1958 MGA Coupe

[bobs77vet]

done for the day......there are 3 weld nuts on the front toe boards that i just could not get a good angle at to weld and those will not be welded in......the rear back board weld nuts is the next project.

 

[bobs77vet]

Well tonight was one of those kind of a PITA nights, about an hour of it.....of these last 12 weld nut locations 8 of them were miserable to remove the old weldnuts. there was limited access for a big grinder or a hammer and chisel. I just kept telling myself its just metal you will win over and over and over again. these are drilled to the final size now and both sides of the rails have been taken down to bare metal. I can see using the spot welder will be a chore. Its as heavy as a big battery and between holding it and lining up the weld nut to the hole and then slipping the copper plate under its a real test of strength and dexterity

 

[bobs77vet]

well I hate to admit it but it was 90 minutes of me mostly saying....its just metal you are going to win....over and over again. 7 of the 12 are done

 

[bobs77vet]

about 2 hrs tonight finishing the last 5 weld nuts and the rest of the work



all screws get hand tightened all the way down to make sure there is no burrs/binding etc and then get removed to sand



a couple really nice welds look close at 3, 7 and 11 oclock for the weld tell tales







rails all sanded and the top side sprayed.



next move is to test fit the floors and start on the trans tunnel repairs

 

[MYBAD79]

Hey Bob, I see you got this 18V Ryobi drill..... I have the same one, I also got a lot of their other 18v tools.... Have you tried their newer batteries?? Just a few months ago they had a special on their drill/impact combo with two lithiumIon batteries and charger.... The old tools work with the new batteries - 100% compatible, good job Ryobi !!!

These new batteries are awesome, waaay better than the 'old style' batteries .... Give it a try , you won't regret it !!!

 

[bobs77vet]

yes i am a big fan of the silver lithium battery, i have two of them and one black lithium and the original yellow one that came with the set. i have lots of the ruobi 18v tools and like them very much i gave my hitachi cordless to my son so i have all the same tool and battery compatability

easy hr this am test fitting the ply wood. so all told that was a lot of effort, not really technically hard but it was just work

 

[bobs77vet]

test fit everything again again and again.....it just makes it easier when you are in the final assembly

i am chamfering the holes



first coat on one side

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

are you painting the bolts too?

 

[bobs77vet]

the floor screws and the counter sunk washers do not get painted

easy hour or two today.....making 6 P clips and painting the bottom of the floor boards



to get the nice rounded corners



six still to have the bottom ends trimmed



and of course as I went to find the old cables for a test fit I found the 4 original P clips I set aside so I only need 2 of the ones i made




and the first coat of paint for the bottom side

 

[bobs77vet]

easy 3 hrs today working on trans tunnel and painting 2nd coat on floor boards

car came with a donor rear piece



typicasl rust on rear piece







cut out the bad parts




clamp down the donor to make the cutrs with a grinding cutoff wheel



welded up




hit it with 320grit on a DA

 

[bobs77vet]

easy hour moving on to the larger trans tunnel cutting out the rust spots













use a cupped wire wheel, you can see the top part being "cleaner"



the donor pieces from the extra trans tunnel, its always easier to weld materials that are the same thickness and similar steel quality



wire brushed and flipped around to get the surface that was clamped down, and then primed with self etching primer

 

[bobs77vet]

about 2 hrs tonight welding in repair panels and painting 2nd coat to top side of floor boards.

nothing fancy to bend them into 90* pieces just the scrap angle iron and a hammer



just cut to shape and clamp them up



do your self a favor and if you are welding kneeling on the ground use a leather apron over your legs and the foam you are kneeling on. it saves your legs and stops the foam from catching on fire. which is just annoying while you are kneeling on it. any way use an offset vise grip to make this shape



looks like a civil war submarine, tomorrow the grinder comes out

 

[bobs77vet]

small dent removal and the welds get introduced to the grinder

 

[bobs77vet]

did the first trial fit of everything, I still need to drill some holes for the areas I patched or for the few weld nuts that are on the trans tunnel. no issues with the fit so far. the flanged area of the rear trans tunnel covers the front trans tail end with out a problem and you are still with in the off set flanged area, and the rear pieces mounting holes are in the correct position

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

you do nice work

 

[bobs77vet]

thks

about 1 hour tonight drilled the holes for the trans tunnel weld nuts and drilled the holes in the repair patches on the trans tunnel...no more floor mounting holes to drill now to move on to the gas pedal stop bracket and to drill the "hole" for the low mount starter

 

[bobs77vet]

2 hrs today, make a blind hole be careful not to drill through i figured i had a 1/16 or wiggle room and i made it ok, throttle stop is still soaking on the one screw







use some long bolts to line up the old and new floor board transfer the hole location the old fashioned way.. use a forstner drill this was 2 1/8 wide. be carefull 1/2 plywood and a 1/4 hole with a 3/16 pilot on the forstner bit leaves only 1/16 of wiggle room probaly even less since i bet the ply wood is measure in either 64ths or 32nds and it just fractionally less then 1/2











this is what mice to in storage



this top screw isnt coming out


time to take the door down to aluminum







first go around



plastic on it since its about 60* in the garage its working kind of slow

 

[bobs77vet]

a couple of hrs today, squaring away the doors and makeing the windows crank nice and smoothly, 30* outside with 20mph winds, while one door is having the paint remover work i am working on the other door





cold so use plastic





flex and oil spring




oil crank mechanism



wire brush inside and around the outside frame and the door panel gets `120 grit on a DA



the window cranks up and down quite nicely now


I am scared of losing parts so while i intend to dissassemble the doors further i am just not going to do that today. then i will take the glass frame out and the other door parts and do a final sanding before it gets primed









this flexialla hose is great super flexible almost no memory



and the throttle stop bolt finally loosened up and the parts are painted now

 

[bobs77vet]

3 hrs tonight ...2.5 of that was just cleaning the shop, man can i make a mess. i felt guilty in spending that much time cleaning i had to do something on the car. so i removed a broken exhaust stud.



heres the two different types of stud pullers for two different applications.



this allows you to flush with the exhaust manifold gasket seating area to remove a bolt that is 1/2" sticking out



i had been soaking the nut for several weeks


and i freed the stuck E brake handle....oops

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

the older I get, the more time I spend sorting and storing crap that I just can't live without but have absolutely no use for...

nice to know it's not going to change when I get to be your age

when I die, I want people to say "what is this crap" rather than "we can finally hit the lottery selling his stuff"

 

[bobs77vet]

funny you mention that one of the local corvette guys is getting some boxes of stingray parts...


so we have had no heat in one of the 2 zones in the house for the last week but its not really a problem since we have a gas fire place thats rated as a furnace and can cover the first zone pretty easily. however at night time i have been sleeping on the couch with the fire place and thinking about the chassis and how i can make it into a driving chassis. i want to take my time with the body work and driving the car around the street as a frame would kind of be fun......add to that waiting for the repair man today and we have this.....

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

my dad is building a 65 Malibu SS, and while he was doing the frame, he decided to cut the cowl from a 65 El Camino so he could "test drive it" while he was working on the body.

He never drove it with the cowl.

The body got done before the frame was done.... just sayin - maybe run it around with the body as-is for awhile under a rat rod theme?

 

[bobs77vet]

i like the fabrication aspect of things so this is kind of fun for me.


easy hour tonight trimed up the scuttle a little bit and took a grinder to all the edges. removed all the misc stuff on the fire wall and wire brushed the it on both sides, painted the underside of the scuttle with Jasco metal prep and primer. idea is to paint this the new body color.

 

[bobs77vet]

first two coats we will let this dry a good long time and then wet sand the top with 600 and give it a third coat, after the third coat i will buff it then spray the clear coat on it. this is the actual body color and it is lacquer

 

[MYBAD79]

Looking good but I wonder: why sand and buff before clearcoat? Is that how it's done with lacquer?
I've never sprayed anything other than base/clear urethane so I'm curious..... To me it makes more sense to hit any runs or imperfections with 320 grit now.... Then spray a final coat red, then two or three coats clear.... If it was me, I'd keep the buffer away from it until the clear is completely hardened....

 

[bobs77vet]

the smoother the lacquer the shinier the paint. although it doesnt really matter much i suppose, since the clear coat is also lacquer based and it will "melt into the base coat" . you could probably skip the clear coat all together and just get your shine from the lacquer.


got a chance to get the second spray on it today, never got to wet sand it though.



the sun is washing the color out,

 

[bobs77vet]

simple braced frame, use blue tape and level to make sure every thing is nice and square.



I will make a mounting plate to attach these together with two bolts/nuts



the drivers side is flush since all the side part of the scuttle gives some nice rigidity to that side of the scuttle, the pass side is about 3/4" proud of the scuttle which will allow me to brace it to the top of the goal post if i need to pick up some more rigidity





and it occurred to me that I should probably assemble the brake pedal bracketry since that is fairly substantial and then put the "feet" on my "legs" to attach them to the nearest mounting point.

 

[bobs77vet]

dont ever say an Austin Healey never gave anything to an MGA.....those pieces of sheet steel which are now mounting tabs are from the frame of an AH 3000

 

[bobs77vet]

had a chance to work a little more today on the mock up fhte temp scuttle

just a piece of scrap metal



grind off the coating using an old flap wheel



I know I weld stuff up like it was nothing but what might not be evident to the rest of you is the protection I wear depending on the position I have to be in




heres the welded bracket to the square tubing, what missing is the picture of the holes i drilled to mount the bracket to the steering column bracket, i will add that later



heres the next project





I might have to add a brace time to go back out and finish this up

 

[bobs77vet]

well the temp scuttle is done with the exception of the final painting. this attaches to any MGA using all original mounting points and this totally breaks apart including the frame and will stow in a 28"x 28"x10" box and weighs maybe 20 lbs. its really sturdy I was manhandling it pretty well in every dimension and its strong and doesnt distort.





added an internal box so the bolt doesnt collapse