| THE MG |
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 | |  | June 16, 2011 - And finally, the clearcoat.
Here's that rear 3/4 shot again. Not bad at all.
entry 580 - tags: paint | | |  | June 16, 2011 - And the roof.
Quite a difference! There's a little bit of debris visible, but I'm happy with how this turned out. And I never did lean up against the side of the car while painting the roof! I was being very cautious about that, let me tell you. I have no idea how people do it with big cars or trucks. Ladders or climbing apparatus, I assume.
entry 581 - tags: paint | | |  | June 16, 2011 - It's not all sunshine and daffodils, unfortunately.
The last car I painted had some dry spots in the clear, which are dull instead of shiny. So I concentrated on putting down a nice wet coat. I used the same speed on my strokes as with the other coats, but the clear decided to run in several spots. This is the most tragic of them. Nothing that can't be fixed, but it didn't make me happy. Oh well, it just means more sanding. And it's also not going to keep me from putting the car back together!
Note the wet floor. That's to keep dust under control. I also swept the paint booth between each stage. Interestingly, the sealer was the dustiest. But there always seems to be some dust in the clear. I don't really enjoy laying down clear, it's sticky stuff that always seems to create problems. But there you have it. The first car I painted used single-stage paint without a clear so I don't have that much experience with the stuff yet.
Overall, I think it's going to be a pretty good paint job. I'm getting better at wielding a paint gun and building a clean paint booth - I had less overspray hanging in the air on the clearcoat stage than before.
Now I get to put the car back together!
entry 582 - tags: paint | | |  | June 18, 2011 - In order to help with dust control while painting, I had an exhaust fan pulling through a furnace filter.
Another filter cleaned the air entering the booth. Guess which one was pulling the overspray out of the air?
Yuk.
entry 583 - tags: paint | | |  | June 18, 2011 - Now comes my favorite part - unwrapping.
This angle gives you a pretty good idea of the shape of the flares.
entry 584 - tags: body, paint | | |  | June 18, 2011 - I've decided to let the paint dry for a couple of weeks before I sand down those runs.
And man, are there are a lot of runs. So this means I'm going to assemble the car now, even though some of this will have to come off again later.
Why? Because that means the car changes from a thing that lurks in the garage to a living car again. I can drive it and enjoy it, and take care of problems one at a time.
But before the bumpers go on that deep black paint, they need a polish. Which is a good excuse to sit on the deck in the sun.
entry 585 - tags: bumpers, body, paint | | |  | June 18, 2011 - I painted both the stock front valence as well as the Special Tuning one.
It's amazingly difficult to find a picture of an MG with a Special Tuning airdam that's actually painted instead of being left in white gel coat. We'd never been able to get a good idea of how it looked, so I figured I'd just paint it and we could bolt it on to see.
entry 586 - tags: paint, body | | |  | June 18, 2011 - And voila, the front of the car!
The Special Tuning airdam was the clear winner. I really like the look of the stock part, but with the extra muscle from the fenders the nose just looked...odd. This should balance it out nicely. Once the car's out of the garage I'll get more pictures of it, but overall I'm pretty happy.
We also removed the bumper overriders. Long-time readers will remember that's one of the first things I tried with the car, back in April 2008. Then, it looked wrong. Now, with the beefier looking front and a raft of detail changes, it looks better this way. At least, that's the thought today. We can always put them back on.
entry 587 - tags: body, overriders | | |  | June 18, 2011 - We decided to leave the overriders in the rear as well.
The car gets a bit busy otherwise, and again those flares give some extra body to what's going on back there.
Hopefully I'll have the car assembled enough to take out tomorrow. I want to get some shots from a bit further away and walk all the way around the car!
entry 588 - tags: body, overriders | | |  | June 20, 2011 - Out of the garage!
I bolted the last few bits and pieces back on the car and took it for a short drive. Goodness gracious, it's a lively little thing. I've been working on the Targa Miata concurrently with the MG, and they should have pretty similar power/weight ratios. The Miata's engine hasn't been happy, but I hadn't realized just how down on power it is. The MG brought that to my attention fairly emphatically.
It's not perfect, of course. Some things are greatly improved since the last drive, such as the seal between the headers and the head. But there are a few other things I'd forgotten about, such as the over-assisted steering. Still, it feels great to get behind the wheel again, windows open and footwell vent blowing cool air on my feet. I could get used to this.
entry 589 - tags: drive | | |  | June 20, 2011 - I took the car out with the intention of taking some pictures.
You have been warned.
The car does look different. Wider. That's partly due to the lack of overriders, I think. But it's also because the flares flow into the fenders so nicely. And heck, it is wider than it once was.
entry 590 - tags: body | | |  | June 20, 2011 - I'm not sure what it is, but there's something completely British about this shot.
Not the background, of course. But the slightly frumpy yet muscular look of the car.
entry 591 - tags: body | | |  | June 20, 2011 - The rear looks particularly wide, partly because the badges aren't installed.
Janel wants to keep them and I didn't fill the holes, so they will go back on. I need to buff the paint first. That's also why the mirrors and the chrome side trim aren't installed.
entry 592 - tags: body, badges, emblems | | |  | June 20, 2011 - A closer look at how the flares fit with the body.
I could not be happier with them, especially the rears.
entry 593 - tags: body, flares | | |  | June 20, 2011 - And here's the view from the front.
The fronts are definitely a beefier design, and I was a bit worried they wouldn't suit the car. But they do, echoing the round shape of the hood and fenders.
Yes, I know I need to change out that fastener behind the bumper.
entry 594 - tags: body, flares | | |  | June 20, 2011 - My new desktop wallpaper.
Until the next time I shoot sunset photos, and I get out 15 minutes earlier so I can get the golden light on the flanks. This shot would have been absolutely killer...
entry 595 - tags: body | | | June 21, 2011 - It's been a gratifying day.
I posted pictures of the car to the various forums that have been interested in it over the years(!), and the response has been very good for the ego. Actually, even I'm finding the end result stunning. I've had it in my head for a couple of years now and here it is in the metal, and it works better than I expected. Some of it is the details - the way the clear front lights, deleted overriders and air dam beef up the front to match the flares, for example. Some of it is just the way the body flows in a way it never has before. I've spent a lot of time just running my hand over the car.
I also drove it to work. Of course. And as a result, when I got home, I changed out all four springs to a stiffer setup (375/300), bumped up the damping and realigned one of the exhaust pipes to keep it from leaning on the body. You know, the usual post-drive changes. I think what the car really needs is some roll stiffness, though. I'll put on a rear sway bar and beef up the front one later this week and see what that does.
entry 596 - tags: ego, body, suspension | | |  | June 23, 2011 - Wallpaper!
For those who want to put a big picture of my car on their computer for some reason (odd but true, it's been requested), here are a few for you.
1280x1024 (this photo)
1280x800 (this photo, widescreen)
1280x1024 (similar photo with more background)
1280x800 (similar photo with more background, widescreen)
1280x1024 (hood open)
1280x800 (hood open, widescreen)
If you want some wallpaper and have a particular photo or resolution in mind, let me know.
entry 597 - tags: wallpaper | | |  | June 23, 2011 - So much for all the basking in glory.
I was driving home last night and the MG started to stumble for a bit, then coasted to a halt. It acted like it was out of fuel. This has happened before. Luckily, I was following my coworker Brandon home and I was only a couple of blocks from his house. So he grabbed a couple of items and we tried to fix it.
First, I checked that there was power to the fuel pump. Yup. We threw in some fuel, just in case. No change. The pump sounded a bit off, though. Strained. We sat there and kicked around a number of ideas such as clogged inlet screens, overheated fuel lines and the like. Finally, we decided to grab his trailer and just drag the car back to my place where I could troubleshoot in a more controlled environment. When we went to start the car to put it on the trailer, there was no fuel pump noise at all. A quick feel under the car and I found a power wire that was no longer attached! It had come off the ring connector. Aha!
I used a bit of electrical tape from underhood to tape the wire to the terminal, just enough to get the car running and on to the trailer. That got me home.
The connector is one that came with the pump. I didn't have any ring terminals in the mini size used, so I'd just reused the connector and spliced the wire into my harness. So this time, I cut off the spliced wire and crimped in one of my own, complete with heat-shrink. That should solve the problem. The car fired up happily so that must have been it. It's expected that a car that's had this much work performed would have some trouble.
entry 598 - tags: fuel, debugging | | |  | June 23, 2011 - Before taking the car out again, I had a few other things on the list to fix besides "make it run again".
The brakes were making an odd grumble at very slow speeds once they were warm. Looking at the rear rotors, I saw a weird wear pattern. I'd just slapped on a set of used rotors I had kicking around, I suspect. Since Miata brake rotors are so inexpensive, I swapped in some new ones.
I also spent some time fine-tuning the exhaust fit to keep it from leaning on various parts of the body when it gets hot, checked the steering rack adjustment and did a few other small things. Then I took it out for a run!
entry 599 - tags: brakes | | |
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