Wednesday 23 April 2014

Engine Inspection

So for the last year and a half I have not gone near the engine, knowing that if I did it would be hard for me to stop and get back to the chassis. Well that plan went out of the window when a my old friend Ollie came round for the weekend and being a car enthusiast, has been reading the blog and shown a keen interest in my progress. 
So on visiting the garage to show him my MG project up close and personal and we got talking about the engine, which came to me ceased!




After about 1 hour we had removed it from the gear box and started work on removing the cylinder head. 

Since then I have not stopped working on the engine as I really wanted to explore the amount of work needed to get her running again.

So this is what I found...



Fortunately with some gentle taps with a rubber mallet the crankshaft started to move and before long was fully turning quite nicely. It was at this point when I got out the wet and dry paper and WD40 and started to clean a bit!!


Monday 17 March 2014

Rear Bulkhead and Spring Hanger In!

Had a really good evenings work as have welded in the spring hanger to the rear bulkhead. Had to make sure this went in perfectly, so was taking measurement after measurement and then measuring again. 




Wednesday 26 February 2014

Bulk Head Test Fitting

So this evening I have started to prepare for the fitting of the rear bulk head. I am certainly going to take my time here as there are some many sections coming together in one small area. I need to get it right, so no guess work!

I am cutting the new panels to fit as best as I can, using the measurements that I took before and from the left hand side of the chassis. What has come out from this is that it certainly looks like it will all be ok.


1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration

Hopefully my next post will see some panels welded in! I do have plenty of rust treatment to finish off first.

Monday 24 February 2014

Progress!

So for the time being I have stopped working on the wheel arch as I have finished enough to move on to the rear bulk head. I will come back to this when I have finished the front section of the chassis.


1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration

I have sprayed the metal with a zinc based welding primer to stop the rust from forming which has been completely covering all bare metal overnight in this recent terrible weather.

So now I can move on to the rear bulk head to I needed to plan how it will all fit together, so some more test fitting took place this evening.


1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration

It is quite a relief to see the purchased repair panels fit well to my bespoke ones. Especially considering I had no plans and most of it was guess work!

Monday 10 February 2014

Wheel Arch Repairs Continued

I think progress is going to happen on a much quicker pace from now on. It's a bit like decorating a room. You have to do the preparation first before starting on the big jobs. All those little jobs have to be sorted first.

I decided to purchase a 10 litre gas bottle of Argon / Co2 mix that cost me £115, but I will get back £55 when I return the bottle itself. This has made a huge difference in having a good steady supply of gas at all times. 

It seems that in order to get the rear bulk head, floor and sills in place I have to sort out half of the wheel arch and other small detailed parts in this area. 

Tonight was welding in another section of the inner wheel arch using the repair that I had made a couple of weeks ago.


1965 MG Midget Restoration

To get this perfectly in line with the main inner arch would take a good accurate weld!!


1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration 1965 MG Midget Restoration

It all seems good from most angles so just need to tidy up this weld joint and then I'll match up the curved section.

Monday 3 February 2014

I think I've got it!!!!

I was just looking back to when I made my first custom panel for the wheel arch and started to try welding it in...that was 3½ weeks ago!! During that time, without knowing it I taught myself to weld. I made so many mistakes, probably mostly schoolboy errors like to keep trying to repair numerous blow through holes and grinding the metal down too much making the metal thin and more unstable that it ended up looking more like Swiss cheese than a repair panel.

So tonight I bit the bullet and cut out the panel and made a new one and welded it in!! Yes in one evening and not 3½ weeks, grrr!! I know I need to sharpen up my technique, but I have penetrated the metal and there are no pin holes to let the moisture through.


Sadly just as I was about to finish it off I ran out of gas. Again! So now I know I can weld well enough I am going to invest in a large bottle and stop buying the disposable ones as they just don't last ten minuets.

That small rust hole to the left of the weld will be sorted next by cutting out a small section with my draper multi-tool, shaping a piece of steel and welding that in.

Well there should be no stopping me know!!

Monday 13 January 2014

Wheel Arch repairs

As some readers of my blog and other MG Midget restoration enthusiasts will know that before welding in the outer rear bulkhead I have to make good the wheel arch where is connects to the bulkhead, as shown here:




So where do you go from here? Well I thought I would give a step by step guide as to how I went about it.


Lucky I love these I'll be needing the cardboard!
Pressed up to left hand side which is less damaged
Drew line to highlight the edge
Measured in 1.5 cms
Followed 1.5cms gap all way round
Drew in line
Cut out

Checked shape on left hand side
Flipped over
Check curve again joining repair panel (made earlier)
New Steel
Best place for I reckon!
Mark out
Looks about right
Ready for grinding out
Nearly there
Looks good match, thanks to flap discs!
Might squeeze it in
Cuts to make flange
Flange should be ok 
Need to work out how to fill those gaps
Looking good
Think it'll fit
Little by little think I might just get there!