With or without overriders on the front bumper? Trying to decide, not that it’s a permanent decision.

The repro grille didn’t fit any better than expected, and the bumper fit leaves a bit to be desired as well, but they don’t look terrible. That said, the fit of the left overrider wasn’t great, but it wasn’t great on the original bumper, either (the overriders are identical). If I leave them off, I have spare button-head bolts to fill the holes. The badge on the grille doesn’t quite match the bonnet, but again, neither did the original, so I guess that means something is consistent (even if that thing isn’t a “good” thing!).

Time for another meeting, being the first Saturday of the month. Glorious weather brought out a bunch of cars–”European” in the “club” name is a suggestion only!


You know, I’m not much of a rod fan, but I’ll make an exception for something like this. Excellent taste and an interesting spec (buick engined), this puts 99% of other rods to shame and should make all “rat rod” owners take up beer can collecting or something. Old school in the most genuine and most complimentary sense.

Ferraris

From the back, Jaguar XJ-S, Lotus Elise Club Sport, Jensen Healey, Catherham 7, Porsche 912 (I think, might be a 911)

Lotus Elan +2, Volvo 122, Porsche

Porsche, Lotus Esprit, Triumph TR3, Lotus Elan

Lotus Elan

Lancia (Flaminia?)

Two BSAs – A Gold Star and M33 (I think), plus Norton 850 Commando

Healey 100, Lotus Elise, MGB

MG Magnette, BMW 2002, Special

Ferrari

And if you get there really late you park back here…Porsche, MGA, MGB

Seeing as tomorrow is the monthly Whidbey get-together, and it’s going to be a nice day, I went and got the MGB out of storage and stuck the Miata in for a day or so. The fuel pump on the MGB is sticky, so it took awhile to get it going. I’ll put a new pump on later this year. (Famous last words!)

Just some Photoshop foolin’-around…but this is what I’m thinking of going with. I have roughly 24 MGB wire wheels, including a complete decent set of five in addition to the good ones on this car. I’d keep the standard silver wheels, but paint up a set dark red, which I think looks pretty sharp and will match the interior. (Click image to see the photo at a larger size.) Thoughts?

Edited: Chris wondered what black would look like…I think it’s too dark for me.

Doors are on, hand buffing is about half done, car is on its own wheels again. Not much more to say other than hand-buffing an entire car would really, really suck.

The paintwork is mostly buffed out; there is some hand buffing left to do where the machine couldn’t get to, like the headlight recesses. But I can finally see the end of the road! And this will possibly be the last version of this same paint booth photo you’ll be subjected to!

The paint looks pretty good, but it is not flawless by any means. There are three places where there are a couple of specks in the clear that were just not worth repainting this car over, and you’d have to go looking for them. And while I sanded it down with 2000 grit paper before it was buffed, the paint is not absolutely flat–I’m not sure a base/clear can ever be as the base would have to be perfect to not show through the clear. Am I wrong on that?

Here’s a short film showing the MG works in 1931, with the proverbial happy couple picking up their new Magna. The spray booth…oy. Word has it paint shop guys never lasted very long, you may get a hint as to why by watching this.

There is no sound, just title cards. The embed code they give doesn’t seem to actually embed the player here (not sure if it is supposed to or if this is just a “quirk”), but clicking on the image above will take you to British Pathe’s page featuring the video.

The final coats of clear went on the GT today, and it looks great. I need to flat it out with 1500 paper and polish it to get out the few nibs, and there is one run which needs to shrink for a few days and then get sanded out. Many thanks to Jim for his efforts in getting the car to this stage!

Below is a similar panorama to yesterday’s, only all glossy. And not very well color balanced.

By this time tomorrow, the painting of the GT will be done, unless the red gods decide something needs to go haywire. (I will still need to flat it out and polish it up.) Here you can see it in the first of its two final color coats, before any clear goes on.

I think my friend Chuck will be able to identify the car just outside the paint booth. (CG: Jim also has a Zagato version of that car, parked just out of sight, plus a bunch of other oddball little Italian coupes.)

We’ve gone through and fixed most of the minor problems…the car has been completely wet-sanded with 600 in prep for another color coat. We’ll have to do a little spot-priming, first. (The bonnet is just casually thrown on the car here as we needed the workspace, hence the poor appearance!)

You can see the 600 has made everything nicely dull. Went through to primer in a few places, that’s OK.

This is the door we completely spaced on. You can see it needed a bit more work!