1958 MGA Coupe

SuperBuickGuy · Feb 24, 2013

was following an MG today thinking two thoughts:
1) It wasn't rusting fast enough
2) get out of my way (I was in my Corvette)

bobs77vet · Mar 2, 2013

its hard to imagine it wasnt rusting fast enough....

picked up my youngest son from college to day for spring break .....my goal is to have the body pulled off before he goes back to school. 4hrs working on the drivers side sill repair. i decided to start at the front and work my way back.

heres the donor panel

the salvaged repair piece

same method of grinding off the spot welds and peeling off the metal

the repaired repair panel

trimmed and primed

rough welded in place, grinding will come on another day

bobs77vet · Mar 3, 2013

4 hrs today kicking some butt.....

cut away the rust

the template to make the part, i am not sweating the bottom length and i am making to too long on purpose and will trim it later

this is the offset flange

here is the back side primed with cold galvanizing compound you can weld through this but it really sparks alot

while the paint is drying i removed all the body bolts and was surprised how easily they came out and the rear body mount is in great shape

the front needs some work though

made up new piece and primed it with weld through primer

while thats drying i went ahead and removed the rusted out section

same trick i ground off the old spot welds. what looks like holes is actually shiney metal

after everything is cut away the new piece is made and flanged and primed

and welded in place one step closer to being done...

bobs77vet · Mar 3, 2013

1 more hr needed to wrap things up

i used a piece of angle iron to make sure that i had a nice straight and tight seam

that thin line is the middle piece nice and straight

and of course you need to have a mock set up admittedly this was for my satisfaction

so i paint the inside of the inner sill

i had to move some stuff around to get the welding cart over behind the MGA where this use to taking up residence... what would a garage be with out a sons custom motorcycle project??

SuperBuickGuy · Mar 4, 2013

First a MG, now a Honda on a site dedicated to America's sports car? :banghead:

while that leaves me scratching my head, I wonder if you weighed your MG - how much weight you'll actually add to it from the time you bought it in both replaced metal and MIG wire

bobs77vet · Mar 4, 2013

all I can say is the workers and shop is pure USA, I suspect we all have many different interests in our cars......the entire body only weighs about 220 lbs once all the doors and fenders are taken off....

bobs77vet · Mar 4, 2013

3 more hrs of work..had my son helping me..I welded up the inner sill, while he removed the rear bumper horns and the 6 inner boot body/frame attaching bolts.one of the rear bumper horn extension bolts was a major PITA and we wound up cutting it off. i drilled two 1/8 aligning holes in the bonnet hinge mounting plate. cant believe so little work took so much time

SuperBuickGuy · Mar 5, 2013

Do you like your cordless grinder?

bobs77vet · Mar 5, 2013

I will say it has its place with out question, it has a horizontal wire wheel on it now. its great for cutting stuff and doing stuff especially out side of the shop. it is not my "go to " grinder in the shop but I am glad that i have it. it does eat up batteries when heavy grinding. it has the wheel removal tool stowed in the handle which makes alot of sense and i am surprised others dont do this. you can see the zinc colored top if you look close. its real usefulness is in its portability for "quick jobs". i would buy it again

SuperBuickGuy · Mar 5, 2013

bobs77vet said:
I will say it has its place with out question, it has a horizontal wire wheel on it now. its great for cutting stuff and doing stuff especially out side of the shop. it is not my "go to " grinder in the shop but I am glad that i have it. it does eat up batteries when heavy grinding. it has the wheel removal tool stowed in the handle which makes alot of sense and i am surprised others dont do this. you can see the zinc colored top if you look close. its real usefulness is in its portability for "quick jobs". i would buy it again

I keep thinking they don't have the battery life to be really effective... can't say that you've convinced me to change my mind. To me they'd be useful, but my truck has a 2500 watt inverter on it, so I can run corded tools when in the field - I'd love to abandon that, but I keep coming back to the problem that almost-cut is exactly the same as not-at-all-cut when it comes to cutting things apart.

MYBAD79 · Mar 5, 2013

these Ryobi tools are very good, too bad their batteries are not all that great. the newer lithium batteries are better and you can run the old style 18v tools on the newer batteries.
A buddy just bought a 18v sawzall, he takes it to junkyards to cut parts (like front frame rails to get a front clip)...... works fine..... they don't run power to the yard and they also don't allow cutting wheels because of fire hazard.... so that 18v sawzall has taken some abuse LOL

only complaint I have about these are the batteries, I have six that take a charge but last only an hour or so, I also have two lithium batteries that seem to be fine.... I guess after a year or so all these batteries turn into garbage.....

bobs77vet · Mar 5, 2013

SuperBuickGuy said:
I keep thinking they don't have the battery life to be really effective... can't say that you've convinced me to change my mind. To me they'd be useful, but my truck has a 2500 watt inverter on it, so I can run corded tools when in the field - I'd love to abandon that, but I keep coming back to the problem that almost-cut is exactly the same as not-at-all-cut when it comes to cutting things apart.

if your expectations are a "go to everyday use tool " then pass on it for sure.

the lithium batteries are certainly the way to go. and the saw blade switching mechanism on the reciprocating saw is really very convienent. as i said overall i like the tools on a home shop basis, and taking them to junk yard is a great example

2 more hours tonight wrapping up the door posts, all of the grinding and making the welds look pretty will happen after the bodys off the car

and i added an extra support brace for good measure

MYBAD79 · Mar 5, 2013

are you planning on sandblasting once you're done welding and grinding? Just wondering how much they will charge, maybe $500 ?? I just bought a $400 ALC blaster from Northerntools, sure better to spend $400 on a tool that you can keep for future jobs than $500 or more for labor.... I just sprayed epoxy on my VW rims that I blasted and I have to say, best surface prep ever :1st:

bobs77vet · Mar 6, 2013

the DC area sucks for vendors that do stuff like that...i have a car trailer so i could create a wheeled dolly and take it some where but i was planning on using a funny looking sanding wheel from eastwood that has little fingers sticking out of it for the outside and then a wire wheel for the inside areas ...if that doesnt do the job i may see about other options. its really not a very big car and i could do it an hour at a time.

hooray for a snow day!!!!

wrapped up some loose ends on the body so all the welding that has to be done before we take the body off the frame is now done. added some corner braces to the bottom of the rear door post, welded the trunk pan in place and welded the inner foot well area piece to the body mount. i am taking an hour or so break then will go out and start on the mechanical aspects of the body removal

test fit of piece

bobs77vet · Mar 6, 2013

I AM WORN OUT.... little Joe and i spent another 3 hrs tackling the mechanical items that need to be taken care to remove the engine
it helps having a worker...

we are not sure hes going to fit into when its done...

not to hard removing the master cylinder

however the car gots its pound of blood from the bolt that attaches the pedal assembly to the top bracketry....the pedals swiveled on the bushings but the bolt siezed in the steel sleeve

what a PITA....i was able to manhandle it through the opening once the ends were cut off. i could only get the bolt out the sleeve when it was in the vise.

SuperBuickGuy · Mar 7, 2013

you must have gotten tired of doing trailing arm bolts and figured you needed a better challenge?

bobs77vet · Mar 8, 2013

well we were getting set up to for the saturday body removal and then it happened....about 1 hours worth of work...

and this is where we realized we were almost there

yours truly

i accomplish so much more with helpers

and whamo its done

final resting spot

look dad i do fit

and yes I hate trailing arms and those freaking parking brakes....

denpo · Mar 8, 2013

bobs77vet said:

Now that's some happy dude

:thumbs:

SuperBuickGuy · Mar 8, 2013

x2 :clap:

your smile cracks me up :amused:

bobs77vet · Mar 9, 2013

whos says little kids have to grow up?

well it was too warm out side so i rolled the chassis out and powerwashed it. I had a hot water added to my outside faucet just for moments like this

bobs77vet · Mar 10, 2013

took the wire brush ,grinder and degreaser to inner fender panels

straighetned out a little bump in the back

and a few clamps and hammering

back to cleaning

and some self etching primer

bobs77vet · Mar 10, 2013

the work thats left from this point forward really fits well into my 9pm to 10:30 pm schedule after everyone has gone to bed then i go out and play and no one misses me.....once on the 37 ford i got a real second wind and at 3:30 am the i see the wife coming into the garage with a flashlight and cell phone she said she figured i had a heart attack.... well music to a mans ear happened early today...the Mrs and our two daughters went to the mall.....woohoo that means more garage time on the 65* day

so i did the other side and the boot area....after the primer drys for a day or two all the weld seams will get a brushable seam sealer on them.

what the F^%$....working all weekend long and i get this from picking up the grinder with the wire wheel to put it away at the end of the day

SuperBuickGuy · Mar 11, 2013

well, at least now you can heal at work.... it's amazing how far you've gotten in such a short (relative to if I'd done it) time period.
truly inspiring :thumbs:

bobs77vet · Mar 13, 2013

work and advil its all a guy needs...

tonight 2.5 hrs were spent on making the aluminum kick panel replacement pieces. i used 22 ga galvanized sheet steel i had laying around this will never deteriorate. as usual Barneys site has all the dimensions to help me piece together the puzzle

Barneys print outs are on the right

the first bend its hard to see

the third bend is what i am working on now and it was the hardest to make for me i had to work onthe jig to set it up

finally flipped it around to get it right

and then the same process on the other side

and yes i do have a lot of clamps and this is one of my favorites....the HF ones dont copmpare

SuperBuickGuy · Mar 13, 2013

alright that tears it... you've now convinced me to finish the floors in the fiat so I can finish the car.... gosh darn you - I had a good "it'll take me forever" whine going on... maybe if I add some midol to my advil things will go better

bobs77vet · Mar 13, 2013

SuperBuickGuy said:
alright that tears it... you've now convinced me to finish the floors in the fiat so I can finish the car.... gosh darn you - I had a good "it'll take me forever" whine going on... maybe if I add some midol to my advil things will go better

you will get a kick out of this and it will remove all the self pity...

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/well-getting-ready-get-serious-37-a-84877-5.html

SuperBuickGuy · Mar 13, 2013

Thanks for the attempted intervention, but no, it didn't help. I've been working on the Fiat longer than that.... granted, last night I did get all my transmissions up and into storage so there is light at the end of the tunnel... I can now get the fiat to the lift.

bobs77vet · Mar 15, 2013

i had the day off today so i chased around some loose ends

IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/bobs77vet/MGA%20Coupe/Body%20work/coupe%20body%20removed%20from%20frame%20on%20saw%20horses/IMG01501-20130315-1028_zps6082cc44.jpg[/IMG]