Practically Classics Forum

Had a look at the tr, the jets have massive holes worn in them and the needles have flats on the side, because of this to make it run the jets had been adjusted above the bridge where they should be below no wonder it ran badly, also all of a sudden it developed loads of movement in the steering column, turns out the bush through the bulkhead has disentigrated, I have ordered a new poly one for a tenner.

This evening I stone chipped the underside of the minor so the suspension can now go back on and it can be moved to get on with the paint.

Firstly I have to fit a new hood to the mx5 tomorrow as the window has split, we have bought a mk2 one with glass rear window and mk2 frame to match to replace it with, I have just finished stripping the new frame ready to fit it.

Some pictures firstly the minor stone chipped.
I also fitted the new hood to the mazda, firstly fitted the mk2 frame which bolted straight on allowing a mk 2 hood with glass window to be used.
Then the hood its self, pretty easy compared with the older cars, all the holes are pre punched and just a matter of working methodically from front to back.

This is the result
.

I now need to get the heated window working, the wiring is there already, so I have ordered a relay, but the switch is £50!!!

To make space for it I will need to lose the switch which isolates the electric windows, no great loss as it has never been used,
I will probably use the same switch for the heated window and make a short length of wiring to mate the two together until the correct switch turns up an affordable price.

Mx5 passed mot today, handbrake was a bit marginal but just about scrapped through, emissions were amazing, 0.00 co, 17 ppm hc and lambda bang on 1.00.

Been busy getting the minor ready for paint, pretty much there now, firstly stripped it to a bare shell, then stripped all the paint off the outer panels, filled minor dents etc, rubbed down the door shuts and interior, I still have to weld a crack in the drivers door (where quarter light passes into the door) and plan to plug weld a steel bar in for reinforcement as they seem to often crack here. Intent is to get it all in epoxy primer on saturday and if that goes well I may even get some colour on it next week, starting with the interior and door shuts.

I will try to take some photos tomorrow.

I now have some paint on the minor, it is epoxy primer and went on well, there are a few runs, and a few areas reqyuiring further work have come to light, but on the whole I am pleased with the result.

To spray the paint I used a fresh air breathing set up , I have. Used before, I have a ring of hose around the garage with T pieces in a couple of places, too the most convenient one I attach a conventional mask, , the two ends of the ring are then routed outside the garage into an adjacent outbuilding, where they are fed by two 240v air matress pumps which I purchased from aldi for a fiver each.

These are the two pumps feeding the pipes.

This is one of theT pieces, one pump feeds from each side, the mask connected to the branch.
And the mask I use, the foam is begining to break up so I will need a new one soon.
With this I can spray away and not even smell the fumes.

It's looking a lot better with a coat of paint. It's hard to see where you've done all the work, though I'm sure you can see every "fault" sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb - but I would hazard a guess that nobody else could spot 'em!! One thing's for sure though - the after looks a lot better than the before pics!

You must have an advantage over me: our garage is built right up to next door's. Though we each have our own wall - like a cavity wall I'm told (our predecessor built our garage - badly) - the air flows quite easily between the two, so if I use celly, next door's garage stinks of it and if the neighbour does something smelly, our whole house gets the smell! I don't know if our smells go into next door's house - they have never complained, but that means nothing as they are great neighbours!

Fortunatelly my garage is at the bottom of the garden so not too close to any neighbours, though there is a public footpath along the back,never had any complaints though.

Yes most of the marks are small and especailly with white paint would probably not be visible, but I may as well get it as good as I can while it is a bare shell and I don't have any great time pressures.

I rubbed a few more bits down this morning, one thing I noticed was some of the runs are in the original paint, while I bare metaled the outer panels the interior and engine compartment only had the original paint in good condidion so I just washed it down with thinners and scotchbrite pads, now I have rubbed the runs noticible in the new primer back the runs are highlighted in white original paint, some in the engine compartment are quite large, perhaps I need to put some back in for authenticity!

kev

Ah yes, originality - possibly the most annoying bit of restoration! If you had left the runs in, some "expert" would say you messed up. If you take them out, another expert would ask where they are! It's a lose-lose situation There is a myth that David Brown tractors were painted by throwing paint on them and working it about with a yard brush. Yet people spend hours making a perfect mirror-finish and wonder why most tractor folk prefer a work-worn machine (with runs!)

IIRC, the last Minor we had did have a run on the dashboard. If it wasn't the last one (Smoke Grey) it was the one before (whatever dark green was before Almond Green).

Been on holiday for the last couple of weeks so no great progress, today I stripped the paint off the minor rear wings and cut back and tissued over a couple of star cracks on the fiberglass one, they just need a skim of filler and should be good for paint.

Plan is to get everything re primed this weekend in order to enable the first top coats to go on next week.

Other news is that it looks like after 22 years I will be selling the tr7v8, not something I really want to do but we need something with 3 seats so we can still go places with my son now my daughter has passed her test and is using the family car more now. If I had the space I would just store it but I don't, it will probably will have to wait till the spring now though, convertables don't really sell in the autumn and I need to tidy a couple of areas of paint damage up first.

Thoughts of what to replace it with are revolving around a puma at the moment, you seem to be able to get a good one for around £1000 which looks suberb value, look after it and I reckon it will never be worth less.

Kevin