New Metal at Last

With the coming holidays I set a modest goal of replacing the rotted metal in the front wheel well that was under the castle rail attachment point. The area was cut back to good metal with the outer edge barely salvageable.

File folder material was used to produce a template that was transferred to 22 guage (.8mm) sheet metal. Locations for plug welds (to replicate the original spot welds) are marked on the template.



Edges were tidied. Ends of the inner sill were painted with weldable primer (Bloxide, from Eastwood) as shown by the bright silver colour.











The new metal was tacked in place with a Hobart 125 MIG on the lowest setting (1/45) and plug welds at 3/75 (power/speed) then the weld ground smooth to the final product viewed from the side (first pic) and front (second pic)

The next steps will be tapping up and prepping the inner sill areas for fitment of the new castle rail, sill membrane and rocker. Damage to the floor panels and cross member will be repaired. It will be slow going over the next few weeks, but at least there is new metal on the car today!

Deeper into the Sill Abyss

To paraphrase the character Jim Lahey from the TV Series "The Trailer Park Boys":

"He who looks into the abyss realizes that there's nothing looking back at him. The only thing he sees is his own character... You understand bud? The abyss? The sill-abyss?"

My journey into the sill abyss continues. In the last week I have only been able to grab a few hours here and there to continue the tear-down. Removal of the castle rail proved more troublesome than I had anticipated because I am saving the floor pans and trying to save the cross member. Cutting out around the jack point took a lot of time and I still managed to bodge the connection tabs on the cross member. Now I must either fabricate new connection points or replace half of the cross member. I don't want to drill out the floor pans all the way to the center, so I will first attempt to fab the connection points. If that does not work I will give in and order the half cross member. Its only $6.95, but where is the satisfication in buying something you can build yourself?

Great news! The condition of the inner sill was much better than expected and can be left in place. Not removing the inner sill increases the chance that the body will stay in alignment and means a lot less work. There is some surface rust on the inner sill near the front but nothing of structural concern.

There is some rust at the front where the castle rail met the wheel well. This will be cut out and replaced with new metal. The tricky bit will be forming the bend from the wheel well underneath to the connection point between the castle rail and inner sill. This will be accomplished without a metal brake and should be an interesting challenge.

Until next week....

Getting Started

With the car running like a top for the summer of 2006 it was time to tear into the body work.


A previous owner placed body fill over rust in the rear dog leg panels and lower front wings. Body filler was easily pulled away to review the rust underneath. It's not looking good at this point.





Windscreen removal is necessary to remove the front wings. Note the size of the work space - a single bay in the basement of my house. Staying organized will be a must.

Interior was stripped but the dash left in place. Driver's door was removed by unbolting at the door (not at the A-post) to preserve door alignment. The door can be left in place but access to the sill area is much easier with it removed.


Front bumper removal is also necessy for detaching the front wing.









1" square stock braces were added across the door frame and cockpit before cutting into the silks. The outer sill (rocker) was removed by drilling out the spot welds that attach the outer sill to the inner sill (membrane), taking care to retain the flanges at the A-post. The picture at the right shows the outer sill removed with the inner sill visible (the piece with the triangles).




Removal of the front wing and rocker shows damage similar to that found in the dog leg.
There is no doubt that this car is in need of work.







The tear down started in November 2006. This weekend I removed much the inner sill and started to remove the lower castle rail. Blog entries from this date forward will contain more fine detail about the process and include the passenger side (if I ever get there).

Lessons learned:

1. This is an extremely labour intensive process
2. Drilling spot welds from underneath the car builds character and vocabulary

Introduction

This blog chronicles the ongoing restoration of my 1980 MGB LE, purchased in 2004. Major sill work will occur during the winter of 2006. I hope to be back in the drivers seat by the summer 2007. I started this blog as an incentive to keep working on the project and to document my progress. This will be a lot of work.

About the car

The car has been "de-smogged" and has a 32/36 Weber DGV and lowered front suspension. In 2005 I added a Pertronix distributor, flamethrower coil and Bosch alternator conversion. Other recent work includes:

2005

• New gas tank and sending unit (POR-15 on the outside of tank)
• New SU fuel pump

2006

• Peco exhaust
  
• Conversion to MGB-GT rear brake cylinders, rear brake and axle work
• New front brake cylinders
• Rebuilt master and slave clutch cylinder