Matt Drayer's Journal

"UNREAL..."

I've been stripping and degreasing the engine bay for weeks. I knew we'd need to do a bit of "carchaeology" with this five-decade-old vehicle, but what I'm seeing now blows me away. Once again, I'm covered from head to toe in a mixture of ancient petroleum and dirt. I've lifted the front end of the car about a foot using the engine hoist and my six-foot tall body is crammed inside the child-sized engine bay. The contortions were worth the effort to avoid leaning over the fender for the amount of time this particular phase of the project was taking.

After trying pretty much every degreasing product on the market with limited success, I've settled on a spray bottle full of kerosene. It's proven better than any of the commercial products. Thanks to the combination of the kerosene, a plastic putty knife, my trusty Anvil 6-in-1 painter's tool, and an industrial-size package of paper napkins, I've managed to clear away not just the thick layer of black gunk, but also the paint covering the brown front crossmember, which was now clearly presenting itself as a yellow front crossmember.

"HOLY MOLY..."

I crawled out of the car, stretched, and stared down into the engine bay. Just behind the crossmember I had uncovered two additional welds going across the chassis rails, attaching the crossmember to the original structure.

"What the heck happened to you, little one?"

Replacement engine...replacement crossmember...replacement passenger fender...wrinkled sheet metal and a pushed-up battery tray section...brazes and welds...

I closed my eyes and imagined the car's story playing back in my mind. There it was, sitting in a garage. No, there were TWO cars -- brown and yellow. The brown one had a face of twisted, destroyed metal. The yellow one was stripped, just a skeleton...a parts car. A plasma cutter, and then...sparks...heavy gloves...a welding mask... Someone was joining them together, making one working car out of two broken ones. Frankenstein.

My mind rewound the story further. Someone was driving the brown car. A collision! Smoke. Dazed driver. What happened? Did someone hit them? Oregon...it was registered in Oregon... Rain...that seems plausible. Heavy PNW rain...top up...windows up...slow-moving wipers...fogged windshield...hit a puddle...hydroplaned off the road...front crushed...steering twisted...engine destroyed...heavy chains and hooks...wrecker dragging it out of a ditch...in the rain...

"WOW..."

I snapped back to the present, amazed that anyone would have decided to keep this car going after what happened. It doesn't seem like it sat in a junkyard, either. It's filthy, yes, but there are no major holes in the rest of the vehicle, and there's no structural rust. So much of it is still original. Someone got right to it after the vehicle was impacted. Could the repairs have been covered by insurance? It seems unlikely that the verdict would have been anything other than a total loss, given the extent of the damage. No, this felt more like...

"JOY..."

Someone decided with their heart -- not their head -- that restoring this little MG was worth the cost. A rational mind schooled in classical economic theory would never have taken on this project. It was a complete time sink, and whether or not the owner did the work themselves, it was a money sink, too. They certainly didn't recoup those costs when they sold the car. Their investment could only be returned in the joy of wrenching it, tuning it, and whisking it along curving country roads with the top down on positively beautiful sunny days. What a dream to have.

And here I am, standing alone in my garage at midnight, cold, covered in filth, envisioning those curved roads, that warm sun, promising to a forever unknown number of forever unknown previous owners that I'll bring this car back to life once again, so my daughter can experience that same joy and understand what it really means to drive.

What a push.

I've already put so many hours into this project, and it's just been prep, prep, prep. There's more prep to do. There's always more. Prep never ends. Even when you think you've done enough, you look at that bubbling paint and that dripping oil and realize that yep, you should have done more. I read a response to someone's MG Experience post saying "Congrats on your new project -- expect to spend 40-50 hours prepping." Pretty sure I'm over 50 hours at this point. Probably 75-80. And that's only counting the actual hours I've put in on the car -- there's also the research, the reading, the YouTubes, the tools, the parts sites, the writing. I've seen articles stating that restorations take anywhere from 500 to 1000 hours. 500 hours seems high to me -- after all, this isn't a concours-level effort. I'm sure some day I'll look back on what I just wrote and LOL ROTFL LOLOLOLOL.

I could keep better track of hours, but hours are not the focus. The focus is progress. Progress must be made every day. No matter how small, there must be progress. Our Phase 1 goal was to reach a "clean state" by the end of 2022 so we could make our parts orders and begin putting the car back together. Sandblasters and acid washes aren't in the budget, and so our signifying event would consist of a thorough spray-and-scrub with a jug of Purple Power and a hot water rinse from our hockey rink hose (it's Massachusetts). I'm happy to say that after gallon of kerosene, a 1000-count package of napkins, a box of nitrile gloves, many swear words, and many more late nights, our first milestone was achieved on the afternoon of New Year's Eve 2022.

Sure, the rear end still needs to be dropped, cleaned, inspected, and renovated. Same goes for the gas tank. And the exhaust. The peeling undercoating needs to be scraped away. Body panels need to be fixed/filled. We'll get to all that stuff in due time. But we're in a good place now -- we're able to repair, and paint, and install. YouTube makes it look soooo easy -- 1000 hours of blood, sweat, and tears condensed into 30 smiling minutes. ROTFL, indeed.

Speaking of YouTube, we're going to try starting our own channel -- "Marblehead MG". I think it would be good for my daughter to learn how to do -- and it could end up being a substantial component of her journalism project. I feel like we should have documented more of the early part of the process with video, but that's water under the bridge at this point. This is where we're at, so we'll go forward from here -- best time to plant a tree and all.

It's 2023 and we're on track with this project. Onward and upward. Shifting gears.

Progress.

There are special points in a long-term project when the time comes take a breath and step back from the work. To reflect. Some people become frustrated or upset when this occurs -- they want to keep working. However, all duty cycles feature both a work interval and a rest interval. And it's a reason to celebrate: Round 1 is complete. You've reached a milestone.

For our project, the first major milestone was the inflection point between the reasonable end of the teardown and the start of the rebuild preparation. Although much of the gunk has been removed at this point, there's still a fair amount of elbow [de]grease[r] required, and some additional components to remove (cough-cough, dashboard, cough-cough). However, with 2023 here it was high time to put down the scrapers and rags for a moment, clean up our workspace, and have a good look at the car.

Our impression is that the Fall was a dirty, difficult, exhausting experience -- and we expected it to be. And our assessment is that we are in good shape now, relatively speaking. Yes, there were some dark times -- such as cleaning the transmission tunnel. But, those times are in the past and we're optimistic about putting this little machine back together.

Another milestone at this junction was the submission of our first Moss Motors order. After spending three months working on the car and assembling the parts list, it had grown to include a substantial number of items. Mostly these are wear items, such as rubber bushings, needing to be replaced, but also some parts which could not be saved. The order size was just large enough to gain entry into the Moss Motors Customer Loyalty Program, and also timed to leverage the Winter Sale 11% discount.

We've also placed several other orders from various companies and even MGExp members! Front Armstrong lever shocks from Worldwide Auto Parts of Madison. Front brake calipers from British Parts Northwest. Gear reduction starter from Classic Car Performance. A Weber DCV 32/36 from Lee Orphan. A chrome bumper from Tim Messenger. A tonneau cover from Ed Wolff. Boxes from Amazon and eBay. Bags from AutoZone, O'Reilly, Harbor Freight, and Home Depot. My wife so far isn't complaining about the tools+parts inflow (and cash outflow...) -- maybe she's happy I've decided to spend my midlife crisis this way

Finally, I think I've actually consumed every single minute of MG Midget 1500 back-content on YouTube at this point, and so I've decided that it's time to start our own channel dedicated to the project. At the time of this writing we've published six episodes, with a few more currently in production and certainly more to come. As all of the YouTubers love to say, don't forget to click "like", "subscribe", "the notification bell", and leave a comment!

https://youtube.com/@marbleheadmg

Life loves to move right in on the vacuum created by a "quick break" in a project. All of that wonderful and relaxing void in space-time is rapidly consumed by all sorts of obligations and procrastinations.

For me it was the basement workshop. With the catalyst of a heating oil tank that needed to be replaced, most of the unfinished portion of the basement needed to be emptied out to make room for the installation crew. Of course, emptying out an area of the house that had essentially been collecting items and dust for almost 20 years wasn't a quick job, and it ate most of the rest of the week -- and the weekend, too.

The good news is that we now have a well-organized workshop, with a beautiful newly-painted red floor and lots of space to, well, work. This is especially helpful right now because we just experienced our first real snowstorm of the season -- not too severe by historical standards, but enough to keep us from wanting to trudge out to the garage to work on the actual car.

While futzing about in the workshop this weekend our Moss Motors order arrived. We're excited to inspect the Big Box, but we're also more than a bit intimidated. After all, it contains over 100 parts! Feeling a little like Pandora about to raise the cover -- once we start, we won't be able to go back. But back to what, really? The only way to go with this car in its current state is FORWARD!

Before we can begin installing parts, however, there's more prep work to be done. It's time to hit the engine bay, interior, and trunk with the sander and then paint all the things. We also have some sound deadening sheets which will be installed on the firewall (so that dash needs to come off...), footwells, floorboards, transmission tunnel, and the area behind the seats. Hoping the dash isn't hiding any surprises, we'll see!

I've been procrastinating on applying primer to the engine bay. It's too cold. It's too late. My son has hockey practice. It's snowing outside. I need more propane for the heater. Eventually, though, I ran out of excuses. Falling behind on our new "Marblehead MG" YouTube channel videos, after only two weeks of production, is adding more wood to the fire. Off to the cold garage I go to fret some more.

Staring at the raw engine bay, I see that one screw that has defied all removal attempts. Well, I simply can't prime until that's out. Nothing has worked so far. The head's slots have stripped, and it won't twist out with channel locks or vice grips. I have a new set of Harbor Freight reverse drill bits, maybe one of those will work. If not I guess I still can't do the primer.

90 seconds later I have zero excuses.

I set up the phone on a tripod and pull out a red 3M scrubby. I tell myself I'm only looking to scratch up the paint to make a good surface for the primer and POR-15, I'm not trying to get down to bare metal. This is a comforting thought -- there are so many little angles and corners -- the only way to turn them all into shiny steel would be sandblasting or an acid bath, and that's not happening.

Scrubbing done, time for the sander. I'm picking up speed now, getting back into the swing of things. I keep reminding myself I'm just scuffing, not stripping. The job goes quickly, and it's now Good Enough for primer.

Should i be putting primer down at all? Maybe I should just go with POR-15? What if I do this wrong? What if it all peels away when I'm done, and everyone can see that I'm incompetent? Maybe I should go back inside and read more decade-old threads of people arguing with each other about primer vs. no primer under POR-15. No one cares, Matt. Just do the primer. But, should i use a brush? What about a roller? Maybe I should buy a paint sprayer -- that's what everyone seems to do. Yeah, before I do this wrong, I could go back inside and do more research on air guns... MATT, STOP IT! DO THE ENGINE BAY!!!

I do it. I crack open the can of Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and begin brushing it on (Wait! This part's not rusty! What if the metal isn't rusty? What if it's just...metal? MATT, KEEP GOING.). The primer color is gaining ground. (Is the garage too cold? Is it too thick? Should I thin it out? Maybe I should...KEEP GOING). Good bye yellow cross member. Good bye black seam sealer. Good bye exposed sheet metal. It's all one color now. Primer brown, but at least it's consistent. It doesn't look like a Frankenstein car anymore. It just looks like a car. It looks...great?

I did it. I put the primer on. I'm certain I did it wrong, but it looks so much better than it did. What a step forward. What progress!

Progress, indeed.

<br/>Marblehead MG - Episode 7: Engine Bay Primer

I'm not sure I'm happy with where we're at right now. I know I should be happy -- a lot has been accomplished so far. The dashboard is off, and the engine bay, interior, and trunk spaces are all coated with primer which has been drying/curing for a few days.

I made the mistake of staying up late consuming a bunch of "Project Car Do's and Don'ts" and "Proper Car Restoration in 500 Steps" type articles and videos last week, which only made me anxious versus guiding me. I mean, I know I'm generally on the right track, but now I know what I really should be doing.

A few of the articles I read described typical project failure stories -- you know the kind -- project car is bought with a dream of restoring to like-new-or-better, supplies/parts are acquired, Life Happens and everything gets put away, 15 years later the project is sold off to the next hopeful.

I'm worried that's going to be me someday...

I should have done some body sealer/filler work in the engine bay before priming to really smooth things out, but I really wanted to get that primer on. There are some bare spots I missed, and some interesting spots where the primer still isn't dry, and I can't figure out why -- maybe the metal wasn't clean enough, or maybe I didn't mix the primer well enough. Maybe there's still time to do a bit of fixing before applying the topcoat.

I couldn't get all of the old soundproofing material off of the transmission tunnel, so I just primed over it. It's fine...maybe it'll even be better this way, after the interior is painted, and a new layer of soundproofing goes on, plus carpet. All of my project clothes are covered in primer at this point.

I should have ordered a firewall grommet kit when I did the big Moss order, but I'm experiencing a bit of new tools+parts fatigue at the moment. It's not the money it's just the constant acquisition of things that is wearing me down. I know there's still more stuff to pick up -- a lot of "do it now, because it's easiest to address now" situations, so...it's fine, I guess.

I feel like the engine has been sitting on the stand in a disassembled state for too long. It doesn't look rusty or corroded, and I have all of the necessary parts to put it back together again. I'm worried about "priming the pump" for some reason. I'm also worried that with the timing chain off and the distributor removed for so long that the cam is now out of alignment. I know there's a defined procedure for restoring the timing, but I'm still not ready to take this on, so it's just there in the back of my head nagging at me. I need to finish the prep work. Don't scatter around too much. One thing at a time.

I can't put the front suspension back together again because the one thing that was backordered from Moss was the Full Suspension Kit item, which has all of the necessary bushings, pins, etc. that I need to reassemble. I have no idea when it will be shipped to me. It doesn't really matter because I am still working on the body, but everyone says to reassemble the suspension/steering before doing almost everything else, so this may become a blocker.

I just want to get this machine running again. There are so many pieces to reassemble. The temperature this weekend is going to be like 5F -- going to be difficult in our little barely-heated garage. There are so many pieces...it's a real-world jigsaw puzzle. Will it all go back together? What if a piece is missing? What if I put it back together wrong? What if, what if, what if...

Breathe. It will all be fine. Just keep swimming.

Breathe...


<br/>Marblehead MG Episode 9