Thread: 51 MG restoration.

Gawd. My body work sucks.
I reckon you get out what you put in. I saw a few fools gonna do some lead-filling once.
Stuff rolled right off.

That prep Mike did to get adhesion is pretty cool!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Gawd. My body work sucks.
I reckon you get out what you put in. I saw a few fools gonna do some lead-filling once.
Stuff rolled right off.

That prep Mike did to get adhesion is pretty cool!

For the life of me I can't remember the old '70's movie that had the Phrase "Practice The Six P's and those 'P's were

Proper
Planning
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance

I don't think that I have ever seen ANYTHING that Mike has done/worked on etc where he didn't practice those Six P's.

I try but I don't always succeed.

Once you tin the metal and wipe it with a rag....the correct amount of heat is key to making the lead stay put. Too much heat ...it will run off....it’s a fine line...

[QUOTE=sharptonn;1939335]They are literally gluing cars together these days. These adhesives are amazing.
Seems there is a big three on these products. They buy up anything that's good.
Great for the product and the retirement of the developer.

Seems Mike is determined to go old school. Lead.

Yep glues have come a long way gents, they glued my knee in place.
When it comes time you will be skim coating all the tins right then block sand? I’ve not seen any body work done with lead and tin that still didn’t need a good block. But that old school bronco with metal in it intrigues me, maybe I’ll repaint my tins and give it a whir.

Wife joined me in hosting a 5k run for heart and stroke today with my company. Was fun to do something social again. Our house was the half way spot. Stocked it with a cooler of water and snacks.
40 of us raised almost 1500. Not bad for a pandemic.

That filler looks interesting thanks.
Learning the lead and failures from lead it seems left over rust was the biggest problem aside from flux residue.
So I’m watching myself on those steps.
Totally expect I’ll be using some filler on fine stufff I miss while leading.
Will be epoxy priming before filler as nessmuck suggests as welll.
And for sure I’ll be blocking the whole car.
While in aviation I learned about epoxy vs polyester filler and know it’s only improved since then.
I am enjoying learning this old skill though on this old car.

Must do, pre-summer Yard work has kept me away from the car last couple weeks, but I did find time to check doors again before committing to calling things ready for prime.
Glad I did too as my hinge cut outs are too tight still.


With the hinges bent out of the way, things line up, but I’ll be doing a bit more fit work before I am ready to nail things down.
Doors themselves still need to be completely stripped and rebuilt, but that’ll be after the main tubs back together.
Cheers gents.

Any chance of a close up of those hinges? Just wondering

Wedge-shaped shims are sometimes the cure. Sometimes easier to make than tweaking everything...

Some adjustability is a good thing

Already pulled the doors back off as they are surprisingly heavy, but what I mean by too tight is height wise in the lower,(new) steel. When I bent over the steel, I built up too much weld and need to grind it all off and do better,, no room for the width of the hinge itself.

I did buy two new hinges for the passenger door and this is how they look.

Solid brass and beautiful..

So I found an old firewall on eBay, but in Arizona.


Needs work, but a ton less than mine does, so I’m trying to work out a deal with the seller. .
Fingers crossed, as he will have a do not sell pointof course, and the exchange and shipping costs do add up but damn,, it’ll save me so much work, and looks pretty damn good under that flash rust.

Taken the car right back to wood again, and oh how the wife is dismayed. But I am prepping the pieces, and reapplying epoxy to some wood that needed trimming along the way. Next time panels go on, they will be primed.