So, got the Spyder out of the garage this morning to give it a wash in preparation for a session with a professional photographer tomorrow...
It scrubs up quite nicely imho and it's survived its first six months on the road with just one or two settling cracks.
The old MGB wires haven't fared quite so well though. Having grit blasted them myself, then degreased them, given each two coats of primer, two coats of Simoniz wheel silver then two coats of clear lacquer, I expected them to last pretty well. After only 1,300 miles on the road, however, they now look like this close up -
I'd expected them to start rusting after a couple of years and had planned to have them powder coated when that eventually happened.
I took my egg crate grille and had it powder coated when I wasn't happy with the paint finish I got with a rattle can, but when I tried to wash off what I thought was dirt this morning I found this -
Hmm, it's rusting from the inside out which is a bit of a surprise after all the hype about how tough and long lasting powder coating is. At least I made the grille removable as it just bolts into the bonnet brackets. I might have to revert back to using Smoothrite on the grille and wheels as that seems to be resisting rust where I used it on just about everything else.
I guess long term ownership of one of these is going to be a lifetime of tinkering. Good job I like that sort of thing...
Happy Christmas everyone.