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MG TD TF 1500 - TD Passenger Door

The humidity dropped to 22% today so this afternoon I was finally able to paint the passenger door. It went from this;

P Hehir

Through this..

P Hehir

To this. Cheers
Peter TD 5801

P Hehir

Amazing what you can do with a spray can! Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

That was one very nasty door. I would have been tempted to reskin it, but great job anyway, well done!
Dave H
Dave Hill

That is some remarkable paint you have there. I would have had to resort to a grinder and some bondo :-) Well done, looks great.

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

Well Tim there was a fair bit of work involving a grinder & a little bit of bog & it didn't all happen today. Just the filler coat over the pre primed surface which was wet sanded with 1000 & then the 4 top coats were sprayed. The paint is just old school acrylic lacquer. The can comes from Germany & is filled with colour matched paint here in Sydney. The propellant & nozzle are German technology both of which are 1st class. I'll allow it to cure for at least a week before I do a light wet sand with 1500. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter, of course. Just kidding around. Beautiful job. Are you saying the paint was applied from an aerosol can? Not sure I understand that part about the can from Germany.

Tim
TW Burchfield

Yes Tim, from an upmarket rattle can! A.C.E. import them with the propellant in the can & they are then filled with acrylic lacquer here. Colour matching isn't a problem as A.C.E. have the formulae in their computer. No issue with the match in the 3 batches of cans I've used over the past 4 years. This approach enables me to progress at a pace that suits my time & budget, just knocking over one panel at a time. The 4 top coats for that door cost me just $39 for the one can. I may end up using about fifteen or twenty cans if I decide to respray the whole car but $800 for a D.I.Y respray is pretty cheap. A 1st class professional job could cost 25 times that. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

4 coats of lacquer? Are you putting a clear over it after your last color sand?
Christopher Couper

No Chris I wasn't planning to. Originally I don't think clear was used. Just a final wet sand with 1500 then a good quality polish & that will do me. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Further pics on passenger door refurb follow. Pic shows new hinge stile, new hinge stile metal skin & new bottom timber rail during reconstruction. Braizing by PO was an early attempt at in situ rust repair showing the bottom of the hinge stile where it had been completely burnt away! Cheers
Peter TD 5801

P Hehir

This pic shows the modified means of securing the lock. The two wood screws have been eliminated & a new plate with two captive nuts added. Note the top captive nut housing tab has been reoriented through 90 degrees to clear the lock tongue.

P Hehir

This shows the lock with the 8 points of adjustment clearly visible.

P Hehir

For that kind of money you could buy a compressor, an very good spray gun, the paint and thinners, a decent mask, and have change.
Dave H
Dave Hill

The ply door card prior to cutting out the pocket recess. The line of pre-drilled holes to secure the hidem & the door card to the door, were re-positioned to allow for a margin of 1/4" in from the edge of the door.
P Hehir

Ok, maybe not if they are Aussie dollars, but not far off.
Dave H
Dave Hill

I'll get back to you Dave. I'm still loading pics. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

The pic of the ply door card.

P Hehir

The door card covered in vinyl.

P Hehir

The template used to get the correct shape to the top of the pocket.

P Hehir

This shows the two templates I gave to the upholsterer to do the stitching.

P Hehir

The hidem which was made in England from my vinyl & the 20 & 40 weight poly thread used for the stitching.

P Hehir

The finished door card. This was beyond my level of skill & took one of Sydney's best auto upholsterers about 3 hours to complete the stitching. The top of the pocket is colour matched leather. The edges of the door are yet to be painted. Obviously the card will be removed so that the door can get its final coats. The leather piping at the top of the door will then be installed.
Cheers
Peter TD 5801

P Hehir

Peter,

Congratulations on a skilled,persistent and gutsy effort on your TD
work. I suspect your acting career was a far easier gig !

Cheers
Rob Grantham
TF3719("Aramis'),TF9177("Athos").
Rob Grantham

Dave, responding to your comment "For that kind of money you could buy a compressor, an very good spray gun, the paint and thinners, a decent mask, and have change".

I do have a 14 cfm compressor & a quality spray gun. Using my equipment & including cost of the paint & the thinners to clean out the gun, there is no way I or anybody else could have sprayed the door for less than $39 AU! I chose to go the spray can route so that I could complete & paint each panel, one at a time. This suits me as I do all of the panel repair & painting myself. I'm slow but I'm also difficult to please, which is another reason I choose to do as much on the car as I possibly can. Using acrylic lacquer, as you probably know, humidity is a major factor (there have only been about 7 days so far this year when I could paint, which is a real PIA.) I'm happy with both the process & the finished result. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Thanks Rob. I do appreciate the help you've been able to provide. I found Thesping pretty painful. I do actually enjoy the work on the TD. I'll get there one day..
Cheers mate.
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Fair enough. Surprisingly, humidity is not a big issue over here during most of the year. You got a great result anyway. The door linings also look great. I painted my car but bought the interior from Collingburn. Your door linings / cards look just as good.
Dave H
Dave Hill

Thanks Dave. We are due to come out of a La Nina shortly. This will finally mean more days of low humidity. I am surprised that humidity isn't an issue in England. Most people here think it's always raining over there :-). I'm really happy with my upholstery. The door cards are the real test. If they compare with Collingburn that'll do me! The rest I can easily do myself, except for the seats of course.. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Good job Peter but it may be useful to point out that whilst the door is in pieces you can shape the wooden frame to fit the body opening exactly. This may require some trimming of the joints and reprofiling of the timbers using a spokeshave, or in my case a belt sander. I did this with my TF and a friend did the same with his TD. The door fit on both cars is first class without any resort to twisting straps. If the wooden door frame isn't flat in relation to the body, with an even gap all round it will be virtually impossible to achieve a good final fit.

Jan
J Targosz

Very true. I think there are very few restored cars where the door fits really well, especially along the bottom. Its all to easy to flatten the curvature of the body under the door, then find afterwards that the door bulges out, leaving a big gap under the door. Alas, I made that mistake myself. I am not alone.
Dave H
Dave Hill

Door panels are another issue. I couldn't afford to buy new ones so made up a set myself and got a shoe repairer to do the stitching using his industrial sewing machine. My brother bought a set of ready made up panels but they didn't fit the door properly and the plywood backing needed fettling. You can peel the vinyl back and trim the plywood but the hidem is no longer parallel to the edges. Also you can not make the panel bigger if needed.

Jan T
J Targosz

It's for those reasons Jan that I too made my own. Much, much cheaper, perfect fit, correct thread thickness, colour match & stitch length, close to the original width hidem, correct & uniform edge margin & a closer colour to the original beige. However worth noting that it's possible to increase the size of a panel by using auto filler at the edge so if you have purchased a kit you can make it a better fit. You'll just have to live with the oversized (15 mm not the original 10.5 mm) & ill fitting hidem though.

My passenger door is now also a perfect fit. Once finally hung I'll post a pic. Prior to assembly I made a template from the original undamaged driver's door, which sat nicely in the opening & I used that to reproduce the passenger door. I wanted the trim to be mirror opposites of each other. It's possible that at some point the car had been pranged & ended up on its edge. It was necessary to reshape the opening to ensure a perfect fit. I used my jigsaw with a long blade to make my new stiles as I didn't have access to a band saw. The blades are visible in one of the pics above. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

This thread was discussed between 12/08/2016 and 18/09/2016

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