LHS B-Post repair

After the pain of getting the a-post repair completed I was in an upbeat mood about how quickly I was going to get this very simple repair done. On the drivers side I bought a nice new B-post panel that fitted really well, but for this side the guy I bought the car from had thrown in a few panels to help me on my way and that include the same b-post panel but for this side. Happy days!

Turned out it didn't fit anywhere nearly as well. It wasn't long enough so I had to flatten it all out and remake the curve using my hammer and dolly set, whilst lengthening the overall panel to fit.

It took hours!!!

I also had to use my dremel with the mini sanding disks to smooth out all the imperfections in the metal from hammering it so much. But it was worth it in the end.

I'm not 100% happy because the door gap is ever so slightly increasing as you come down the door to the base, but the b-post is straight which suggests that the A-post is slightly at an angle. But i think there is only about 1 to 1.5mm in it. I'm probably being too fussy but when you've taken this long you kind of want to get it as best as you can. Hopefully a little more fettling and the door gaps on my little MG Midget should be good as new!

Looks so nice...well in my head it does!

LHS A-Post Repair

Now that I had finished the outer sill it was time to tackle the other a-post. Reading my blog from before reminded me what a job this was. I cannot tell you how many times I fitted and refitted the door and wing, but it was a lot! Even though I had done this before I was fully aware just how important it is to get this repair right. Failure results in a poorly fitted door and incorrect gaps and having got the right hand side looking fairly good the pressure was on. 

I honestly didn't think that this side was as bad as the right hand side of the Midget...

I was wrong...again!

So that all needed to be cut out and replaced.

Another alignment check...

It is not easy to get the inner section exactly in the right place because you can't easily tell where is should be with the outer skin covering it up. So you have to keep measuring and checking the gaps.

And then in the end you have to bite the bullet!

It is really fiddly welding this in place. Even harder to grind the welds flat. But once in place the outer skin can only really fit one way, although that didn't stop me from checking the gaps about 30 times.

You have to be careful though to make sure the outer skin of the a-post sits flush with the front wing as well as making sure the door gaps are ok.

Fortunately everything came together nicely...

I'm definitely happy with that. Think I can relax now. What's next? Oh the b-post repair...more gap alignment checks!!!