MGB Resto 2- Tin Worm Strikes Back (Part 2)

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As the wing falls away the full horror ‘A Nightmare on My Street’Check out the floor, from the back axel forth ‘lookin good’ covered in a sticky little black numberLast time Grant Ford purchased and then pondered over his MG, now named ‘Rusty’; a roadster used as a daily driver for 30 years with numerous short term fixes carried out to keep it legal. Whilst this 1964 ‘B’ has no doubt seen neglect and more than a few ‘bodge’ jobs, once the metal work is complete the project may well go into overdrive and result in a name change; that though is a long way off. It’s my own fault; I should not have looked on the net. Whilst I thought we had given ourselves a bit of a challenge, some of the repairs pictured on the world-wide web are just horror stories, the people who take them on are heroes as far as I am concerned but I also realise if Rusty is as bad as some of those projects, it would be way beyond our capabilities. Pondering done; with the words of Alan (long suffering mate) echoing around the garage ‘no point just looking, we need to get on with it’, he was right as usual. Prior to grinding or welding we obviously removed the 2 six volt batteries and the brand new fuel tank that has ‘Made in Canada’ stamped upon it. Interior and carpets out we were relieved to find the floor was solid, in fact in excellent condition; who ever had restored the car years ago had done a great job.  On the other hand the o/s inner rear wheel arch can only be described as ‘nasty’, plate upon plate had not stopped the corrosion. Test fit the wing, some gentle persuasion needed oh and a club hammerFirst tip, think before you cut anything, you can’t put it back; this was sound advice from the owner of a ‘Mint B’ I had met at a recent show. To remove the inner arch we needed access thus the outer wing was cut away below the trim line; this was in fact a repair panel that had been stitched in years ago. We were advised not to remove the complete rear wing if it wasn’t necessary; the top section is bonded into place with little access for any welding equipment, it was the ‘devils own job to refit correctly’. I even purchased the excellent DVD ‘An MG is Born’ with Mark Evans but they seemed to skip this part of the restoration. First the viewer is treated to rotten inner arch removal and after the break it has a new outer wing welded into place. One angle grinding disc later and we survey the situation finding areas of the inner arch are fine, others are rotten through. We cut out the nasty areas first, this turned out to be a waste of time (now looking back) as very little remained of the original panel and it is much easier to replace in one piece. The MGOC sent through my new inner arch in a day, excellent and it arrived without a dent or scratch on it, so I am most impressed with them. Happiness is short lived when seized bumper irons removed another ‘holey’ panel revealedDrilling out spot welds is by far the most tedious thing ever, luckily my panel was so bad in places the arch just fell off the body and as each section came off it was high fives all round, the metal under the inner arch was solid as a rock. Renewed with enthusiasm we finally removed the last of the arch and with it lumps of fibre glass and strips of alloy plate and tin. Top tip is to purchase some gloves, we failed to do so and suffered literally dozens of sharp metal cuts, remember soft ‘southerners’ hands bleed; a lot in my case! Alan loves posing for the action shots plenty of opportunity with grinding on this carI assumed that every-one takes advantage of the protection wax-oil offers your new metal, it seems I am mistaken. Once we removed the inner arch we could see that even the recently fitted door sills had no protection injected. Two cans later all the vulnerable areas were sealed with ‘guwee’ protection; top tip don’t weld near newly applied wax-oil, leave a few hours to set as the fumes emitted tend to catch fire! Having the attention span of a tortoise I was intrigued with the small alloy plates I noticed above the door mirrors and removed the securing rivets only to find both doors had contracted the ‘crack of death’. I have seen a number of MGB’s at shows recently without mirrors or with cracks in the door skin. Many must have admired the recent advert for Lancaster Insurance in CCB showing a lovely blue Roadster also mirror-less, we have already decided to follow their lead and not bother refitting them. Is the rear panel past repair I need to cut anyway to gain access to the rotten closing panelThe inner arch supplied via the MGOC was test fitted and whilst it seemed to fit well, a note of caution came my way via Chris Bentley their Sales and Marketing Director. The tooling for these panels are now obviously many years old and therefore the panel produced may well vary from its original specification. Couple that with a car that has already had most of its panels replaced, some correctly, some not, it is unlikely a first time fit is achievable especially for a novice like me. Whilst avoiding heavy handed tactics so far it became necessary to employ the assistance of large hammers to get the panel to sit where we thought it should. This is a tactic that would become more frequent than we would like but considering all the factors sometimes it is the only way to progress. The rear o/s member assembly (some refer to as chassis leg) runs through to the rear spring hangers and bumper irons, two large bolts slide through a damper plate and into our new inner arch, so that must be our starting point. Once bolted in it became obvious that this was not going to be as straight forward as I had hoped, some areas were snug and tight whilst the gap to the outer boot floor panel was large enough to accept my still bleeding fingers. This was our first setback and would not be easily solved. We deal with this dilemma in different ways.   Alan normally does his impersonation of the statue of ‘the thinker’, that Greek guy that looks like he is perched on the ‘throne’, chin in hand whilst deep in thought. I have a slightly different approach that involves running around the garage with my ‘hair on fire’ shouting ‘we are all doomed!’ Several hours of pulling, forcing and adjusting between welds and it does fit and fits rather well. A puff over with some primer will protect the new welds and bare metal from reverting to flaky brown tin and I apply the 3rd plastic to my hands as the garage floor now resembles a scene from a 70s Dracula movie. Out came the borrowed Mig and Alan went into the ‘welding zone’ he would call if anything caught fire otherwise I was a distraction, supplying a running commentary of every tack. Rust patrol, none found up front, I wasn’t going bald till I bought this carWhilst things seemed to be moving along at a good pace I decided to check over the floor pans from underneath for any further rust. I set aside a day to face my fears, warning all family members to stay out of my way as I knew from experience this would be a messy one. Suitably attired and an early start, using my trusty scraper I removed layers of old protection that quite simply wasn’t doing its job anymore. Once you can pull large lumps away by hand then surely the elements must be able to get behind and allow corrosion to have its ‘wicked way’ with my MG’s body. I must confess to an element of fear at this point as I attacked the areas where new panels had been stitched in, especially when the protection scraped off so easily. By lunchtime I was suitably filthy, my least favourite shirt was ruined and my golden locks decorated with lumps of old underseal. I pressed on just thrilled every panel from the front of the MG to the rear wheel arches were solid, not a sign of rot. The more experienced restoration experts may be able to confirm or ‘poo-poo’ my theory but surely applying large quantities of protection to a shiny new panel offers little opportunity for the guardian of fresh tin to adhere and do its job correctly. Where the metal was new I gave it a light key, then applied a light coat of spray  ‘Tetroseal’ and once dried applied lashings from a 5 litre tin by hand with a brush and will leave for a couple of months before a final coat of Tetra-Schutz with an airgun. If this is ‘overkill’ that’s great as I would not want to repeat this exercise in a hurry, not least because my balding scalp looks worse with large lumps of black gunge having to be cut from my ‘Barnet’. My specs needed a wash in brake cleaner and my wardrobe is now minus several items of 80s retro clothing. ‘The crack of deathdoom’ whatever the phrase it’s a nasty afflictionThe MG also enjoys rotten bumper irons, they are in fact so rotten that they no longer resemble the shape they were cast in many years ago but that was not the problem. It was whilst struggling to remove the bolts from the body that I found severe rust around the rear side member on the nearside. The bolts were seized in and the closing panel that fits on top of the main member was perforated. Two hours of cutting, bashing and using offensive language made no difference, the bolts were still stuck and my concern was being to grow; in fact panic was taking hold. Eventually after a WD40 shower party the ‘little blighters’ gave up and I removed the now heavily battered iron.  The MGOC parts catalogue would inform me how much this issue was going to set me back. To gain reasonable access the n/s outer boot floor panel would need to be cut out, not a great shame as it looked a little tired on the underside anyway. The rear spring hanger is also going to need removing as it is in the way, a good opportunity to fit new bushes. The closing panel is available as a repair item and looking at other restorations it’s a common corrosion area and most MGB’s will have enjoyed this repair. One phone call to my new pal Roger Taylor at the MGOC and he confirms everything is in stock and on route, along with my credit card bill and a few sleepless nights as now we attempt to fit the new rear wing. Next Time:
  • Weld, Weld and Weld. Another CO2 bottle for the Mig and in goes more fresh metal.
  • The rear valance repair or replace, that is the question?
  • We fit the new rear wing, our way, will letters of complaint hit CCB
  • Alan breaks the welder and uses more bad language!
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