Monday, May 21, 2007

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 !!

1 comment:

Tim said...

Good progress on your GT! Who needs a garage, anyway?!? Real MG mechanics don't even have a "shade tree", right?
I'm soon taking into my front wing. In the end had to buy a whole front section. It should be a bolt-on operation and not nearly as involved as your current work.

I hope you find a builder. Working in the elements builds character but working on mother nature's schedule can be a challenge we can all do without!

Tim