler plates for the sway bar mounts and hinges for the forward tilt bonnet welded on. And lots of very thin layers of filler. Sanded and filled and sanded and filled. Did some seam sealing. I'm really close to laying down the undercoat for sound and heat control. I don't want to put color on it until I get the hood from England so I can make sure that the paint is all the same color. Also want to make sure my hinge arrangement works and so any bodywork that it might need.
I'm having some second thoughts about voodoo blue. I love the color but does it last, or do I go with the old standby red? I've got to leave the Porsche viper green out. It is an awesome color but I don't think the Mg can pull it off.
oh, and more sand. Awesome.
Unsolicited opinion: Blue > Red.
Plus the last one was red.
Looking good either way
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