Thread of remorse AKA Project Last Chance Saloon.

[Guest TheFatOne]

Just found this site, and have been laughing since at some of the other posts! I have  a ZT the same colour but mine is a 190 V6, not quite as many issues as yours but I would like to say that I really admire the work that you have put into yours, wish I had access to the same sort of facilities and your commitment!

Bloody e#well done Sir!!

[fatharris]

A quick update:

 

Nothing of any note has happened to the old girl since the diagnosis of the broken bits, purely because (as ever), there was too much month left at the end of the money.

 

However, payday has come, parts were ordered, and arrived yesterday.

 

This compiled of:

 

2 new rear springs

2 used rear calipers

Handbrake shoes

Rear brake pads

 

Still got to dismantle and lubricate the passenger side top mount and re-torque the drivers' side too. Then I'll re-look into the battery again, giving it a thorough charge and fluid top-up.

 

Then its bodywork, promise.

[fatharris]

After a long hiatus, I fired up the old girl, pumped some air in her tyres, and drove her back on the ramps for round 2.

 

 

After deducing that the rear calipers were kippered, I ordered two more:

 

 

 

Cleaned, scrubbed, masked and painted with three coats of UHT paint.

 

 

At that time, the MG's little brother arrived at the club, gratuitous Trophy Blue picture!

 

 

Right then, passenger side top mount. First off, the wheel came off...

 

 

Then disconnected the ARB link and....hang on....

 

 

Why on earth did it just drop down like that? It shouldn't move that much, it's connected at the other en....

 

 

....whoops. Best ignore that and move on with removing the track rod end, a right bastard to come off this time.

 

 

With the bottom balljoint freed, caliper removed and shock absorber clamp bolt removed, a hideface mallet was used to separate the hub from the strut.

 

 

After much grunting, swearing and smacking, success, we have a liberated strut!

 

 

All that remained was three 13mm nuts holding it at the top...

 

 

...and it was free.

 

 

The was no way in hell I was going to go through removing the top of the ARB link, so that will stay on.

 

 

Eventually, the strut was attached to the compression unit, I learned my lesson from last time and left the spring and strut under tension whilst I attended to the top mount. 

 

 

Speaking of which...

 

 

Overall, not in bad shape on the outside, the rubber wasn't perished of damaged, just bloody filthy!

These were less happy, nothing worse than dry balls causing friction.

 

 

Top cap says the same story as last time - grease ran out and there were little indentations from wear.

 

 

Whilst the bearings soaked in parts cleaner...

 

 

I took them to the parts washer for a good scrub. Before pic for reference.

 

 

This is what came off the bearings when rubbed clean. Properly caked on useless grease.

 

 

Shiny happy balls for all!

 

 

The other parts came up really nicely too.

 

 

More evidence of wear, but actually, less than the drivers' side.

 

 

Eventually, the cavity was packed with grease.

 

 

The bearings pressed into their retaining ring, and subsequently into the grease bath.

 

 

The cap and seal went on next, and the assembly cleaned up, ready for refitting.

 

 

Reattached to the strut, with no faffing around!

 

 

Once again, held up to the strut tower and bolted into place.

 

 

Then, re-attaching it to the hub. No easy way to say this, it's a fucking arse of a job, took me 90 minutes before I could finally bolt it up and try to forget it ever happened.

 

 

However, it's all done now. I'll be giving the strut a lick of paint to protect it in the future.

 

 

Caliper went on, track rod end, and finally the ARB...

 

 

...both sides.

 

 

Wheel on, and job's a fish!

 

 

That was the end of Friday.

 

 

Hours worked: 100.5. Triple figures now.

[fatharris]

So, onto today then. Today, I had a friend with me, he wanted to roll his sleeves up and get into tinkering, so I thought we'd go in the deep end and do the springs. Immediately I realised I left my camera battery in the sodding charger, so pictures were done with the mobile.

 

 

Wheels off.

 

 

First to come off was the anti-roll bar. We managed to cheat a bit by just removing the links and rotating the bar out of the way.

 

Very stiff bolts, but eventually came out.

 

 

Rusty, but in good order and the boots are fine. If I can't find the new ones I have kicking around somewhere (although I'm sure I binned them), then these'll be fine to go back in.

 

 

Next, the upper control arm inner pivot bolt had to be loosened, and the lower control arm inner pivot bolt was removed. Then we took the shock absorber lower bolt out.

 

 

After much huffing and puffing, the spring finally came out, and my friend let his feelings towards the car be known.

 

 

One very broken coil spring, result.

 

 

New one in the process of being dressed over. The rubber components were in good order, so cleaned and fitted to the spring.

 

 

At this point, the photos dried up, because we were hitting snag after snag after snag trying to get the spring in, and all the components re-attached. Eventually, we got there.

 

 

 

Wheels were re-fitted, car lowered to the ground and parked up for the night, we'll do the other side another time during the week. 

 

 

This job thoroughly pissed me off no end, whatever could go wrong, did go wrong. At least I've had to the chance to plusgas all the bolts I'll be undoing in the future.

 

Hours worked: 108.5

[fatharris]

So, I resumed again later in the week. A friend of mine asked me how the MG was going and I told him about the nightmare of changing springs, and how I had to do the passenger side tonight, and he uttered those oh-so-magical words...

"I'm sure it's only one bolt to change them!"

Challenge set.

The one bolt in question held the shock to the rear of the hub. At this point, I'd forgotten to take pictures up until this moment:

 

 

He was bloody right and all. A quick shove down on the trailing arm was all it needed to liberate the poorly coil spring from its clutches.

 

 

You'll have to believe me on this, the top and bottom coil had snapped off, but the top one rolled away under a workbench.

 

 

Bottom (or was it top? Can't remember)

 

 

Top (As before...)

 

 

Quick sweep out of the cups, clean up of the rubbers, and she went back in almost as easily as she came out:

 

 

Then, with a bottle jack at the back to make life easier, it slotted in a treat and the job was done in around twenty minutes. So, big thanks to my friend Matt for his help, and a massive plate of dicks for Haynes to chew down for wasting several hours of my life fucking around with pivot bolts on the other side.

 

 

Sad friend had an MOT booked for a couple of hours after this photo was taken and found a lot of thin air where metal should have been. All better now though.

 

 

Next up, the handbrake was inoperable due to the shoe lining dropping out at speed on the way back from Cheshire. Once the VERY SIEZED rear caliper was removed and the TX50 bolt to get the disc off came out.



Still wasn't any better from the last time I checked it! 

 

 

The adjusters were wound back, retaining pins removed and springs released, and the shoes came out.

 

 

Covered in cracks, definitely worth doing!

...aaaand I forgot to get more pictures of the refit, the dismantling/remantling of the other side or the subsequent adjust, but needless to say, full functionality has been restored

 

 

Next job was to replace the rear calipers that were previously painted up. The carriers had been removed to remove the disc, but they were refitted after this pic:

 

 

Drivers' side was the worst, it was like a continual handbrake!

Old vs New:

 

 

Connected back up:

 

 

And, inexplicably, reassembled, both sides were bled and it feels a lot better immediately.  After closer inspection, the final caliper is dragging slightly, so I'll start hunting for a replacement. Rear brake pads were changed as well.

 

 

Passenger side was changed too:

 

 

With that work all done, I reconnected the rear ARB links:

 

 

Refitted the wheels:

 

 

And dropped her to the ground.

 

 

She sits a lot prettier now!

 

 

Quick spin around the block revealed a much nicer ride, and the springs will settle over the next few days. The end is in sight!

 

Total hours worked: 114.

[fatharris]

So, onto today:

 

After hearing the tell-tale whooshing sound that can only be all my lovely boosted horseys leaving before their work was done, I ordered a new intercooler o-ring. They arrived this week so I got cracking.

 

 

Thankfully a simple job, just pull off the filament rubber cover of the passenger inboard headlight for access, and undo an 8mm bolt. Wiggle, and she's free.

 

 

The repair I knocked up on it in a pinch had done the job admirably well, but the adhesive had started to let go slightly, causing a slight leak. So, off it came...

 

 

...and the new one took it's place. Nipped up the intercooler pipeline jubilee clip for good measure.

 

 

Refitted, a little fiddly, but I have tiny, girl-like hands. Refit, pop on rubber cover, job done.

 

 

Next, the check strap on the driver's door had a horribly loud CLICK-CLICK when opening or closing. Enter my £7 replacement. First off, the door card had to be removed.

 

 

Window switch disconnected.

 

 

Couple of screws, lots of pulling, yanking and swearing and it finally comes free.

 

 

Removed the speaker, gently prise back the incredible fragile polystyrene(?) liner, undo 2 10mm nuts and a 10mm bolt, wiggle copiously through a seemingly-impassible tight hole (giggedy.), and the problem with the check strap became immediately apparent.

 

 

Yep, the pin had nearly come out, probably do to the missing locking tab washer on the underside (darkened hole to the left).

 

 

Thankfully, the new one looked to be in excellent order.

 

 

 

With a pin that went all the way through!

 

 

A quick bit of spanner twirling, and she fitted like a charm and the door was silent once more.

 

 

With that, I replaced some panel clips, and spent 20 minutes fitting and re-fitting the door card until it was perfect. Not because I forgot to route the window switch wiring through the right hole and it ended up three inched short of the right length, definitely not that*.

 

 

Eventually though, it all came good.

 

 

Next on the list, sorting out my flapper. The rear number plate, that is.

 

 

One not-so-hefty pull and the plate was in my hand, to be confronted with those bloody horrible sticky pad bastards.

 

 

There's only so much of that stuff you can take off, and it's directly correlated to patience. Today that patience was found wanting, and I just too the sponge off and left the adhesive on. I cleaned the area throughly, and applied MANY STICKY BASTARD PADS.

 

 

They were extra thick pads to get clearance over the old ones and it worked a treat, no bugger is ever getting that plate off intact!

 

 

Next, buoyed by my earlier success with getting the door card to fit good and proper, I started to remove the rear door cards to see if I could improve them. 

 

Once again, pictures became sporadic.

 

Drivers' side:

 

 

Passenger card off:

 

 

Passenger card on. Did the front passenger card too, but no pics with that one, didn't need to remove it fully.

 

 

Drivers' card back on.

 

 

After that job, the bat-phone rang and MrsHarris requested my help at home, so I called it a day. Very few jobs left now, I'll have to tackle bodywork soon. Eep.

 

Hours worked 116.5

[purplebargeken]

Fab as always.

[fatharris]

Cheers, soon it'll be time to put him through an MOT and see how he gets on, that'll take place in February to try and gain that elusive 13 months!

 

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[oldcars]

Good work. Those chrome door handle surrounds are a bugger to get off without breaking the little clips.

[fatharris]

Tell me about it, they all broke on me in some way or another, so they were glued back on.

 

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[oldcars]

I used trim tape to put mine back on. The flex in the door card made them pop off with the glue. Hope you have better luck than i did.

[Skizzer]

Excellent stuff.  Every job on my 75 involved a lot of swearing, although I got quite adept at taking the door cards off after a while because the door handle mechanisms are made of digestive biscuit.

 

 

Your number plate is an anagram of S3XY BOD so clearly you must be 1. virile and 2. minted.  Well done.

[fatharris]

Haven't tested theory 1, and as for theory 2, I'm fixing a £300 car that will be worth considerably less than the amount I've spent on parts and consumables, which tells you everything!

 

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[Parky]

Looking great - what's left on the job sheet, must be barely anything now?

[fatharris]

It would almost fit on a post-it note now, but the one word entry is the one I am most nervous of:

 

"Bodywork"

 

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[Parky]

At least paint isn't unobtainium, if you get it wrong you can let it dry and try again

[fatharris]

So, the weekend. After a lovely afternoon walk on Saturday with t'wife, t'hound and a friend with his nipper (Dog for reference):

 

 

Today I decided to start prepping the caliper to go onto the car. I was dead chuffed when it arrived, because it was super-clean...

 

 

A dated sticker on the caliper confirmed my suspicions, this one must have been a refurb'd unit.

 

 

As usual, first thing I do with a replacement caliper before I go to the effort of cleaning/painting it, is make sure the pipe union and bleed nipple aren't seized. This caliper had the pipe union removed, so no worries there, got my trusty blanking cap out the toolbox and popped it on.

Bleed nipple wasn't so successful.

 

 

So that'll be getting sent back, really surprised a 4-year old caliper would have seized in like that, and there's no way in hell I'm drilling it out. I couldn't just leave the club today on a low note, so I washed Herman for the first time in a couple of months and took a few pictures.

 

Before:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After:

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the poor paintwork on the drivers' side easily here - those aren't reflections in the OSR door.

 

In related news, I have to drive to Guildford for a dental appointment on the 4th Feb, and for once I've decided not to bother using the works' pool car (they monitor your speed and send shitty letters if you speed at all, plus the paperwork to arrange them is a pain), so I have the choice of taking either the BMW, the MG (I can insure it for a couple of days), or the wifes' bubble Rover 220D and insure her on Herman for the day. Herman has a slightly sticking-open thermostat at the moment (sitting around 82c according to the dash diagnostics), but the MG hasn't turned a wheel in anger since November, and MrsH is always terrified of scratching Herman.

WWASD?

 

Sorry for the non-post.

[Sigmund Fraud]

In related news, I have to drive to Guildford for a dental appointment on the 4th Feb, and for once I've decided not to bother using the works' pool car (they monitor your speed and send shitty letters if you speed at all, plus the paperwork to arrange them is a pain), so I have the choice of taking either the BMW, the MG (I can insure it for a couple of days), or the wifes' bubble Rover 220D and insure her on Herman for the day. Herman has a slightly sticking-open thermostat at the moment (sitting around 82c according to the dash diagnostics), but the MG hasn't turned a wheel in anger since November, and MrsH is always terrified of scratching Herman.

WWASD?

 

A planned visit to the dentist ? What better opportunity to give the MG a good shakedown ?

[fatharris]

An FTP would be most inconvenient if I hadn't attended my appointment yet though...

[fatharris]

Sod it, whilst I mull over the benefits of taking this to Guildford for a jolly, I started to tackle the bodywork. Overall, it's wearing its miles pretty well, save for a gouge-style dent in the door, and this little doozy:

 

 

Not only was it an eye sore, but it was lumpy and poorly-applied. Whilst I'm not capable of doing a perfect, professional repair, I can certainly do a lot better than this.

 

 

So, first off, the sanding began. I used an air-powered DA sander with an 80-grit disc on to get as much off as quickly as possible. Big, big fan of doing it this way in the future, took no time at all.

 

 

As you can see, there were cavities throughout the repair caused by poor application of filler, which in turn has caused corrosion.

 

 

Guessing there's some chicken wire under that lot...

 

 

First layer of filler on.

 

 

After it had partially cured, it was DA'd back into shape with a 180-grit disc.

 

 

Another layer of filler, some more sanding later, and it's good enough.

 

 

Next up, a few coats of primer on the repair area, the surrounding paintwork on this bonnet section was abraded with 600 wet and dry to get some adhesion.

 

 

Once dried, it was finely sanded again to aid adhesion and  tack-clothed down.

 

 

Next up, colour. Ordered the whole kit from Paints4U, and already found the primer to be excellent.

 

 

First coat went on lovely.

 

 

Second coat, and a third followed.

 

 

Colour match isn't too bad.

 

 

Once dried, it looked like I had a decent, even coating.

 

 

Once again, lightly sanded for the final step, lacquer.

 

 

This is where things started to go wrong. Despite warming the can in a jug of hot water for 10 minutes, and thoroughly shaking, every so often, it'd through a big, fat globule of lacquer straight onto the paintwork, which can be seen below.

 

 

 

 

And by the time it had become touch-dry, I had a run:

 

 

So, I've left it overnight whilst I ascertain my options, it'll almost certainly be "Try and polish it out", there were three coats of lacquer applied, so it should stand up nicely to a good buffing once it's fully hardened.

 

Thoroughly pissed off.

[Parky]

Big big improvement. And as I said before if it goes wrong, let it dry and try again. Shame the lacquer let things down, looked fine to that point so with some luck you might be able to wet sand or polish out the globs.

[fatharris]

Problem is, the cars been hogging a ramp for three days already, I need to move it tomorrow morning! I'll park it elsewhere in the club and give the wet sanding a go though!

 

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[fatharris]

Finally pulled the masking tape off, the colour difference is quite noticeable, but less noticeable than a huge glob of filler on the leading edge.

 

 

 

Next was an annoying issue, the offside rear caliper spring clip made a break for freedom at some point, so it needed replacing.

 

 

Luckily, my replacement caliper came with a clip, its just out in the scrap metal bin...

 

 

Bollocks, that's a rusty, tetanus-filled haystack.

 

After emptying the bin and rummaging frantically, I got rewarded.

 

 

With that fitted, I fired her up, switched the lights on and started to reverse out when the familiar "bulb out" warning light illuminated.

 

 

That's mildly irritating.

 

Ah well, have some paintwork photos, I'll leave this to cure for a while and give the sanding/compounding a go.

 

 

 

So, I'll be insuring it Monday and taking it to Guildford to stretch its legs and blow some cobwebs out before the MOT the day after. Just the battery and sidelight to replace for the MOT and we're ready.

 

 

Then its the biggest challenge of all - selling the bugger!

 

Hours worked - 121.5

 

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[Dick Cheeseburger]

Well impressed that you've turned this from a snotter into a tidy looker. Personally, I would have painted the whole bonnet using a paint gun/ compressor, but I guess that would defeat your whole spending approach. Whatever the case, it's looking purty.

[fatharris]

Thanks mate!

 

Sorry about you dying and stuff today, you were well canny on the radio.

 

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[fatharris]

Also, the club rules state no painting with a gun, plus we don't have one and it would be cheaper to buy a replacement bonnet than all the kit.

 

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[Sigmund Fraud]

Then its the biggest challenge of all - selling the bugger!

 

WHAT ?!?!?! After all the work you've done ? Without even using it for a few months ?

[fatharris]

Can't really afford to insure it alongside Herman and the parking situation at home is dire.

 

I mean, I may end up seeing if there's a classic insurance place that'll insure it to use for a month whilst I'm trying to sell it, but really, cars sell with a full ticket, it'll be hard enough with the current mileage anyway!

 

 

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[taxi paul]

How much would you like. Bearing in mind the cost of petrol and such a big engine. Other parameters such has insurance on such a BIG car . No dealership cover, lack of spare parts. SORRY. I have sold my 75 tourer this morning and still had my trade in "dealer " suit and shiney shoes on. Rough idea. 😊

[fatharris]

Er...it's a diesel? Spare parts are still readily available through Xpart and Rimmer Bros, plus the scrappies are full of them!

 

I haven't sat down and worked out what I've pumped into this car financially, but I've pissed past a grand all in, I'll go through the thread with the work done and see how much.

 

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