The progress since mid January has been focused on getting the body panels ready for paint. This does not tend to provide great photos, so it's been a while for updates although we've both been working hard. Plus both of us got to enjoy extended vacations in Florida to avoid the cold weather, very nice.
We got the trunk lid and hood installed with decent gaps and the ability to close and latch both of them. This did require that the trunk lid rubber seal be modified to make the trunk lid fit better relative to the body.
We removed all four wheels and applied rubberized undercoating to the wheel wells. This turned out real well.
From here it's basically been a matter of getting the panels ready for paint. Lot of applications of body filler and then sanding it smooth again. We have learned a lot about sanding, especially the importance of getting the surface flat. We had been using an orbital sander in some places because it removes the filler very quickly. But orbital sanders do not maintain a flat surface. So now we are using an air sander with a 2.5 inch by 16 inch flat platen or block sanding.
We have had two body guys stop by to give us quotes to paint the car. Our intention is to get the body fully ready for paint plus paint the door jambs, inside trunk, and inside hood ourselves. This only leaves the outside surfaces.
We bought some single stage paint from our local supplier. He used the inside surface of the trunk to get a reading of the color to match it. Could have used the original paint spec, but cost per quart dropped by factor of 5X by having them match the paint. Here's the paint we got:
We then are suing a Preval paint system to apply the paint. Kinda neat, you mix the paint, hardener, and reducer all in the glass bottle at the bottom of the device, then use it like a rattle can to apply the paint. Here's a picture of the Preval device:
Then here are pictures of the hood underside, area around hood opening, and inside trunk:
We plan on loading the car up next week and delivering it to our selected body shop. We are waiting for one more quote, but we're pretty sure who we are going with. Costs for painting are a little higher than what we wanted, but we think we're still OK on our overall costs and can make a few bucks.
For what it's worth, there was a tartan red 1964 MGB just like this one that was auctioned 2/13/18 on Bring A Trailer (BAT). It was probably a nicer restoration than ours, but not a whole lot nicer. It sold for $20,250! Here's a link:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1964-mg-mgb-10/
