One more day 'till the 27th

Well D-day is here, I have until midnight tomorrow to pull my buyout papers. At this point I do think I'll take the buyout and retire. I will keep my house in Buffalo. I love the house and It's just not in the condition I would like it to be to sell it. It would just cost too much to get all the work done at once. And I prefer to do most of the work myself. It's just a hassle to find someone to do work on it that actually shows up and isn't trying to rip me off. So for the time being I will keep the house and go to NH. Come back every couple of weeks to tend to the house and get work done. I will move to NH for a few years and see if I like enough to invest in a place there and stay permanently. Right now that's about all I'm willing to commit to.

Decisions...Decisions

I mentioned earlier that I worked for Ford Motor Co and as most of you know they are currently restructuring the company. They have offered some good buyouts and one in particular that I qualify for I may take. There is a special early retirement package that basically gives you your retirement package that you have accrued without any penalties. Well when I told my dad this he decided to put a "bug" in my ear and offered me the opportunity to come up and work in the shop. It is basically the same deal he received years ago when the Ford plant he was (actually we both were) working in closed in 1980. So before November 27th I have to make up my mind on whether to go up and work with my dad, stay with Ford or take the deal and stay in Buffalo and find something else to make a bit of money. Decisions, decisions. I'm kind of leaning on going up to NH and work for a bit then come back to Buffalo for a week, then back to NH. I don't want to sell my house here it took a while to find one and I love it. Great neighborhood, lots to do in the city. Where the shop is in NH is literally a mile from the end of pavement! Certainly not much night life there. I guess you could find culture if you looked. (I know it's hard to tell whether I'm trying to talk myself into it or out of it.) I do like to restore things, lord knows I love to buy these old houses and work on them. The two houses I've owned one in PA was build around 1837 (lived there 16 years) and the one I bought in buffalo was built around 1880 (been here 3.) So bottom line I have my paperwork in at Ford to take a buyout and I have until November 27 to change my mind and pull my paperwork out!

Finally up to date!!!

After this post you are pretty much up to date. With the car that is. There are some pretty interesting things brewing up with Ford, the shop and all. More on that in my next post.

Again there were layoffs and I was up to the car. These are two before and after pictures. After more than 5 years this is where I am. I guess if you figure I only get a few weeks in each year it's not too bad at all. It's hard to believe that this is what it did look like!And this is where it is now. (the side and top rails will get painted out!)

Before and After EngineYou can see the new wiring harness here and there. Now everything you do you can see it. It makes a big difference. Well that brings this saga up to date. Yeah there is a lot that I left out to try and keep it short. I didn't want to get into too much detail. If you have a comment or would like to see some specific picture if I have it I would be happy to post it.

"The Marriage"

I don't remember the month, it was probably July on my real vacation time. I made one of those sucker deals with my dad, let me explain. We were going down to the shop and dad says, "I'll trade ya, I'll sand out your tub if you sand blast the body tub I'm working on." Hummmmm let me think about this one. It's 90 degrees outside, I'll be in coveralls, a canvas hood, helmet, heavy gloves, sweating like a pig. And dad will be inside, sanding in the air conditioning. hummmm Well I did the sandblasting, my dad has helped me so much on this project it was actually a no brainer. I made the deal. We got the final coats of paint on the tub and it was finally time to roll the body tub jig around to the chassis and put the body tub back on the frame. It was nice to see it sitting where it belonged. It would sit a while to cure again. I got to work on the firewall and the other pieces I would need soon. I didn't have the camera so I missed the tub on the frame!Here the tub is already bolted onto the frame and the firewall is on. There was a bit of work to mate the firewall back on with the new wood but using the old wood as a template I was able to succeed.

I was up again and again and was able to get the new floorboards painted and in. The foot plate is in. Pretty much the interior floor is done.

A Touch of Color.....well Black

I split up the April trip because paint was such a big step to me.

After the primer was on the car we wanted to get the color on it as soon as possible. While primer looks nice it doesn't protect the body metal from moisture. There is the possibility of rust. So near the end of the trip dad had the time to paint the tub black.It looked great sitting there in black. Now it had to sit and cure until next trip so I could sand it down for the next coats. BTW she got 8 coats this time!The initial results look real nice.

The doors were also done but I don't know if I'm 100% happy with them yet. They may need a bit more work.

PRIMER

As luck would have it I was laid off again in April 2006. I went up to NH to work on the car and was able to get it in primer. As my painting skills aren't up to the level that my dad's are he graciously "shot" the primer for me. Which entailed 3 coats of primer...sanding...checking...filling...3 coats more...sanding...etc. And there was a ton of metal prep before any painting was done. I didn't want to bore you with ALL the details.

You find all the flaws once you get into paint. But now was the time to fix them.

At the end of this trip the body tub and doors were in primer and I really did feel like big progress was being made. When you are able to see your progress in front of you it makes a big difference. By this I mean I did spend weeks wire brushing and cleaning up all matter of parts and nuts and bolts...then packed them away until they were needed. When I left for home there wasn't anything to look at but a bunch of tote storage bins. Being able to see the chassis in 2004 and the body tub in primer in 2005 were big steps.

Dinks, Dinks and more Dinks

In March of 2006 I was able to get up to NH and get some work done due to a layoff at work. I work for Ford Motor Co. and have been getting quite a bit of down time to work on the car. It's a long ride (9 hours) to get to NH so I don't get up as often as I'd like. And the layoffs are inverse seniority layoffs, I put in to be laid off, so it's not all that bad. Anywaaay I got up in March to get the body work done for primer. The number of dents and dings wasn't that bad but I really want the car to be as close to perfect as possible (a bit anal? NAAA.) Nothing wrong with striving for perfection. Besides I'm planning in doing the car in black lacquer. Yeah I know.

So basically this whole trip was filling and sanding, feeling the metal.....filling and sanding. You can see all the sanding debris on the floor! And i don't know what "round" it was when this pic was taken.

That's pretty much where it ended.

Summer of 2005

In 2005 work began on the body tub. It was moved out of a tool shed at my dad's house and brought down to the shop to be put on the jig. Moving down to the shop on the bucket of a tractor was a trip in itself! My car didn't have the best "wood." Most owners of the old MG's know about their timbers. In these older cars the body tub frame is made out of wood and the body metal is wrapped around the frame and tacked into the wood. It's the rare car that has both good wood and good metal. Unfortunately mine had the later. I had great sheet metal but the wood in my car was pretty shot. And as with these cars there had been some hacking in the past.

One of my door bottoms had a 2x4 hacked to fit in replacement of the original wood. So here we are, my dad and me, going down the road with my body tub creaking and moaning to the shop. I thought at any moment it was going to bust in half and make more of a project than I already had. (sorry no pic on this one I was truly occupied)

After sandblasting the frame (lightly, too much heat is generated it could warp the sheet metal) it was put on the jig and work began. Here it gets a bit sketchy and picture records aren't helping. I don't remember how much i was able to get done on vacation but anyway work began....You can see in this door pic the way the body metal is wrapped around the wood and tacked into the body timbers. As you can see in the following pics most of the timbers in my TD had to be replaced. Some there was just no hope for. The main beam in this door pic was one (it is just below the door opening.) Most of these pics were taken when i was preparing the body tub for primer. I'll post the pics and hope for the best....Well it seems as though I can't post pics the way I would like and have the text to explain them. Anyway the following pictures are just of the woodwork in the car showing the pieces that were replaced (like most of them!)

Ok I'm going back to big pics in the center and text top and bottom. What a pain in the butt! sheeeesh!

Making Posts is a pain

It seems that using The Blogger composer and trying to incorporate pictures isn't set up all that well. Composing and previewing doesn't mean anything. Once you publish your post, the size of your blog page and composer doesn't match up and wrapping text messes up the post. It's driving me crazy. I may have to just put larger pictures in the center and be done with it. I'm off to bed now, I'm going to try to relax. The rolling chassis entry will have to be edited another time. 'nite........

The Rolling Chasis

Rolling chassis entry redone...(read next post) yeah I went back and changed the format of the post with larger pics in the center and not trying to right and left justify smaller pics as in the past posts and it made posting much easier. (11/19)

The chassis hung from the ceiling for a couple of years on hooks. In the summer of 2003 it was taken down and set on car jack stands in the clean room and dusted off for the beginning of assembly. It was a great day!!!
Over the 2003-04 winter one of the guys at my dad's shop gave my chassis a big "boost" forward. After I got most of the parts cleaned, sandblasted and painted for the chassis over the summer, he assembled a good part of the chassis suspension over the winter making my progress all that much faster in 2004.
I was able to get the engine and transmission finished and installed when I was up for vacation. I think my dad was getting tired of my car just sitting there too. And it's still in the same place! So maybe he didn't mind that much. Slowly it began to look more and more like a car again...

July of 2004 I finally have a rolling chassis!!!

Putting the Pieces together

I wish I had used the camera's date and time function. I have a ton of pictures (does that equate anymore with digital pics?) with no frame reference other than the label I gave the file when I downloaded the pics into my computer. I guess I could look and see when the file was created but that would mean I would have had to put the pictures into the computer in a timely fashion. UMMM... Anyway I believe my next trip was in July of '01 when I began taking apart the engine and trans to see what I needed to order to rebuild them. I also sandblasted the frame and got it painted. This is when I give thanks that my dad was around to look over my shoulder. Without him around the rebuild may have been less than perfect. I'll take the engine first.

Once I got 50 years of grime and dirt scrapped off it was off to the engine shop to get boiled and cleaned. Everything was magnafluxed and got a clean bill of health. The block was then bored out, the head got new valves and the crank shaft

was balanced. Etc. Etc. Most everything once taken apart sat until the following year to get put back together. So to take a lot of typing and detail out of the blog...the time I had in 2002 was mostly devoted to getting the engine and trans back together. Most everything going back into the engine was new. Everything that was original and went back on or into was cleaned and wire brushed etc.

At this point I should mention that I'm going broke!!! You really do this for the love of the car.

In March of '03 I got the carbs finished.

Mind you by "I" I had a lot of guidance from my father and an old timer that hangs about the shop. And finally in May I was able to get back and put the engine completely back together and reassemble the transmission (big help from dad there.) So at the end of 2 years I had the frame sandblasted and painted (2001), the engine and trans rebuilt (02-03.)

The Tear Down

Tearing a car down...what can I say it's a bit traumatic. I just had a car, now it's in pieces. It took about a day and a half to take the car apart. The body was completely disassembled. The engine, trans and axle remained sat off to the side. Everything was put into plastic zip lock bags and labeled so i could find them later (yeah right!) Working on the car sporadically once or twice a year pulling parts containers out of a storage shed, going through them, putting them back at the end of the visit just made a parts nightmare. But at this point I think I'm through the worst of it.



The fenders, running boards, gas tank etc. all went off to the stripper to be taken down to bare metal. They still are up in the attic waiting for paint and the final assembly ( perhaps in a year or so.)

In the end there wasn't much left that resembled a car anymore, just a bunch of parts laying all over the place...plastic totes filled with bag and bags of labeled parts. Nuts and Bolts. Electrical parts. Parts Parts and more Parts. Once the tear down was done everything from that point on was going forward.

February 8, 2001

Well I guess this is a start...I have finally decided to start this blog. After reading a few restoration projects over the years, and enjoying them, I'm finally going to do my own. The only problem is that I am 6 years into the process. Now to remember it all. I will take it in stages and post pics (I have taken plenty for documentation.)

On February 8th 2001 I purchased my 1953 MG TD. I bought it from a guy in Chocorua, NH. The story goes that this TD was owned by an Air Force Colonel and traveled with him overseas, one place was Tripoli, Libya (there has to be some stories there.) It came back to the states and was in California for a bit then came east and was purchased by the man that I bought it from. I would still like to get a more in depth accounting of where this car has been.

My dad helped me get it to his shop where it HAS been for the past six years. I get to work on it during vacation and on weeks that I may be laid off from work...I live in Buffalo, NY and the car is in NH still. It's a slow process but worth it in the end.