Thread: 51 MG restoration.

Yew is a tricky wood to work with. It does go great with light woods like yellow cedar and I bet it would be fantastic against a maple burl dash. There are some pretty great Canadian woods like maple. Could you do all of your exposed woods in maple? It should be available as figured and clear straight grain, and being domestic the shipping should be bearable. Yew and arbutus can be difficult to source. See what you can find and choose from there.

My son worked at a local lumber mill for one year.
He says he’s still tight with the staff so is going to reach out.
Some local hewn Maple to finish her off sounds like a good plan.
And Maple is actually harder than ash so will make for stronger stone and bump protection down the road as well.
Seems like the choice is made.
Cheers..

Originally Posted by MikeB52

My son worked at a local lumber mill for one year.
He says he’s still tight with the staff so is going to reach out.
Some local hewn Maple to finish her off sounds like a good plan.
And Maple is actually harder than ash so will make for stronger stone and bump protection down the road as well.
Seems like the choice is made.
Cheers..

One of the advantages of not burning one's bridges when one moves on from a job--------------------------

Mike how about your wiring? Was your harness in good shape? Or will you build a new one
?

Do they use Lucas or Lucifer type wiring?

Wiring was hacked and f- ked. Lucas originally.
When they switched her over to an alternator from a generator they never even added a fuse box so I’ve ordered a prewired kit from eBay.
What they call a muscle car basic wiring harness but will provide me all I need. 8 fused lines and associated, gage appropriate wiring for each leg. No it won’t be lacquered, cloth wrapped original style wiring, but I’m ok with this deviation.
Only going to need 6 circuits, so will add an ‘always hot’ accessory line for my discreet phone charger circuit.
Decided no radio circuit will be needed, but I will be using Bluetooth and a couple of great wireless speakers synced to my phone for tunes, and cell phone, hands free requirements up here..
Car never had a radio installed, so still won’t.
Mounting my wood onto my steel tonight hopefully, sizing it up anyway.

Cheers..

Originally Posted by cudarunner

One of the advantages of not burning one's bridges when one moves on from a job--------------------------

100% true Roy.
Beat that into both our kids and it has stuck. More with the boy, but they both have a great work ethic..

Originally Posted by MikeB52

100% true Roy.
Beat that into both our kids and it has stuck. More with the boy, but they both have a great work ethic..

I have three children from two wives. I always drilled into them that------------IF YOU'RE NOT EARLY, YOU'RE LATE!

It used to burn my butt to be in the break room on lunch or break and it would be say 8 o'clock straight up and an employee would come rushing in, not dressed for work and would finally get punched in for their shift at 5 or 6 minutes after the hour. While technically they weren't 'late' by my standards they were.

Well two of the three took my council to heart and are not only usually early for things but are very reliable. However the one daughter------------always late and always has an excuse.

My son and his girlfriend have been together ever since high school and last year they decided to tie the knot but didn't want a fancy church wedding just close family and a few friends at the Justice of the Peace. The one daughter didn't make in time to see her brother get married. The excuse??? Oh, her kids weren't cooperating. She got there as everyone was leaving and she was crying her eyes out outside the building and when she told me her excuse I told she should have dropped them off a her husbands work place and come without them The husband works for his dad in an auto repair business and she's left the kids there for appointments before.

No she didn't get any sympathy from dad-----------

Well, thinking you’ve accounted for everything is a sure way to poke at karma.
I didn’t account for the overall shrinkage of the old wood over 70 years. Moisture loss and the like. Think shrunken heads of New Guinea..
My saved upper cowl pieces clearly show about a 1/8” recession from the line they should be on where it meets the sheet metal. Both sides.

Here in particular, I can add wood shim to close the gap easily enough.
But I’m going to have to change my plan and build everything on the car, to ensure the true steel frame references are used as the ones on my work table were taken from the old wood.
Think my tub frame restore angles will be off slightly now at the rear of the car due to that same shrinkage..
Oh well, just need to restep and remeasure, maybe remove a bit of steel.

Bummer. But Im sure something like that could very well be the problem. You will work it out.