1958 MGA Coupe

[bobs77vet]

i think it was the duplicolor 500* engine paint in cast iron grey. most of the car originally was black but that makes way too much black for my taste. i like the contrast of different colors. i think the drave shaft is going to get battle ship grey or is it gray?

 

[bobs77vet]

i did check the paint it was the duplicolor engine paint

i had marked the flange on the axle housing so the drive shaft goes back like it came off but actually i am not sure why you need to do this on the drive shafts that have the yoke attached, since they are a balanced unit, but any way heres the easy mark to see. i actualy used a chisel and put ahash mark on it when they were assembled



more fruit of the drying tree, again way too much black on this car for my preference



heres the corresponding white paint covered with blue tape

 

[bobs77vet]

basically lets see how the swivel pin thread areas measure up for OD compared to each other. my RH side swivel pin one was just too worn for me to use and i sourced a really nice one with the bushings already done. and i confirmed the measurements today

lets measure everything and write it down to make sure its with in specs and lets get the old bushings taken out.

 

[bobs77vet]

time to play with the torch....lets remove the steering arm and the swivel pin....

lets get the steering knuckle nice and warm and hit the threaded end (with the nut on)with a hammer..




now lets step it up a notch....see i am holding this assembly with a pipe since it is very warm, i could not get a good blocking set up on press, probably since my blocking plates are AWOL in the garage some where....so we are going to use a piece of pipe clamped in the vise and BFH, since the swivel pin is trash i dont need to worry about protecting the threads.....so let get everything really hot





and i win





THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO AT THIS MOMENT IS TO GO TAKE A SHOWER AND RESIST ALL TEMPTATION TO TOUCH THOSE PARTS

 

[bobs77vet]

now that everything is cooled off i have cleaned them and polished the shafts. its also important in the assembly area to diagram exactly how it goes together so you dont have any oh crap moments.....
heres the diagram on the paper on the table and the photo proof....this is why i photograph everything it stops me from having to remember

 

[bobs77vet]

swivel pin goes in freezer..... steering knuckle goes in the hot sun on a black plastic bag. the pin gets a light coat of instrument oil


an hour later bingo......it went about half way in by itself then a light hammer tap and it went all the way home, then steering arm goes in while everything still has a temperature differential. if i hadnt painted it i could have put the steering knuckle inthe oven and them I bet it would have slipped right in

 

[Kid Vette]

i did check the paint it was the duplicolor engine paint

i had marked the flange on the axle housing so the drive shaft goes back like it came off but actually i am not sure why you need to do this on the drive shafts that have the yoke attached, since they are a balanced unit, but any way heres the easy mark to see. i actualy used a chisel and put ahash mark on it when they were assembled



more fruit of the drying tree, again way too much black on this car for my preference



heres the corresponding white paint covered with blue tape

Mmmmm! Burgers!

 

[bobs77vet]

they were particuarly tasty that day i might add

cleaned and examined the pivot arm and polished the shafts



wire brushed the compression washers and painted them



poly urethane bushings



half of the spring pans get assembled with me standing



the threads for the ones that i have to put on kneeling get the threads chased with a cleaning die. this is different then a cutting die it only chases (cleans) the threads and doesnt cut anything



on a side note this was my grandfathers wrench the V was his initial i was given these last summer at a family reunion since the relatives knew i like working on cars, i have about 6 or 7 wrenches that were his. he had a large garage on long island in the 30s and passed away in the early 40s. these are my go to wrenches every chance i can use them.





this is one way to measure to make sure the distance tube has the proper clearances so it will doesn bind on the trunnion bushing



the mic slipped a little when i was juggling the camera but you get the idea



and the lower A arms and spring pans are in

 

[bobs77vet]

busy day today....checked the steering arm and swivel pin for cracks and repainted it, if you ever need to get fresh paint off of something just spray brake clean on it....

heres the dye penetrant, developer and cleaner from magnaflux. basically clean the part, spray the dye wait 20 mins clean it off and then spray the developer and wait 20 mins and then look for any cracks.that was $57 from grainger no need for the kit just get the cans





cleaned up the grease fitting and pumped new grease through them



you can see the old brown grease then the new stuff, no sense in contaminating all new stuff with old grease



I put the trunnions and distance tubes together following Barneys instructions. on these trunnions the bearings were just about brand new and had no measeurable wear on them, in fact I am not sure my hand reaming will be as tight as these are. and heres where i had to wait for some extra weight



200 lbs didnt do it.....300 lbs did the trick

nothing is tightend yet so please eye ball these things and make sure i didnt put anything on back wards....the thrust washers are inside the flanged washer facing the distance tubes

 

[MYBAD79]

It's been almost two weeks, are you busy driving this car or why are there no updates ????

 

[bobs77vet]

vacation and taking little joe back to college has slowed me down a little bit. i just got word that my replacement driverside swivel pin and trunnions are going to get shipped out soon. this will let me finish the front end rebuild.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

slow parts for MGs.... seems like there's a joke in there, somewhere :crutches:

 

[bobs77vet]

slow parts for MGs.... seems like there's a joke in there, somewhere :crutches:

i cant bitch about this on the MG forum since i am getting the parts from a member but this guy is just screwing me with the shipping of them ....hes just an old guy with just other things that are more important then selling the parts he advertised he wanted to sell. i finally linked him to the USPS site where they will send you the box at home and you can print the label and then a schedule a pickup with out ever having to leave the house so finally yesterday i got a shipping notification for a scheduled pickup today.

i just hope the parts are the right ones and in good shape or i will have wasted what seems like 2 months

 

[MYBAD79]

hope the parts are good when you finally get them.....

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

slow parts for MGs.... seems like there's a joke in there, somewhere :crutches:

i cant bitch about this on the MG forum since i am getting the parts from a member but this guy is just screwing me with the shipping of them ....hes just an old guy with just other things that are more important then selling the parts he advertised he wanted to sell. i finally linked him to the USPS site where they will send you the box at home and you can print the label and then a schedule a pickup with out ever having to leave the house so finally yesterday i got a shipping notification for a scheduled pickup today.

i just hope the parts are the right ones and in good shape or i will have wasted what seems like 2 months

been there on that one - it roundly sucks

 

[bobs77vet]

it sucks even worse now that i got the parts

well the MG Gods are screwing with me just for fun I think


I got the part today and the top trunnion and the threads on the top of the swivel pin are good but the rest is disappointing. I removed the distance tube and bolt from the bottom but the trunnion still didn't move and when I examined it closely I could see the swivel pin was bent preventing the trunnion from turning, but sometimes the swivel pin can be straightened so I went through the effort to straighten it enough to remove the bottom trunnion and then I discovered that the bottom swivel pin threads were badly corroded so its not even worth the effort to try and straighten the swivel pin . time for me to have a beer (which incidently i bought to celebrate tonights accomplishments) and drown out the sorrows and start looking all over again. I badly need a good drivers side swivel pin and trunnions...does anybody have one that I can buy if you do please PM me, thks bob

 

[bobs77vet]

ok i have determined my origianl trunnions have no play on the good threads so it will be a new swivel pin

clamp steering knuckle in vise and remove nut on the steering arm and then replace it with one of the old castel nuts from the trunnion bolts to protect the treads and give it a good wrap with a hammer



put about 4 mins of O/A heat on the steering knuckle and some good wraps on top of the swivel pin




figure out your movements ahead of time that steering knuckle is really hot.....i am holding it with a pipe over the axle stub

i win






now immediately walk away and go post your success or else you will be touching those damn things and seeing your fingers turn white, so now i think its safe to go back out there

 

[bobs77vet]

i thought you might find this interesting thisis the trunnion off the bad swivel pin look closely and you can see the bushing is worn right through







[





and this is taking the bushing out of the one i am going to use

collapsing it on itself





using a press and a socket to get it out



i found my big plates on the bottom of the body work cart





and for the rest of the way i just used the vise and ead blow hammer

 

[MYBAD79]

Do they still sell these bushings or is this something you press in place and then final ream the inner diameter once it's in place ?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm surprised Craftsman didn't market their sockets as presses :noworry:

 

[bobs77vet]

i dont use screwdrivers as chisels but other then that any is fair game for use if its in the garage. the bushings are a clsoe fit and then reamed to size. see below




well I have done something I never did before, I followed Barneys instructions and once again they made the job doable for a home shop. Barney is an MGA guru


I improvised a little since i wasnt sure how it make it all come togehter.

i decided to press the steel bushing in using my press and i made a guide so the bushing would go in straight






i made some reference lines just to make sure the hole didnt get side ways on me.




it worked very well , make sure if you chisel out the bushings to ream the edge if you made any gouges

i then dressed the ends so they were flush with the trunnions




next we follow Barneys instructions and use some tape as a guide




heres the mock up




heres my way to try and not chase a ball bearing around the shop



and it works




so for number 2 i am going to try somethng different with the ball bearing





and i used this the two nuts were tightend to tegether and the bolt would spin. you can see the end that mated to the recess of the reamer


and sucess about 2 hrs of work and the distance tubes fit very nicely.

 

[bobs77vet]

and to finish the days work....paint the parts and look for cracks in steering arm with dye penetrant and then paint it





red dye



if there was a crack it would show up here in the white




and it gets painted

 

[Sam Cogley]

Lever action shocks in 1958? Wow. I'm pretty sure the last American use of those was in the late 40s.

Despite having several large trucks at my parents' property waiting for restorations, this thread makes me want to restore something little. I'd love to get my hands on a Willys Aero to build a small, practical hot rod. Although, the desire to restore something non-gigantic might explain why I bought a '76 Honda CB550. I've never rebuilt a bike before...

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Lever action shocks in 1958? Wow. I'm pretty sure the last American use of those was in the late 40s.

Despite having several large trucks at my parents' property waiting for restorations, this thread makes me want to restore something little. I'd love to get my hands on a Willys Aero to build a small, practical hot rod. Although, the desire to restore something non-gigantic might explain why I bought a '76 Honda CB550. I've never rebuilt a bike before...

not true, my 50 Buick Sedanette had those on it.

 

[bobs77vet]

small cars are relatively easy projects in all respects

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

small cars are relatively easy projects in all respects

not saying I'm a skeptic, however, as one who's putting just a little V6 with a couple power adders in a Fiat; I beg to differ

 

[bobs77vet]

small cars are relatively easy projects in all respects

not saying I'm a skeptic, however, as one who's putting just a little V6 with a couple power adders in a Fiat; I beg to differ

well what can i say...i will rephrase my comments....small cars can be relatively easy projects in all respects unless you put "a little V6 with a couple power adders in a Fiat" :beer:

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

small cars are relatively easy projects in all respects

not saying I'm a skeptic, however, as one who's putting just a little V6 with a couple power adders in a Fiat; I beg to differ

well what can i say...i will rephrase my comments....small cars can be relatively easy projects in all respects unless you put "a little V6 with a couple power adders in a Fiat" :beer:

it all starts with "why don't you just...." :crutches::suspicious:

 

[bobs77vet]

why nots and what if"s are scary......

back at and glad to wrap up the front end well almost

got the new swivel pin and installed it



feels good to have this wrapped up




then I noticed the rubber water seal popped off...oh well that and the rear axle rebound strap are getting returned for new ones...

 

[bobs77vet]

replacement parts arrived and are installed, I have to stain the deck this week but after that its back to the car each night. next project will be reinstalling the brake backing plate and the front hubs.