Miscellaneous: engine bay, heater, trunk

 

The first items bolted into the freshly painted engine bay. I thought the nicely spruced up brass brake manifold would be a nice way to set off the shinny bay.

Getting the heater parts assembled, waiting for the firewall seal before installation.

The fresh air vent reinstalled. Because this car does not have the 74 dash with vents, I blocked off the upper vent holes with metal and a gasket, instead of the laminate flooring material I found under there when I took it apart. For reals, that happened.

Cleaning up more of the under carriage. In better shape than I expected. I had to do some MGEXP.com research to find out that the beige color was the original primer used. What now? Paint (POR-15) it black!

The trunk. A few odd jobs here too. Had to free up the seized breather line for one. Also, I know the truck should be body colored, but the PO, I guess, put waxoyl in there and used it to hold in the carpet, as can be seen where the orange shows through. I do not feel like taking off the waxoyl, especially since I can get a carpet kit for $115. Por-15 on the bottom with carpet over, that is how it will be, forever and ever, amen. This is all very tedious, but I am really just stalling before I start the body paint work.

Paint It Black

 

No, not that, this... One of the most unpleasant jobs so far. Cleaning, and scraping and cleaning some more, under the car, with all the crap going in your face. When enough is enough, you paint it black, or POR-15 it, but the Stones didn't sing about that, so there it is.

From up top, left.

From right.

There was plenty that still had solid original paint and primer, so this is just touching up any bare areas. Just needs a second coat. Thank goodness that is almost done. The battery will be so happy to live here now. 

Seat Anchor Repair

My driver seat anchors all looked bent, and when I tried to straighten this one it broke out. Here is the repair process.

Cut it out! I mean it!

Weld on the captive bolt to the patch.

Tack it in.

So tacky.

Weld it.

Grind it.

Check it. Done. Repeat.

Not exactly repeat, the others just needed the cracks repaired, just weld'em up.

Again.

All done, just need to paint it black.

Engine Bay Paint

 

A bit of a mess, this definitely needs work.

The right fender had some bad pitting, so it was filled in with JB Weld and sanded, so much sanding...

Oh yeah, more stuff in the way. Steering column needs to come out too.

Still needs some more sanding...

Finally, primer, progress, and more sanding...

Paint, and repeat for a total of three coats, equaling three 12oz cans of base coat.

Getting there, and no, I didn't forget the radiator panel, it will stay black. I don't like seeing the orange through the grill. When you paint your car, you too can have it your way.

I used BLVC16, Blaze color paint from Paint Scratch.

Here we finally are with the two part isocyanate laden clear coat applied. 

Now that it is dried it looks pretty good, very shinny. I went with this paint and top coat specifically because it doesn't need buffing. Not because I don't like buffing, even though I don't, but because it would be impossible to do it right in the engine bay will with all the contours. While smelly for two days while drying (don't worry I was wearing a mask as soon as I noticed that it was still off gassing), it pops all on its own. Now, I chose this picture because it has the trunk lid in view, in the same light, it doesn't match... I don't know if my new paint is too dark or the decade old paint was the wrong color, or if it just faded with time, but there you have it. I guess I will have to paint the whole car now. I knew this was coming, I just didn't want to think about it.

One final picture with the radiator panel painted, it really ties it all together.

Drivers Dogleg Panel

After completing the front section of the drives door sill, it was time to address the aft section and the blisters in the dogleg panel. A quick hit with the wire brush showed that there had been corrosion living here for a while!

Removing the dogleg reveled many holes, but they were confined to the aft eight inches of the sill panel.

After cutting off the bad sill panel, another hole was made to remove rust on the membrane panel. 

Here is the new piece welded in the membrane panel.

And here is the new sill panel installed.

The part that started this saga, there was a hole in the end cap, so a new one was welded in.

Fitting the ill fitting dogleg panel. Marking sections on the panel made it much easier to shape on the grinder, i.e. there is a rubbing between 4 and 6, grind a bit and recheck the fit. By this process the panel was perfectly fit in under an hour.

Then it was welded on, and the welds ground down, a nice fit. The second tip for fitting this panel would be to straighten or flatten the trailing edge so you can get the leading edge to fit properly, then after welding up to the wheel well corner, then you can just hammer the trailing edge around the wheel well corner and finish welding.