1958 MGA Coupe

[bobs77vet]

time to get back at it..

first we need to clean up the front hubs.

 

[bobs77vet]

well lets pry out the hub seal



cleaning tools




i clean up the inside diameter of the outer hub area just so there are no burrs



i use Barneys wau of removing the outer bearing



and then we do the inner bearing





and then its clean

 

[MYBAD79]

Great work, as always......when do you think yo'll be driving ??

 

[bobs77vet]

Great work, as always......when do you think yo'll be driving ??

I am not sure I guess it depends if we sell the house and down size.....if we go down this path then the car gets mothballed until we are settled....if we dont down size then maybe next summer/fall


those hubs just didnt clean up like I wanted them to so i painted them with an engine enamel, i focused mainly on the areas that werent threaded.

 

[bobs77vet]

time for the very gooeey job of packing wheel bearings, i am a big fan of the green synthetic water proof grease this stuff is sticky and its a pain to clean off of tools......all the things you want in a grease.

this is the inside of the hub and you can see the shoulders the bearings stop at





you can pack them by hand but i have the packing tool and it works pretty well



notice no old grease coming out of the bearing thats becasue i cleaned them very well









i measure the distance down to the bearings to make sure they are fully seated




done!!!

 

[bobs77vet]

and as the family settled down for the night my night time prowling started........

the backing plates are stamped with the side they belong to so i dont have to worry about screwing them up.






lots of cleaning and light sanding, i am undecided if i am going to paint the inside

 

[bobs77vet]

decided to spray a light coat on the inside of the backing plate

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I so love this project - thanks for the updates

 

[bobs77vet]

thks

i now have a rolling chassis again....until tonight when i start on the rear hub seals

i figured out the backing plate orientation like it was when i took it off although i am not sure it makes a difference





to install the new seals push the seal down with your hand and use the puddy knife to roll around the circumferemce of the seal this stops the rubber from bunching up...these two photos i did in one motion





seal driver for seating the seal after its in place

one big one for the out side diameter and smaller one to locate the driver

 

[bobs77vet]

so the "5" th hole on the backing plates faces forward on the rear backing plates. i put the ice pick through the hole for reference





driver side slipped right off, both side were missing the screw that holds the splined hub to the bearing hub



this side i pryed with the pry bar and light tapped on the bolts with the nuts on them and just kept rotating it unitl it popped off.







2 1/4" socket for 4whl drive vehicles $15 from advance auto. turns out my 49mm socket was a 6 sided one and did not work.

time to start reading about pulling the rear hubs....

 

[bobs77vet]

done with the reading and had a few extra minutes......i use the clamps to keep the puller locked in place or else when the bearing loosens they go falling away and you have to start all over again



i use a shoulder socket that will allow the bearing to slip over it



and they are both pulled off maybe 20 mins total




the bearing surface look nice no scoring at all and no evidence of the rear seal leaking at all

 

[MYBAD79]

I have to say: from the pics I've seen you're about 15 years older than I am, you're married with kids and you're getting way more work done than me .... Lol.... That's impressive ..... Do you sleep every now and then ??????

 

[bobs77vet]

I have to say: from the pics I've seen you're about 15 years older than I am, you're married with kids and you're getting way more work done than me .... Lol.... That's impressive ..... Do you sleep every now and then ??????

turned 56 yesterday whick makes be eligible to retire with 33yrs woo hoo KMA we call it. i nibble at the elephant a little bit at a time and it has a cululative effect


3 hrs of easy work mostly cleaning parts





conpressed cylinder to take it out


i think recall the brake componets are whitworth any way it was a good fit



these are inexpensive from HF and they get used a bunch, i followed Barneys write up







you can see that the the bearing and rubber seal are seperated











a side by side


just like the front hubs


and the backing plates

 

[1Michel]

turned 56 yesterday

Well Happy birthday my friend....:drink:

 

[bobs77vet]

thks

so i was thinking when i was cleaning the parts about adding four more tangs to my hub axle socket. i figure if 4 are good 8 are better



i uses some left over angle iron about 1/8 think and cut it into 1/4" x 5/16" teeth and mig welded it in place

 

[bobs77vet]

1 hour this am real easy work

test fitting the bearing/seal tool the bottom piece was a perfect fit and the bearing seals went in easier then the front ones.



I polished the inner hub you can see where I have marked the hub if you look closely LH with a sharpie so i didnt get then confused



getting the hub nice and warm and the bearings got placed in the freezer after they were cleaned



backing plate is installed and I polished the axlehub while the bearing hub is getting warm



well the -1* degree bearing and the light bulb hot bearing hub slipped together very easily

 

[bobs77vet]

and putting them on was pretty simple I put some oil on the axle stub and the bearing race and then just used a big socket from those jumbo sets that had a greater diameter then the threaded area and some whacks with a big hammer drove it home. my torque wrench only goes to 150 ft lbs so i will see if i can use a loaner tool from an auto parts store. and then i will go back and do a final tightening and bend the locking tab over. overall it was a very succesfull weekend.

 

[bobs77vet]

after reading Barney's website info on the real axle bearing retaining nut it became pretty clear to me that more tightness was a good thing and that there was almost no humanly way possible that I could break anything except for hurting myself. so I took this as a challenge. Eric got me thinking about leverage and I pulled out the big breaker bar. the thought here was less effort translates into more torque and a compromised tightening position would be necessary while i was to try and keep the socket on the narrow bearing axle nut while torqueing on it. I went to HF and bought the jumbo metric socket set and it had a 48mm 12 point socket and it was a good fit and it needed to be tapped on. I knew that the one I cobbled together would slip off with the big breaker bar because it was last night when i was just over 150 lbs. so my plan was from a kneeling position to lean up against a board resting on the ratchet and socket set with my hip keeping lateral pressure on them and then lean over on the breaker bar with everything else i had.

for a sense of scale




the set up.





well it worked I am way past 150 ft lbs not really sure how much past but i only stopped when the torque was so much that i couldnt keep the socket on the nut, so my entire upper body was leaning on the 24" breaker bar and it only slipped off after i tried to get even more of my body weight on it, it has to be over 250 ft lbs. just for fun i swung the handle around on the breaker bar and I was pulling up on it and I was picking up the frame.

 

[bobs77vet]

brake time

so we take a fine wire wheel to these brake parts








its like Christmas morning


clean up the adjusters



while they are soaking put on some parts








clean these up and scotch brite the parts as well as i can



use an awl to make sure the retaining springs will line up for the rear brakes



since the springs are on the back side to make the springs stay in place i ground off the sides of some bolts to push into the hole,


so it looks like this on the ground (note the spring is in the wrong hole it needs to be on the second holes)

 

[bobs77vet]

last chore for the day measuring wheel runout. move it inside or outside to avoid the weights





mine run from a low of .028 to one with .108 with 1 broken spokes and some mangled spokes. i need to digest this info some and find some specs on wheel runout

 

[bobs77vet]

easy work tonight installing E brake cable, still need to get clevis pins and mount a anchoring bracket to the battery box. i need to find a picture of the original battery box mounting location. any body have a picture?



this looked like the best orientation to me.





i am guessing where it is naturally going underneath the battery box frame is where the mounting tab goes

 

[bobs77vet]

seems to me before i do anything with plumbing, electric and cables I need to finish fitting all the rest of the chassis parts


time to drill some holes in my goal post side cover plates, these are a coated steel which I am going to paint in an aluminum color becasue I like they way look that way. as you can probalby tell I am not to constrained by now they left the factory.













i was surprised how much the originals are "proud" of the frame here




and now for the fun part test fitting the floor





minor sanding in this area with a belt sander should be all that it needs. these are 1/2" off of ebay from Mr Dubois and they are really nice and i am very happy with them.

 

[bobs77vet]

I took today off to do some out side chores and slipped 2 hrs into work on the floor boards.

heres the belt sander mounted to a stand for removing some of the wood on the floor boards where my repair panel or welds are slightly out of shape



and for removing the high spots on the welds



you can use one of the pieces turned on its side to make sure you have the right final fit/size



inside grinding



and using some of the orignal weldnut locations to start the layout process, i am using Barneys layout for the new weld nuts



and the weld nuts for the rest of the project. i have not decided if i am going to spot weld them in or not i guess i will see the level of effort required.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

the use of wood has me really considering using wood for the floors on my Spider.... it'd solve several problems....
thx

 

[bobs77vet]

this is 1/2" exterior grade 5 ply sand grade both sides and no "football" patches either

easy hour or so this afternoon, back side of the belt sander bracket, i bet you could find these on ebay





I decided to lay the holes out on the rails and then drill them from the top then put ply wood down and drill up

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I have one of those - I use it in metal work a lot. I bought it for $5.00 at a garage sale. I spent $20 - got a Senco framing nailer, the sander, a 1000' roll of CAT 5 wiring, and something else I can't remember now.... I think I did okay

 

[denpo]

Any plan on waterproofing the panels?

 

[BBShark]

Are those templates or actual (literally) floor boards?

 

[bobs77vet]

the floor boards are original design and they were 3/8 plywood originally. these are 1/2" and 5 ply. originally they were painted black.


finsihed drill the holes


heres the weld nuts you can see it tells what size hole to drill



i have never done this before an i bought the spot welder for this project so lets play around some. i drill the hole and clamp the weld nut in place


use a grinder to remove the rough edges underneath and to give a clean weldable surface and unless your name is Brutus make a platform on the dolley for the welder to sit on



thats what it looks like



i use a long bolt to wiggle the nut.....if it breaks i do it over again.


a right angle grinder with a small wheel does the trick for the grinding


the spot welder tongs will not fit inside the heavy frame channel so we will mig it up



these just say for me to mig weld the hole's




welded and ground down



and if you screw it up this is what it looks like



done with the main floor boards. i need to think about how i can make a more uniform clamping jig just for the spot welder.

 

[bobs77vet]

i saw the new string ray yesterday drving by it was interesting

so i went to bed last night thinking of how to make a clamping jig for the spot welder....for those big copper jaws.....

so where is there copper in misc sizes....the electrical dept of HD







lets make some holes on the flat sides





you get the idea




and oh yeah those copper pieces get hot so have a tub of water to drop them in. didnt take very long you just have to use your fingers with the hot tongs for placing the jaws so its mostly waiting for the jaws to cool down. my bottom jaw was actually in the hole of the weld nut. you place that first. it would have been easier with a third hand.