Thanks for the advice in the last three posts. Taking it to heart.


Otherwise working on the Volvo today. Easily got the car started for the first time in months - sweet! Pulled the plugs and built oil pressure before starting. They had excellent color! Had a gasoline leak but got that under control. Ran the car for about half an hour to burn off any water in the engine.

Otherwise prepping driver's side floorboard for paint. Welded in a lock nut for the transmission mount and re-welded the seat bracket to the body. Not pretty, but looks like the welds will work.

Sunday - More prepping of floorboards for paint. Grind the rusty floors with a 4"wire brush on an angle grinder, then go down to a 3" wire brush, use paint thinner & a putty knife to remove deteriorated seam sealer, then use a wire brush on the electric drill, 3 different types of brushes depending what I'm trying to clean. With the wire brushes on the drill, the rusty areas turn from black orange to mostly black. The rusty metal is like a skin rash. Then wash with an acid based metal prep - removes some rust, and then converts what is left. Then wipe down several times with a degreaser. I was able to get a first layer of POR 15 on the driver's side floorboards today. I figure about 24 hours of prep work for 1 hour of painting.

I also took the throttle linkage off. As I suspected, a lot of wear at the connection coming off of the gas pedal. I welded on some patch material and ground down so now closer to new condition - although my welding ability is lame.

An internet friend from the S2000 boards in Upstate New York posted these pictures to give me an incentive. He's living in Helsinki or thereabouts as far as I know, so I presume the photos originated there. Car looks a bit custom.

If you haven't reached the painting stage on all of it yet a good test to do is to grind away on top of the treated metal prep surface.

The problem that can happen is that there is often a loose layer on top of yet more rust.

Ideally you need to get to shiny metal.

No, it's not bad enough for scale.

Applied a second coat of POR-15 on driver's side floorboards last night.

But now I have to switch gears and concentrate on the race car. Racing at the end of the month and I have to evaluate a ticking noise that I hope is a leaking exhaust gasket.

I was making a push to get the Volvo road worthy enough to take it to the "Gathering of the Marques" at Lime Rock's Historic Festival. Still a lot to do and I don't think it can happen given my schedule.

But otherwise my race group for the MGA has been announced. That is one oddball race group I will find myself in. Most of the cars are open wheel Formula Juniors. There are two Stanguellinis - cool looking cars for sure. Lots of Lotus in among the Formula Juniors, but also several Lotus 7s and Lotus Super 7s. Then there is a Maserati 300S and a Ferrari 250 GT Interim. Big money cars.

I guess I'll see everything up close when sitting on the grid and then again in my rear view mirrors. :teeth_smile:

Over the weekend, I saw this "racing" PV544 for sale at the Lime Rock Historic Festival (Connecticut, U.S.A)

I believe that it is owned by Shaun Henderson (on consignment to Ori Simpko, Simpko Motors) and replaces a much nicer car that he rolled maybe three years ago at Thompson. I've never seen this car race; and in fact, I've never seen Shaun race since the crash. Shaun was fast, though!

Engine clean and tidy - marked "110 octane only" "20-50 oil". Aluminium radiator, bolt in roll bar with harness bar, seat belts and race cell. I don't think I saw anti-roll bars.

I examined but couldn't figure out how the seat belts were attached at the inside sill.

Car has a little more patina than I might like.

I have been following your progress and you are doing a great job on this car.

Are you going to the VSCCA Fall Finale at Lime Rock? If so it would be nice to meet you. I'm a member and will bring a '67 1800s.

That's a bummer! I'm probably not going to be attending the Fall Finale. If I am there, it will be with MGA #645.

I think the plan is another death march. A few weeks ago, I was climbing Gothics in the Adirondacks. I planned to veer off and get Pinnacle & Sawteeth, and descend back from whence I came.

The climb was so arduous, however, that I stuck with the team and descended via Armstrong and Upper Wolfjaw. (In all honesty, there was no way that I was descending Gothics solo!)

They now want me to grab the omitted peaks (but without the dogs)!

Well, thats ok hopefully I will see you at the Spring Sprints.

Making slow progress.

Floor plan stabilization project:

Interior surfaces: two coats of POR-15, plus fiberglass mesh reinforcement on the driver's side front, then a POR primer, then two top coats of white paint from Tractor Supply. All brushed on. The purpose of the white was just to get the floor area looking somewhat like the car body in a uniform color, as it was a pretty depressing mishmash of dull colors and rust when I started.

Exterior surfaces: With the car up on jack stands, access was close. Wire brushed the driver's underside, and the metal looked good. Eastwood body putty on any holes on the driver's side floor pan. Went with two coats of Eastwood's Chassis Black primer and two coats of Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black paint. Passenger side not touched yet as I need to drop the exhaust system to get decent access - and it appears that the entire exhaust is welded together.

I also shot Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating into the sills, into that "framing" member that runs under the floor pans and into the area forward of the doors between the front fenders and the interior. The Internal Frame Coating is supposed to be a rust encapsulator and rust converter.

I tried to repair some rips on the passenger side seat bottom. I'm not sure that the seat covers were installed properly. It looks like the seat bottoms would benefit from removal and my sewing a hem on the bottom edge through which I could run a wire to "support" the hog rings that hold the material in place. I've deferred a decision on whether or not I want to do that work.