Monday, 1 September 2014

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.

Wednesday, 6 August 2014

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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Monday, 21 July 2014

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!!



Wednesday, 9 July 2014

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!!

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!!