MASCOT July - August 2002

Peter's Woes Part 2 (or How to Blister Your Paint in One Easy Lesson)

Peter Watts

In the last Mascot I explained the reasons/excuses as to why my Roadster has no running boards, but the story does not end there ...

When I moved to Herefordshire 5 years ago, I had to store the car in an open barn for a few (winter) months. I covered it with a cotton dust cloth but then, to stop that blowing away, foolishly covered that with a plastic sheet. Condensation formed under the plastic and caused the paint over the whole body to come up in blisters about 1/4" in diameter. I left it uncovered for a while and most went down, though they are still visible, but those on the bonnet burst, revealing the grey primer, so I have just had the bonnet repainted, using a modern baked finish, at a body shop in Hereford. They seem to have made a good job of matching the colour, which was originally Chrysler Arctic White. At the same time they repaired one of the bonnet corners, which had been rusted away since before I got the car, but which had been hidden under the rubber corner buffer. They also welded a couple of cracks in the top corners near the central hinge, so at least some good came of it.

There were no end pieces for the central chrome bonnet hinge to fit into when I got the car and I have always run it without these, having to put a sheet over the bonnet when I opened it to stop the paint rubbing. Over the years, I have acquired one end piece for the radiator end, and, while it was all in pieces, I decided to fix it up properly. So I bought another end piece, albeit a bit too long and with a slightly different cross section, from The Morgan Car Co. (£3.94 each). The shortening was a simple hacksaw job, but I had to use a diamond burr in a Black and Decker Wizard multi-tool to mill out the slots for the bonnet strip.The sketch shows the modifications needed.

I have been using the radiator that was with the car when I got it. This had a number of small weeping leaks that I have been keeping under control with Radweld. However, during the summer, it was apparent that the engine was running-considerably hotter than usual (I have a temperature gauge in my non-original dashboard), so I bit the bullet and had a new radiator core installed by Hereford Radiators. This cost £197, which was more than I expected, but it is important to get a core that will give a good flow of water. Modern radiators are used with pressurised systems working with a water pump, and the water passages can be smaller than those required for the thermo-syphon system used on my car, which relies on convection.

So there you have it - my car may not have running boards, but it does have a beautiful bonnet over a new radiator, which should see us nicely on the way to York - and beyond! I look forward to seeing you there!