BritishV8 Forum

Thanks Trip for the kind words!

I'm pretty lucky the door wasn't rusted or it would have taken a lot longer to peal back the fold. For the first time re-skin it came out real good, it came out so good that I may attempt to do the other door, but the skins aren't cheap.

Now just need to make more time to keep moving ahead.

Calvin

You're welcome, Calvin.

Hey, if the fact that you were able to get the last bit done so efficiently is any indication, you're not going to need to make a lot of time to get the rest done.  You will however, be needing to make time to be out cruisin' instead!  LOL

Trip

I haven't posted in awhile , so here it goes.

Trip, I wish I was cruisin around right about now!

Re-worked the gas tank some more. Didn't want to use gas tank foam because of over time the foam breaking down and clog up the fuel system. So layed my gas tank on the side and drilled 1/2" holes in all four corners, took a jig saw, started at one corner and cut out the side of the tank. This aluminum gas tank is 80 thousands thick. Went down to my local metal vender and picked up a sheet of 80 thousands aluminum. I have a fuel sending unit float in the gas tank, that will swing up to be in the full position. The swing is towards the outside of the tank on left side. So on left side, installed a baffle close to the side wall about 3" in,  3/4's the height of the tank, and straight up. There is 3 of these baffles in the tank with holes drilled close to the bottom for fuel passage + pass on the sides, one on the left, one in the middle, one on the right. Installed one more baffle at a 45 degrees on the left side and under the swing arch of the fuel sending float.

Checked all clearances , then tig welded the baffles in. Tig welded the side back on, welded all four holes up, pressure tested the tank for leaks.

Now when going into a hard corner with some spirited driving, won't have all that weight of the gas hitting the side of the tank, possibly pushing the car into a spin. Also will help with fuel starvation with fuel injection. The 3 + one baffle at 45 degrees intalled in the tank will help with gas sloush too.

Have been spending alot of time on all the panels, doors, hoods, and body tub, spraying high build primer. I'm on the 3rd coat and block sanding by hand to get all surfaces flat. Using knock down paint to check for low and high points in the finish. Just about done with all the panels. Finish sanding with 600 grit sand paper. NOW! I know "WHY" car painters cost so much, very labor intensive work. A Paint job is as good as the primer prep, hours and hous of work.

Took a small hand held mini heater, applied hot air to both front inner fender shields, and removed all old undercoating (black tar on one side).
Used a 4" angle grinder with a paint stripper wheel, cleaned to bare metal both sides before panting black.




Cleaned up the e-brake handle with mini paint stripper wheel with air die grinder. Then painted black. Used the air die grinder, cleaned up both pins, ratchet gear plate, and bolts, to look new again. End results having a rebuilt e-brake assembly that looks good, even tho it will be covered up.



Replaced hand grip with a new one. Used the mini hand held heater blower to soften up the rubber grip which expanded the rubber a little, grip slid right on, when it cooled down it tighened up on the handle.



The holes here have been enlarged for the 240sx cable ends. On the 240sx cable has the same ends as a TR6, but the TR6 cables are a little smaller.

Yes have been working on all the small stuff, cleaning stripping and painting. This would be the steering column bracket at the firewall under the dash.




All these parts were stripped from yellow paint down to metal using 4" angle grinder with stripper wheel, what couldn't get with grinder, used sand blaster in a small box.

Door hinges (Need to find the other pair), Hood hinges, Rear deck lid hinges all primed with high build primer(2 coats). I used a detail gun with 1.0 tip to spray primer at 43 psi.



"Next" is the first time anyone and myself has seen the color I'm painting my ride with. It is called Atlantic Blue Pearl Coat (2004 Dodge Color). 2 coats of base on all the parts with a 15 minute flash using my detail gun again 1.0 tip, then 2 wet coats of clear with 15 minute flash inbetween. I like the looks of this blue, reminds me of a Cobra color.



I didn't even sand the primer to 600 grit finish like all my panels have, this finish looks OK. I'm "EXCITED" to move onto the rest of the car for this was testing the waters with base/clear setup.

I-Can-Do-This.

Door hinge up close.

Looking good Calvin. It's a lot of work but once you're finished you'll have something you will really be able to enjoy.

Jim

I like your Non- Ford BLUE!  Keep up the great job.

Been working on the metal dash backing piece that hold all the gauges. In the cluster gauge area, center of the dash, I did add an extra gauge. So needed to grind a little for them to all fit through the metal dash.Dash was primed in this photo.

Just underneath the cluster area in the rectangular hole , you will see 2 protruding tabs that use 2 screws to hold the center plinth. The center plinth is where the choke & heater controls would be located. The 2 circles that are on either side would have a control in each hole.

In my swap process decided to install a Vintage Air system. Well wanted to keep everything looking stock in the dash area as much as possible. With A Vintage Air system going in, needed to install the controls for it and couldn't use any of the original control knobs.So had to modify the center area some to get the new controls to go in.




The photo below shows the metal dash flipped over. The 2 tabs that were protruding out in the photo above, there is 3 yellow lines(In photo below) of where I used a dremel tool with a mini cut off wheel, cut the protruding tabs off completely (Both sides).





In the photo above The tack gauge hole needed some of the metal to be moved out so that the gauge retainer would have clearance to fit.

The photo below shows with the black line where the original metal was. Took the mini cut off wheel, cut out the metal and made a piece to go back in for the clearance, Tig welded all the little pieces of metal.



This photo (below) shows the little tabs welded back in, but they are coming out the round holes instead of the rectangular hole. The tabs are in the same place for the screw to hold the plinth, and giving more room in the center for the Vintage Air controls that will be going in. So the right tab is the left one (in the top photo) and the left is the right now.

The primer is BOR 15 and the black paint is BOR chassis black.

This is the back side again, used the Dremel wheel a little more for the Vintage Air controls for clearance, rounded one more corner off. Used my air body saw to cut in straight lines, then a file to de-bur the metal.



Vintage Air controls in polished aluminum, knobs will light up.



Used the air body saw again, cut out for controls in the center plinth.



Did the same here for the wood insert that Randy Keller made for me.

Controls mounted in the plinth and in the metal dash. Have area on both sides to add a switch for something else. It looks simple , not clutered.



A look at the back side.



A photo to give the idea of what it will look like.

Was thinking on how I was going to paint the front and back of the body tub. The tub mounted on the rotisserie, doesn't give very good access to the front or back to paint. So made a body dolly out of the left over steel from the rotisserie.

 Materials used:

  2" square tube .120 wall
 1 1/2" square tube .120 wall
 1 1/4" square tube .120 wall
 4 casters (same as on the rotisserie)
16 bolts,nuts,and lock washers
2" flat steel .120
1 3/4 angle .120
2" with 1/4" lip on both sides .120


(photo below)

 4) 20" uprights and 2 runners in 2" square tube. Tig welded together



Closer view of the 2".



Tig welded off the 2" square tube on all 4 sides, 6" long 1 1/4" square tube for the 1 1/2" square tube to slide over.The 1 1/2" square tube was used for the other 2 runners to make a square. I didn't need to use pinch bolts here because it was a tight press fit. I used a heavy mallot to pound them together. I will be able to pound them apart for storage.



Flat steel plate tig welded on the end of 2" square tube for the casters to be mounted. Sprayed the whole dolly for rust with cheap black paint.

Made some set in brackets, that the body will sit on, that go into the top of the 2" square tube. I will be able to make other brackets for maybe the TR6 frame.

Tig welded the 90 degree angle steel to 2" wide 3" long 1/4" lip steel. These will slid into the 2" tube uprights.


Found some heavy duty fiber felt with sticky glue on one side from Home Depot. Cut to fit the floor fiber felt  to fit the bracket.



The body tub will sit on this fiber felt and not be metal to metal. The rocker panel (from the body tub) straight edge will sit on this felt. Will use straps to tie body tub to body dolly.



This body dolly will work good for rolling around to paint.

Calvin, your updates have slowed quite a bit... how's the progress coming?  If you're into block sanding, that's why I took mine to a body shop.  Could take months of 1-2hrs here, 1-2 there.  Hope you haven't stalled out.

Hey Rob,

"Yes" it has been about 40 days since last post! I haven't posted lately but will soon. Have made good progress, body tub is on body dolly and real close to painting base/clear (can't paint because of all the rain here). Painted the whole under side with POR 15 chassis black over the lizard skin sound control/ceramic coating (inside doors are done too), also the inside of all fenders. Installed speaker cans in outside footwells. The body tub has been sanded down to 600 grit sandpaper and ready for 2 good days for painting. Re-did my air compressor setup with an air dryer and good filters, now don't have water in the air. All the fenders, hood, rear deck lid are all sanded to 600 grit sandpaper ready for base/clear.... Haven't stalled out here!

Also have been working on other projects with my kids cars at the same time, kind of like an auto shop around here. My son's VW, we took out his tired 1600cc dual port engine and installed a 2276cc stroker engine with dual Delorto 45mm carbs, oil sump w/oil filter. That VW hauls, could probably be a mid 12 sec 1/4. May need to install a throtle stop for him.

My other son, we are re-building a hard top for his 73 Spitfire, took the old headliner out, spayed left over Lizard skin sound /ceramic coating before the new headliner goes back in. He is installing a new rear window and seal.

Both my twin boy's have their drivers liciense now! Scary thought.

I have some LS1 engine power goodies coming soon with some tuning software, in the end should be putting down over 400 ponies to the ground. There will be a learning curve with tuning, looking forward to it.

I see your MGB is coming along well and you will pick up your ride soon "Awesome" That red looks great Rob! I'm with you wanting to get our rides done.

Will post soon!

Calvin

Glad to hear Calvin -- I'd say it's a race to see who's on the road first, but I'd lose!  I did pick my car up on Wed.  A few bits & pieces to go back for on Monday.  Glove box door had a minor flaw & a couple of other small parts hadn't been buffed out.  Also have some chrome to pick up at the plater -- man, i should have gotten the chrome work done back when I started; prices were up there then but they've gone way up since.  I'm going to have to come up with a substitute for chrome plating my roll bar -- windshield frame was $400 & there's way less labor in that than a dual hoop roll bar.  If you know of any good chrome substitutes, let me know.

Also, I should have gotten back with you a long time ago on the seat covers.  Decided to have MrMikes do them to save shipping the seats back & forth -- he has patterns for the Miata seats I have.  He's doing them now; should be done sometime next week.

Looking forward to seeing the updates on your progress.

I'm glad you found an alternative with your Miata seats. Mr. Mike's seats look great from what I have seen. I bet it feels good to have her home with a new look as in "AWESOME" color red.  Hope you have the time, or take time off to make progress so you can make the meet this year.  It probably would be nice to have a week with no distractions or phone's to answer, but that is king of hard with family so close by.

Rob, check this website out for re-chrome + this site has all kinds of cool stuff to use...
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/reprochrome.html


Have you figured out how you are going to mount your Miata seats?


When we were at Truimphest/VTR 2009 found a TR6 that had his Miata seats mounted like this. It was a simple brackets that he had made. A sqaure frame with flat bar going accross and using the original bolt holes in the body tub. The original Miata rails cut down and bolted up to the frame. I liked this idea because he didn't need to hammer in the seat pan for clearance. For a TR6 , this gives the the strength that is needed. My TR6 body pan was cracking the floor of the tub metal on the outside rear seat rail bolt hole on both sides. Hopefully the seats won't sit to high. I'm not sure how they would mount in your MGB

Recieved HP tuners software in the mail today. This is a must have when doing anything to an LSX series engine. The only other software for tuning is LS1edit that I know of. I'm getting these ls6 cnc ported heads at 62cc chamber size for about 10.6 to 11.0 compression http://texas-speed.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=134&catid=20 with this cam http://texas-speed.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=167&catid=44 228/228 duration 588/588 lift  with a 112 LSA. Replacing the stock timing chain with an LS2 timing chain,and ls2 sprockets (upper/ lower, LS2 lifters, replacing rocker arm needle bearings with comp cams rocker trunnion needle bearing upgrade kit(stock needle bearings are not encased and could fall out with higher lift cams)(the stock rockers are still lighter than any other after market rocker). Using 7.350 Chromemoly pushrods. Also a ported LS6 oil pump for better oiling. Have some ported maf plates for both side of the maf too from Fast toys.http://fasttoys.net/shop/product_info.php?cPath=84_24_27_45&products_id=33  May later go to the ported fast intake.

Every car that has been driven by me , I'm unable to leave it alone and keep it stock. Kind of reminds me of Tim Allen (just gotta make it better). Every car in this family has exhaust or air intake , or chipped , and maybe a throtle body spacer. Even my service car (Honda Element) has a tunned air intake and bypassed the throtle body with the coolant.

This engine should put down around 420 to the ground when tunned right. With the heads and cam setup with the aluminum fly wheel should be very responsive low to mid rpm with a nice lopy idle. I didn't want to go any higher duration cam because probably won't be running this engine at high rpms .Looking for torque. Won't be driving around at 6500 + rpm where higher duration cams are better and give you peak power.



What is in the box for HP tunners.




Tools needed to check cam degree and push rods for length. Also there is a degree wheel for a ratchet to tighten bolts. I guess a bolt streach cinch. GM tolerances.




Just need to wash the whole body tub, wipe down with cleaner, and ready to spray color. Decided to do it the hard way and paint all the hood, deck lid, fenders, and doors separately. Then will assemble with care.

Got those 2 real bad dents out and cleaned up in the lower section. Wow thinking about it, went through almost 2 gallons of high build primer from Sem products 3 in one to do everything so far. Paint primer sand, check with guide coat for flatness, prime again sand, guide coat again, some places took 3 or 4 times with this process. I'm done with the primer, it's good enough. I'm sure there will be flaws but I want to drive it not trailer it.



In this photo, you can see the speaker can that was added. Door sills are ready. Even smoothed over some spot welds from the factory. Right in front of the defroster slot on the drivers side, close to the front hood area, a big 4x4 piece of wood fell in that area, and left a huge dent almost an inch deep. Used a spot weld dent puller to get it out, then smoothed over.


Other side, can see the fenders in the garage, They are all done ready for paint.



The BOR chassis black paint is some hard stuff when it dries.

I ran into an issue with this piece. This part goes under the grill in the front of the body. It had a couple of dents that had some surface rust. OK, just paint some aircraft paint remover on it, no problem right. Came back to clean off the black paint, the paint stripper didn't touch this stuff. OK get out the flapper wheel on the angle grinder and go to town on it. Well that did'nt work, the flapper wheel didn't do anything until it got real hot, started to melt it. Hmmmm! OK  This piece was dipped in some kind of plastic coating. Finally took my heat gun and removed it all. Took out 3 hours to do. If I knew this I would have just bought a new one. Cleaned it all up smoothed the dents out, sanded , primed with BOR primer, painted with BOR chassis black. What a pain this was.

Took advantage of the first nice day around here without rain and got busy. Wiped down the areas that were going to be sprayed with base/clear.

The photo below, the tape line on the bottom under the brown paper, will be painting with high temp black paint around the header area.



Sprayed 2 good coats of base. Started to get just a little wind coming through my breeze way, hoping it wouldn't ripe off my tape job.



Sprayed 2 to 3 good coats of clear. I did stand in the engine compartment and sprayed without backing up into my work. Was able to spray without any runs. I couldn't use my normal size spray gun , so used my detail gun, was smaller to get into these small areas.



Right side, can see some ripples in the sheet metal, but this will be cover up with all the componants in this area.

Left side engine compartment. The hood latch bracket came out pretty good, was in bad shape before replacing it, and fixing the sheet metal around it. It looked like someone cut the latch bracket out from  another car and tried to weld it in.



Base on the right door sill & rocker.



Base on the left door sill & rocker.



Base on the back. Was trying to make good head way today!

Sprayed clear on both door sills. The sill & rockers came out better than the engine compartment, was able to keep the spay gun going at the right distance and coverage. Didn't have any orange peal look at all, where the engine compartment did a little, because of the space issue



Both rockers, front fenders, and back fenders have a chrome strip that runs along the top outer edge the full lenght. When car is more assembled, will spray undercoating under the chrome strip to the bottom , full lenght



So ended up spraying clear into the evening time, one more clear shot in the engine bay. Probably with sand with 2500 grit sand paper and buff out the orange peal look, still doesn't look bad the way it sits.



Did not spray clear on the back yet.

Brenda and I went around and around if we wanted the original flat black paint (factory used flat black), from the middle line of the body up to the top. So when we went to Triumphest/VTR Nationals 2009, looked around at all the TR6's back ends, found that we both agreed on using gloss black, in our opinion gave it a cleaner updated look. So in the morning will be taping off, spraying the gloss black, then clear over both. Have 24 hours before clear needs to be on or will need to sand again before clear.

Close up the one bay and go in for the evening. Will be out first thing on V-day to get black spray then clear. After that family time . "Happy V- day to all.

I might have missed something, so if so forgive me.
What happened to the reinforcing triangles between the main tub and the trunk?
They add quite a lot of stiffness and help control scuttle shake.

Hi Alan,

Good eye, and you know your TR6 bodies well. "Yes" I did cut them out. There will be something going back in there for strenght. My gas tank is moved back a little, so there is extra room for speakers going in there. I have to smile because, was wondering how long it was before someone would call attention to it. The factory used the gas tank to reinforce that area also. I will be making something with light material (aluminum) to brace the whole area there and around aluminum gas tank.