How to overcome restoration inertia

[jlaird]

Darn you guys with cars driveable or almost ready to drive. It's going to be a long hot summer.

 

[John Moore]

I just finished up the resto of my 70 MGB. This last stage had it off the road for 1.5 - 2 years. I just tried to do something little every day and eventually got it done! I too dispaired at times. The metal work and welding was physically tough and demanding. I personally elected NOT to do the body work and paint. I'm sure I could have done it if I set my mind to it, but I know my limitations and didn't want to get bogged down in the body work. Plus, I know if it wasn't perfect, I would be less than happy. That's how I knew when to call in a pro.

Good luck and keep at it! The results are well worth the time.

 

[Daimlerdb18]

Yeah, I had fully intended to take the MGA to the folks who had done the body and paint on the 1970 BGT a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, RITA happened and took out about half of the businesses in the immediate area competent to do the kind of job required. The body shop that did the B did survive the storm, but are booked with work until nearly the end of the year, AND the prices have gone stratospheric at all the shops in the area. I thought about taking the A to Houston, but that's a two hour drive one way. Given the kind of vigilance that I would want to have over this kind of work, decided that Houston was just too inconvenient. I worked at a restoration shop in Houston waaaaay back in the 1970s while I was a wee lad (ha!) and figured, "how hard could it be?" to do body work again. All the tools are in the home garage, having been lugged along during each move made over the past 30+ years. The DA sander was working, the compressor is working, I replaced the old spray guns with a new HVLP gun for the priming work. However, the spirit, it is willing, but the passage of time has made the flesh weaker than when I was 20. So, taking the advice of the forum members, do the work a bit at a time, slow down, work on something else when frustrated and don't expect to have the car done by the Hot August Nights annual car show and cruise this year. Now, perhaps it's time to think about installing A/C in the garage to extend the working season and perhaps comtemplate another resto, but SWMBO (not DrE's, but the lovely lass who puts up with me)is beginning to pine for space for her CRV under a roof. She doesn't buy the theory that what doesn't kill the paint makes it stronger, and wants the thing under cover. As far as R6MGS beautiful MGA, ah it's a pleasure to see and curse that mine's not like that RIGHT NOW....patience patience patience.

 

[DrEntropy]

Heh. Somehow that "patience" thing is still elusive at times despite the time I've served on-planet. If you hit it as a "panel repair" and do one section at a time it does get a ~bit~ less aggrivating. This B was hit front and rear at some point in time and NOT ONE lid was refitted properly. We drove it like that for over a decade, warts an' all. Now I've shoved, straightened, beat, Port-a-power'd it into an acceptable semblance of "straight". Straight enough for a daily driver anyhoo. Just keep knobbin' on it and it'll soon enough start to enthuse you again. I ~HATE~ bodywork but there was no way I'd let a commercial "shop" do what I wanted done to this car. I've lowered my standard, but not to a point of accepting someone elses. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[kennypinkerton]

A cheapo $100-150 window unit from wally-world would keep it "liveable" in the shop... Might not be looking for penguins, but it should lower the humdity and keep the temps in there under 80. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I'm usually fine if there's just air moving... In that case, a large oscillating fan (one of the ones on a pole/stand) would work well too.

 

[DrEntropy]

Yup. Can't remember when we last ran the AC in the hovel. Fans everywhere. The 6K sq/ft shop was always a low velocity wind tunnel with all the fans we'd have in doorways too. I live in Florida by choice, not chance. AC is fer wimps an' sissies. Should be outlawed.

It'd sure clear this place out quick! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Nunyas]

Originally typed by Doc:
[ QUOTE ]
To quote Uncle Red Green: "...We're all in this together." !!

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought his saying was, "Keep your sticks on the ice!"? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Yeah, I've heard him say the other too, but the sticks bit was always my fav. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[tony barnhill]

3-ton heat pump in the Garage-Mahal has never been turned on...I open all the garage doors & turn on a big 4-foot floor fan I have...it keeps everything cool...this summer, I'm installing screen doors on the overhead garage doors to keep pesky visitors out!

 

[Daimlerdb18]

I've been down the fan road in the garage, but the western exposure, 90% humidity and 95 deg afternoons does me in after just a bit of work, even with the air moving. I don't have the heat tolerance I used to have. But, that's just a fact of life here in the swamps on the Sabine, that and Louisiana's state bird flying into for a quart fill-up of the red stuff (that's humming bird-sized mosquitoes for those who live north of I-10). But, there's a sad note to all of this. Put a couple of bolts in the wings, hot-wired the coil and fuel pump and took off like a bat down the drive and out into the street. It felt GREAT, even with all the clatter and noise of the loose body bits. The engine sounds super after the total rebuild, the rebuilt carbs are even half-way right. Brakes are working fine as was the clutch. SWMBO II helped bleed them this AM and did a work(wo)man-like job of it. BUT, as I was pulling back into the drive, the last shift felt "funny" and the gear lever wouldn't enter second without huge grinding sounds. Coasted into the garage and found that the the gear lever would enter into gear position even without the clutch depressed. Depressing the clutch with the shift in neutral resulted in nasty graunchy sounds coming from the clutch housing and an evil vibration from the clutch pedal. All parts are new. Ah well, tracking down this problem will give me a break from doing body work for a while.

 

[Bruce Bowker]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone out there have a butt-kicking machine to get me started again on the coachwork sanding on the interminable '56 MGA resto project?

[/ QUOTE ]

Go to a car show.

 

[Dan_D]

I struggle with this myself, on my '65 B. My excuses for the last couple of years (besides Scouts, sports activities with my daughter and now being a roadie for my two sons' band) has been the '76 B - had some engine issues that I think are licked and now I just need to adjust the vales and put on a new valve cover gasket. In the interim I organized all of the parts I had taken off the '65, boxed 'em up and set up a spreadsheet to track everything I had and/or needed. Oh, and spent some time researching the cars history with some PO's.

Right now, I have a half-repaired banjo steering wheel next to my study desk, awaiting 5:00 pm so I can sand it a bit.... Oh wait, softball practice tonight....

Dan D