Stephen Brockwell's Journal

I started the paint job in August of last year before the holidays and bad weather (no heat in the shop) and problems with COPD.

These pics are from about September. One is 6 coats of paint and my second youngest grandson Dalton posing. The other is the car with 10 coats.

I've done some sanding in between coats but not the finish sanding and buffing. Too cold in the shop (no heat). I think I may put it back together and finish the sanding and buffing later.

I'm pleased with how easy the paint job was. Each coat only took about an hour from start to finish and very little mess.

In all I used about 2 and 1/2 quarts of paint with 2 quarts of Penetrol and about 1 and 1/2 gallons of mineral spirits. One foam roller per coat.

More later. I'm going to work on and install the windshield wipers next.

I want to drive not paint!

Finally dived in on painting Lilith. Decided to go gloss white partly for visibility and partly because a white MGB with black rubber bumpers just looks good to me. Followed Curtis Wright curtis7420 writeup because he seemed to have it down well. Carl French also painted his GT white and it looks good. As of 28 august I have 3 coats on it and with painting the inside of the boot as well as three coats of paint, I've only used 1 quart of paint.

29 Jan 2018

Made an emergency boot latch cable from a design by Pete Williams. Thank you Pete!! Works great. Plan to use Velcro to hold the pull end of the cable under the rear deck for hiding.

Sunday 13 Dec 15.

Moved my radio console 2 inches toward the front of the car and (I have no radio in it anyway), now I don't hit my right knee on it. The armrest console is out and may not go back in. Now I have 5.75 inches between the shift base and the radio console. I was going to build a small console to incorporate the electrical cutoff switch but saw that this would allow more room for my knee and only take about 10 minutes.

Replaced a single clamp piece on my exhaust (fell off somewhere) so my TT stainless system is more secure.

Made a short cable from the driver wheel well into the hood latch for emergencies. Will be doing the same for the trunk latch. Found the ferrules at Home Depot for 1/16 inch steel cable so I can make my own. Will be using bike brake cables to hook it up.

Removed the long console/armrest to recover the armrest and fit a homebuilt centering guide with magnet to hold it closed.

Flipped my spare upside down in the boot and used a 3/8-24 3.5 inch long bolt with a nut on it and a piece of steel 1 inch wide and 4 inches long tapered at both ends to hold the spare down. Pics below. (taper on the metal ain't straight......I wear glasses)

Sometime during the winter I had bought a pair of 1973 AUD 550 SU HIF4's with a manifold and they just sat in the shop. I took off the Weber with its manifold and put on the SU;s and the difference was amazing.

Remember this is a klutz working on the car and really just learning how to do it.

With no adjustment on the SU's I just bolted them on and hooked them up. Fired right up.

Later in the winter I started tuning the airflow and adjusting the linkage. With each step the car got better.

It may survive my attempts at being a mechanic.

18 Jun 18 After several days of turning the mixture control leaner on both of the HIF's I filled up with gas and it seems that I got 22.8 mpg on this tank. we'll see how that works out. Need to take the carbs and manifold off and redo all the seals as well as set float height and jet settings.