In another thread I mentioned that I am painting my MG myself in my garage. I am fortunate to have a friend who has been painting cars professionally for 20 years to advise me (and loan me some of his equipment on occasion).


First is a picture of some of my supplies and equipment. I am sure I will be lambasted a bit for the body filler, but there are a lot of imperfections in the body (almost like a 5 year old with a golf club had batting practice on it), and I want it to look great.

Anyways:



From left to right:

Guide coat, Short hair fiberglas filler, body hammer and dolly (cheap Chinese crap), body filler (bondo), glazing putty, etching primer, filler board (these are AWESOME), 2K primer/surfacer with catalyst, wax & grease remover (behind) with spray bottle, Limco ps21nr Sealer, Limco 3 SSU color, reducer @ hardener. Equipment is a Sprayfine turbine unit with pressure-feed gun. I have a 1.3mm (topcoat) and 1.5 mm (primer) needle for it. Beneath the turbine are various sanding block and boards and pads I bought or made. At the bottom is a $40 detail gun, it's not real good for anything.



The most useful piece of equipment so far (borrowed):




When I paint, I wash and squeegee down the floor of the garage and use 2 mil plastic to drape everything. I run the fans with filters for at least an hour before I start on any finish coats and sometimes dampen the floor if it is a really dry day. I'd rather have long dry time than crap in the paint.


Also I use a VOC Organic face filter, goggles, paint sock, gloves and paint suit every time I paint.


Anyway, on to my 21st century filtering system. This goes in under the garage door on the intake side:






It's basically a couple of 8 foot 1x4 boards boxed with 17 3/4" lengths of 1x4's and a 2x4 in the middle for a little rigidity. I staple-gunned 4 20"x20" air filters (cheapies) to the boards and then ran duct tape to seal. I had a 18x20 filter laying around (because I can never remember the right size for the house) that fit in the last part, but I was planning on blocking it up with wood or cardboard if I hadn't had that 18x20 filter laying around. The 8' boards fit perfectly in the garage door slot, I couldn't have made it fit better if I'd tried.


The garage door closes:





and I seal the gap at the top of the door with some plastic and duct tape.


On to the air exhaust system:



When we built this house I specified a door at the back of the garage, I sure am glad I did.


I bought 2 $19 20 inch box fans and hammered up some wood I had laying around into this ridiculous contraption:





The fans are held in by pressure because I built the frame around them, also I built the frame so that it jams tightly into the doorframe. The filters are attached with tape and obviously need to be changed. They look beat up because a few times a wind gust has blown it over into the garage before I figured how to cram it in there.


Here's another shot of the exhaust fans from the outside:






I thought about putting hinges on it but it just seemed like a little too much effort. I think I am going to add one more fan to this thing, if nothing else it will make it lighter.


Anyways, I hope this helps.

http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,684384

Here's a brief description of how I built my rotisserie for my MGB as requested by various members of the board.


First, a couple of disclaimers:

1. These are not actual plans for you to follow and I accept no responsibility and provide no guarantees that you won't be killed or your car destroyed if you try this.

2. I am not a welder and I know that my feeble attempts at welding are laughable. However they are strong enough to do the job and that's all I really care about.


Supplies I used:



2 Harbor Freight 1000lb Engine Stands, part number 32916-4VGA, about $50 each.

4 8' sections of 2" box section steel (medium thickness) from a supply house.

3 8' sections of 1.5" square box steel, ""

2 6' sections of 1 1/2" by 4" rectangular box steel ('borrowed' from work).

4 4" caster wheels from Harbor Freight (steel wheels)

angle iron 1.5 by 1.5 and some flat stock.


Tools I used:



10" miter saw with steel cutting thinger.

4" angle grinder

90 amp wire feed welder (C-H)

various hand tools



Let me preface this by saying I did it 100% without any real plans, a few sketches and measurements but that's it.


Picture of stand I used:





I did each stand individually and then tied them together at the end (after I had the car on the stands).


First I unpacked the stands and sectioned the vertical, adding 16" of height so the car could rotate 360 degrees. I had to use two 1.5" square box sections welded together to weld in because I couldn't find any 1.5" by 3" box stock.





Then I took the bottom piece (6' long) and bolted the casters on.






Drilled holes in the center and bolted it to the vertical piece. I used the original leg and wheels but added a piece of 2" box to make it level and to have a place to bolt the piece to tie the two stands together.




Then I measured and cut the 45 degree angle braces.. I had to do a bit of grinding to get them to lay properly, because the stand as it is built in China or wherever has some weird angles. I also added a smaller piece of angle to gusset for strength. It is short because the rotating car has to clear the piece.



Then I put on the front wheel bar and added a 2" box section to serve as a leveler and provide a place to bolt the span piece that will hold the two stands together.






Once I had that all welded together and was happy with the height and safety of the structure, it was time to jack the body up and build the brackets to attach the car to the stand.


I started with the rear. I built two really goofy little brackets to mount to the bumper brackets because the hole into the chassis was round and I didn't want to mess with it. After I had built these, I attached them to the car and measured and cut a 2" box to weld on. I did this because I knew if I tried to measure, build, and then attach, I would screw it up.





Once I had that done, I attached the rotating plate with bolts and left them slack so I could adjust later and make sure the car was level on the rotisserie.






For the front, I used angle iron and the bumper mounting holes, actually I used the bolts from the bumper brackets.


As before, I fabricated the brackets first, mounted them on the car and then cut and welded the center piece on.





Then I found center, drilled holes for the rotator plate and mounted with bigass bolts, leaving them somewhat slack in order to work out the level later.





Then it was time to get the car jacked up to mount level and get it on the stands. Let's say I used some pretty half-assed methods to get it up to the level where I could mount the car on the stands, and it would have been a really good idea to have some help for that. That being said, one person can lift each end up easily, as long as the pivot point is near the center of the car.



Once I had the car on the stands and the stands braced so they wouldn't tip towards the middle, I measured and cut the center tie piece out of 1.5 stock and some bar stock. Then I tied it all together.






Well, there it is. The car is a little bottom heavy on the stand but not too bad. I can rotate it myself with a little elbow grease. It's super-stable and rolls easily.

Full thread post is here:
http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,635763

Painting the interior and underside. Whew, that stuff sticks to EVERYTHING! Everything in my garage is tinted orange now.








In this shot if you look at the panel you'll see a patch in the center. The DPO had cut out a speaker hole, but he didn't do it with a sawzall or a grinding wheel. He did it with approximately 500 drill holes. It looked like a medieval torture device, what an idiot.











Full post here:
http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,635625