RLW 7W
I'd been looking for a project for a while. I even got the garage cleared out to make space. I'd been looking at all sorts of rusty MGB with the intention of going full Mark Evans on it, then my wife found a part finished project literally 1 mile away from me. To prove what a small world it is, the sellers son went to school with my daughter and he had even been to my house before for a party!
Anyway, the car itself was solid. It had been partially restored before but never completed. It had new wings, scuttle, door skins, inner & outer sills, castle rails, floors, rear valence. Most of the panels were Heritage. It came with a rebuilt engine, gearbox, axle, suspension, fuel tank, interior and most of the other stuff I needed in lots of boxes. It also came with an engine stand, wheeled dolly to sit under the car, and a rotisserie so I can turn the car 360 degrees for working on it.
So I bought it, hired a recovery truck to collect and it was sitting in my garage half a day later.
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Once I got it home, I could have a real good look at the condition it was in. Really, the bodyshell was not bad at all. Most of the stuff I found was quite trivial.
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There is, however, a bunch of things that do need fixing on the shell. For example, the sunroof drains have obviously blocked and water has rotted out the sunroof. This is probably the biggest job on the car, and may even need me to replace the roof skin. However, that's not as big a job as it sounds. There's also some rot around the rear quarter window. This is because whoever replaced the rear quarter in the past forgot to actually weld it to the window channel, so there's a 5mm gap where water has been allowed to ingress. And that's a running theme throughout the car. Panels have been replaced but no seam sealing has been done. Luckily, there's not much that's serious enough to need anything more than basic attention.
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The previous owner cut a hole in the sill so he could get a camera in there to see what condition they were in. Luckily, the inside has been wax coated and are completely rot-free. So, first job is to weld up the hole. Problem is, I've not welded for probably 20 years so I'm seriously out of practice. Luckily, this is an area that will never be seen.
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I trial fitted the wings to see what it looked like and immediately noticed that there was something missing. I couldn't believe that MG would allow such a HUGE mud trap. Seems I don't have the splash panels. So, I ordered some and fitted them.
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Spent some time cleaning the underside of the car. It's in very good condition. There was only one area that needed attention and that was a previous repair to the boot floor just above where the check-strap mounts. My welding has got a little better. Now to work out welding in a straight line 😀
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Spent some time scraping off the old underseal and painting the red oxide primer. I'm not sure this is the best stuff to use. If I could do it again, I'd just use standard cellulose primer.
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I found an area of rot on the front of the passenger side chassis rail. It was only small but needed cutting out, welding shut and preparing (inside and out).
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This is always nice to see
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I decided to work on the rot in the rear quarter window today. It was a REAL tricky job. There's very little room for tools in there. So, I got out the saw blades and the dremel and managed to cut the rot out. I can't say I'm 100% happy with the job, but it's straighter in real life than it looks in the pics, it's solid, and it's all going to be covered by the chrome trim. Having said that, I bet I end up fixing it again 🙂
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