More progress

Hello folks.

The nice weather and a lull in studying has seen a little progress on the MG.
I deferred getting the engine going till I can afford some special fuel hose and Imperial nuts/bolts for the fuel tank.
The rear LH wheel arch was still needing work (inner wheel arch- outer portion ) .
I had put off attempting this for a long time since, read below.
I did actually buy a repair section from the MG hive last year, £60 , for my birthday, along with several other panels.
However at the time, I'd already cut the rust away and fitted the complete real rear wing over it. But, then I make a complete novice error. I realised I'd bought the WRONG side rear repair section. It was a right outer - inner section, I needed and I had a left. Hay hoe.
So i did use it on the correct arch several months ago, see much earlier post, and remembered it was a swine to do.

Nevertheless, I set to full of determination.
I had no money but some enthusiasm. It was all i could do.
With rear jacked up and head in small confine of wheel arch. I should say that I had to roll the car onto the road, reverse and push back tuther way into drivespace ,so its pointing the other way, again. Thank you Son No 1.
I'll hammer some sections to fit. Three of four pieces curved round, lipped and curved the other way should be simple enough.
I even went green and recycled the old doorskin to use for said patches.
I had a set of the correct hammers and dollies- no guesses where I bought them from !
How hard can it be ?
After at least 2 hours............. simples !.................VERY VERY HARD. I gave up. Almost.

Then I remembered.

In a moment of e-bay purchasing way back when I was employed and in full control of our finances I did buy one VW GOLF ( Rabbit for our colonials ) outer left wheel arch repair,

WHY I hear you ask ?

Well look further down at the lovely Maroon example. It looks fantastic with very subtle flared wheel arches. I contacted the owner and he gave me the details. Mk 3 Golf rear arches are a near perfect fit for all MG arches. So i bought one. £20 from the usual source.
I had a brainwave........not often i get one but a good one at that.
If it is turned arse about face and maybe cut into 3 or 4 sections a new inner arch could be fabricated.
Why not. correct shape with lip. right curve. clean. smooth free and available.
To press I've done two of the four sections and left them there clamped in-situ.
What is horrible is using the wire wheel cup on the grinding machine. Flat on back looking straight up at almost invisible ( since my goggles are rather scratched and contrast of sky and dark wheel arch make it impossible) edge with a fine mist of 33 year old underseal coating my mouth, hair, eyes, nose and teeth. It was about 10 inches from my forehead, so a slip would have really spoilt my day. I'm scared enough of the grinder as it it anyway.
I looked like I'd been down a mine for months, ergghhhh. And there's still more to do, then weld.
Next post will be photo of job done, hopefully.

Once my exams are over I'll crack on and do as much as possible to get the rolling restoration underway. I reckon I need :-

6 rattlecans of primer
Fuel line - tank to sender
Fuel tank nuts/bolts
RH wing bolts
Rear springs - Lowered type
Small drop arms- rear
Complete Poly bush set
Front Brake discs and pads
Rear brake pads
Front chrome windscreen surround
Front windscreen rubber
Rear screen rubber
Door rubbers
Tailgate rubber surrounds.
Seam sealer

The rest I can live without for the now rolling resto. I hate the seventies Orange/brown/white stripes of the seats though.

That all as far as I know........................................!!!
Yes it is quite a lengthy list. But this time 3 years ago it was unthinkable i could even make a list.

So just a small problem of 3 exams to pass, summer job to find and I'll be making real progress.

It makes you think..............really !!

I came across this whilst surfing tuther day and it impressed, scared & inspired me all at the same time.

Watch it and see what you think.......its regarding technology and the pace of life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY&feature=player_embedded

A dull spark can have its moments

Well well people, after lots of hurried excitement and climax/anti-climax the MG has turned its crankshaft in anger and fired up all four cylinders, albeit momentarily.
I paint a serene and planned scenario.......................................................................not.
I planned to get the water hoses and fuel hoses on last bank holiday week, plus the oil connection pipe/union to the oil pressure gauge. This did not go well. I had to wait for the latter to be posted, it arrived well after the bank holiday. Even worse, when fitting the fuel hose ( Pump unit to manifold ) i found the hose 2" ( 50mm) too short !!
Not to worry, whilst all this was resolved by some telephone calls and waiting I set too ordering a battery ( Wifeys birthday prezzie to me). Gawd almighty It arrived the next day, it cost £33 + £9.99 delivery, it was the correct spec, and a single bank holiday was approaching to co-incide with said birthday.
What a let down. The battery was flat as a fart. Nil pwa. zero volts. even less amps.
Even tried connecting brother in laws battery charger and waiting 10 hours..............nothing
It just had to wait till my exams were over the following week and I could call the vendor.
I had a shock somewhat when I looked up the vendors seller rating ( yes it was E-bay again,and i know I should have done this BEFORE purchasing) but it was pants. Nevertheless, when contacted they sent a replacement and it was received today ( the very next day ).
Connected up and bingo.................no not firing but engine turning and willingly turning.
After a couple of hours convinced there was no spark then the coil was faulty then the silicone leads not showing continuity I eventually summoned assistance. Son No 1 came to help ( yes and without being bribed) I had some unleaded in a plastic container down the shed ( been there for about 2 years ). So pouring some fuel into the plastic see through filter and into the carbs it looked more of a possibility. But still no fire or spark.
Then I thought back to the great Mark Evans, or more precisely the bloke from stoke who sprayed something highly flammable into the carbs. I did the same whilst son turned the key.

Bingo................ firing, smoke, oil pressure, water pumping( somewhere) , alternater turning, son terrified, dad beaming and running round drive giggling & crying.

It died after a few seconds due to the solvent being used up, however it goes to show the fuel was at fault all the time.......not the lack of spark, timing, incorrect assembly of anything, stupid owner or shagged out coil.
So the crappy fuel was poured into the daily driver and the MG tank will be assembled and filled sort of at the weekend for a more measured attempt. I need to buy a proper fuel line though as I ain't replaced the short one yet ( Man a MechSpec did say at the time it might not be long enough)

So things are moving forward at a pace now..................except the cash.

An update....... and real progress

Its been so long that I have forgot where I left off last time.

Anyways, the thermostat sent back to the MGOC ( and oil gauge pipe) that got lost in the post is now resolved.

After a little windfall from the good old NHS Bursary dept I purchased from MechSpec

:- thermostat housing ( £ 5.50 and second hand, new from MGOC is £16.00)

brass plug to suit, I think I must have thrown the "saved" one away or can't find it.

Top and bottom water hoses,

braided oil gauge pipe with unions,

braided fuel pipe ( pump to tank ).

Unfortunately fuel pipe and brass plug for thermostat was not in stock so I had to wait a few days for them to be posted. This gave me a few days of good weather during the recent Easter break to crack on since Uni had 2 weeks off.......yipee.

During this period I managed to sand down the front RH lower wing where I welded on a large repair panel. I even added more filler and sanded down again to get a reasonable finish. I really hate filling and sanding. There is still a little more work to do on the wing but this requires its removal so I left it to get on with the fuel tank, hoses and heater.

The heater required a brackett at the base welding. It opens/closes a flap to direct the hot air ( Do MG's have hot air ???) It also needed the foam insulation for the mini radiator in the heater body and specially shaped foam to insulate the two pipe exits from the heater.

The welding part was easy, the foam bits not so. I had run out of money to buy these from Mechspec or elsewhere and was thinking of visiting my lovely towns Fri morning market. I know there is a " Foam Stall" frequented I guess by budding upholsterers and bedmakers, but he was not there. recession and all that. So in a dutiful fit of Saturday morning shopping in town I did my usual wander around Wilko's.

Below is a view of the unmolested heater.

Where the cable disappears to is the brackett that needed welding. The cable goes into a hard ( but very perished ) shaped foam seal. The rest of the foam seals were on the base and around the inside body to insulate the mini radiator. After lots of cleaning and ages of rooting around the shed, swearing and a pop to ma in laws for wifey's soldering iron ( Don't ask )

So, a fantastic piece of inspiration saw me buy 3 x cleaning sponges for 32p each , one "tuff" sponge for £1.35 and 4 x jubilee clips for 64p total . Grand Total = £ 2.95. Some careful cutting with a very sharp craft knife and the heater was almost sorted. A coat of gloss black on the front face ( used wifey's Black gloss Acrylic spray from one of her thousands of arty stores, .i.e plastic carrier bags, secreted in hiding places around the house)

See the finished attempt below.

This pleased me enormously as I must have saved a fortune in overpriced foam seals from the MGOC. And And. I remember the heater was very very difficult to remove due to the "toughness" of the two pipe special sponge, so it should all go back together much more easily.

Another good piece of progress was the fuel tank. It had been sort of covered up by the side of the shed for a few years and I expected it to be beyond repair and full of pinholes.

No way............It had been undercoated from new and after a good clean up with the electric wire brush it looked almost new. Only one tiny pinhole on the top surface near the filler spout. I remedied this with a good spot of Araldite and a complete coating of red lead plus the remainder of the Black acrylic spray liberated from wifey's store.

Now its stopped raining I'm hoping to fit all this lot in readiness for buying a battery next week. Fill up with the correct oil, add water, connect fuel line and bingo...fun time starts.

Yipee, its my Birthday treat so then I may actually get to fire her up. I think that is where the title of the blog comes from since this part may be the most frustrating.

More soon.

p.s forgot to add I cleaned up bonnet ( top and bottom) and sprayed it and RH doorskin + RH wing ( again) with grey primer

Much to tell.................but later today !! Watch these first whilst I'm busy

Meanwhile............................here's the sexiest thing to have ever been invented.............!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vk4RiEMLY8


.............................................................And the funniest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dpZ4BPsLZI

More very soon

Hello Strangers

Again not much has happened MG wise as I've been very busy and ill again over the festive period.

I did manage to send the thermostat housing and other bits back to the MGOC with covering letter for replacement. However, being so busy I've not had time to phone and place my order/pay. Its almost the end of jan and I hope they have not thrown it away.
As soon as the weather improves my intention is to refurb the heater and get it in place, fit aforementioned housing and hoses, fill with oil and water then fire it up. Ohh errr it sounds easy to say, but bet the reality takes a few more months and lots of cursing.
I am looking forward to the break from placement come easter and hopefully I will not be ill this time. Since we are well and truly skint I can put lots of time into the MG doing things I've put off last summer.
Next week is the households official payday ( happens every two months/ don't ask, its to do with bursary payments and child benefit) so i may visit the pub for the first time this year and see feckless mate Chris for a laugh and giggle and swap rude jokes.

Just for Matt and chums

Matt

Cannot say too much as the site is linked to the radiography Blog.
Since I'm now an "Elth proffffffesshunal" my identity must remain annony-mouse. ( Just in case I say/let slip something I should not)

So send me your e-mail address ya dolt, then we may converse properly like.

Regards LostSock

Some Non news

Well folks I thought I'd post, post about nothing really.

The MG has not moved or gone any rustier I think. I did spend some time attaching a thick clear polythene to the front window and side windows in preparation for the cold winter.
Normally the two large Blue poly covers are usually enough to keep out the water, however on the last few excursions under the cover I have seen a large puddle of water collecting in one of the many poly boxes storing stuff inside.
It serves me right, I should not have removed the windscreen before I was ready to.
Still, it gave me good exercise since I had done a clear out of the shed and outhouse.
Thus finding Duck tape and thick clear poly sheet.

I have a Job..............................................a butchers dog/gopher

Since the big change in my circumstances, then even bigger shock with good old Tax office ( Don't get me started...................................Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)
I decided to help our Christmas be less bleak and earn some dosh.
Hopefully some MG type goodies wend their way my way or at least I can afford to save for some suspension bushes.
Hope I get the time to post as I'm going to be rather busy up to the festive period.

p.s comments are welcome as they usually cheer me up !!!

Its getting there, their, they're

Had a good couple of good sessions the last few weeks under the bonnet.

Things MG wise have taken a bit of a back seat, obviously. 

Prior to the big decision I did manage to visit another MG part retailer "darn sarf" and bought some oil cooler pipes and petrol pipe unions ( might as well have been Onions......see later ) 

+ second hand heat shield for carbs. 

 Retailer- ere, this ull fit...... ( When asked if they have said heatshield)  

Me - It looks a lot different... ?

Retailer - naw, they all fit, just slightly redesigned....  

Me - how do you undo the oil cooler nut when its sheared on the cooler matrix thread ?  

Retailer - Need a torch guv, an plenny of eat...

Me - Won't that melt the ( rubber) pipes ( within 1" of union )

Retailer - scuttles away to answer some unheard cry from out back

Retailer # 2 , That'll be £22.55 please

Anyways, that lot of bits stayed hidden in my desk drawer till wifey came to do the dreaded receipts and finances ( she now knows where to look to find the receipts..........my eyes !!!!)

Since all the ancillaries had been cleaned during summer, I had the relevant gaskets ( bought months ago from Mechspec via good ole E-bay) and now I had all the parts.....whopeee

So, fitted the gaskets x 4, spacer x 2, more gaskets under heatshield, heatshield ( after good cleanup with wire brush in drill)  Bracket onto heatshield to hold carb throttle union, 3 lower springs and the two carbs. It took a bit of working out on how to fit the two mechanical linkages

and some flicking through the photos and books, but job done.

I should say at this point the previous "good session" I had fitted the inlet manifold, exhaust manifold + gasket, cleaned up the mounting studs and attached with liberal coatings of copper grease.

The fuel union recently purchased was crap. It fits between each carb. It looks good, being braided steel outer, with SS jubilee clips at each end but......................it was too short !!!!!

So I cleaned up the old one and re-used the existing springy clips.....they look as good as new.

This was the only ( union) thing I was sure would be O.K from " darn sarf"  so an ONION would have been as good.

The heatshield did fit fine though, so the trip and cash was not wasted.

I still have to get another thermostat housing from the MG owners club as the last one purchased is still not the correct one.

What makes this difficult is I'm not trolling up and down this fair isle anymore so it will have to be good ole Mr Postman. And a top water hose is also required and an oil pressure pipe union (x2) which sheared on undoing. 

The oil cooler and hoses are in place and finished, the fuel overflow pipes also.

So, soon I will be able to refit the fuel tank, re-connect electric sender unit, fill with lifefluids and try starting her up......................................................perhaps.

I'll have to give some time and effort in to what I think I might have forgot.

I have a feeling that I may have to re-fit the dashboard first which means connecting the heater vents which means fitting the heater which means re-furb to heater which means finding lost vent trim and so on.

Who said it was going to be easy. 

At least i have ALL of next week off................more then, possibly.

Above are the Heatshields...........are they the same ?  ( yes they both fit !!!)

All Change.................slow,slow ,stop.

Well its finally come to pass.
Yes I bit the bullet and handed in my notice.
Not shared with you on the blog was my restlessness to do something different, to help people and to sleep in my own bed every night.
So three years ago I embarked on an access course at the local college with the aim of applying for a place on a Radiography course. I never thought I would be offered a place. The courses are very over subscribed and its not your usual "student life". Being medical the course is very tough with 3 years academic study and 3 years on placement all crammed into 3 years !!
I thoroughly enjoyed the access course and would reccomend it to anyone, even if its just for fun.
I ended up with the equivalent of 3- 1/2 A levels ( I added extra units to enhance my chances of selection) The people were like me ( older) all had busy lives and jobs and we all had collective whinges, fun and a great sense of camarardarie ( spelling!!)

It was a tough decision to make when I discovered I had been offered a place. It involved all the family and everyone has had to make sacrifices. I must admit this was very tough for the wife as she's the worrying type and was at her wits end over the decision.
However, I will do all I can not to let anyone down over the next three years.

So the restoration will go even slower now. Finances are stretched to breaking point so I may have to resort to begging and borrowing.....................I'm good at this though.

I will miss my friends and associates from work, the company car, laptop ( now replaced with new one with a FULL KEYBOARD- note KL) expense account, mobile phone, whining customers, hours of e-mails ( replaced with hours of essays) motorway traffic jams, M25, A14, M1, A12, A405, Slough , Jedburgh and last but not least all the comfortable little offices I had dotted around the UK ( Motorway service stations to the un-initiated )
I will reallly miss the large Wild bean cafe Latte's that kept me sane.

Another positive note is I've stopped smoking at last, and kept the alcohol units under 15 for most of the last few weeks........................here's to a healthy lifestyle.
Well I could hardly be let loose in hospitals as an Oliver Reed apprentice could I .

So expect in the coming months some restoration fun, a few stories of acadedmic life and other hospital related tales from a student radiographer.
Please note that since I'm now a professional in the health service I'm expected to behave like one. Back to the old lifestyle then ??????? I'll let you know.

Restoration wise I'm afraid I have left a little gap in proceedings.
What is done is as follows :-
All of bodywork, except :- Rear inner wing repair section, sanding of F- RH lower wing repair section, Bonnet clean up, Rear tailgate clean up, chop off front chassis ends to accomodate chrome bumper mounts. Weld in captive nuts.

Engine :- Fit carbs & manifold. Buy two new hoses for cooling system. Fit oil cooler hoses + gauge pipe ( broken when removing former) refurb and fit heater box.

Suspension :- Inspect, clean, rebush, fit lower springs ( got on e-bay) Front & Back

Well you get the picture, its coming along nicely. But so is winter !!!

Any donations gratefully recieved.

Back to Black..........hopefully not

Well, technically black is not a colour, but it is for the purposes of my vehicles previous owner is must have been a very attractive and desirable colour.
I say this because I spent the best part of four hours removing some/most of the stuff liberally covering anything remotely not chrome plated in the engine bay.

Lets start at the beginning of this topic though.
The cylinder head is on and looks, well..............not like it did before.
Before everything in the engine bay was either dark oily greasy black or covered in "horsehair" fluff from the shedding of the under bonnet lid protection.
Actually everything was covered in both. So thats why the cylinder head now looks like a cylinder head. Albeit still has some small corners still holding onto the black paint applied at some stage. The Ally intake manifold was the same. This however could take a lot more aggresion being lighter than the C.H.

The carbs were next on the list for re-furb. They looked awfully dark and "fluffy".
Trouble was meths,white spirit, petrol & thinners didn't touch them.
A trip to the local boy racers heaven ( Motor Factors, full of wheels,graphic equilisers, polish and LED lights ) and a large spray can of "Carb Cleaner" purchased, together with spray on engine de-greaser.

Well they both worked a treat and did exactly what they said on the tin.
The carbs look .................well again almost new. I enjoyed cleaning the carbs. I sat down the drive under the shade of a tree, jacksy parked on nice plastic chair with all stuff laid our before me on old pinic table. What joys !.
I even managed to find an old battery powered toothbrush for the fiddly corners of the carb.
The engine de-greaser was a little scary as it stated rinse off with water.
I'd just covered the entire LH side of the engine and chassis frame.
However, I bit the bullit and sprayed with high powered cold water and guess what, it works. No more smelly, oily, fluffy engine.
To prove a point on the progress here's a before and after .........look up

( for some reason I still can't reposition the photos where i want them...come on Blogger, sort it!!!! )
Lots of the ancillaries have been cleaned too. My point about the black is that at some stage in its early life the car had had a good and thorough ( mild understatement) respray from white to black. This included the inside of all the boot,door, bonnet, sills, engine bay and ancillaries including THE WIRING.
So it took me four hours of back breaking cleaning the wires with thinners to reveal the colour before I could connect up the various ancillaries. Plus the sticky and grimy black electrical tape binding so many wires.

What lets the whole thing down is the area where the large smiths heater sits. It looks a little rusty and still white in parts. I didn't think they would remove this when converting the colour since it took me best part of 2 days to remove.

Next post will reveal what I found hiding in the car from Mr Bodgit & Scarper, or was it Mulder from the X-files ? .................more soon !

Now I've published the post the pictures don't do it justice. I'll try to give a better before and after of the carbs..............promise. And, And ,And what colour should I spray it ?

My feelings say Carmine Red, wifey wants old English white ( Original colour) kids say pearlescent light Blue...........................tell me what you think !!!!!!!!!!!!!!please

...........and a head !!

Well finding the cylinder head was rather easy. It was in the shed all the time. Admittedly right at the bottom of the pile. So, since the MG had had a tool tidy up I moved it into there.
I had to move it ( stored in a handy large Poly-prop box from work ) several times in and out of the car every time I did things.
However, first job was to remove the thermostat housing. Two of the three nuts came away complete with studs, the third...........No chance. It appeared that the stud was slightly bent.
There was no way that was going anywhere. I did't want to drill it...........how anyway ?
A few gentle taps with the large and heavy Aluminiun faced hammer would certainly help.
Yes they did, the housing cracked from top to bottom. At first I didn't notice, I thought it was made in two separate parts, but no.....good old Fufferfour ruined it.
Still, once I realised this it was easy to remove. It still had the slightly bent stud left though.

This brings me to ask the obvious question.........................Why did motor manufacturers use so many studs ?....................They are horrible, always rust solid, break and are not easy to purchase.
The stud in question is about 35mm long ( 2 3/8" for the unenlightened) with a fine thread on one end ( 5/16 UNF) and coarse the other (5/16 UNC)..................................... FFS.........WHY ?
A simple 3/8" bolt , say BSW ..........or BSF, I don't mind ,would do + washer and hey ho.
Think how logical that would have been for good old BL, use 3/8 bolts all round, surely that would help keep the costs down for our struggling icon of manufacturing. But no, all different, hard to source and not cheap ( well not as cheap as 3/8" BSW/BSF anyway)
Removing the valve springs was a bit of a farce. All the manuals say you need a valve spring compressor. I'd priced them up, cheapest was £40 from Halfords. No way.
Thats almost a new doorskin !! After chopping a stout piece of 1.1/2" x 1.1/2" timber I found I could bear down on the spring cover and make the collet top loose. Trouble was it took both arms and my full weight of 10 stone.........................porky alert............14 stone ( 190 Lbs )
So I had no arms free..............except that wifey just happened to be passing by.
So she was roped into service with a screwdriver poking both halves of the collect out as I pressed down. It was approx 8.30 at night and she was tired. Needless to say she had to say it

" do you actually enjoy struggling without the correct tools,
getting cuts and scrapes on yor fingers and getting oily filthy all
over"

Well us guys all know the answer to that..........................and they don't, ..............obviously !!!!
After the third valve I developed a technique that made wifey redundant, but hurt like hell when the wooded bar slipped. But perseverence paid off and by 4.30 a.m I had them all out.
Only joking, it took about 30 mins of struggle, pain, sweat and swearing.

The valves, collets, caps and springs we all numbered, bagged and stored.
I cleaned the head face with trusty scraper tool.
Ground the inlet/exhaust chambers with drill/bobbly grindstone.
Then lapped valve seats.........................cor blimey, what a farce and faffin abaht !!!!!!
The tool resembles one of those Childs toy arrows sold with cheap seaside bows. In fact one of those might have been better. The idea is to insert the correct valve stem into correct hole, smear mating valve face with grinding paste, stick on rubber sucker end of stick and rub hands back and forth as if trying to light a fire. Simple in theory. I read the technique many times and never gave it a second thought as it sounded so easy.
Now three alarming things that they never tell you -:
a/. The paste does not stay put where you put it
b/. Your hands after about five "rubs" are way down the bottom of the stick.
c/. The rubber sucker gets paste all over it and makes it next to useless
At this rate I would finish one vale per year, its going to be a long resto !!!
So I devised the following plan.
The good old Bosch drill was working perfectly, it even has a lever handily placed, to reverse the rotation. And it does it without fuss and seamlessly.
Mounted stick thing in drill, cleaned sucker with ( don't laugh...........ink cartridge flusher)
drill 15 seconds clockwise, same anticlockwise x 5 and check seat.
I was looking for a nice even band of approx 2 to 3 mm around the valve and mating face.
Some steady back and forth with trusty Bosch and the valves were seated a treat.
Off to the boot ( trunk) of the trusty Toyota for a full soak and clean at the works in Slough next time I visit ( via Swavesy for a new thermostat housing..........next story )

Sorry no Photos..........:-(

Its got wings

Here it is, the last piece of major bodywork to be fitted, a lovely RH rear wing with beading.

The photo shows the rear side window and chrome trims fitted temporarily to give me an ego boost that a major phase is over.

The inner wheelarch was a real swine to fit. Well fitting was easy, the welding was not.

Inside the arch there aint enough room for my head(with welding helmet) torch, gloved hand and clamps. Also i must admit i skimped on the grinding a bit and this made the welding , well tough. So my wise advice to anyone attempting this.........Weld prep is most important !!!!

As a break from this I also made a nice flush fit with the bottom valance. This was done by welding in a strip behind where wing and valance meet, then applying some filler and smoothing to a good finish.

Whilst at it I also had a fit of efficiency and welded in some ( two ) pieces in the boot floor near the spare wheel clamp.

This caused a slight diversion as I had to empty the MG of all my tools stored there. Of course, like a goldfish or small child I'm easily distracted so I had a rehash and tidy up all of my tools and stuff in the MG. Well was there some crap. This leads me to another diversion. One of tools.

When restoring the MG a few months ( nay years) ago and starting this blog I listed my top ten favourite and must have/most useful so far, pieces of equipment. See earlier on posts.

I've now revised this in light of more recent experiences.

So here it is

1. Money
2. Money
3. Money
4. Money
5. Workmate ( B&D type) not a real one, although one with spare cash and a garage is OK
6. Patience
7. Angle grinder
8. jigsaw
9. Mig welder
10. trimmingtool/screwdriver/scraper/chisel.....Yet it really is one tool, and I have one.

As we speak ( you know what I mean) I only have item 10. but thats jumping ahead again.

From the photo above you see I left the door in place as an aid to alignment. Good move now the wing is in place.

Next on the agenda is the engine bay ( remember the blog is about now 2 months behind "real time")

I may post that tonight, I might not. Depends how I feel and how hot the sunshine gets late on. See how light and fluffy my mood is. Restoring MG's gets you that way. That and having bugger all money, tough job and a penchant for red wine. +++++ for some reason I can't place another photo near the bottom of the blog, only at the top, which would ruin the continuity of the story so far. So thats it for now.

When tools have "Off Days"

Some time after welding on the rear wing, or was it just before, I had a real bad tool day.

Same as the wife's bad hair days, only worse.

I had to cut out several small rectangular pieces using the trusty jigsaw. The jigsaw has served me well over the years and has cut lots of things. I had "modified" it to get at awkward parts on the MG, by removing the base, and somehow never got it to go back together exactly right.

On the day in question I did manage to get it back as it should be and proceeded to make an extra long cut in a removed doorskin. See.......I'm even managing to make it a green car by recycling as much good steel as possible. But I'm afraid it just died. Even after suspecting all that was wrong was the brushes, no, it had run its joyful and varied life. The rotor/commutator windings had just disintegrated, poor old B&D jigsaw.

Still all was not lost, I just did it the old fashioned way with hacksaw and effort. God I missed the jigsaw. So then to welding, after 1 minute of expert welds, spit, spatter, silence.

The welding wire had all been used up !. God when I bought the welder it had about 37 miles of wire on the spool. So 4 CO2 bottles later it had eventually gone. What to do on a sunday afternoon with intermittent fine drizzle and sunny spells ? More grinding, thats what I'll do.

The grinder had allready had new carbon brushes fitted a few months ago, Ten Bloody pound 99p, when the whole grinder cost only £ 14.99..........Scre**ix are not my favourite people.

But no, it coughed and spluttered,I shook it, I banged the brush mounts with relied upon persuading tool ( Hammer) but nuffin. Inspecting the brushes showed thet were not quite worn down but the copper wire connecting them had parted company with the carbon, Both sides !!!

Then, whilst cleaning up and "reshaping" the battery box cover the workmate jaws just gave up and turned from two just functioning ( they have been out in the rain for the last two years)

parts into four non functioning parts !!!!!!!!!

So there I was, well and truly Scr#*(ed/f!xed). Thats when I hatched a plan to start on the engine.

Well after all it was all cluttering up the shed methinks.

So the bodywork and tools could wait till the cash was plentiful, all I need do is find the engine parts,clean& inspect and re-fitt............................hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

oh, and try to make new workmate jaws.........this is an easy job,....... innit ?????

Next Instalment................................................... How to hide a cylinder head and many auxillary engine parts in an average 3 bed semi ( with shed at bottom of garden)

Back to reality

Again for Matt.........the real thing.

As you all can see some great progress has been made, particularly on the engine and bay.

Later today I will post carrying on in sequence as this shots has fast forwarded a few months, even though it is current.

Here it is...........Just for Matt !!

If only it did look like this.............................but one day !

Its been so long

Well folks, apologies for not posting sooner. I've been busy !!

The MG progresses slowly but steadily, life continues and work, work busy busy.

Yipee.......College has finished. Yayyyyy.......ended up with 75 credits at level 3 and 15 at level two. Truth be told I should have got 90 at L3 but eased off when I was offered a place at University, already having the required amount. However,I did eventually manage a level 3 in Psychology at last.

Sadly the Sociology lecturer thinks I'm the student from hell, so no L3 in this subject.

All after me...........Do I care, ........do I $^?**!

Work has been very busy since March, with two trips to France and many more visits to the carbuncles of this sceptred isle.

Anyways back to the blog in hand. I last left you having prepared the rear wing for replacement. Well its on and looks great.

I also had to repair the inside of the "C" post in the corner. It took a lot of fiddling, grinding and even more welding of small patches but here it is. The bottom photo shows the tricky piece welded in, which as usual was ten times easier to do than I thought and pondered months over.

The inside was also very rusty and needed lots chopping out and rewelding in.

The finished results don't look pretty but hey, the're strong, rust free and covered up by all the trim.

I've decided on a new stratagey....................lets get the thing finished !!!

So, a two pronged attack, bodywork and engine. I have done lots and made some good progress on both. The only snag was the door, or more accurately the door hinge. Whilst repairing the front wing lower section i decided to remove the door. Bad move. Had to drill out the six screws holding it on. The the captive plate retainer gave up the ghost. i.e it was just not there only a faint brown apparition of where it used to be before the rust.

More in depth photos and discussions tomorrow ( hopefully ) now time and tide is with me.

More on than off

Above shows the new sill welded in position and a good door gap. Its better than the LH side as then I removed the door ( bad move) However this time i left the door in situ and look, it fits great. I only made one error. A small one at that. I forgot to buy a jacking point when I purchased the sill from MGOC. Not so bad though as I can always weld it on later.



Next job is to repair the Inner wheel arch, replace whole of LH wing, but first make new repair section to rear window base. Its rusted completely through and no new panels are available.

I'm going to bend one at College on their ace bending machine. It comprises of a short vertical piece of say 8mm then the horizontal base with another bend tapering along its length down 90 degrees at say 8mm ( this is where the new wing will attach)

The job thats got to be done that looks a little fiddly is the hole in said window corner. Its a large radius in a 45 degree apex with little or no chance of getting in the scary grinder to dress the welds so I'm thinking I may braze a section in, if only I knew how to braze or had the kit !

I wisely did all this a few weeks before the easter hols, and guess what , ever since its been either snowing, raining, gale force winds or all three so I,m not so frustrated.

The earthquake also put a stop to things for a while.

After hearing what sounded like a dumper truck depositing 3 tons of bricks on the roof and a quick check that we were all ok, a rece showed the chimney stack had reduced in size and came to rest in the conservatory via the tri-ply roof. So my office has been out of bounds for some time till its replaced, the chimney stack has been repaired so we are not living in fear of errant bricks or slates anymore. When the weather is better and money abundant the car bodywork will be virtually done bar a few minor touch ups and cosmetics, then on to the suspension, or engine, or chrome, or carbs.............and on and on.



More soon folks !!

More off than on !

That is bodywork wise anyway. Another glorious weekend and I set too removing the rear wing. I debated long and hard about removing it. I have the cash to buy a new outer sill and new wing ( left over from x-max prezzies) and i have in the shed (for shed read vehicular temporary storage area- non garden bottom orientated-ie i save it in the MG) a partial outer inner wing, brand new. So, i thought i would need all these parts before removing the wing.

The great god Mr Mark Evans says its important to repair the inner wing BEFORE removing the outer................................please forgive the petulance and disobediance Mr Mark ,but you're wrong ! Especially since you don't know MY CAR, previously bodged..big time.
Below is a prime example. Look at said wing removed.

This is the removed wing. Its had a repair panel "sort of " welded aroung the wheel arch. I say sort of since the norm is to replace all of the lower half at the seam/swage line, or joddle a new section/s under the damaged/cleaned up wheel arch. This was neither, just lots of filler over the whole area right down to the rear valance and rear light cluster ( including much gauze below the light cluster) The panel was a doddle to remove for 2/3rds of its connection . The final 1/3rd was a right swine, its the part thats nearest the rear door gap. The actual wing fits over some areas of gently bent ( 90 degree bend with lovely radius) and fits under other areas, all making a nice join at the point you notice most when opening the door. I took me ages to discover the tiny spotwelds, some inaccessible, some invisible most impossible. Surely it did not take this long to remove the other side.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,!!!!!!No yer great clot!!!!

You bought the car with no rear left wing, remember, all that time long ago, when you were blissfully ignorant of bleeding knuckles, eyes full of grit, pores full of Duckhams and a shed you could actually walk into. So a few gentle taps with the omni tool ( part chisel/part screwdriver/part upholsery prise bar/part rust basher/scraper) some sardine can like peeling with the water pump pliers after a slicing sesion with trusty grinder ( + slicing disc) and yipee.

Tried to work today ( Saturday 2 pm) but despite the sun shining its bloody cold. Only managed to dress up some rusty edges on wing before my toes and nose said no more please. Spent most of following Sunday catching up with college, its still freezing cold out though.

Next job on the list is to Purchase and fit outer sill. Make and weld small tabs to secure A post to sill.
Then remove rust from wheel arch HERE <
Fit new wheelarch repair panel. Weld to rear of new sill.
Fit new wing and weld then repair base of rear light/pointy thing and join with rear valance.

Should keep me happy for a bit, if it don't rain !

Its over.............here comes summer !

Hello peeps

Many apologies for not posting for so long but its taken a good few weeks to overcome the lethargy, depression and general goings on. Still thats what holidays are for, and guess what. Its done the trick. So to prove it here I am smiling the Sunday before new years eve ( the day after the wedding anniversary also)

Yes I know its all Bluey tinted, but daughter number one took it, and was cold standing in bare feet, so rushed it meI thinks. Still it was very cold and getting rather dark though.

Had a very good Holiday so far, with no family Illnesses or other disasters. Had lots of prezzies and booze and snoozes by the fireside. The new additions to the fold Ralph and Ruby ( 5 month old stripey Tiger type cats) are sending us nuts with their antics and ruining the house. In fact we've given up replacing the baubles on the tree after Ralph decided to launch himself from the sofa to the tree innards. Well, actually as punishment to the kids ( They always deserve SOME punishment - almost 14 year old twins, boy- girl, lots of time in the house/bed/bedroom/internet/i-pod/x-box) we decided it was their chore, or no free time.

Clever little dicks, they just banned Ralph & Ruby from the room.

Back to the resto. Finally motivated myself to get stuck in and welded the floorpan strip in.

I did think I would have to spend hours making the strip a perfect fit, but, as in new year resolution, JUST GET ON WITH IT. So I did. No fussing and worrying. No over thinking the Issue.

Here it it tack welded in position...........Note the Hi-Tech clamp of hammer and wood offcut.

And finally welded. Can you see the join yet ?

Its the longest weld I've done so far. Only tricky for half its length because my head, the welding helmet, right or left arm and Steering wheel all wanted to be in the same place.Its dark in there too. And smelly with thick black smoke from the underseal underneath. Counted seven little welding fires which all needed me to extract myself from my semi prone hernia inducing welding position and flap wildly with gloved hand to extinguish them. The photos look nice and clear because of the flash, but in reality it was difficult to see, hard to reach , cold, damp and uncomfortable. But i did it. And without complaining.

Next on the list is this little hole near left foot position and small hole near rear spring hanger. Soon though. Fufferfour's back on a roll and he's got money for new panels !!!!!!!!!!!

See you all soon folks..............................+++++.Rick thanks for the e-mail re moments ect++++

An indifference to life in general

Well readers, as you may guess by the title I've been a little preoccupied of late with life in general.
Work is as tough as ever, my health has been suffering a bit of late and family issues seen to be getting more complex and frustrating. Not to mention college which has moved up a gear and left me feeling vulnerable and a little stupid.
The MG has been left well and truly bottom of my priorities, occasionally flapping and waving its errant blue poly cover whenever rain and wind appears.
The weather since my last post has been very good, however my drive and enthusiasm has not, so several weeks have been wasted. I feel I'm going to regret this when winter finally arrives together with enthusiasm, cash and happiness.
However I'm determined not to let the car be one of the many abandoned projects for sale on E-bay. I must say my doppelganger Rick has given me the impetus not to fail as he is restoring a real basket case and is making a good job of it in similar circumstances, if not with a little more cash and garage.
So why the depression Fufferfour ? you ask.
Well I don't know really.
A level physics at college did not help. Full of young kids all able to grasp thirty five ways of transposing formulae, knowing the answer is in Nm, m/s ( -2) Kj or wotsits.
The other evenings are not the same as I feel its a waste of time as they are catering for the newbies ( combined class from the two last year) who are a year behind a small minority in class.
Still Biology continues to be good and I'm beginning to understand how all the body parts work together.
Work wise has not see an influx of machine orders, the ones won have took ages to build and the other side of the biz has seen a few small victories over the competition. Still its a hard and lonely life on the road with such a large area to cover.
Seven days in Dusseldorf working the "k" show proved to be very tiring and not as exciting as previous. Staying with an old couple in the suburbs was really nice but our new French owner had decided to gatecrash over the weekend so all my French colleagues were very tense and very well behaved, almost boring, for my liking. It still took me at least five days to physically and mentally recover. I think this was the start of the great depression.
That and the lack of activity from British industry on the stand.
The wife and kids continue to argue, bicker, winge, demand and generally frustrate any attempts I have of a happy life.
One event of note in our household is the arrival of Ralph and Ruby. Two tiny kittens that look like darkly striped Tigers. How we love the way they frolic with their tiny skinny legs and button noses.
How I hate the smell emanating from the Poo tray in the dining room.
Still, that was a few months ago and now they are turning into whirling dervishes of mass destruction. It's still funny to see their antics though. Unfortunately their poo still stinks the house out. Roll on Feb when they can leave the house for the big bad world outside.
The MG was left with a long strip of about 1" wide cut from the floorpan where it meets the outer sill, and the last 3" of the outrigger cut away. I've since bought a new outrigger and jacking point during a brief diversion to the MGOC last month. Whats difficult is welding the repair panel ( Cut from the opposite sides unused repair panel) in. The steering wheel is in the way. I tried for about 2 hours to bash it upwards from its splines without damaging the soft plastic base. It transpires one of the famous BL service tools ref BL-vb10073 part 6a is required. I say famous because no one has ever seen any of the recommended service tools. There is also two further small holes in the drivers side floor. One near the rear spring hanger, which has for some reason been repaired previously without trimming the excess steel away, and another at the base of the transmission tunnel/floorpan, near where your left foot would rest. I don't think these will present too much difficulty though. ...........................famous last words !
I have a inner rear arch panel to fit ( Birthday present in May) together with a new rear wing and maybe rear sill repair section and complete outer sill ( yet to be purchased). I also need to fabricate a section of about 10" long with two 90 degree bends to repair the window frame base where the wing is welded to.
Then the major bodywork is almost complete....................hehe.....easy word almost !

Getting there

The last few weeks ain't seen much activity.

However, the A post nightmare has ended. Yes I bit the bullet and welded, cut, ground, templated, cut, ground & welded ad infinitum. + not a lot of body filler.

I must say sanding filler is not my favourite pastime. God is it boring. Unfortunately its necessary and vital to get a good look to the finished car.

So, the A post then......................see the finished result below !

This is the finished result after lots and lots of very fiddly welding in of small curved pieces of steel. Its integrity is good and the filler only hides the welds too inaccessible for the grinder.

However, its the wing join that I'm most proud of. This took some welding in of curved steel and was much easier than I first thought. In fact I pondered hours and hours on how to repair it and kept putting it off till the last moment. The filler sanded a treat and lots of offering up the wing made the join perfect.

What was a constant source of frustration is the front RH wing. The LH wing had lots of welding done on the captive nuts and a new bottom rear edge.

So I was prepared for the worse.

After venturing to the bottom of the garden and behind the shed to unearth the wing I had a pleasant surprise. The captive nuts were fine...............yipeee.....some luck at last.

Booo.................................................................. remembered the wing also had some accident damage to the front around the grill aperture.

But, thought this would be easey peasey to repair, a few whacks and job done.

Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

The area affected is in a sort of zig-zag shape, so I thought a few whacks would sent it nicely back from where it came.

Well about 2 weeks later, several bleeding knuckles, C1 compressions of the spine and picking up a fallen wing from the trusty workmate I'm somewhere near.

Panel beating complex shapes is definitely NOT easy. This was made worse by the fact that whichever way I positioned the wing it needed to be nose down ( on the floor) and tilted up about 70 degrees whilst simultaneously beating it with the precision hammer, which in turn caused the wing to fall over and/or slip sideways. I think I moved 15 yards down the drive whilst beating, and suffered at least four good bongs on the head from the wing falling.

Its back to almost as new now.

The Ironic thing is that since I'm converting to chrome bumper, this area has to be cut away and smooth pieces welded in.

The wing then has been rubbed all over, inside and out, sprayed in grey primer several times between applications of small amounts of filler.

Still, at least all the captive nuts are all ok.

Next job on the list is fitting a repair panel to the RH footwell where it joins the inner sill.

Andy from Doncaster donated this part when I bought the LH sills from him on good ol E-bay.

Even though the panel is for the wrong side I'm only using the inner 1" so it will match perfectly.

See the devil wing below, and I promise to post more often.

More soon avid readers

Rust........in all the wrong places !

Well..........removed the RH outer sill rather easily. Six spot welds and a few easy whacks with the multi-tool ( scraper/chisel/upholstery/screwdriver thingy) and off it came.

The good news is the inner membrane is in near perfect condition, as is the castle rail.

So I've decided not to replace these. The inner sill is also good too !!!

Its not all good news though.

The front bulkhead, where the sill front meets is well.....as mess !

Its really weird that the car has rusted in all unexpected places, as well as expected places on different sides.

I decided to chop off all the rust with the newly refurbished grinder ( having replaced the carbon brushes with the proper items)

So look see.............

The upturned flap on the castle rail is going to be tricky to repair. Its in good condition.

However, its the top most part of three layers of steel. The next layer is the front bulkhead ( rusty where cut away) and behind that is the upturned flap on the end of the inner sill.

Also another tricky part is the end of the membrane. I cut it away a bit and bent it out to investigate the inside.

I think I may replace the first two or three inches of this and it will allow prior access to the end flappy area.

In a fit and flurry of DIY we have re-painted the whole of the dining room.

Well, wifey started it.......all ar*e about face and in a terrible mess. Still credit to her she stuck in there and cried HELP when it got tough.

So, early last Saturday I got stuck in, moved shelves and heavy objects etc, and completed it by Sunday late lunchtime

Trouble is now though she's already planned another two rooms for the next few days, for the same treatment. Cunning devil has been saving it for my Hols without letting on. I'm sure it was all a scheme to keep me away from the MG. I think she knows how to make motor brushes wear and welding gas to evaporate ( witchcraft ?..... feminine intuition or just plain bad luck ?)

Considering I'm on holiday now for two weeks and spending them at home I can't see where the rest/relaxation is going to come................................Ha!! Wifey says...........spend a day in my shoes anyday you like Mr " I've had a long busy day at work, too tired to do DIY but enough energy to fiddle with your hobby" ( No....."hobby" is not a euphemism for that precious and rewarding universal boys toy we discovered in early teens)

Once that round of DIY is now complete I removed some more engine ancillaries and even had the foresight to "borrow" a large plastic storage box from work ( we specialise in machinery to print them so we have lots skulking around the factory)

It looks rather empty in there.

Whilst Wifey is still to the forefront this holiday I used some female logic on her !!

And guess what................................................................It worked.

As I explained how much the three part LH sills cost and my joy at not having to buy all three , hence SAVING on this part of the project, I can now go and buy another RH rear wing complete like last time, you remember dear, back in May, my birthday, when we had a fun day out together and visited the MG hive............

Yes dear, what fun that was............we'll go again soon. But not until you've finished all the decorating, spent time away in Chester next week on a shortened holiday, been to see your beloved team play with No 1 son, and with whats left you can buy all the panels you want.

Well it sort of worked. Lets get in the good books first then apply more tactics.

More soon.........Thanks for the link Rick

If only I'd waited........or been a little less impatient

I've done a stupid and silly thing.

Annoyed at the the yet again death( well soldiering on bravely but intermittently) of my trusty angle grinder I decided to remove the exhaust.

Rear end not too bad.

Middle section easy.

Front end.......so far so good, five of the six nuts undone.

The last one..............Impossible.

I'm under the car looking up at the manifold join. Yes the first five were a little tricky and awkward. I can only just see the sixth, let alone get the socket and extension onto it.

The trouble is the sump edge is in the way. It won't allow the socket to sit square on.

After several attempts, bruised knuckles, rust flakes in both eyes and oil/grunge in back of head I called it a day.

Well almost.

In a fit of pique I whacked the grinder one more time and it sprang into life.

So under the car I crawled and cut the exhaust in two just after where two pipes become one at a thick flange.

I thought it the only way to remove the damn thing. The last bolt was rounded off, and too inaccessible to get so much as a finger there, let alone a grinder or wrench.

So in I went with the grinder. Grinder protested loudly but after 5 mins there it was.

In two more manageable halves........................but see later.......................

Oh I forgot, to celebrate finishing one side the whole clan helped me move the car the other way round in the drive.

This involved moving both normal cars to way up the other end of the Cul-de-sac.

Pushing a very heavy car (including tool contents inside) onto the road at 45 degrees.

Pushing a little further down road. Son armed with patented vehicle halting device ( half housebrick) There's no brakes on the car cause I've removed them and the steering is very very heavy.

Then push back into drive.

At this point I'd like to thank the newish and so far never speaking, neighbour opposite and Dutch relative/friend.

..............................................................................................For watching............................................... while this old fart, his unfit wife with a bad back and two skinny thirteen year old twins ( one of each) struggle somewhat.

They ( two males 35-45 years of age) spent the whole afternoon looking at the engine of their car and then looking at the toolbox.

I hope they enjoyed watching us from 15 feet away across the road.

Its the other way round !!

The following day I decided to remove some engine ancillaries.

Carbs came away nicely after locating the bolts.

Since the under bonnet was covered in a poor excuse for sound proofing that hanging off in most places the whole engine bay is covered in "FLUFF".

"Yes, fluff"

Well more like horeshair, but its everywhere. And mixed up with loads of rust and lots of oil.

So cleaning the carbs will be interesting. So will the whole engine bay actually.

Removed centre inlet manifold, easy.

Even the dead rusty and often snapping exhaust studs came undone.

Its then that the manifold fell down and to one side.

Yes the difficult to get at nut was now easily accessible from underneath.

WHAT A PRATT.............I cut the exhaust in two for nothing !!!

If I'd removed said items before attempting the manifold studs underneath i would never have rounded off the last nut...........doh !!!.

So, lifted it clear and deposited both halves at back of shed out of sight.

Following day removed alternator, coil and dizzy lid + oil filter. Yes. I did remember to label all the wires up................sometimes I function almost normally.

Here's a few shots of my rust investigations of the the as yet untouched RH side.

This is a view looking forward at the A Post top. Worrying and scary.

This is after my head exploded after finding more rust.

Have no clue how I'm gonna repair these little beauties.( books and toilet springs to mind)

Suppose it explains me turning my attention to the engine.

Footnote.

The grinders died well and truly. No amount of whacking makes it start. Ordered new bushes from Screwfix ( £ 6.50, robbing dogs...........the whole grinder was only £17.00)

CO/Argon bottle on MIG welder also empty.

Spotweld drill bit blunt as hell.

Time for some time off or DIY......................yipee says Wifey. Personally I want a holiday.

More soon hopefully.

Go here, It's the funniest thing I've read in a long time

Just a quickie post to share with you all, but very very funny.

Its right up my street as its toilet humour( Laxatives actually) at its best.

Stick with it and read all the posts by Blu-Tone.

Its actually from a Mountain Bike message board.

One day 'Ill tell my funny story of a hospital visit. I'd have to embellish it somewhat but it would not be a patch on how Blu-Tone tells his !!!!

Link = http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/read.php?f=2&i=3145351&t=3141618#reply_3145351

Tool trouble then rapid progress

Here's the part I'm damn proud of.

It involved bending a section of the curved rear valance ( above the square hole) then welding in place and having a 5/10mm lip to place the flat plate onto.

The large vertical weld is where the rear valance and wing end did not meet exactly.

I placed a strip of steel approx 1" wide to the rear, bent to fit the curve and welded inplace.

I managed to fill most of the non meeting edges with weld.

The flat plate that rests in the base of the pointy thing and upto/on the rear boot corner was quite tricky. I got through lots of cardboard making the right shape template.

Still, it all went very well with no probs...............the secret to welding is grind all the things nearby shiny, get a good earth and listen to the weld..............like rapidly cooking bacon.



The only Blot on the landscape was the angle grinder dying.

Ma in Law bought it for me last x-mas from screwfix. Not a top make ( NOTE..always buy Bosch if your serious) but its been the most used tool and definitely a requirement.

However, one day it just did not switch on.

Checked the fuse....ok

Checked the kitchen socket....ok

Unpluged and removed the disc and guard...........scary stuff as this tool scares the life out of me.

Then I noticed two protrusions each side of the main body with a large screwdriver slot in the end. Removed these and the commutators sprang forth with a tiny blob of an excuse for a carbon block.......................Disaster, should I persue the probably frustrating and longwinded course of new parts through Screwfix, or should I source locally.

Anyway, since the rains was still with us I decided on local. B&Q ect, shed no light or idea on tool spares.

In fact I dont think any of the staff even knew what a motor commutator was.

Now, may I get on my high horse here. B&Q ect may be cheap, convenient and always open but there not a patch on" proper" hardware places. We have two in my town.

One just like"open all hours" for hardware only. Its amazing. Ask one of the elderly staff for a lock and they will have it all, and explain about 2,3 and 5 lever mortices, ease of installation and price and insurance complications and reliability. Same goes for aluminium ladders, parrafin,

Chicken wire, hinges, wheelbarrows, hammers, bolts and screws + trillions of other stuff.

All served by people friendly and happy and willing to talk and dressed in regulation stores issue Brown smock. Thats just one place.

The other place is for things electrical/electronic.These guys know it all, have it all, but are on a slightly different planet. It scares me a little.

So in I waltz with one mangled commutator. Have you got one of these ?

No, but we have on similar that you can "modify"

Well, for £2.30 why not.

Thats when the probs started. The carbon block was too large so I filed it with my swiss file, on the worktop in the kitchen.......................Big mistake, the dust is immoveable and gets everywhere. Wifey not happy.

Moved outside to workmate and rushing due to fact that imminent heavy storm due.

Still difficult to insert and remove carbon block. Then cover screw would not screw in totally.

Snipped spring shorter. Still no joy. Bent copper ends from carbon block/copper wire in several shapes, still no joy. However, shaking said grinder did momentarily show some life.

Anyways, to cut a long story short I buggered one and re-used the old one which was OK and fiddled the other eventually after lots of shaking and "gentle taps on the plastic retaining screw".

It now works...................thank **ck for that. It was almost touch and go between throwing it away and being electricuted in the rain outside.



Now we've had some respite in the rain the progress above has been made and not a small amount of filling and sanding.

Look......................................rapid progress.

Hours of sanding the rear lower valance applied by the previous owner left no nasty horror sories. Only a 50p sized hole in the very centre of the R/H crossmember end. Easily remedied by some fancy shaping of a 1mm thick steel and good welding/ filling skills.

Even after a good coat of primer some low spots were evident, so another round of filling and sanding. I must say this is very ffffrustrating. The different grades a sandpaper, sanding block, dust, mess, armache and annoyance that a pristine shape don't emerge.

So I moved onto removing the complete exhaust. Easy enough on the length of the car.

Easy enough on five of the six nuts under the manifold although three were a bit fiddly.

The six'th (NOT SIKTH, which is how annoying people pronounce it) however seems impossible to get to. The shaft of the ratchet extension is too thick, the engine base/sump flange won't allow the the socket to sit on fully since the extension is not perfectly vertical.

So a point to ponder on whilst the wifey tries to fill my head with DIY projects and things to do of a summer day in the garden.

More soon folks......................oh by the way visit Ricks site.........He's got more money and tools than me and is making a real good job of it.

http://rick-mgbgt.blogspot.com/

A different corner

So I'm moving onto the rear corner now. Most of the LH side body is DONE !!!

The wing fits as well as its ever going to fit, and is covered in primer and red oxide. The doors in the correct place ( not quite but the Phillips screws in the hinge need drilling out and I ain't got any replacements, so its near enough for me at this stage, it closes and looks neat all round)

The all shiny new wing attaching bolts fitted.

Rear wing welded in position. ( almost. Need new inner outer section, see earlier re incorrect item purchased.)

I'm ignoring the 50p sized hole in the rear window edge. It looks fiddly to repair and is covered by chrome trim eventually.

That means a quick fix for me then.........maybe, and some time next summer.

Oh by the way have we had this summer yet ?????

Here's a view of what I've been up to.

Since the car is being converted to chrome bumpers I have to add the RH side pointy thing at the base of the lights. This is another item I purchased NEW from MGB Hive a few months ago on a rare spending spree. I actually comes complete, so I just chopped off half.

I have to add a couple of patches to base of rear valance where its welded to inner boot tray .

The fiddly bit is the horizontal section inside the pointy thing and up to the valance.

Mine has completely rusted away under the gauze and deep body filler that was there.

Still, I'm becoming quite accomplished at cutting cardboard templates, jigsawing sheet steel, grinding and welding. Thats for the coming weekend if we have no rain or something that resembles summer.

Must stop complaining though,as last year when it was red hot ( ah.. a distant memory) I couldn't be bothered to make a start on cutting, welding and grinding.

Just to keep it interesting here's another photo of the rear end. Note the lower valance, completely covered in filler by the previous owner. Had a little poke around and spotted rust at the bumper mounting holes. So, maybe I need to sand all this off before starting the above. If its bad news though that means a complete rear lower valance at £80 quid, ouch !

That reminds me. Since I,m over 18 months into the project I decided to have a review of the most useful tools to date. This is prompted by the fact that when I started I had absolutely no tools. In fact it never occurred to me that I would need Imperial sockets and spanners

Well it did really occur, since I'd worn out at least one toilet seat reading all things MG.

So here's the list, in order of usefulness for restoring old BL cars on a budget :-

1/. Trim tool remover.

Its a cross between a narrow paint scraper and a wide screwdriver. I got it for free as a print sample during a customer visit. I use it all the time for a/. Poking rusty holes, b/. separating spot welds, c/. smoothing bubbly paintwork, d/. removing underseal and rubberised gooey stuff, e/. prising panels and stuck down trim bits, f/. Phillips and standard screw removal. g/.wrapping J cloth round to clean inside light lenses and various parts.

2/. Penetrating Oil

As a matter of habit and long standing ritual I spray every nut and bolt I can see regardless of when I'm working on them or not. This is done at least every 2 weeks.

3/. Trolley jack

The cars been up/down so many times in so many places this has proven invaluable together with the axle stands. Remember I have no garage to work in so positioning the car for long periods is important.

4/. Electric 4-1/2" Hand Grinder

Scary tool to use. Very noisy. Needs love and attention and several types of discs. The Flappey layered one has been good but also the thin slicing disc is just as valuable. Good for heavy steel removal, light polishing of steel, de-rusting and shaping steel.

5/. Hammerite Ku-Rust

When panels are inaccessible and too awkward to remove/replace or just covered in surface rust, just paint it on and it does its stuff. I use it loads.

6/. Heavy Aluminium faced hammer. Nuff said.

7/. Quality Imperial socket set.

See earlier posts for my folly at cheap and cheerful

8/. The wonderful Mr Porter and his MG restoration guide, closely followed by the DVD of the wonderful Mr Mark Evans "Is born" series of MG restoration.

9/. E-bay My main source of tools and parts, especially the MIG welder.

10/. Time and money.....................unfortunately I have very little of either.

More next week folks,

As you can see, or maybe not some things have been achieved.

I have spent lots of time getting the wing ready and prepared, mostly on the inside and adding filler to the sill/B-post join.

Why is it that things that seem to worry you most and up being the easiest to fix.

The wing mounting holes for one.

The beading and wing fit for another.

The fitting of the of the wing for yet another.

Anyways, back to the order of things since the last post.

I had applied lots of filler to the B-post/sill join and to the scuttle where it meets the wing top.

I must say that I ended up sanding most of it off.

Then the rain came....................and boy did it, in bucket loads.

So not much happened for the last two weeks, except for the rain.

Sunday evening saw a veritable monsoon, from 8pm onwards till about 10.30 next day.

During the brief interlude I noticed..........Horror of horrors that the blue cover over the MG had blown off some time Sunday evening/Mon morning and left the car open to the elements.

Well, elements is a pretty light word so I'll say pissing heavy torrential rain.

Luckily, only the outer edges of the inner car were damp with light rusting on the floor & sill areas. And for some strange reason one bucket in the back containing all my precision hammers 3 inches deep in water !!.

The blue Poly cover is pretty porous though, particularly where its been dragged over the roof on the ariel base. I did have a tennis ball over the protrusion but that's long gone into the void of disappearing restoration parts.

So Monday lunchtime off to good old B&Q during a firm but constant drizzle.

£3.99 for same Blue poly cover, 3 mtrs x 4 mtrs with fastening holes, what a bargain.

Gawd.......................what a size !!! You could cover half of Derbyshire with it.

Try fitting it in a drizzle and breeze enough to get you out of the harbour.

It was everywhere on the drive, Still its not porous (yet) and the biggest ball of wifey string helped to keep it in place, with the old ( porous yet much more manageable) cover over the top.It did its job for at least 2 weeks. Yes, that's how much rain we've had.

The work done to the inside of the wing worried me lots before I started.

It wasn't until a work related detour via Cambridge that I actually bought some more new stuff from the MGOC. A wing fitting kit to be precise, a 5/16 UNF nut, a 1/4 UNF nut and a headlight inner re-enforcing ring.

Spent all Saturday welding the 5/15 UNF nut under the wing top inner edge, making a cage for a strange British Leyland round 5/15UNF nut and welding up in same top inner edge, welding the 1/4 UNF nut to the inner wing mountings ( having first spent ages drilling out broken bolt and grinding away old nut ).

All just so the wing can go back on and be bolted in all its places.

Sunday saw me paint good old Hammerite Red lead all the inner wing rust prone areas, sand the sill B-post area, try again( 38th attempt) to remove the door hinges from the A post.

This but was aborted yet again.........which is a pity because the great big f**k off screwdriver I have has a hexagon on the shaft where it enters the handle so a ring spanner fits great and offers fantastic leverage. The phillips head is buggered though, thus it stays put....maybe !!

Ran a 5/16 UNF tap down the wing edge holes then undid the wing fitting kit.

Yipeeeeeee...........loads of new shiney screws, washers and spring washers + 3 nuts too !.

Fitted wing in a trice.......could even do the nuts up with fingers mostly.

Only had to use jack to press up bottom of wing so I could drill 3 holes to accept 3/16 screws with nut to attach to castle rail and jobs done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes it fits and looks good!!!!

To think I started this blog and spent ages in deep mid winter removing the wing, and now here I am still in July deep mid winter fitting the wing.

Removed it though and sanded and cleaned everything down one side.

Sprayed lovely clean Grey primer on door, wing rear wing, B-post and sill area, A post and finally inner front wing area.

Here have a look..............................................

How good it is to see it looking like a car again........Its given me a real sense of achievement.

Next session should see the door hung, sort of, maybe finally or time to reconsider the phillips screws again, maybe leave them.

Wing fixed with all new shiney screws and bolts.

Sill finished ( still some slight filler spots to add to get nice even gaps) and to wing too, suffering collateral damage from being removed and trial fitted too may times.

Then weld rear wing and turn attention to rear of car..........Yes a new chapter, hopefully.

Its a little damp outside dear

What can I say other than the title. Since last applying filler to the B post/sill join and filler to the wing/scuttle join its been........................well I'll say .................... wet!

The last two weekends, nay weeks, has seen torrents of rain fall, all day,all night and in between. During last Mondays deluge a quick glance at the MG and its forlorn flapping blue poly cover saw lots of rain get inside. Mid-day off to B&Q to get a new Poly cover( in the pouring rain) .

My present cover has a hole where the roof section has an ariel base protuding.

Despite having the clever idea of wedging an old tennis ball on it, the constant removing and tie-ing down has made it as firm as a vicars handshake. Not to mention the elastic bungee cords frayed to within an inch of their life. In fact on Sunday the poor old MG spent the evening till Mon Morn with the cover hiding between the fence and the driveway gate.

Fortunately I got the last blue Poly sheet at B&Q and cheap it was too (£ 3.99) .

The trouble was thought.................................Its Huge !!!!

3 metres x 4 metres. Seemed OK when I bought it. But try covering a car with it in the pouring rain, using frayed and limp bungee cords and a howling wind.

I ended up using about 70 metres of string, over, under, around, between, up and round the MG. It looked like a drunkard had tried to wrap up a Holly bush there was so much Blue poly cover. However, it made it water proof ready for the onslaught or rain we had, er........still having actually.

Prior to thison Saturday, I did remove the front wing several times to try and get a good fit between the curvy scuttle base and wing top edge............ Impossible............!!!!

In desperation I fixed the front wing with the 5/16th UNF bolt nearest the said position.

Then added filler to the join and bead ( I previously welded the bead to the wing)

So my thinking was if the join was rubbish( uneven with gaps) bolt them together, add filler, let dry, remove wing , sand to perfection and re-fit wing nicely.

WRONG

On removing wing all the filler broke off, some filler stuck to inside of wing beading and some filler was well just ..........crap.

ABANDONED...................................time for a re-think.

It needs all its bolts and holes in wing ready and clean so it can be clamped tightly, then re assess.

So, on a trip to the far SE corner of our wind and rain swept counrty I diverted via Cambridgeshire to the MGOC.

I actually bought some new ( YES NEW ) stuff, a wing fitting kit containing all the correct screws , washers and bolts. Nice and shiney.............Lovely, and only £ 6.25 !

Also got the 5/15th UNF Nut which I had to gring off the wing when refurbing it and another nut 1/4 UNF which has a sheared bolt in it on the wing.

Whilst there I also bought the headlight re-enforcing panel. This part took the best part of a whole day to remove from the wing as it was rusty and deep inside the wing.

So...............................My plan is simple.

Fit both new nuts by mig welding them in place.

How to remove the existing nuts with broken bolts in is another story.

Then fit the wing with all the bolts and nuts. To assist matters I even bought a 5/16 UNF tap.

Please dont faint, its not new. It was £1.99 + 99p p&P on..........yes you've guessed good old E-bay.

So when the rain and wind stops I'll get busy. Oh and do the sanding of the B post too.

A little more of all life's joys and irritations

Not much has happened so far. MG wise I've pratted around doing nothing spectacular.

Well that's not exactly true.

I did set to to fit the inner wheelarch a few weeks ago. If you remember it was a panel I needed and was one of several bought as a birthday prezzie from MGB hive.

Anyways, I did all the correct things and lined it up, marked it + 1/2 inch and cut to the desired shape. Cut away the rusty wheelarch inboard of the 1/2 line.

I then set to attaching the wing, all well and good.

I spent the next few days(nay weeks) trying to get the inner wheelarch to fit the shape of the wheel arch and align front and back.

Impossible, so I left it for a further few days.

Then one bright and sunny Saturday I attacked it with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.

Gawd............................I know why it don't fit......................its the wrong side!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I had actually been given a RH side when I needed a left. No wonder in didn't fit.

I've not told wifey yet........No need really since I can use the panel for the RH side , but all in good time.

What I have done is welded the wing around the B post seam/door and sill area.

See Below..............................

I know the gap between the sill and b post base is a little large, but, well there really is no answer. When taking off the old sill the gap was even larger, I remember distinctly seeing all the lead loading ( Yes Lead Loading) running away as I ground through it. So It must have been made that way at good old Abingdon ( Swindon actually is where the bodies were assembled)

The front wing gap at the same spot is also same size.............WE really did know how to build cars, eh !

The gap is now full of the dreaded filler ( No I,m not going to spend several months learning how to lead load) and its waiting to dry as I write this.

I did go a bit mad with the filler and covered several spot weld and the rear wing top beading seam. So next post will be all about sanding filler........maybe.

One job leads to........fivethousand others !

So, the wing fits great with a regular gap around the door.

How to weld it on though.

This I must admit had scared me for months and months, In fact since I bought the car.

According to all the readings I've done it is really tricky with access very restricted or nigh on impossible. Even the wonder kid Mark Evans resorted to "Glueing" his on.

But since I now have the wing, its easy. Access is good to the door surround, the top front edge can be welded on the outside as a whacking great chrome strip covers it.

Access to the rear top edge ( Which is supposed to be Impossible) is easy.

Easy for a midget with nine foot arms. Not exactly.

By looking down the hole for the rear light all the internal seam is there to be seen and a welding torch fits in nicely. Will I still be saying that when I've actually welded it !

Spent most of the last few weekends offering up the rear wing, grinding shiney mating edges,

offering up and pondering, even more pondering and offering up.

Especially last weekend when it was all systems go for wing welding.

Bloody weather............wind, wet, dark........and that's only me.

Rain on and off every 5 minutes and gusts of wind between. So frustrating. Hence the offering up bit and pondering.

The rear inner outer wing (wheel arch) needs repair so I cut away the rust, and more rust and even more.

The boot corner where it fits to the inner and outer wheel arch has gone at its fitting point.

I'll need to fabricate a repair panel for this and rely on the wonderful Hammerite rust killer at the very rear behind the rear valance/wing join.

Look...........No rust its all gone

Next post should see the wing welded on and maybe the inner outer wing edge welded on.
The title e.g five thousand other jobs refers to the chopping down of the whole inner outer wheel arch panel purchased. The cutting/ shaping of above wheel arch edge, removing boot tray rust and having to remove a small portion of the inner wheel arch. All this means extra work fabricating, cutting, bending, shaping, clamping and welding. The remnants of the new outer wheel arch ( about 70%) will do for the inner arch repair ( I hope)

Not much fun and frolics away from the MG. Works been very busy with me visiting strange places like Hampshire, Kent and Guildford as well as Teeside, Borders Reigon and Hull.
France and Switzerland are also in there too, as well as too many nights away from loved ones.
Maybe next post will be on the problems of having teenage twins, since they, but one in particular is morphing into Harry Enfields "Kevin" before my very eyes. Cheeky bugger even says I'm turning into Harry Enfields dad !
An neither will help with the car !!...........................Wifey's up to her armpits in Plaster for her final Piece for Arts College......I've been plastered about four times, Ma in law at least three, sister in law twice........all in a good cause.
I must explain. She's taking moulds of our hands and arms. I've also had my face done and it has to be done again this weekend...It cracked, how funny ...............Hope it rains !!

It's not so bad after all

Another fruitful session on the MG after a rather frustrating 3 weeks of staring, pondering and musing. The weather has been great but alas not the finances or work. I've been travelling the length and breadth of our fair Isle with a very busy and demanding work schedule plus no cash to impart onto the project. Added to which the demands of family life and their finances have taken priority, all on Ideal sunny days on which to work on said project, but c'est la vie, as the French say.

Happy birthday Fufferfour...............I'm now 50...yes five ohhh. Still feel like a 29 year old though perhaps with 21 years of experience. Some would argue with that and I'm not one to cause an argument........least yet whilst I know where my bread is buttered !!


The MG has had some giant strides of late ( only the last two days actually)
On my birthday I took the day off and sallied forth with wifey to the MGB Hive to buy new panels...................Oh joy of joys. A proper garage/business who it is apparent are very dedicated to ensuring your pride and joy is catered for. All with a free cuppa and friendly service too. Even rounded down the sum total of new rear wing, new inner outer wing, 1 mtr of wing beading, front wing repair section and rear light bump Plus a free beaker !!!! Fitted repair section to front wing easy peasy. The MGB Hive even let me "joggle" the panel whilst waiting so that made it much easier.
Depression only set in when I came to cut the rusty section from my front wing with the scary grinder with cutting disc inserted. All went well for two thirds of the way from front to near the back, then clouds of white dust billowed forth .

Yes you've guessed it, the rear portion of the wing was full of filler. How much filler though ?
Bloody lots........and lots ...........and lots. There must have been one eight of an inch covering up one hell of a depression. Funny that it was not visible from the inside though.
So welded on new bottom half repair panel leaving only slight kink in shape of curve of wing near door gap. Remedied this with expertly applied filler.
God................aint sandin filler borin ( best Yorkshire dialect.....I am from Sheffield !!)
Anyways, after what seemed like an eternity it looked good and fitted a treat with good gaps etc. Even ventured into bowels of shed to find wing retaining bolts.......this took approx 70 mins as most of the contents had to be removed then replaced to much sweat and cursing.
The net result is the wing fits almost perfect, the door has the quarter light fixed, sort off to aid alignment and some gentle persuasion of the bolts for the wing should see it all tickety boo.
Here it is in all its glory. The rear wing has been added for show as a giant ego boost fro me.

The car was bought with it missing so to see one propped up there is a major boost, even though its only duck tape keeping it attached . It looks wonderful and a real sign of progress.
I'm really looking forward to attaching the rear wing and inner /outer wing.
Please take note though...........when welding be sure that the panels are perfectly aligned.
Otherwise adding and sanding filler is messy, dirty and very very boring.

More soon............!!!

I've got a Fan

Yes folks, hard to believe but I got it myself after a lot of hard work.






The fan is actually the heater fan removed from the MG with no little effort, lots of sweat and pondering and probably even more swearing.






For once I didn't read the the MG bible by Mr Porter. I read another publication I bought on E-Bay for a fiver. It's very good, don't get me wrong. But removing the heater is a dirty job so I popped indoors and got said book because its a little grimy ( For our colonial cousins read dirty)






Read instructions and away I went. Some inventive blows with the hammer onto the large screwdriver in turn resting on Phillips screws very rusty, managed to free them without loss or damage. Removed two hoses connected to front of heater, easy peasy.

Should be free to be lifted up and forward, perhaps with some gentle persuasion.

Grrr......


puff.......


pant......


ouch !..( screwdriver slipped)


wrestle...


rock........


Time for a re-think. The bloody little thing would not budge.


Looked under dashboard to see if any pipes are connected......No, not much is actually connected dash-wise anyway after its removal and a few heater pipes last year.


Pokes around into where base of heater feeds to....nothing.


Back to wrestling then, but re-positioned to LH side of car.


Slowly some movement but then static and unmovable.


Grrrrr


Reads book again


Wrestles again.............more Grrr


Looks at mess under dashboard again.


Re-reads book......................................Ooooops "REMEMBER TO DISCONNECT THE HEATER CONTROL WIRE AT THE DASHBOARD CONTROL LEVER"


Yes it said it there right in the first paragraph. How can you not understand that !!! doh!!


So here is a picture to prove it.

There on the transmission top was a rather rusty and forlorn device dangling like an ignored heater control lever. Two small nuts undone and away it came from the brake cable type wire and sheath. Round to the heater box, a few wiggles and plop. Out it came.

Well bugger me, it was the wire holding it in all the time. Don't let that fool you though.

Apparently they are quite difficult to remove, and even harder to put back with nice new fat and not very spongy foam seals. The heater don't look too bad. It would never have worked though. The large flap at the base of the fan, which directs air down to the four internal pipes/vents was rusted shut and stuck with manky foam. The bracket that the wire attaches to on the flap had also parted company with the flap so not all was in vain. The rest of the heater looks in good nick. It just needs a good clean and new seals/foams. The wonderful MGOC offers uprated heater matrix and larger fan as the heater on the MG is not the best. In fact our American friends think its the heater from hell. Hey-ho, you have global warming now.

I'm tough though and can stand a little cool air in winter. ...................Ha. Not true. I cant afford or won't spend the money, on what I see as a pretty pointless mod.

Here is a view of the base of the heater box.

Great Innit !

Next few week should see some major strides in bodywork additions. Wifeys allowing me loadsOmoney to spend as a birthday prezzie. New L front wing base repair section, new L rear wing complete, repair panels for inner outer wing. Hope it don't rain then as we've not seen any for a few weeks..yippeeeee.

Sods law though. I've got no money so not much work has been done.

I'll be 50 next post.................almost one of Wogans T.O.G's

see you all soon

things went to plan......about bloody time !

Well look left, some progress to show and it ain't half bad.


The doorskin bought on E-bay looks great and was fitted by me, myself all alone and with no help, no disasters or dodgy happenings. Twin No 1 did hold the door whilst I hammered down the curvy bits near the top, however he got bored after approx 15 seconds so spent at least 3 minutes arguing with recalcitrant teenager on father/son bonding issues.


However, back to the progress, this is how it happened.......all according to plan, almost.


Once said doorskin had been purchased I set to work removing old doorskin by grinding the edges on three sides ( Most of the top is open to accommodate the window)


I had done this before last summer remember when practicing on a scrap door ( again bought on E-bay, this time I was conned somewhat as it was beyond repair, under the filler was new panels welded directly on top of the old rusty ones)


The old skin came away fairly easily since there was rust around all three sides. The front corner was probably the worse with nothing their at all.


So, some skill, logic and experience came to the fore. Most of the lips of the door, but not all, were rusty so needed replacing. Thus at strategic points I left parts of the lip in tact and welded on new lips. This was tricky in itself as I kept blowing holes when welding next to the remaining lips as it was so rusty. But with time and patience I managed to get a full ( almost) lip with only about 3 cm total ( 1" for non metricated) missing in two places. Used a excellent product called "Kurust" from Hammerite on the remainder of the lip and inside door bottom.


This stuff looks like milk but dries quickly to a dark Blue/Black and stops rust dead.


I think I'll need a lot of this. I literally poured it into the windscreen pillar base and on the rear window surrounds till I get chance to repair them.
Anyway, after it has dried a liberal coat of red-lead ( another Hammerite product) all over lips, inside door frame, outside door frame and inside of doorskin, we were ready to fit the skin.

So, a few days later ( actually Easter Saturday 2007) I set to fitting the skin.

I must admit this worried me as I did not want to make a balls of it as a new door would be over £100 quid. After reading the fantastic Mr Porters book on how to, I did as he said.

Tapped the edge all way round a few degrees in, taking it slowly and steady. After about eight circuits of the door it was ready for the edges to be bashed down firmly using a short block of wood and keeping the doorskin side supported underneath.

Hey presto here's the result..............................

My biggest concern was how the door bottom would line up with the sill I fitted. I expected to have the same gap as the old door which was around 10mm ( 3/8")

But NO it looks good. with some taps and bangs on the hinges I'm sure Ill get a good fit.

The waist swage line is a little high according to the wing but what the hell. The wing needs extensive repair and won't fit or go back on as it came off for some reason.

Below is a shot of the wing I've moved on to repairing. The bottom half will be replaced with a new panel but the inside double wall strengtheners and mounting nuts need attention.

Also the front headlight orifice needs a new inner piece ( available for £4.40)

The rusty double wall panels have been treated with kurust already.

More soon folks ! I'm off to scoff the kids easter eggs.

Never in the field of human indifference has so much...

Well...........I did do something that lifeless Saturday afternoon.After lunch I summoned much steely resolve to keep going and get the project going.
That's despite feeling tired and a little snuffly.
So, out with the mig and rest of tackle from MG bootspace.
Cutting cardboard templates, jigsaw buzzing, grinder scary grinding, clamps, drilling holes and finally welding. Hey,....it looks OK. My weldings getting better.
The end part of the sill needed closing in the rear wheel arch looking forward.
I've been putting it off for ages but now with mammoth effort and not a little skill..its DONE.
So just to prove it and the attempt at the rear wing attaching edge from last time
See below.............................
















The left hand photo shows the cover plate welded over the sill end plate. Just like the perfect Mr Evans showed us. Even "puddle welded" onto the correct vertical flaps too.
The right hand photo probably looks worse that it actually is since I took the photo in the dark.
I think I said a few posts ago I'm resorting to using .................body filler......sin of sins
A few ( bugger, the formatting won't remove...please excuse the font and colour)
deft whacks with the planishing hammer and It'll be perfik.
I did suffer later on in the day a it was apparent I was suffering from a stonking cold so I laid low for a few hours. Addendum. lying alert. I did have the Mon and Tues off work due to sneezing and severe "man Flu".
Did manage to purchase a brand new door skin on good ole E-bay though, and quite near by.
Collected it last night and its loverly.......little things and all that smirks the wifey.
Had a good look at the sellers MG and its spurred me on a little. Thanks Andy.
Please don't laugh too much when you see my repairs......yours looks perfect .
So, since wifey's away again this weekend and if the weathers OK looks like I'll be repairing the door and fitting the door skin.............maybe.

Oh for the wings,........the wings of a ( MGB GT 1977 Passenger side rear) !

When enthusiasm flies........part II

Yes its true, I'm almost becoming one of the fabled "unfinished Project for sale" mob.
The sad delusional mid life crisis type of bloke who thinks ***k it ! ,I don't need this aggro in my time of life.
After a long hard week on the road and more than one hotel I went to bed Friday night full of anticipation for the day ahead. Wifey was going out early off to London with her arty farty college chums, both kids had plans away from the house most of the day, so no ferrying around to do.
So, up early Saturday morning. Lovely cooked b'fast of cheesey beans, bacon and eggs and toast. Tidy up kitchen, fetch papers and chivvy kids into action.
It was only then I noticed the weather. Not raining for once, not even howling a gale windy so outside I went to remove the cover.
Brrrrrrrrrr its a little colder than it looks and with several icy gusts.
Looked at the rear sill/ inner/outer wheel arch that needs a finishing plate welding on to make the job complete.
Then It hit me............I just can't be bothered. Jigsaw cutting, hole drilling, grinding, fettling and welding....................................Its not quite mid-day so as a diversion I wrote this post in a fit of indifference. I guess I'm feeling rather tired from the travelling all week. Cambridge, Brighton, Havant, Portsmouth, Slough, Mansfield. Plus college piles on homework in a last ditch attempt to make sure they have been teaching us the correct topics at the correct level all year.
Not even a full Saturday of footy since England are playing Israel in the Euro qualifier.
So my moods rather depressed today.
Never mind, I'll do what I always do in a situation like this, .............nothing.
OK maybe I'll edit all the typos on the other posts then.
Hope the weather improves for tomorrow though.

Rust......a show and tell story

The above shows a close up of the rear quarter. Mine has no rear wing attached at all. It was
cut off for some reason by the P.O ( Previous owner)
So you can clearly see the rust and flimsy edge at which the/a ( I ain't got a new wing yet) wing should be welded/glued/magically attracted/brazed/blu-tacked/gaffer taped/screwed/nuclear fusion.
I say this because I've taken council on how to fit the wing. One source says weld the part hidden by the chrome window surround from the outside, then weld the rear very difficult bit by trial and error.
Another source say send it to us and we'll do it for about £1000 per side, its very tricky you know and we are the **OC, we know best, we are smug and we'll charge you a fortune you skint and clueless little oik!
The absolute god and Mr wonderful, the saintly and sanguine Mark Evans ( and the bloke from Stoke) says glue them on and use the odd few tack welds at easy places.
Anyway........its still fairly irrelevant as I have no date or timescale to fix the wing on because..................................I don't have one !!!!!

In anticipation of this though I did set to work repairing this rusty edge. I have cut out three sections with trusty angle grinder. Made up one tricky repair section from flat sheet and welded another small part onto that. Please bear in mind I have now elected to use body filler to "shall we say".... enhance.... the appearance of the repairs.
I must stress that in no way is the structural integrity being compromised, only my delusional ideas of being a master M.I.G welder.

Next post will show my repairs of said area. Really, I did do it all myself. I must have, 'cause who else would own up to it ?

Bit short on witticisms this week. No one's fault really. I've been busy with work and college.
Kids same. Wifey also. Wintry weather and all that.

Back to Normal.....vehicle wise that is

I forgot on the last post.


The Ford Ka has gone and I have my trusty old ( brand new )Avensis back.
I was just beginning to settle for the gross inconvenience of 2 doors, no remote locking, no hands free kit, no power on hills, no CD player, no satnav.
So Thursday I made it to the repairers late on. Waited say 10 mins for the said charriot to turn up. Lo and behold up it comes all shiney and newly resaprayed and valeted.
3 mins to load up with a salesman's lot and then get in and drive home.
Bliss......sheer bliss. How large the inside is. How quiet the engine, how powerful.
How clean and nice smelling. How comfortable. Music I can hear, a heater fan I can't.
It feels good. I'm not one for knocking cars especially my fave company car was a Ford but the Ford Ka is ( for high mileage driving ) ..................Pants.

All's well that ends well.......if it ever ends !

Not much has happened lately MG wise. To be honest the weather has been rubbish and my work life has been a bit up and down to say the least.
My sales area has increased to cover at least half of the UK, the half being the eastern half including London (inner and outer) and a strange place I've never heard of called Kent.
So it looks as thought my future is secure at least for the next six months even if it means more nights away from home.
The photo shows the repairs to the base of the windscreen and A post top. This is a very complex area to repair made even more difficult by the fact that I had no idea how it should look. The side was a big hole before I started and the other door/side is even worse.
How lucky for me its covered up by the wing and windscreen rubber........ eventually.
Solved the issue of the laptop.........I've got a new one !!!!. well another one at least which was a colleagues who has now left ( Bye Keef with the lovely teef ) I have also inherited half of his sales area too. Cor blimey, talk about vultures hoverin'.
The camera issue with the faulty cable has also been solved. Wife'y and I went to the local Jessops where we bought the Nikon Camera. However neither of us could remember the Model. No problem said the smooth as silk salesman, what you want is a card reader, its the same price and has the advantage of....... blah blah blah. Sold to the clueless couple for £14.99.
But, it works and its great. Now we can organise all the things we've lost digitally somewhere.
Still desperately short of funds for the project, short of good weather at weekends,
short of patience with teenage son no 1, short of ideas, short of skill panel beating, short on love and affection..............phew!! nearly burst into emotional outpouring there.
Get back to reality man.
So, almost finished one side of the car, except door and rear wing ( which I think is on the birthday prezzie list to wifey ( She's asked where they are bought from, so lookin' good )
My time has been take up by MG dreaming. What colour should I have it resprayed.
I'm thinking maybe Carmine Red with Black interior. Or Black as is now. Trouble is Black shows up any and every imperfection. For sure I'll fit an Club spoiler. I'm even thinking of lowering the suspension ( remember its a rubber bumper model which rides 1 - 1/2" higher) and converting it to a chrome bumper model ( extra £400 quid or so )
Answers on a post card please.

Weld a go go.......and stop stop

Look folks progress..............i think
The view shows the rotten windscreen surround in the corner. The corner is a polite way ( a British Leyland polite way) of understating the rust problem and location . Its several panels, all nicely curved and spot welded in strict order rendering them virtually un-restorable.
However, not to be put off ( well I had actually for the last six months at least ) I tackled it with the usual how the hell do i do that and where do I start ?
Well after about 3 hours looking and generally doing lots of butch posturing and tidying up I made a start. It is tough. I spent all day welding in tiny bits and grinding them down.
The last job of the day was to fill in a tiny pinhole left in the outer frame where I inserted a tiny patch. So thus the stop-stop. The welding just blew holes bigger and bigger till I had to insert another patch the size of a dinner plate ( exaggeration alert.....50p size really)
Still wazzed me off though last job of the day, getting dark and cold. Cut many pieces and welded/ground down/re-welded/ground/ last little weld to fill pinhole/re-patch, mark out,cut,grind,fit/weld grind.
So in the real world the twins continue to hate each other with a vengeance. Wifey's still head down into three art assignments each weekend and day light hour midweek.
I'm confused as ever with the political and financial manoeuvring at head office in Paris and Slough. Hee Hee......how I think its funny to mention these two cities in the same sentence.
Can I remind any one who reads this who is a sales man/woman who uses the motorway frequently,don't buy or hire/lease a ford Ka
Since my Toyota Avensis is in for re-shaping the courtesy car is absolutely PANTS.
Roll on mid Feb when work things get back to almost normal.
ADDENDUM..Wifey did not buy or get a new cable for the family camera. I used my company Agfa ( which is again PANTS) but at least its USB cable works, hence the rubbish photo.
Next job is to finish off repair with yet more tiny pieces welded in and yes.......................sin of all sins I'm going to use body filler to make it all smooth.
Then move to rear of car to tackle the outer of the inner wing, then the outer wing itself.
Then believe it or not the whole of one side is complete ( Body work wise that is) except for the door and front wing which need new skin and replacement lower patch respectively.
More soon.

And Boy did it bite my arse

Greetings peeps................Have to sound cheery as I'm as pi***d off as hell.
The last post really did bite me on the a**e.
I nearly died a very flat squashy death. More of that later.
How's that for fate, Karma, bad vibes , ying yang, blasphemy or just plain tough titty.
There must be someone/thing/external joke player up/out/about playing some rather cruel and unfunny tricks with my life.
How I wish I'd not made the last post.............07 stinks.
I'm trying the same trick as the last post, irony and and a sense of belief in my own fate !!
Nothing much has happened MG wise.
Welded hole in floor near rear spring hanger.
Bought 2 tins of Grey etch primer.
Even collected MG roof section from Langley and deposited it at factory in Slough.
Its actually resting in a very rusty old garage out back of the toolroom, surrounded by
years of accumulated scrap machinery and 200 year old compressor.
The boss don't know its there yet. I'm have to tell him soon. Maybe he will guess when I sneak out of the next sales meeting at lunchtime and proceed to wield the grinder.
................................Oh whilst I remember......I was very nearly crushed to death by a HGV in the winds the other Thursday it's that 07 thing again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes it was really that close. Here's how it happened.
As I was wendling my way from Scotland I stopped at Castleford services to re-route my way home. The winds were getting very strong and good old Sally Traffic was giving out a list as long as yer arm of roads and motorways closed. Most of them between me and home.
Off onto the A19 from the A1 south of said services and I met a long queue of stationary traffic.
The A19 at this point is actually a minor B road, but very long and straight and very exposed in flat countryside. After 30 minutes wait in long queue orange lights appeared from the distance. Two recovery trucks were attending to a HGV that had toppled over, about 300 yards ahead on my side of the road. So, to cut a long story short. they recovered the HGV ( well I say HGV, it was actually a big removals type van transporting mattresses )
The recovery truck with HGV in tow sped towards us at about 60 mph.
Then Sh***********************t It started to fall over about 10 yards in front of me.
Its back end hit the transit van in front of me, it kept falling and I ducked down and sideways.
Smash, boom, thud, thwack. It hit me on the windscreen pillar, windscreen, roof, door front & back and bootlid.
It then went on to hit the transit van behind me ( On the roof only) and came to a standstill at 45 degrees to the HGV behind that van.
Bear in mind we were all stationary waiting for the go-ahead from somewhere down the road.
I think if I'd not been between two transit vans ( hi line ones at that) 07 would have been a very very bad year for at least three more people.
I dare not tempt fate again...so I'll sign off with a note of pessimism tha......

Hold on did...... I get my sums wrong? is it odds that are bad for me ? maybe evens then ?
or are they good. Maybe at the autumnal equinox it changes expotentially ?
There job done Not called "Captain chaos" for nothing.
I'll keep hangin in there, at least till the jobs done anyway. ( go away italics....please)
I do promise to post more often though...and if said female gets her finger out even post pictures.

See yer soon............p.s keep the messages coming I need cheering up !

Happy New Year....................Its an odd one

Happy new year to all my fans and avid followers of nothing in particular.
The odd bit refers to the year number 07.
Traditionally for us ( me actually) odd number years seem to treat me better than even ones.

Before I get into this too deep.

Congratulations Hayley and Matt...........A lovely new little girl Daisy

So the year dawns bright and new, if not a little windy and wet.
Christmas was good, the house full of food and booze, family and friends, mess and arguments, indigestion and late rising, shopping and spending.
So fairly normal then.
I did get several invites to parties over the festivities which were all very good. So good in fact that i even turned one down, very near home and on a Saturday night. Wifey and daughter went though and enjoyed it immensely.
One sad note was that the rear wing never appeared as a Christmas present though.
However, a fantastic Red MG Keyfob did appear ( thanks Han) and a rather expensive looking travel bag with subtle embroidered MG logo on the side.
The MG has been rather neglected of late since the fitting of the sill section.
As you may be aware of the sill fit is not actually perfect. I think the gap is too large.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about this as a precursor to know what to do next.
Now I'm of the opinion that the door needs better alignment. Its been on and off many times and is a swine to tighten up.
The sill gap is probably 8-10 mm when it should be 3-5mm. The problem is twofold -:
The sill will not move up any higher as the A post prevents this, it and has to be welded together to give some rigidity.
The door catch at the B post seems very high as the door has to be lifted to be closed.
Not having the rear wing in position to give the B post some strength don't help.

So the upshot is I will reposition the door by dropping whole door down approx 5mm.
Re align the door catch on the B post, hopefully it will drop down enough.

This is all better done once I have a new rear wing welded in position ( Hope wifey's reading)
Before this though, the inner/outer wheel arch must be completed.
I have started this and welded the inner strengthener plate onto the end of the open ended sills. The wheel arch sections are welded on top of this to align with the outer wing wheel arch.
So, cash needed for the inner wheel arch section/s. Luckily repair panels and not the whole arch can be purchased from MGBhive/MGOC. The rear wing bit is about £57 and not £350 as first thought. .......................... I told you 07 is lucky for me.

As I started to say for me and the family odd numbered years seem to be very good. Or is it that the even number years have always been bad.
I broke my leg in 04........................................Bad
Born in 57..........................................................Good
Heart attack in 96.............................................Bad
Married in 89.....................................................Good...........( brains with tact)
Redundant in 2002............................................Bad
6 month holiday/work in USA in 2001..........Good
Twins born in 96..................................................Good at first, but 13 years later maybe bad!!

Anyway, you get the picture. 2007 good year. Hope this statement don't come back to bite me on the ar**.

Back to the resto. Yesterday I welded a small repair patch in the front wing/ bonnet gutter.
Re-welded the sill in places. Sprayed primer on all the other sill areas that were showing surface rust from welding.
Noticed the windscreen bottom/rubber gutter rust hole that's going to be a dogs d*** to cut out and repair. Looked into hole in passenger rear floor. Stood around lots and pondered.

Other breaking news is I still have to collect the roof section from a nice chap in Slough.
I turned up 3 weeks ago and for some strange reason thought it might fit into the rep mobile.
Not a hope. Not even into an estate car. So I have to borrow estate car with roof bars to transport it to works in Slough for storage/chopping up. This will be done next sales meeting early Jan. Promise Chris. Thanks for your patience.

Must concentrate on removing and storing engine/ancillary parts till cash flows.
See you all soon. P.S Wifey's not yet replaced camera cable so no pictures as yet.

Not just a metaphoric gap ............?

How profound of of me. Sometimes I amaze myself and other people too !.
The gap in question refers to two things. Firstly the blog and photographs out of synch and the gaps in the restoration story.
The second is the gap in the sill end plate now I've attached the outer cover sill.
As you are all aware my laptop has been giving me grief ( a lot actually) as the photographs would not download, the Bloggers website just froze usually threequarters of the way down a newly created post. Or the laptop just switched itself off without rhyme or reason.
Good news. After a bit of wheeling and dealing I'm ( we also, as the whole family benefits)
the proud owner of a BT home hub. This means the ancient but reliable PC can also be connected to the broadband. The Laptop issue will have to be resolved at work after the crisis of new management is primed.
It transpires the cable of the Nikon camera is to blame for the photo errors.
It fried the laptop and the PC's USB connections. Repaired for £45 quid and now we're cookin on gas as they say.
Back to the restoration though.
The castle rail sill is on. Welded like no other. Gone a bit overboard actually but what the hell.
Spent ages fettling the inner membrane sill and drilling about 30 five mm holes for plug welds.
The plug welds were a swine. It took me about seven weak and crap welds before I realised
that maybe eight mm holes are better. Typical fufferfour. Do the job again but this time much better. Spent even longer offering up the outer sill after hours grinding down all the plug and seam welds done. All this took place throughout October when the weather was good each weekend. Now I'm rushing a little to get the sill complete before the rain starts every weekend. But, the cover sill was welded on, on the top seam last week, and today I completed the rest of the welding on the sill. I even repaired the "A" Post hole with a nicely fitting patch. The sill end cover was welded on at the rear.

To keep it interesting here is a picture of the sill during a trial fit.

NOTE.... the hi-tech shovel holding the outer sill and wing bottom in place!!!!.................

Well it was the only thing that fitted at the time.

Pity the gap under the door though. Its about eight to ten mm. There was no way it could be any less. I'm hoping the door ( which has been on and off several times) is aligned poorly.
If not another job for the welder when its doorskin time. Once everloving wifey has purchased said cable for the ( her ) Camera I'll post the photo's of my handiwork so far.
The next jobs are :- Hole in floor near spring hanger. Cut away. grind. fit patch and weld.
Gutter section on front wing/bonnet side gutter. same as above.
Then yipee.........................weld or glue on rear outer wing ( wifey's buying it me for christmas)
Be patient folks......................................its getting there.

Moving forward.......... i think !

Again I'm suffering from laptop freezing. Three times I wrote this over the last week, only to suffer the cruelest of practical jokes from my friend the laptop.
On each occasion I'd posted two pictures and typed at least 300 words when it happened. Sad pity is it is all lost as I have to switch off and re-boot losing everything. So I'm typing this in three sections and posting as I go.
Bloody typical though, the last three posts/attempts were witty and interesting. Now I'm tired and its late and feeling melancholy.
But.............I have a glass of wine ( a big bottle even) so here goes.
The sill's are completely removed...........Hurrah.
Lots of rusty stuff has been painted with Hammerite rust killer.
The front footwell is all welded up.
The " trumpet" is repaired . No please don't laugh. That is its correct name.
The new sill's have been painted in anticipation.
Smelly red oxide paint has been sprayed everywhere I could think of before the aerosol ran out.
........................Oh I almost forgot. I repaired the gaping hole in the side footwell. Just to prove it here's the before and after pics. Look closely you can even see the welding too.

Sorry....lost photo in a fit of spellchecking & tidying up!

Grrrr (counts to ten slowly)...............that's the EIGHTH time I've lost a post

And now some other news from the world of Fufferfour

The bathroom is finally finished. And very nice it looks too !
I spent all day Saturday pasting and hanging wallpaper, fitting carpet trim, Laying vinyl in cubbyhole, tidying up and putting thing away, refitting all fittings taken down to wallpaper ( including Medicine cabinet & contents ) and washing the venetian blind blinds. By the way our medicine cabinet is fully equipped for a thermo nuclear war thanks to the ever loving wife.
Lost an arm sir ? No problem. Paul...pass me the thermal lance

Suffering from a headache ?......easy, we got Aspirin,Cocodamol,junior asprin,dicocodamol,asprinamol,Ibroprofen,disprin,paracetamol,paracetamol max, paracetemolmax+,calpol liquid, calpol night time, calpol daytime non-drowsy,nurofen. nurofen max,nurofen max with vanilla ( or rasberry) migralieve light. Migralieve heavy and finally Migralieve ........or course max.

Slight cut or gaping wound ? we got steristrips standard, steristrip extra long, 38 boxes of assorted waterproof plasters, 17 boxes of junior plasters, 10 pieces of cut to desired size plasters, red plasters with teddy bears, blue plasters ( just in case the environmental health call in the midst of food preparation) and crepe bandages, long, short, wide and rectangular. Even one smelling strongly of Ralgex ( lets not go there, its mine and I know where its been)

Well you get the picture by now I'm sure.

Now I've finally settled down and resigned to the fact of life that me and computers will never be an easy mix I can get on and concentrate on the more important things in life.

See you all soon for the next installment.

Lets try again

Still "issues" with laptop and strangely enough the letter S. Its sticky.
Suspect kids somehow.

Above are the photo's I missed on the last post.

Good job I struggled with the photo's yesterday, as last night I did some welding.
CR*P..............its the only word to describe it.
Well it was dark and I did rush things a bit. It got dark because I spent too long "modifying" my B&D jigsaw to work like the powersaw I used a college.
I'll have to spend time making square holes now and save the welding for a long weekend.
More soon...............if the welding improves.

Its off, and no turning back

Apologies for the delay in posting any news and events over the last few months.
Its been a very busy time with work, holidays, sunshine and family getting most of my attention. I'll have to be brief here too as my laptop keeps freezing up.
Three times I've posted wit and wisdom today only for it to be lost in cyberspace.
The title refers to the castle rail sill section finally off at last. Albeit in about seventy small pieces. It was achieved with brute force and ignorance and then a little intelligence and maturity.
After being stumped for so long on how the section was attached to the underside of the floor I decided to use the brush attachment in the drill and clean the inside sill bit.
Lo and behold.............semblances of spotwelds. Trouble is I buggered up the spotweld drill trying to sharpen it with the angle grinder. So hence the brute force and ignorance bit with a bolster chisel and medium claw hammer.
I eventually bought a new spot weld brill bit and here's a story to tell of the ordeal.
I was in Sheffield one midday between customer visits. A town I know well as I was born and bred there. I thought since I'm in the east end ( the grimy Industrial part full of every type of factory and service industry) I'll buy a drill bit.
Well..................................What a performance. I must have visited eight tool hire shops/engineers supplies/cutting tool specialists/tool shops and not one had one.
Well. actually Cromwell tools did but not the type I wanted. I bought it any way.
Some shops had no idea what a spot weld brill bit was !!! In Sheffield of all places. The home of steel and steel processing. The land of welding sheets and machining, railway parts and Iraq gun barrel's, inventor of stainless steel, cutlery and nickel plating and all things engineering.
I used said drill bit and it worked a treat. It was still hard work upside down drilling at only half arms length, hair and eyes, face and mouth full of tiny MG particles. Even the sunshine made it difficult as I had to lay flat face up half looking at the dark/black sill half looking into bright sky. Still the key to it was :-
a/. clean the surface thououghly before starting
b/. use the correct tools
c/. Don't give up, its often easier than you imagine
The photo shows the sills with a good view of the large hole I cut out ready to repair with the MIG welder.

Yes........................I'm sorry I should have told you earlier. I bought it on E-bay ( again)
for £60 and it works a treat. The guy even threw in a large sheet of 1mm thick steel too.
I'm currently scheming on how to buy an Auto-helmet.
.
.
.

.guffaw & snigger............................Its that word and my base sense of humor.
Anyways. I have to repair the small holes in the footwell and front footwell fascia before attempting the sills. It will be a good opportunity to practice welding in less critical areas.
By the way I have a huge repair section for the cut away area and the inside floor from the nice chap in Doncaster where I bought the sills ( E-bay yet again)

I promise I will report more often from now on especially since I'm likely to become more frustrated with welding.

FYI had a good hol in Spain with the extended family ( In-laws) several trips abroad with work like France and Sweden and France again.
Mini holiday in Belgium for the wifeys 50th ( weird people but fun place) but not seen Chris much due to hol overlap so will get humour injection on Friday night out this Friday...yipee.

My problem is this..........

That's how I ended the last section of my blog ( see below)
Apologies for that. I was waylaid/distracted/thinking of money/beer/ etc

Here's a lovely photo of me enjoying myself on Fathering Sunday.
I spent all morning looking at the sill and thinking how the hell do I remove it ?
It appears to be welded by magic.
I've drilled all the spotwelds I can see. I've even drilled some I can't see just for good measure.
What I meant to say at the end of the last blog is the vertical sill is behind the "A" post and between two other vertical parts, and at the B post, disappears altogether in a void of important structural looking parts. I do what I normally do in situations like this: look at it for lots, make a cup of tea and look at the restoration bible from Mr Porter.
I did glean some useful info. The new rear part of the sill can be welded on top of the tabs for the old one. And I managed to remove ( or most of) the offending sill part.
The really annoying thing is though, the castle rail is still there. I cannot see for the life of me how its held in position. Its stuck like glue, even welded solid, but where ?
The Previous owner had the castle rail cut down the centre and left the inside bit there, just welded a new one onto it. No wonder it took so long to get it off.
I was amazed when I'd spent 3 weeks grinding the bead welds, removing underseal and being frightened to death of the grinding wheel only to find half of another one there. Only this time it looks a little more permanent.
After consulting all the text books and internet pages, still no sign of how to remove them.
I find this so annoying that pages and pages are written about this subject and not one explains the procedure or difficulties of removing sills.
They all say " remove sills. careful their sharp..................Thanks a lot mate

How ? where do you start ? whats the most critical bit? whats the trickiest?

Enough said. More when I've calmed down.

As you can see I've been at it again.
The car that is. Although I've done lots otherwise but boring mostly.
Since a lovely bank holiday approached I hatched plans to remove the LH sill on the car.
Well "remove" is a fairly permanent word so I approached the job with some caution.
Its well said about MG sills that they are not a job for the beginner, need good welding skills and if done badly you may as well chuck the car away.
That's apart from the fact that the car can "sag" drastically in the middle if not supported correctly.
..........................Well just like me then !!!!!
( shot showing exuberance of grinding tool)

Left to my own devices I ground away the inner upper lip of the sill and peeled down the cover sill just like Mr Lindsay Porter says. So far so good.
I should have used a "Spot weld Drill" but I thought they were expensive last time I looked so I used the dreaded Grinder. I must admit this tool frightens the hell out of me.
Sure it looks cool to be grinding away with sparks flying everywhere, but one slip and that's a hand severed, a carotid vein obliterated or a facial scar the size of the cheddar gorge.
The inner sill was just about there through a thin veil of rust.
For those of you who don't know the sills are structurally important on an MG.
There are 3 main sills.
A flimsy outer sill between the door posts. Easily removed with trusty grinder.
A full length vertical sill underneath this which extends under & behind front and rear wings and acts as a Stiffener for:-
The castle rail. This is also full length and is on the underside of the sill assembly and also attached to the inside front wing rear arch and back wing arch front.
All three make up a strong box section each side of the car.
My problem is this

No you can't

Money troubles..........pah............Depressing,morbid,tense,lifeless and monotonous.
Yes we have big money troubles but for once I don't give a toss and feel none of the above.
The troubles started when a sudden realization that our annual holiday had to be paid for in six week time. The holiday fund was -£50.
So wifey and I decide on major plan of cutbacks and 3 month plan of action. Her idea is restricting my wine and beer intake which she claims will pay for two holidays.
Slight exaggeration there since her chocolate and biscuit intake would feed a small country.
Anyways, its been tough, and still is, but we are coping..........Just.
The kids don't seem to understand " we ain't got any money to give you". They think all things come from an endless money pit. It's not until you start to count up every penny that you realize how much goes on "incidentals" & minor things.
Decided to strip an old door of the MG and take it to the restoration class for "work". It took most of Fri evening to remove the glass, winder mechanism, hinges and quarter light frames. Still, I can get there early Sat morning with a definite plan.
The hinge plates look a little worse for wear and have been " modified" at some stage. How much will have to wait till Sat morning vehicle restoration class.
Saturday dawns bright and very very wet. In fact an absolute downpour.
Me off early with my old toetectors and new secondhand lime green and blue overall.
Shaun the resto teach looks at the door and says " we have just perfect equipment for that job" great methinks. He says " look through the rain outside to the big yellow thing "
yes I say then what. " Throw the bloody thing in it, its a skip" ( dumpster to our colonial cousins).
Ten minutes later Shaun and I had decided on how to tackle the door.
I will add I got lots of sympathetic looks from everyone. I didn't have the heart to tell them its a scrap door and will only be used for practice. In fact I think I forgot to mention this to Shaun.

Here is the door after a couple of hours work.

On top of the door is the "new" panel I made from sheet steel .
It involved "nibbling, bending, punching and joggling " It makes me feel good to just say those let alone do them. You can see where its going to fit. The bottom RH corner has at some time had a new panel welded directly on top of the rusty stuff. Its making it tricky to get the steel to align well. I wondered why there was a hole missing when i was taking all the glass mechanisms apart. The exposed nut was completely covered by the part of the panel I had ground away.
Looks like it combines all the problems and bodges I,m likely to come up against on the proper stuff ( Mine ) Still I looking forward to the practice.
Just to keep you interested here's a shot of the MG in its normal state.















Maybe next week we may have more wit and wisdom, if I can weather the financial storm.

What's next then ??

The DIY is almost complete.
Only the wallpapering to do, 2nd coat of paint on woodwork and tile bath panel.
All in reverse order of course.
At least wifey is willing to help.......or hinder.
Trouble is she thinks she can paint. I have to sneakily follow her two days later and rub down all the runs and ensure I do the final coat.
Thank heavens she has no interest in the MG restoration.
Youngest daughter No 1 did help last week wire brushing the right front wing area of accumulated crud. I promised her first ride. She knows she will be at least 25 before its finished.
I had another fruitful session last weekend.
Removed some rear window trim. Examined more rust around said area.
Stored both front wings. fuel tank and both bumpers down by garden shed covered by an old woven polythene garden sack ( erratum.... new garden sack 3 years old, it split when i tried to drag the kids round the garden in it)
As I write this I can see in the distance the shed and my precious parts. The bumpers ( rubber... sorry ....Polyurethane ) are stored up against the wall covered by the old rubber floor mats and an old dustbin lid.
How I love summer.......the lawn is green, buds are sprout'n, birds are sing'n and sh***ng all over my bumpers.
How I am becoming a convert to Poly refuse sacks and sheets.

I started my restoration course at local college this week.
How I'm going to love this.
Firstly upon wandering up to a group of folks I picked the course leader to ask
" Is this where I'm supposed to be ? "
Yes he replied, the kettles over there, its always on get a brew when you feel like it. Bacon butties are ordered an will be eaten at 10.30. Wander round with me and the group then we'll get started.
What a chap...........a man after my own heart.( even if he looks like a rockabilly version of Al Bundy)
"What you all want to learn then ? " was his first question.
The usual hesitance from a group of strangers.... then I piped up "welding"
Me too ! yes me as well ! ( me anorl......best Derbyshire accent there )
OK says Shaun ( course tutor )

WELDING............. first minute.......... easy peasy
second minute..........crap, holes everywhere.
third minute........long strands of wire everywhere + birdpoo
( That's what Shaun called it)
time to let someone else have a go
same results but, different order and probably worse.

WELDING PART II first minute.......change the settings..... no description
second minute......NO PENETRATION....bad word
third minute.......change settings.......!!!!!!!!!

Butty time........its the same the world over and it takes me back to my apprenticeship days. Get your butty first. Sure enough two butties were missing.
Luckily not mine though.......remember I've done this before. I used to have to fetch them as a lad come rain or shine Saturday mornings so I was prepared for this likely possibility, thus get in quick.

Over butty had conversations with fellow restorers. One guy is restoring on old Mini
and converting from Auto to Manual gearbox.
Another has a 1960's Triumph. And Another a 40's Jaguar !!!!!!
He wants to learn how to make the curved wings and fiddly bits.
Methinks the local college is not up to this standard. If he can afford that car surely he can afford to pay someone to make them !!

WELDING....Part III..............Shaun shows us ( without a mask and closing his eyes) how easy it is. Its all in the wrist action. keep moving and set it up properly.
first attempt............crap, spatter and crackle
second attempt...........much better with gas on
third attempt.............getting clever,butt joining two pieces
fourth attempt............too clever. big holes everywhere
fifth attempt.............bird poo and wire everywhere

Guess welding is not so easy. I will admit that things got better when Shaun,seeing my enthusiasm gave me an "Auto helmet " to use.

I'm laughing like a drain as I type this. It must be the word " Auto helmet"
Sounds like a STD or kinky gay sex toy. My sense of humour is base and kind of juvenile mostly. Guffffawwwwwww.

Now I want one. Its the only way to weld.

As the title says now I have a little more skill to progress....but to what.

I still can't seem to make a plan on what to do next.
I'm sure welding panels will figure somewhere. I,m afraid to weld just yet though as I don't want to weld little rusty holes into big rusty ones and ruin £ 85 quids worth of panels.

Procrastinate............that's what I'll do next.
Job settled. good night and thank you.

Some progress at last

Well time to report some good news at long last.
The restoration has moved forward somewhat thanks largely to an early morning leap out of bed. The kids were up early ( 7 ish) on my first days hol (Good Fri)
so I made a hearty breakfast for us all and set off down to the bottom of the garden by clearing out the shed and unearthing around the shed of old dead leaves and unknown things.
I really hate clearing up the leaves as there's always lots of worms and slimy creatures scuttling away to darkness. The 10 kg bag of chicken manure pellets didn't
help either. It had a plastic bag over it and a half housebrick.
I know why now.
At some point the lid had broken and since it was to be left outside a bag placed over it, however water had got in.
Got in big time, and it was supporting a whole new life culture of maggots, worms and other things.......All swimming in 10 kg worth of the smelliest liquid Sh*t ever. ( very good for the garden though.....but not mine, sorry ours)
I had to get the wife to move it further away from the shed area so I could carry on working. Smells are not my strong point ! Sorry don't do foul smells.
So, all non relevant things banished to on side destined for the dump-it site
and the rest, well..................How the hell is it all going to fit back in the shed ?
It was like Dr Who's tardis. Could this stuff really all come from Inside the shed ?
More ruthless discarding and several re-arranges of inside and there it was.
Loads 'o' rooooom.
Still a strong smell of Sh*t though.
Then another Idea. Wrap the tub in a strong black refuse sack and tie up tight.
thereby stopping said foul smell ruining garden and scenic tranquil atmosphere.
Smell all gone ( tub will be magically inserted into wheelie bin next bin day)
A more than slight improvement actually that would allow at least 3 or 4 boxes and trim bits into the shed.
Yipeee !!! Action stations restoration.
removed Right wing in less than 15 minutes ( It took nearly four weeks for the Left)
Admittedly most of the work had been done in a fit of frustration at the spinning nuts of the left wing.
Removed fuel tank after wrestling with only one rounded nut which I had to drill out.
This was a bit scary as it was the nut nearest the fuel filler hose inside the boot.
Today up early and drained oil ( wifey did not see this, good job a some has been deposited on drive) the old cat litter tray came in useful for once.
Emptied water....sorry coolant system. Removed radiator and hoses.
Removed oil cooler and some pipes.
Only bad news is that I broke the top hose connection on the oil cooler matrix.
Too much brute force and a cheap aluminium housing.
I think I can grind, weld and hammer to my hearts content now !!!!!
............If only I knew what I was doing...................

Who turned off the light at the end of the tunnel ?

The title just reflects my frustrated mood of late.
After attempting six time in two days to set up the tile cutter to cut six tiles I finally abandoned the effort to the weekend.
I did feel much better for it though.
The present tile cutter is new and works like a dream. Well it just works like any tile cutter should do. They fit perfectly. Next job is to lift all loose tiles
( approx 50% of them) and stick back down. It looks like I'll have to have a day off work to complete this or do it one evening to stop little feet walking on them till their fully stuck.
How I came to get to this stage is like a de ja vue dream. Similar to the cheap tools I bought earlier on in the year.
The present tile cuter is on its last legs. Its not mine, its my mates which I've had on permanent loan for about seven months. Brother in Law borrowed it for his tiled floor and I'm afraid it just wore out. perhaps the 15mm thick tiles he was cutting had something to do with it ?
Anyway,I decided to buy another one. Did the usual trawl of B&Q, Do-it all, Wickes etc. Decided on a "cheaper" model from B&Q: £ 29.99 and made of "stainless steel with 150mm cutting disc"
Gawd ......what a mistake.
When assembling on kitchen worktop ( yes it was raining outside) the "stainless steel" tops rectangular hole where the blade pokes through was mis-aligned.
Mis-aligned is a kind phrase. The only way the blade didn't touch the "stainless steel" top was when it was tilted at 45 degrees using the unique selling feature of " even cuts tiles on the angle". It a moment of testing I accidentally started the motor, only to see sparks fly, Howling graunching noise and a team of people rush into kitchen to expecting to see six tons of girders there with me underneath.
Crap............
I got out the trusty angle grinder to try and modify/remove the offending mis-placed hole. Reassembled and.........Crap.
Took the thing back to B&Q and got a full refund. I don't know where it was made but i suspect made in C**** was somewhere cunningly hidden.
Exactly one week later I visited B&Q and there I spied a Plas****s tile cutter for the same price. Admittedly a little smaller. I bought it and its wonderful. It did the job, easily with no fuss. I got frostbite from cutting tiles outside in the howling wind with wet hands, but hey.......the job done, almost.
My next rant is how ironic life is.
A while ago i posted on the internet somewhere, may have been this blog, the probs with the spinning captive nuts inside the wings where they were inaccessible.
I received last week a very kind and lengthy reply on how to resolve this issue.
In fact i had already resolved it, but nevertheless, the tips were excellent but not applicable in my case as the cages were inaccessible.
I still have faith in good ole E-bay. I was watching a bodyshell hoping it might go cheap. Did not win but decided to contact the winner.
A fellow MG restorer and by the sounds of it a willing and understanding bloke.
The shell is about to go to the scrapper as he has all the parts he needs from it.
Bless him, he offered to cut off the parts i need ( LH rear top wing, gutter section ect) I,m sure he will come through. Especially if he reads these pages.
I'm going for the sympathy vote.
All I've done MG wise is re-tie the poly sheet countless times after wifey bought some clothes line especially for me. To replace the 60 meters of telephone cable the Sky installer insisted on leaving I've been using.
The Easter weekend signals some positive action though...if....big if... the weathers good I'll tidy shed, dispose of lots of crap and organise the removed items from the MG.......hopefully, and after the tiling is complete.

When enthusiasm flies

Yet more wet and cold weekends have halted the frenzied pace of restoration.
Last attempts saw the removal of lots. Hope I can remember where it goes back and where I've stored it.
Frenzied is a term I've heard lots of lately.
Wifeys attitude to plotting a new bathroom......Frenzied.
Kids obsession with MSN and chats with mates.........Frenzied
Wifeys cajoling of me to make a start on said bathroom.......Frenzied
My resistance to do anything remotely interesting of a weekend........Frenzied
My boss's attempts at getting the sales team to sell more..................Frenzied.
OK you get the picture, there's some element of frustration embedded in me at not having a garage in which to work or store the items removed so far.
I guess I'm feeling guilty too of not having started on bathroom.
Well I did actually start and that was the prelude to.......well, P***edofness.
Like all males of the species I know best when it comes to DIY.
So tiling the bathroom floor should be easy. After all I'd done the toilet a few months previously ( 800mm x 1.4 meters, with 300mm square tiles)= 15 tiles including 5 cut tiles)that took best part of 2 days due to the awkward shape of the toilet base.
Under the tiles was regular hardboard. nailed every 2 inches ( just to be sure)
So they stuck fine and only one had to be uplifted and re glued.
Shaving an extra half inch of the door bottom made the largest contribution to the buggeration factor. ( undo 9 screws that have not moved for 45 years) move door downstairs, set up workmate ( all day job to remove MG bits from shed so I can see workmate, rest of weekend doing MENSA puzzle on how to extract workmate)
So work started in earnest. Except that I forgot brother in law had the electric tile cutter of mine ( I mean mine in the biblical sense, as it belongs to mate Chris. I borrowed it 5 months ago and he's forgot )
B in L used machine to do his whole bathroom and floor so its had some use and he says in need to cool down every now and then.
Frenzied comes back to haunt me again. That must have been B in L 's
F*****ed attempts at cutting at least 55mm thick cast iron tiles on a hobbyist machine.
The first cut I made the machine lasted exactly 2 inches before it conked ( sorry, overloaded the thermal protection device)
This required a wait of approx 30 minutes, still I could get on with measuring and gluing.
Things got decidedly worse.
After gluing and leaving the floor 80% tiled, the following morning displayed the tiles loose and wobbling like a see-saw.
Crap cement. Heating left on and little feet walking on them did not help.
However, my expert opinion is that I did not listen. I thought I knew best.
I used regular hardboard under the tiles. I needed to use at least 12mm thick chipboard.
So last weekend was spent chiseling off the cement from the tiles, cutting chipboard and laying tiles properly, leaving cutting tiles till the end.
By the way the cutter cuts exactly half an inch now between 2 hours cool down.
Should finish by Christmas then. Unless I ask Chris what's happened to his cutter and he buys a new one for me to borrow.
With luck the weather will improve and the bathroom finished in time for spring.
I hope the solicitor pays out by then, but that stories for next time.

When sparks fly

Well what a productive weekend. Well only Saturday actually.
After spending what seemed like ages without so much as lifting the Poly cover something actually happened according to plan...........almost.
Full of the joys of spring and having a Saturday not P***ing it down with rain I set about tackling the wing with gusto. Gusto may not be the right word as I was planning to use my new grinding machine. ( Thanks Ma, great x-mas prezzie)
I was petrified, I had visions of me in Casualty with it wedged in the middle of my forehead, or worse still the whole car going up in a fireball as I determinedly ground down the fuel filler spout.
Logic dictates that the Interior and seats should be removed but I still have no garage
in which to work or store said items, so they stayed put.
Donned in a XL disposable white paper suit I looked the strangest mechanic/repairman ever.
It is only as I write this I realise I was wearing a paper suit and would have made an excellent piece of tinder. As a practice I started on a screw on the lower valance.
He hehee....................................What sparks and noise !!!!!!!!
Positioned awkwardly under passenger footwell with grinder ready. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Nothing touched. The handle of the grinder fouled on the tie rod of the dash.
Remove handle and start again. He he heeee..........................
Sparks everywhere, heart pounding, mouth dry, very loud grinding noise.
I was actually grinding something.Exactly what I could not be sure but this was a sign that serious stuff was actually going to happen. Hope its to the car and not me.
Fed up upside down, I repositioned to the valance again. Still rather awkward to get behind the
headlight under the wing, so a moment of common sense hit me. Jack the bloody car up full tilt
and access will be better. And so it was, the two frozen nuts mentioned last year disappeared into a mass of sparks and blood red molten metal.
I have a feeling this car is going to be very much like a good woman.
Since I was highly delighted with the removal of two very rusty and awkward nut cages in a very inaccessible place it was then I noticed.........Horror.
I had accidentally ground a disc shaped hole of about 1" long into the front of the radiator support frame. Pants.........just when I thought I thought I was doing well. Still It can easily be repaired, sometime.
Then I realised all the wing bolts were free. I tugged the wing but it seemed still fastened somewhere. Tugged, tugged, no it must be fastened somewhere. I've missed a bolt.
Further check. Much tugging, some pushing then a quick jerk upwards and success.
I'm free....I'm Free.
Well not actually, the wiring was still attached to the headlight. Quick label job then it was well and truly free.
Only prob now is where to put it. Its only rusty on its bottom edge. Its actually wedged under a giant kids slide down the side of the shed at garden bottom.
Inspection of the new area and now exposed sill showed much rust. Only remnants of a sill visible, still the inner wing area is in sound condition.
The valance was unscrewed partially and ground down partially and it came away easily
again with only minimal rust, although it was a bit bent in one area.
I even had time to remove the other wings bonnet bolts and squirt my old friend penetrating fluid on the passenger footwell bolts. It would appear the right side is not as difficult as the left.
Hopefully.

Well...same old same old... nufin new there then

A new year dawns and time for some light reflection.

Yes its still raining each Saturday and not a jot has been done to the poor old MG.
All she can do is flap her makeshift polythene cover listlessly in the wind.
I can't even be bothered to re-tie down the noisy thing. I just peer at her each morning and pray for summer and cash.
The new year started like the old one finished, seamless and without fuss.
I fact I think I was first into bed before the missus, and asleep and snoring soundly before the appointed hour.
Made me laugh later on though recalling last new years eve to wifey.
We had ma- in- law staying overnight.
A fine woman and in full control of all her marbles. But..................
of all the towns etc. She decides that at 10.30 her waterworks are not functioning as they should. By 11.15 it was time for immediate action so off goes wifey an said ma-in law to local clinic/casualty..............credit to our good old NHS. They had her sorted and back ensconced in front of TV by 11.45.
I was Incumbent on sofa with leg in plaster, so that's a fair excuse. Besides, I needed lots of whisky to dull my pain. One visit up 15 steps with leg in full cast is enough to make anyone grumpy.
Work seems to have taken priority since the hols with my area almost doubling.... not the pay though. Still, I imagine I'll get more nights away and see a lot more of this fair and sceptered Isle.
I have seen more cardboard boxes though this year already!

No turning back......The project gets serious

Well the removal of the dashboard proved an enjoyable event.
If swearing, cursing, cramp in arms, cramp in neck, damp, cold, confusion and frustration can be called enjoyable.
Of course I'd read the book many many times on how to do this. In fact I'd read the book so often we needed a new toilet seat. So I was thoroughly prepared if not a little inexperienced.
More good news was that in the evening previous another cardboard box entered the house, it only cost £215 too, a bargain at half the price.
Don't know what to do with the new microwave that was inside though.

Before I embark on this new episode of no turning back let me pontificate on the dearth of cardboard boxes in our modern society. We all know what they are and what they are used for. We have all seen them many times. They are always free when you want one of them.
But let me warn you................Just try asking at a supermarket for one !!

My local 24 hour shop used to have thousands in the doorway at one time. Just take one sir, take thousands, build a new estate in Bulawayo sir, we just don't care, they are there for you because we don't want them.
Same went for the large multi nationals, Sainsbugs, TrespassCo, MoreReasons ect.
These often used but mainly Ingored items were there in their thousands ( hope the grammars good or Dave the teach will frown)

But like some Alien conspiracy now they have all GONE !!
Remember the rules on the wall in Orwells Animal farm, every time the downtrodden referred to the rule it had somehow mysteriously disappearedd.
Well supermarket cardboard boxes are like that.
First they were huge regular sizes and weird shapes that no-one ever took home.
Then they went to rectangular and square that were very handy. We all loved these.
At some point in the dim and distant past they began to get smaller and smaller till now they have disappeared completely.

Apparently they are a fire hazard and must be disposed of Immediately.
Disposed of by squashing flat in a regulation box squasher flatter , then Incinerated.
All by trained and certified supermarket staff courtesy of our wonderful H&S legislation.
I dare you, ask for a box near the large plastic doors next to the Deli counter and you'll get a look like Greek taverna owners reserve for German tourists.

On with the Dashboard.

Left hand upper bracket removed with socket set ( 1/2")
Cardboard glovebox liner removed frontwards by squashing slightly.
I must have spent 40 mins trying the former before latter occurred to me.
Removed both centre air vents easily. Dash showing signs of freedom as left side moves slightly.
Undid steering column bolts easy peasy. Whilst down there, upside down, head in footwell, feet splayed at odd angles out of window and out of sun roof I made a discovery.
previous owners of this vehicle lived like pigs. Nuff said.
I did find the trip re-set though and a "secret" switch which I will investigate sometime.
From this position of recumbent tranquility I also removed Right upper bracket.
Dash loose at both ends slightly but solid in centre.
40 minutes later it occurred to me as to why the centre vents should be removed.
" They hide the last remaining bracket holding the whole thing in position"

But that's when the serious stuff started.

Presented before me was a giant multicolour mess of spaghetti.......God what have I done.
It looks too difficult to but back quickly and run away, and its getting late.
Be brave Potter Pig.....Onwards and upwards.
To be fair the only tricky bits were the vent connections. Small nuts high under the padded top.
All the wires and cables were well colour coded.labelled them though just in case.

I have a feeling this statement will come back and haunt me later on.


Disconnect choke cable - both ends.
Disconnect & label up -:
Interior light
Cigar lighter
Ampmeter
Oil gauge
Fog light switch
Heated rear window switch
Speedo
Rev counter

And then it was lifted clean away...........Thus no turning back.

I'm sure I broke some switches or maybe they fell apart and disintegrated.
However boxed and labeled both ends and feeling rather smug.

Next job. Padded Dash top and heater pipes/vents. Maybe this can wait till after x-mas as yesterday we discussed wallpapering the bathroom this weekend.
Sacrifices. Sacrifices.

Oh yes I almost forgot..........I still need somewhere to store the bloody stuff.

Into each life a little rain must fall.......but not every bloody Saturday

Duties and responsibilities first. After suffering all week with a heavy cold ( Man cold......much more deadly than the "other" type which affects females mildly) I/we decided to get the house ready for Christmas.
This means I have to scramble around the loft space looking for unlabelled boxes of tree's, decorations etc. Fortunately last year at tidy away time I was rather disabled ( Broken Leg )
so they were just pushed into the hatch and were easy to retrieve.
I set to with a front room spring clean. The rest of the family pottered around attempting lots but accomplishing nutin'. Luchtime over I set too an the MG.
Yes I am actually going to drop the dashboard in order to get at those pesky frozen and spinning bolts holding the front wing solid.
Easy Peasey removing the gearstick gaiter. Not so untangling the wires for the overdrive and removing what must be 25 year-old Insulation tape............Not looking good methinks.
Bugger..........someone has soldered the wired together hence the tape.
Looks like Bodget & Scarper did work on this car sometime, hope it wasn't often, or a sign of things to come. Centre armrest removed to driveway. NOTE armrest well contains a small shops-worth of misc screws, fuses, bulbs etc.. all used/abused. Must keep them though, who knows where they came from. I must add at this point It was around 3pm and getting a little dark and cold to add to the already very damp driveway.

Removed the centre console after labelling the wires from the heater controls. I even had a box in which to put all the things in.
Then I noticed the rain. Absolutely P****ng down. And my feet and bottom half was also wet through.
NO......................................NO...........................The box and more Importantly the newly found "Kamasa" tools were wet through. The "dry cover" wet. The wet cover very wet and me wazzed off.

Fast paced was the next operation. Box in car. Tools into kitchen. Dry cover on. wet cover on.
Elastic thingies with hooks on on. Man In house very wet.

I decided to do the sensible thing and change clothes then settle down to a dark room lit by a warm fire and listen to the footy results ( Big match for me. Owls v Blades )

Then it all went wrong.
I'm putting the tree up in the room said wifey. Other room looks like an explosion at WH Smiths.
Bedroom same.
Time for some macho posturing.......................not a chance, guilt of happy families putting up the tree and smiling, Christmas records playing, chocolate being passed round.
Yes you can be happy when you think your world is crap.........thank heavens for marriage.

So it did end happily, almost. Room dark and fire lit + tree lights. Me on sofa Horizontal with remote control and quiet peace.

Except my team lost 1-0.

Never mind Toto, well always have Kansas.

The last person I expected to come to the rescue......

The Wife....!!..( said like Peter Kay repeats " Garlic bread")

Yes her Indoors. Overlapping domestic slave. The boss and giver of all things nice.

After another weekend of rounding off the incredible putty-like sockets whilst attempting to remove the left front wing she actually came to the rescue.
Here's how it all happened.

Mid week at ma in laws. Nice lady who looks after the kids and all her daughters and sons in law too.
So in a never ending attempt to get her daughter to take some of her "stuff" from her old bedroom she pipes in ..........................There's some tools upstairs you might use , let me find them this week.
Me "yes Please".
Several days later at Ma in Laws " here's them tools "
"I thought they were Bills" ( deceased Pa in Law) but they have Sue's name on the outside of the tin"
Tin !...........Sue' name on them ( Wifeys name) KAMASA HIGH QUALITY SOCKET SET .............AF...............HALF INCH DRIVE.........WITH PLUG SPANNER !!!!!!!!!!!
It did take some time to sink in. And is has rained every day since the epiphany but well........
who'd have thought that !

Wives are like elephants
Wonderful to view, they never forget and can be surprising....But choose your time, place and proximity with them carefully. Keep quiet

Frozen nuts...........is there a cure ? Will the captive nuts ever stop turning ?

Well never a truer term was invented. Simply remove the bolts highlighted inside the passenger footwell, bonnet gutter, front apron and inside engine bay front. ( 1/2 bolts ) p.s the upper ones are rather awkward.

After seven and a half hours interspersed with bleeding knuckles, cramped knees, aching back and a pair of broken glasses approx half of the bolts are removed.

The remainder either spin in their captive nuts or are rusted solid.

I did manage to remove the front bumper ( Rubber - but very heavy ) as the previous owner
had only fastened two of the four and obviously removed it recently as a socket did break when
pressured.This was a welcome diversion due to the above frustrations.

At this stage I must confess I did the macho male thing and Ignored the normal advice and bought the largest & cheapest socket set on sale at the auto shop.
How I wish I was Intelligent and experienced.
Still, why is experience is something you always get after you need it.

Keep in touch for a blow by blow account of my MGB-GT restoration on a budget and clueless as the weeks unfold and the wife see's less and less of me.