Thursday, August 15, 2019
Picked this up Spring of 2019 as a project. It wasn't getting much love on
the market, probably due to the 'serious rust' issues. We all know that
rust is the deal breaker, right?
Well, I went to take a look since it was local. Yep. It had some big ol rust holes in both sides and the back.
But, I knew something about it -- it was a California car for most of
its life before being moved here to NC. California cars rust the doglegs
because they get full of road dirt and it traps moisture.
The rest of the car showed no other signs of rust underneath, although
the rear hatch did have a couple rust holes at the bottom edge. Probably
a leaking window seal. The car ran (poorly) and drove and was straight,
complete, and fairly unmolested. So I made a deal and brought it home.
I thought I could get this car on the road fairly quickly. So, just now getting around to working on it, starting with that dogleg rust.
As I suspected, the rust was very limited. It hadn't been driven where they salted roads.
Friday, August 16, 2019
Dogleg rust repairs
Cleaned away the rust from the rocker with a wire wheel, and it revealed some rust through. So this would be cut out and patched.
Inner panel is still good.
The spray has a very thin viscosity so that it will seep into the seams. Which means it also runs out though the drain holes, so the floor needs to be well covered.
Friday, August 16, 2019
Dogleg repairs - 2
Dogleg repair panel trimed down and welded in. I haven't done one of these before, so I was a bit surprised when I cut the edges off of the Moss repair panel it lost much of the shape. It turns out the pressing process leaves a lot of residual stress, and when you cut the folded edges off it wants to return to its original flat form. So there's a lot of panel beating needed to get it to fit. You can see by the remaining primer spots that my re-bending was not perfect.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Old hidden hood damage
I spent the morning hammering out dents in the nose of the hood
(bonnet). When I got it the paint on the hood was cracking and falling
off. Or I should say the bondo that is. I thought I should strip the
paint from it and get some primer on it to protect it from rust. That's
when I discovered that there was about 1/4" of bondo underneath across
the whole front going back about a foot. They had reshaped the whole
front profile with a thick layer of bondo rather than smoothing out the
fairly minor dents. So I made a couple of thin dollies or 'spoons' that
would slip in between the inner and outer panels to reach the backside
of the dents. After an hour or so of hammering I got it smooth enough
that it will now finish up with only a very thin skim of filler or
high-build primer.
Now I see other places where the paint is cracked, and I know that there is bondo lurking underneath...
Surprisingly, the hood finisher strip was present and undamaged.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Mystery wheels
The wheels that came with the car weren't meant for an MGB. They had too little offset, causing them to stick out too far.
I had one wheel off and found the manufacturer and specs. It was made by
American Eagle Wheels, and the size is 14x6. Appears to have been fitted
to Datsun 240Z and the like, back in the day.
Backspacing measures out to 3.675", outside is 3.3", so this makes the
offset about 5mm. Less than the recommended offset for a 6" rim, this
leaves about 1/4" clearance at the rear fender on the right side, and
just about zero on the left side. Maybe this explains why the previous
owner was running low and skinny 165/65 tires.
To keep the tire from hitting the wheel arches, a previous owner
seemed to have dealt with the problem by jacking up the rear end with
huge long spring shackles. 
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Passenger side dogleg
Repair work to the right-hand side dogleg was virtually the same as the left-hand side.
Inside rocker looked much the same as the other side. Just needed to be vacuumed out and re-coated.
This side has a coat of body filler up and around the fender arch. Not sure what's going on with that, but it may be related to past rear-end collision damage.
Friday, September 13, 2019
Hidden rear-end damage!
Moving around to the back, after a closer inspection, I found the whole rear of the car has had body "repairs". I stripped off some of the loose paint and bondo to get a better idea of what I'm dealing with. Basically, the entire rear panel is sculpted out of bondo up to 1/4" thick or more. The car was bumped in the rear at some point. There's no point trying to strip this any further. The whole lot will need cutting out and replaced. The hatch will need to be replaced as well.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Found a good tailgate
Found a good used tailgate. It even appears to be the same year or close, based on the emblem holes location. This one should only require normal paint prep.
Monday, September 30, 2019
New Heritage rear panel
New Heritage rear panel arrived. Had to order this from UK, as I couldn't find it in the US. Mossmotors US tried to convince me that the GT uses the same part as the roadster, as they don't even list the part for the GT. Fellow on the phone wanted to argue with me about it, despite showing him the different part numbers at BMH. Moss UK had the correct part, and cost including shipping from UK was about $160 less than buying the incorrect roadster version from Moss US.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Rear wing repair sections
Got a pair of rear wing repair sections from BMH. These aren't normally sold by themselves - they are an individual component in the complete rear-wing assembly. Since I didn't want to replace the entire wings, I persuaded a nice fellow at British Motor Heritage to send me out a pair of just these stampings for a very reasonable price.
Now it's time to start cutting out some bodywork...
Friday, October 18, 2019
The chopping begins
The Bondo was so thick everywhere that there's no way it could be removed. I couldn't find the panel welds so I just began cutting out chunks near the seams and joins. This will leave only small areas of bondo to grind out to locate the spot welds.
Free standing bondo. Not even touching the metal.
Underneath. It's like archaeology
Friday, October 18, 2019
Heavy metal
The outside fender seams and welds were filled with lead at the factory
in those days. They stopped this practice a few years later as it
endangered workers' health.
I don't want to be sanding this stuff, and especially not welding around it. So I melted it out with a propane torch, wiping the bodywork with a paper towel while hot to get most of the residue off. Even still, I use a good filter mask while doing all this work and sweep up and vacuum right away so it's not lingering in the shop.
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