Triangular Support Needs Replacing

Continuing on with the footwell repair I have decided that the inner or engine side triangular support needs to be replaced. The metal is so badly corroded it just isn't worth taking a risk. I will be going to Moss this week to invest in a replacement.

Tonight I did make a bespoke repair panel which will be welded in when the new panel arrives in the workshop.

What I am considering though is where to carry on with the footwell repair or wait until I have sorted the triangular support? Looking at a few other blogs it seems others have gone ahead and sorted the footwell out. 

I guess I will decide soon enough.

Footwell Repair

As it seems to be with this project I have to maintain progress by grabbing a couple of hours when I can and today was no exception. My youngest was off to a birthday party and my wife spent some quality time with the eldest, perfect!

I have to say that I have been looking forward to working on the footwell, mostly because it is something new, i.e. not the rear bulkhead! A new challenge helps to remove the monotony of repetition. I am honest enough to admit that working on the rear bulkhead got to a point where I repeatedly questioned whether I could finish this. Looking back on it I have to say that without that period, I would now not have to confidence to continue. It was during that period that I learnt to weld and work with metal and it is with that fact that I look back on that time with satisfaction.

So the footwell... This is really the final part of the right hand floor that I have to tackle. It will enable me to install the end footwell panel, the outer footwell panel, the floor panel, the A post and the inner sill. However as so often with this project my early enthusiasm was slightly dampened by the extent of the rust damage to the triangular support panel. I already knew that there was work to be done, but the challenge has increased somewhat. 

I'll let the photo's finish the story!

Crossmember In!

As I has hoped getting the crossmember welded in place was fairly straight forward. The hardest part was making sure it was level, not that easy with the Midget on it's side and at an angle!

But by using the inner sill and making sure that was square with the rear bulkhead and front footwell panel it seems to have gone in nicely.

Tackling the Crossmember section

Having completed welding in the new rear bulkhead on the right side of the Midget, it was time to move on to the next section of the chassis that needs attention, the cross member. Compared to the panel that I have been working on for the last few months, I am expecting this repair to be over in a blink of an eye in comparison. 

The main issue is to make sure that the new part goes on perfectly in line with what's left of the original.

This evening I started to cut away more of the rusted section and measure out the new repair.

Once this has been completed I will move on to the footwell end panel which will take some time to get right.

Inner Rear Bulkhead Welded In!!!

I have got to say that this has been a massive milestone for me and, finally tonight I managed to weld in the inner rear bulkhead, I even got it to line up with the spring!!

So now that is in place I have some cosmetic work to finish off that includes painting all the welds over with primer ready for the trip to the sandblasters. 

The next job will be to move on to the cross member, which hopefully will be easier than this panel!

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Test fitting Inner Bulkhead and Spring

Spent this evening test fitting the inner bulkhead prior to welding it in place, which is the job for next time! To make sure everything was going to line up I decide to fit the rear spring and to my satisfaction at all lined up beautifully. So I can crack on with welding in more new panels!!

Back On Track

When the sun comes out it is never easy to get in the workshop. There has been some much going on and it seems ages since I last updated my MG blog.

But there has been some activity, some of it bad and some of it good. Back in March I updated the blog with the news that I had welded in the spring hanger. I then test fitted the floor panel and inner sill to check that everything fitted together ok. Unfortunately this is where the bad news materialised. I had got my measurements wrong and had in fact placed the spring hanger 4mm too far to the right, which meant the bolt holes in the floor panel didn't match up to the thread holes in the spring hanger!

There was no option but to remove the spring hanger off the outer bulkhead and re-weld in a new one. I did plan on trying to reuse the existing one but after I had drilled out the spot welds it was a little out of shape and I didn't want to risk it, after all this is a critical area of the car and I kind of need to make sure the wheels are all pointing in the same direction!

So last night I successfully welded in the new spring hanger and test fitted the new inner sill and floor panel and all seems to be looking good. 

So the next job will to be paint all the metal that will be out of sight between the inner and outer bulkhead panels to protect them from the elements, I may use some waxoyl to make double sure that rust stays away!! I can then move on to weld in the inner bulkhead. From there I will need to repair the crossmember and the footwell end panel before I can get the inner sill and floor panel welded in. 

Plenty to be getting on with, I just need to make sure I measure twice and twice again before picking up that welder!!

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!!