Monday 8 October 2018

Few jobs completed

I have been trying to get as many jobs completed as I can in order to finish off the right hand side of the MG Midget.

These included:


The bump stop plate



The boot striker plate support



The whole in the floor that a prior owner made in order to grease the prop shaft not knowing that it was a self sealed type with no grease nipple!


I didn't weld the bottom of this repair as I will be cutting out the old floor along that line


There were various other little things that needed tidying up, but once that was done it was time to wheel the car out of the garage and turn it around so I can start on the other side which was such an amazing feeling.



That obviously exposed all the work that now needs to be done on the left hand side of the car. I'd forgotten how bad it was!!




But there one thing I had to find out and that was whether or not the petrol tank, that Kim Dear from Magic Midget gave me when he sold me the car, actually fitted my nice new shiny boot floor...



Result!! A perfect fit

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.



Wednesday 19 September 2018

Boot Floor Extension Panels

Trying to get these extension panels to fit perfectly has certainly been very difficult, but after about four hours I'm ready to weld them in.



Part of the problem was unfortunately that the curve on the wheel arch that I had to make myself wasn't an exact match. So I had to make some alternations. Probably should have taken more time to ensure it was perfect. 

The other issue was the amount of repair work that I had to do around that area, most of it was guess work. However with a little more fettling they now appear to slot right in and ready for welding.



Tuesday 11 September 2018

Boot Floor In!

For the past 7 months I have been unable to get into the garage to work on the MG Midget, which has been really hard to handle, but we really want to finish the house as much as possible. We have been living in this house for 3 years now and we're finally coming to the end of the top to bottom renovation.

However now that much of the work has been completed I have been able to get back to restoring the car!

First up was to get that boot floor welded in, which has been a big task. 



There is still more welding to go which I will be tackling over the next week or so, but happy this is in and fits really well. Hopefully progress will now pick up.

Really need to spend quite a bit of attention around the rear wings and extension panels on both sides. Seems like they will fit...




Tuesday 30 January 2018

Boot Floor Preparation

This has been a long time coming, but tonight I finally started to prepare the new boot floor repair panel for welding into place, now that the wheels arches and the rear panel were done.

There were quite a few holes that needed to be drilled. Around the wheel arches, rear panel and the new floor panel. It almost seemed a shame to drill the new repair.



Once all the holes were drilled I needed to prepare all the welding contact surfaces with weld through primer.


Getting proper excited now. All that is left is to apply final coat of black chassis paint to the box sections that will be hidden for hopefully some time to come. Then I can weld this huge panel in place.

Right Hand Rear Wheel Arch Repair Continued

I have been pushing on towards my target of getting the boot floor all welded in. It is now time to finish off the rear wheel arch that was without doubt one of the worse affected areas on the car.


But progress, although slow, has been made an it was time to finish this area off by welding in two bespoke panels.



After a few alterations the new panel fitted fairly well


Once all the welds were ground down the wheel arch was starting to take shape again.


Just one more section to go.




Looking much better! I wondered many times if I would ever get this finished.