Showing posts with label mg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mg. Show all posts

Thursday 4 July 2019

Nearside Triangular Support

I remember when I first got to look over my MG Midget and thought at least the nearside triangular support isn't as bad as the other. 

In some ways I wasn't wrong, but just because it didn't look like this...



... doesn't mean it will be a quick fix.

Ultimately I found some rust and if I don't deal with it now it will bother me for the rest of time. So that mean't pretty much the same amount of work as before.

I think this is the only photo I have of the nearside when I first stripped the car and you can see it looks in much better condition than above. There is just a small rust patch in the bottom right corner which I thought would clean up.



but it turned out to have a few small holes!



It was at this point I decided to repeat the same job as before, which meant starting with the end panel.


Now that was all taken care of and back to good metal I could get on with the main structure.



But then I had to deal with the badly fitting repair panel. 



That needed the same alterations as before.


I don't know why heritage have made the panel that don't fit but my local Moss supplier assured me they have always been like that. At least this time I knew what I was doing!


There were a few more welds to make good to seal it all in correctly and make a replacement splash plate that was previously damaged, so now it should last for many years to come without me worrying about that rust!

Sunday 23 June 2019

Pressing on

As the weeks continue to fly by I am doing all I can to maintain work on the MG Midget. The list of jobs to do on the chassis is coming down and I think I am nearly at the point where I can potentially list them here! I am still just trying to get as much done as possible.

There are still a number of little jobs that seem to take as long as the big jobs.

For example, this little hole has been staring at me for months!



I have been putting it off partly because there was bigger and more important sections to complete but also it is in a really tricky location, right down in the engine bay before the transmission tunnel.

Thankfully I am still a little flexible, so got on with it, but it was not easy to get the welder torch in there and with the welding helmet and a light source!



Tuesday 28 May 2019

Making progress on the floor

Recently I have been pushing on trying to complete the whole underside of the MG Midget. This has included finishing welding in the left hand floor panel which has been going well. One of the jobs was to reattached the transmission tunnel reinforcement plate.




It is certainly looking more complete now!



Next up is finishing the triangular support in the engine bay, and then the plate underneath the front chassis frame which is all bashed in from some accident years ago.



Depending on its condition on the inside I'd like to straighten this out and weld it back in. But who knows what lurks behind! I am also thinking of removing the underside of the chassis legs to see how bad they are, especially as they were quite bad when I removed the old floor panel. It will also allow me to see how far the damage to the front of the chassis legs which do need to be replaced.


Monday 1 October 2018

Bump Stop Plate - continued

Continued to make more progress on the bump stop plate, but it was slow. Having to make a bespoke repair for the bracket that exactly matched the multiple curves wasn't easy.



But eventually got there and welded it in place.



Next stop weld in the bump stop. More welding upside down! Hmm, Can't wait!



Wednesday 26 September 2018

Bump Stop Plate

Whilst the car is on its side and the floor is in place I need to put back the plate that the rubber bump stop on the suspension is designed to hit. 



Both of them were very dirty and a little bit rusty, so I set about to clean them up with my assortment of wire brushes.



They came up quite good and certainly good enough for another few years. They just needed some protection so I coated them in a couple of layers of rust converter.



I'll paint the insides with chassis black paint before welding them back on.

The only trouble real I had was that in order to attach these to the floor you need this bracket and one of them was totally destroyed by rust.



This one will be ok once cleaned up but I need to make a new one.

Monday 24 September 2018

Boot Floor Progress

Made some further progress this weekend on the boot floor by welding in the left hand side extension panel.



Even with just one of these in it makes the whole floor look more complete. 



I also finished welding the rear edge of the floor panel which (with a bit of filler) is looking good as well.