Royce Burnett's Journal

In my previous post I wrote that I would be putting the floor pans in next... nope. Getting ahead of myself again, as the heelboard extensions were shot on both sides. Spent today fabricating a few bits... I must have lost my knack for making stuff, if I ever had one, as it took me 3 tries to get the piece made for the driver side.. and a lot of trimming and fitting to do the passenger side. I think I started around 10:00 this morning, and didn't finish until 6pm. And stiil have to grind the welds on the passenger side to boot.. I think all the undercoat scraping I've been doing has slowed me mentally, if not physically.

Still, it's looking good to me. Floorpans are next (for sure, this time) and then I'll be tackling the front and rear suspensions.

Oh yeah, doors too. They have a few little rust spots to cut out and weld up.


And epoxy.

And body work.

And more paint.

Oh yes, the engine and tranny, fuel tank, wiring, etc...

And then I can start putting it together.

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Seems like a long road.

been a while since last post.. ended up getting called back to work so have not had nearly as much time as I'd like to work on the car. Have been scraping away at the bottom getting the undercoating off, nearly done except for the rear wheelwells. Had a bunch of new parts show up, including all the bits for the front suspension rebuild. Also ordered new beading for the tops of the front wings, I'm a bit disappointed in the shaping of the bead, definitely doesn't look like the original but everything costs so damned much to get across the border I hate to send it back. I have the new headlight bits so now I can finish off the mounting rings in the repaired wings.

Got all the rubber bits for the doors and windscreen since Obsolete had a sale on all that, as well as all new mounting hardware for the wings and new bits for the sidemarkers.

Next step on the car is to finish up the floor pans.. I met up with my used-MG-part guru Dave to get hold of a seat so I can get the holes and captured nuts set up in the correct places. Also have to figure out where all the mounts for the piping/cables go on the passenger side so I can weld those studs on in the right places.

Other than that, pretty much just waiting for the temps to go up around here, I can't possibly heat my shop up enough to spray epoxy right now. My lass has me working on a bathroom project as well so the B will just have to wait.. Lass has been waiting 10 years or more for this bathroom to get sorted so I'd best strike while the iron is lukewarm.

Been a few days since the last post, I'm celebrating the fact that the bulk of the metal work on the fenders is complete. The PS fender had 2 dents in it under the bondo which I was able to shape pretty well with a hammer and dolly (which took a bit of time). As well, the headlight area was rusted out, not as badly as the drivers side, but significant nonetheless. I also had to replace a chunk of the fender retainer and a patch adjacent to it, but the absolute fiddliest bit was fixing up around where the windshield frame penetrates the fender, that bit was practically missing on the outside and inside. Took several attempts at fabricating pieces to splice in, as well as a trip to the hospital to get a bit of metal out of my eye ( Wear Your Goggles, Kids) which I managed to survive.

Finally got the lower repair panel on just now and am heading to the fire hall for a beer.

Got busy tonight after supper and got the repair panel put on the DS fender... I think it turned out ok. Still need to figure out what to fill the seam with, but it looks real good sighting down the line of the car. Big change from what it used to look like.

Tomorrow, I'll start on the other side.

Well, I've been struggling with the best way to fix up the headlight area of this fender ( other than buying a new one of course). There was a few spots rusted thru on top, as well as on the bottom. this wouldn't have been too bad, but the front flange of the fender which is welded to the ring inside the fender was complete crap, as was the ring itself.

After much thinking, I made a couple of front fender bits by bending a piece of sheetmetal about 12 inches long by 1 3/8 wide, bent a 1/2 inch 90 along it, and put it in my shrinker stretcher. First one didn't fit all that well; to meet the fender line it wouldn't need to have a 90 degree bend, at least not all the way along it. Second one I made turned out pretty well. I had joggled the edge before I put it in the shrinker as I wasn't convinced of my butt weld skills. Next was to take the Dremel with the reinforced cutting wheel to the fender, and try to cut a straight edge in the right place.

I also had to make an inner ring as it was pretty well shot in most places and I didn't feel like piecing a bunch of bits in there. Still have to drill holes and make new threaded pieces to mount the headlight in the hole.

Worst of this job is knowing I have the other fender to tackle... should go a little quicker I hope.

I've fabricated a couple of patches.. didn't turn out too bad.. better than the last guys efforts at any rate. At least I shouldn't need a 1/2 inch of bondo over it.