1958 MGA Coupe

SuperBuickGuy · Dec 24, 2015

header paint is your friend, especially the ceramic stuff.

story time. So I was all about ceramic coatings, but it's expensive and I'm (sometimes) a cheapskate. I bought the VHT header paint and put it on some headers that I ran for a couple years in a Buick. When I swapped the chevy motor for a Buick motor, my nephew wanted to buy those headers... fine, I gave them to him (cheap, used, sbc headers are not really a marketable item). So he wanted them ceramic coated.

The coating shop bitched something fierce about how tough it was to get that coating off.... so epiphany time - $10 for header paint or $400 for ceramic coating.... yeah, I don't do ceramic coating, best part is you can easily fix paint.

VHT or even duplicolor header paint is your friend....

bobs77vet · Dec 24, 2015

I have cans of header paint from the corvette....I thought I had to bake it at 500* to cure it and haven't used it

I am about 1 hour away from breaking down the 3x8 assembly/storage table that has been my companion for the last year or two. I think January is going to be a light MGA month I want to do some other metal working projects, may be weld up a big arse wedling/assembly table from 1950 Bethlehem steel from windows of brick homes that were taken down to build new homes, this is all 1/4. 5/16 and 3/8 the big pieces are 9' long

pick off some easy work while cleaning up....

and I noticed my heater core assemblies were different

one has the directional vents on the flapper

the other has the directional vents

Sam Cogley · Dec 24, 2015

Most of those paints are rather delicate until they cure, but most of the cans say you can cure them in place with the heat of the exhaust. You might try using one of those oscillating parabolic dish heaters at close range to start the curing process, get the parts installed, then run the engine up to temp to fully cure it.

JPhil · Dec 26, 2015

Sam Cogley said:
Most of those paints are rather delicate until they cure, but most of the cans say you can cure them in place with the heat of the exhaust. You might try using one of those oscillating parabolic dish heaters at close range to start the curing process, get the parts installed, then run the engine up to temp to fully cure it.

What I have done is hang them up to paint them, then heat them with the rosebud tip of my oxy-acetylene torch, sticking it in the collector & all the tubes, & go over the outside lightly to just heat (not burn) the paint, over and over until I felt the whole thing had been at least partially cured.

I don't recall how POR15 is supposed to hold up to heat, but it's held up perfectly well on my exhaust pipe tips for years. That exhaust looks like a perfect candidate for it.

bobs77vet · Dec 28, 2015

POR 15 would be a perfect candidate for that for sure....I will have to see what brush on heat resilient products they offer

bobs77vet · Jan 2, 2016

test fit the rear parcel shelf and make templates

all the measurements are in this thread:

http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?2,3151641

lets make a parcel shelf bracket for some one

I am making it a tad wider so it can be trimmed to fit perfectly

bobs77vet · Jan 2, 2016

on to the bead roller with a tipping die, urethane wheel

2 passes

3 passes and hammering to finish

back flange

2 passes and hammer finish

proof of concept

SuperBuickGuy · Jan 8, 2016

you know, I'm starting to get rust-withdrawal shakes since there hasn't been an update (a fix) in several days.... :hunter:

bobs77vet · Jan 9, 2016

no DTs

lets make the small brackets....about 1:45 hrs

so this is a simple home made break clamped in the vise

this is the brackets laid out on 18 ga

first bend is easy, just clamp it down

those rings are for leverage stick a bar into them and yu have handles

next bend set up a back stop

build it out to the proper thickness

clamp in place

Sam Cogley · Jan 9, 2016

A bit of context as to what's going on here? The existing bracket looks to be in good shape. I feel like I'm missing something.

bobs77vet · Jan 10, 2016

this is a parrallel thread from then MG web site and these parcel shelfs are really hard to find so i am making them for some other guys who dont have them

lets put the bends in the small brackets, use a "standard" to make the folds and ensure dimensions are uniform

Sam Cogley · Jan 10, 2016

bobs77vet said:
this is a parrallel thread from then MG web site and these parcel shelfs are really hard to find so i am making them for some other guys who dont have them

Good deal. :thumbs:

Your work in this thread continues to be most enlightening.

Red77 · Jan 11, 2016

So in a sense, you are actually fabricating unobtanium for the guys on the MGA forum. That's pretty cool.

bobs77vet · Jan 12, 2016

Red77 said:
So in a sense, you are actually fabricating unobtanium for the guys on the MGA forum. That's pretty cool.

thanks that is exactly what I am doing, the coupes are really rare 100,000 mgas were made but only 9982 were coupes.....they have always been the favorite of racers and that takes a toll on the number of cars left. for a long time the coupes were cannibalized for the roadsters when people thought roadsters were something special...so that takes a toll on the coupes. add to that regular attrition and theres not many left.

I have only ever seen (other then race cars at the race track) about 4 or 5 in my lifetime of going to cars shows,

at Watkins Glenn 2 yrs ago when MG was the featured marque there was 1 Coupe among hundreds if not over 1,000 roadsters.

My guess is the near future people will realize how rare they are.

bobs77vet · Jan 12, 2016

the next things to make look new again or make for my car.....

the back side has an extra strengthening bracket under the tire hold down.

bobs77vet · Jan 17, 2016

holes drilled, next i will make sure there are no sharp edges and test fit the parcel shelves in my car and off they go

bobs77vet · Jan 18, 2016

finish and test fit the parcel shelf. the car is not sitting level front to back while its on the saw horses

we want the same distance off the small shelf

these are all the same length so the stand off is the same

I can not rotate this for some reason

bobs77vet · Jan 26, 2016

I wanted to take January off to get all the restoration juices flowing again. but too many snow days had me going stir crazy so time for some planning

I still need to put the hole in the boot floor for the gas tank and attach the spare tire clamp

bobs77vet · Jan 30, 2016

I don't use the air nibbler very often but it does have its place. cut a triangle in the middle with a thin cut off wheel and then rotate the nibble head so the body doesn't get in the way. theres a set screw for doing this very easy..

where we left off