Journal: Peter Mittler's Journal

Jan. 01/07: Painted second rear drum red. POR15's rear axel. Installed heat shield in tunnel with rivetting help from Alyssa. Examined rear axel brake lines - to be replaced.
Jan. 02/07: Picked up hood frame and engine jig from sandblaster. Got bolt for spring. Had to cut one out!
Jan. 03/07: Primed and painted hood frame red. Got parts from Fred re Cam pressure plate and battery box liner. Replaced plastic lid on sandblaster.
Jan. 04/07: Office most of the day. Check out Concepts on Wheels re seatbelt re-webbing to tan.
Jan. 05/07: Got rear spring bushes replaced; Installed storage box and rear axel and painted springs. Found www.ssnake-oyl.com re seatbelts thanks to MG Experience website.
Jan. 06/07: Installed gas tank, finished rear-end assembly except brake lines. Started back on the engine but now the CAM sprocket will not fit over the key!
Jan. 07/07: Installed fuel pump and main line to engine bay. Routed breather tube to boot. Opened garage door with boot lid up and scratched the lid edge .. well there goes the first DING! Darn it.

Jan. 08/07: Epoxy primed engine jig.
Jan. 09/07: Got the CAM Key ground down about two thou by Kirk at Ajax Race Engines; now the cam sprocket fits. Good thing this happened as I had the key offset the WRONG WAY and would have retared the cam by 3 degrees. Painted all the interior bits ready for interior re-build. Covered one of the seats with Mr. Mike's covers.
Jan. 10/07: More paint prep for bits; painted the seat runners, covered the second seat, made leather over plastic covers for the seat hinges. The seats look awesome. Sourced Diamond Trim as a potential for seat-belt rewebbing; sourced a paint buffing expert who is going to coach me on the wet-sand-buff routine.
Jan. 11/07: Clean up the garage and put away tools. Sorted parts for the next sub-projects. Took belts to Diamond Trim to be re-webbed. Decided on using RED! Went to visit Paul Coxon

Jan. 12/07 finished working on guages to get silver bezels. Mounted. Don't like the look. Decided to take rings from parts car guages and paint red. Painted and set aside to dry.

Jan. 13/07 today we finish rebulding the engine. Carefully re-did the front only to find out we have no endplay in the cam and the engine will not turn with force. Pull apart. Reseach how to get endplay. Must skim the cam plate down to get .001 - .002 clearance. Set aside to monday for machine shop. Installed red bezels on guages. Looks awesome! Installed parking brake dust boots. Installing rear brake lines onto differential and rear feed line from junction to rear axle. Installed centre hanger for new Stainless Steel exhaust. Temporarily fit muffler and centre pipe.

Installed red bezels on guages. Looks awesome!

Installed parking brake dust boots. Started installing rear brake lines onto differential

Jan. 14/07 started stripping rad and valve cover. Spent all afternoon stripping the rad and valve cover [will use the painted valve cover for testing and put the new polished one on for final]. Cleaned and masked the polished aluminum for red paint in the ribs. Took 2 hours to mask it. Researched why exhaust not lining up and found out others had the same problem. Supposed to fit once the weight is on the springs.

Jan. 15/07 took cam and plate to Kirk. Skimmed to 4 thou. Fits nicely. Finished building most of the engine. Need new rocker studs. Located and modified cap covers for the seat bolts.


Jan. 16/07 Continued build on engine ... water pump, mounts, painted rad, painted intake and started cleaning and polishing the twin SUs that were rebuilt two years ago and have sat gathering dust. Painted top of Valve Cover red.

Jan. 17/07: more bits painted. Valve cover turned out great.

Jan. 18/07: Installed fans and rad (temporarily for 'storage') Worked on engine and got it ready to mount onto the jig. Worked on carb cleanup and setup. Painted armrests and under dash covers.

Jan. 19/07 Transferred engine from the stand to the Jig. Using my B-JIG (front end clip from the old 78 parts car) I have installed the back plate, driven in the bush, installed the starter after making the grind modifications to the starter for clearance on the block and ring gear, and hooked up a battery using Twigworkers instructions in a previous post (thanks Jack) and low an behold she spins, disengages, and spins on command. So we have step one completed and tomorrow I will hook up the clutch, tranny and the supports. Once that's all done I'll take the jig for a spin around the block...... kidding!

Jan. 20/07: Completed the Rivergate installation and setup on the B-Jig. See details of the installation on this thread
http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,494912

Jan. 21/07: Family in from Sudbury. No B work today but started costing the project in a spreadsheet for appraisal purposes. (Bryan and I fixed the oven door though and thereby cost justifed my Mig Welder!!!)

Jan. 22/07: Today we created 5 new panels for the interior. Have the two front kicks and one behind the radio left to do. Then we will recover with matching vinyl to the seats.

Jan. 23/07: Ordered two more wheels and tires for the trailer from Discount in Detroit. Fabricated front kick panels and one small dash panel. Fabricated new cowling for in front of the rad using pieces of panel board left over.

Jan. 24/07: Finished panel fabrication. Taking to Diamond Trim for sewing on the door stitching; spoke to Kim Chevalier about putting a logo on the rear deck panel. Raymond (painter) came over and examined my poor attempt to cut and buff the paint. Showed me how to fix it (whew) and this is going to take a few days to accomplish. Painted the stainless steel screws and cap s that will hold the panels in place. Painted to match the dash and console.

Jan. 25/07: After knocking down the nibs and buffing I could still see some peel. So I got bold and block sanded the clear with 2000 and lots and lots of water. Then I dried it with a wipe and some air and I could still see some shiny dots. More wet blocking until it was a dull flat red. Holding my breath that I would ever get it back I hit it with G3 with the buffer on the wool and WOW the shine came back and NO PEEL. Better yet no deep scratches like I managed to get on the other door from using 1500 and not keeping it wet enough to flush the clear out of the paper. That took a LOT of remedial buffing to get the scraches out. Thank goodness Raymond put on 4 coats of clear to accomodate my 'almost' screwup. So Rick, add another week to my schedule because this is going to take time and patience. But I am pleased I have finally learned how to do it right.

Anyway it is too cold to put the lump in the weekend because I need to back the car out of the garage to make room up front for the engine hoist. At -15C garage doors open - fugetaboutit!

Jan. 26/07: Took panels to Diamond trim to have red inlays installed; picked up red re-webbed seat belts. No to paint the buckles to match the dash. Took the rear panelto Kim Chevalier to get a logo embroidered. Started wet sanding the entire car with 2000.

Jan. 27/07: Wet sanding; Wet sanding; Wet sanding; Wet sanding; Wet sanding; Wet sanding; Wet sanding; Wet sanding; Wet sanding; Wet sanding; 6 hours of it today and about 6 yesterday. I even re-did the sections I had buffed becasuse I still could see peel. There are 17 sections to do on our MGB roadsters; 7 below the waist, 8 above the waist and the bonnet and boot lid.

Now I have to spray touch-up the lower RF fender where the paint sucked into the substrate and left a patch of pinholes.

Jan. 28/07: My arms are killing me. Finished doing the primary buff with G3 after wet sanding the hood flat for 3 hours. RF fender paint repair failed. Looks like hell. Buffed it off and will consult with Raymond. Preparing the garage for engine install tomorrow.

Jan. 29/07: Engine installed with Rivergate-Nissan 5 speed. Was so successful with neighbour Otto's capable assistance that I decided to bleed the clutch. That was a bummer. Could not get pedal.

Jan. 30/07: Called Will Perry. He suggested clamping and bleeding. 3 hours later I had pedal. Tested disengagement with Patty pressing the pedal and me turning the driveshaft by hand - working! Tried to bleed brakes. No luck. M/C not pumping. Ordered a new M/C from Fred [$300.00). Installed fans, rad and valve cover to at least feel like I was winning on something.

Jan. 31/07: New M/C arrived. Also not pumping. Something is very wrong. Read the manual again. Discover that front caliper bleed screws are supposed to be on the top. Mine are on the bottom... calipers on the wrong side!! ARGH. Switched over and now bleeding. Got left side pedal then had to go out for dinner. Will try RF later.

Got front calipers working. Can't get fluid to the rear. Will check tomorrow.

All in all January was great progress.