| THE MG |
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 | |  | March 15, 2011 - The car getting a lot uglier in a hurry.
Since I don't know for sure yet if I'll use the Special Tuning airdam - the nose does look a little unbalanced right now - I'm going to paint both it and the lower section together. And of course, all the lights and chrome has to come off. Poor thing.
I also removed the headers so they could be milled flat. I figure the car won't be going anywhere for a while, and the flanges are a bit warped from the welding heat. I can remove them without even lifting the car! Try that on a Camaro. Or a Miata or stock MG, for that matter. I got lucky.
entry 559 - tags: header, bodywork | | |  | March 23, 2011 - Sanding, sanding, sanding.
I've stripped all of the badges, bumpers, lights and handles off the outside of the car. I may still see if I can get the trim off the windows etc, but the car's looking pretty barren right now. And I'm sanding.
It's pretty relaxing work. The flares are blending well into the body but I know the upcoming shiny black paint is going to highlight even the smallest imperfection. I'm also finding the body's not quite flat at the moment, so I'm trying to sort that out as much as I can. Apply filler, sand filler. Apply filler, sand filler. There is much sanding in my future.
entry 560 - tags: sanding, body | | |  | April 5, 2011 - The sanding work continues.
I'm learning quickly and I think the final result will be good. The left front corner is almost perfect, and the left rear is also good. With how the car is parked, it's harder to get to the right side so it's lagging behind! I have picked up a couple of air-powered sanders that should accelerate progress somewhat - they've proven themselves to be very effective while cleaning up the burned paint on the roof.
One thing I learned from painting the Miata is that errors that appear catastrophic when the car is fresh out of the paint booth and sitting under the fluorescent lights disappear when the car starts to get used. But I'm still going for a good job.
entry 561 - tags: paint | | |  | April 5, 2011 - I played around with shaping the right front fender flare using body filler, but I just couldn't get a good shape without resorting to 1/4" or more of the stuff.
And that's too much. So I cut it up again and added a new metal patch. This is my third attempt on this side to get a shape I want, and I think this one's going to be the right one. Even without any fine-tuning, it's just about bang-on and should blend in nicely.
entry 562 - tags: flares, body | | |  | April 5, 2011 - After the welds were ground down, I put a skim coat of filler over that troublesome right front.
Much better. The profile of the flare is nice and smooth, without a halfway "step" that I had before. This coat is a little on the thick side but it's easier to sand down than build it up again later. Most of the filler will go away and I expect to see big patches of bare metal when I'm done. I feel good about this.
entry 563 - tags: flares, body | | | May 10, 2011 - Another rest for the MG.
I took a trip to visit family, then trucked a couple of thousand miles to Road Atlanta for the vintage races. Meanwhile, the poor car waited. Until tonight! I used my new air powered D/A sander to quickly put the final shape on those front fenders. Not only was it a lot faster, I got a nicer finish than when I'd been doing it by hand. I feel like I'm actually making progress now. I'll do the rears in the next day or two, then shoot the car with a layer of primer in preparation for more exciting sanding!
entry 564 - tags: paint | | |  | May 14, 2011 - Let's hear it for power tools!
My air-powered sanders have made a big difference, and the car is looking particularly disreputable but feeling much smoother now. The flares are almost complete and I'm just working on other small spots of the car now. Progress!
entry 565 - tags: Bodywork | | |  | May 14, 2011 - You can see how much paint is on this poor car.
The original aqua is obvious here, as is the skim coat of filler that covers the whole car under the black. Someone put some real effort into that black paint job, I have to admit.
In this shot, I'm feathering the edges of the paint to get it as smooth as I can and fix some small shaping problems. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I left my good camera at work so I decided to set the website up to take uploads from an iPad or iPhone. The camera on the former is nothing to get excited about, but it beats no picture at all.
entry 566 - tags: bodywork | | |  | June 13, 2011 - Sanding sanding sanding.
I'm pretty much done with sanding, I'm happy to report. Although I have discovered some truly spectacular amounts of Bondo on some parts of this car. Not bent parts, but it appears the person who painted the car black put a thick skim coat over the whole car and then shaped it. Luckily, almost all of it is in good shape other than this crack on the hood.
Every time you read an article in Hot Rod about "perfect paint", they always show pictures of sanding on a nice big old American car with acres of flat surfaces. I don't think there's a single flat surface on the MG, and most of it is compound curves. It's been quite a lot of work getting the shape just right. Especially those new flares. But I'm calling it done. I'm happy with their shape now.
entry 567 - tags: body, sanding | | |  | June 13, 2011 - Before I shoot primer, I'm doing the last bit of body prep.
Almost forgot about this - the new exhaust pipe on the right doesn't sit in the same spot as the original. So I welded in a patch. I'll now give it a coat of filler and then sand it smooth. Luckily, it's basically hidden when I'm done so it won't take days of careful shaping.
Check out those spot weld marks hiding behind the stock bumper! They look pretty random.
entry 568 - tags: body | | |  | June 13, 2011 - While I waited for the last coat of filler to dry on the exhaust cutout, I started masking from the back of the car.
Maybe it's because I grew up in the 80s, but I'm digging this neon green and bright blue on black color scheme.
I've gotta get out of the garage.
Always use good tape when masking. It's awful to discover you had a leak and now there's black paint all over your stainless steel trim, for example. I bought a couple of rolls from Harbor Freight and it's worthless. Real painter tape makes all the difference.
entry 569 - tags: body, masking | | |  | June 15, 2011 - More masking.
I've decided I really like the angle on this shot!
entry 570 - tags: body, masking | | |  | June 15, 2011 - Okay, the car's all masked.
The paint's been wiped down with grease remover. It's time to make it all the same color.
entry 571 - tags: body, masking, paint | | |  | June 15, 2011 - And voila!
A coat of primer. Unfortunately, only one coat instead of 2-4 because I ran out. It's amazing how much better it looks already. I'll go pick up some more primer so I can give it a bit more. Some of it is still wet in the picture, thus the darker area around the front wheel.
Having the whole car one color makes it obvious where I've done well and done badly on my shaping. On the passenger's side, it looks quite good and I'm happy with that. The driver's rear needs some more work, mostly because I'm dealing with the skim coat put on by the previous painter. So I'll do some quick touch-up there and try again.
Much more sanding to come - but this will be much quicker than before.
entry 572 - tags: body, primer, paint | | |  | June 15, 2011 - Here's a look at the shape of the front flares.
I'm happy with how they turned out, especially this right front that gave me so much trouble.
The ragged line in front of the flare will be covered by the stainless trim along the side of the car, so just ignore it.
entry 573 - tags: body, primer, flares | | |  | June 15, 2011 - Some vandal defaced my paint job!
Oh, no, wait. That was me. I shot a thin coat of black primer over the white as a guide coat.
Well, first I gave the car a couple of extra coats of the white primer to build up the coat. Then the guide coat. Now I sand the guide coat off. The purpose of this is that it will highlight any low spots in the paint as the high points sand to white and the low spots stay black. Thus allowing me to find and address problems that will show up in the shiny final paint.
I should point out that this isn't a "how to paint a car" tutorial. I've done a couple of cars in the past, but I'm still very much an amateur. In fact, this is the first time I've done a primer coat like this.
Luckily, primer is made to be sanded. So this is actually a very satisfying job.
entry 574 - tags: primer, paint, body | | |  | June 15, 2011 - Here's an example of how the primer has helped with the shape of the car.
This is the transition from the side of the car to the fender flare in the rear. The different colors are different layers, with the yellow body filler on the bottom. In order to get that guide coat fully off, I had to sand down further in one section of the flare. The result now has a smoother shape to it, cleaning up a bit of a step in the angle that was invisible before. There's still a bit of guide coat visible at the right of the picture, I'll get it later. You can see the amount of material that's been sanded off at the left - getting this car dust-free again for the color coat may be a challenge.
The primer coat is proving to be fantastic at finalizing the shape of the car. Sections that were just a little rough are cleaning up and everything is flowing together really well. I'm really happy with it. It's also moving quickly because the primer sands so well. I'm using both 240 grit paper and some fine sanding blocks for this step. The foam sanding blocks are great for dealing with those compound curves, while the paper on longer blocks help make sure everything's flat.
entry 575 - tags: primer, body, flares | | |  | June 16, 2011 - The primer sanding is done, and it's time for the big, gratifying step.
Yup, paint booth time. The booth itself is nothing more than plastic hung from the roof of the garage. Before the plastic goes up, though, the cleaning happens. Lots of sweeping up dust. Then sweep again. All that dust I've been creating for months has to be corralled, lest it become a pimple on the MG.
I love this part. Big visible changes happening fast.
entry 576 - tags: paint | | |  | June 16, 2011 - And it's black!
This is an epoxy/sealer coat, so it's nowhere near as glossy as the final result will be. One nice thing about this is that it's a good practice run for the next couple of stages, as I learn how to move over the car. The C pillars beside the hatch are problematic to do well, I'll concentrate on getting them right with the color coat. I can also tell that the arches aren't as smooth as I thought, as wet black paint under fluorescent lights is a much harsher judge than the previous flat white.
But look! It's black!
entry 577 - tags: paint | | |  | June 16, 2011 - The color coat is on.
This laid down really well. It's not a glossy black, sort of a trendy satin. But pretty smooth.
Isn't this a cool angle for the car?
entry 578 - tags: paint | | |
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