A New Year and New Home for the MG

What happened to 2011?  The whole year seams to be a blur to me…   I can’t fathom that its been almost a year since my last post.

There has been some work on the MG, but not much.  Most of the summer was spent on garage/shed projects.   Starting in the spring I went about working on fixing the great collapse from last winter.  Basically I had to tear down the old pop-up garage and start over again.  Here is what my “work area” looked like back in May after clearing way the destruction.

Once I had the old shed torn down and a new one in place it only made sense to lay down some stone inside…  This would get me off the dirt and onto a bit more stable surface. So a few loads of stone and a bit of pushing around and I am back in business.

Now, what I didn’t realize, but my civil engineering wife warned me about, is that this stone doesn’t really compact very well.  So the MG, once back on the stone, wont roll very easily.  Since the MG is mostly pulled apart, pushing it around is pretty much a necessity… So onto phase 2, lets create a nice concrete base.

Other than having to haul 6 yards of concrete down from the driveway things went well.   This seams to have done the trick and I was back on a stable base…  About the time I finished this project along came Hurricane Irene.  It took me about two days to rig up something so that the whole shooting match didn't end up in my neighbors side yard.  The big trees all around were swaying in the wind and all I could do is watch.  So on to Plan C… 

I started looking around at a small shed or structure that I could put on my new concrete slab…  Surprisingly I found something that would do the trick and fit into the existing yard.  Just needed to move the existing shed , take down some of the trees, grade out a road down to the shed and slide her into place.  How hard could that be?

So after all that, wala!, new home for the MG and a pretty sweet place to work in for the winter…

Now where was I on the car?

Welding 101

After almost a two month hiatus I was back working on the MG this weekend.  With all my new gear I was anxious to get to the next phase, welding.   I had practiced in the basement a few times over the past month but after l caught the welding directions on fire I was banned to the shed…

I have a small heater now to take the curse off.  It works quite well and I was down to just my shirt in pretty short order.

I started back in by finishing up removing the door pillar.  I had purchased a new one and the one that was on the car was pretty beat up.  Before I can replace it I need to finish off the inner sill replacement.

With the bad parts cut away it was time to start adding stuff back on.  This is my first *official* new weld onto the car.  This was not accomplished without a high amount of anxiety…

After a bit of grinding I was pretty happy with the results.  Note, better welding = less grinding.

From there it was off to section under the front door pillar.

A bit more grinding and some primer and Walla!  Good as new (almost…)

And the Walls Come Tumbling down…

Well is been a *long* winter here in the Northeast.  It seams as though as soon as it stops snowing, it start again…   Its been so cold and I have been so busy its been awhile since I a have been out to the shed.  I received all sort of great gift for Christmas and I have been dying to try them out.

I was getting motivated to get back out there when a bit of tragedy struck.  I was on the road a few weeks ago and was able to make it back home despite an ongoing three day storm.  As I rolled into the yard Gail gave me a look that I knew wasn’t good.  She said that she was out shoveling and heard a terrible noise coming from the shed and that it was *leaning* a bit.  I knew that with all the snow load that wasn’t good…

What should have been a square was looking pretty trapezoidal…

I hiked down to get a better look and when I got around the corner my worst fears were confirmed…  Total structural failure and collapse.  Somewhere under there was my MG…

I climbed inside and here is what I saw..

The good news is that all the snow and ice was sitting squarely on the car and the main support that failed was right across where the doors should have been and the other support was just suspended in mid air where the hood should have been.

After a fair bit of digging…

Lots of twisted metal but no obvious damage to the MG.

A trip to Home Depot and some 2x4’s I was able to get her pieced back together.  At least enough to limp through the rest of the winter I hope….

 

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream (bung, bung, bung, bung)

Well, another skill in my new bag of tricks.   I was able to begin the process of “blasting” off the crude and rust from the inner rocker panels in preparation for repair and replacement.   Even with this nifty hood thing this stuff gets “everywhere”, and I mean “everywhere”…  

However, it works like a champ and really gets right down to the nice clean steel.

 

Before and After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, Welding 101…

There’s a hole in the MG dear Liza…

One of the items that I needed to check before pulling the “tub” off the chassis was the sills under the rocker covers along each side of the car.  These basically hold the front of the car to the rear.  Everyone online was indicating that I needed to check this even if the silts looked good on each end.   I was skeptical since the ends looked great and to do this I needed to drill out all the spot welds.  Since the rocker covers needed replacing anyway I decided that caution was the better part of valor and I *really* didn't want to end up with a MG sandwich when I wend to lift off the body.  Once I had all the spot welds drilled out I was shocked at what I found…

On the outside

 

On the inside…

 

So its full stop on lifting the body until I get these sills replaced…  

Time to learn some welding skills…

Disassembly Continues…

 

The disassembly project is moving right along.  I am just a few steps away from lifting the body off the frame and pulling the engine out for rehab.   This will expose the underside and require the next phase of disassembly, the suspension, drive train, and front end elements.   So far so good.   It looks like a mess but the whole thing will soon be sandblasted down to shiny steel and a fresh coat of primer will be applied.

   

 

Fender panels ready for sand blasting…

 

Engine lift outside the shed ready for use…  BIG thanks to my friend Ken for helping me drag it home and to Pete for letting me borrow it for a bit…

Dragged the old trailer out yesterday to get ready to transport the body section and the engine…

The folks at the Las Vegas Crime Lab would be proud.  Everything is bagged and tagged.!  This is probably another reason engineers don't take apart cars….

Some Disassembly Required

Hi Everyone

Well, it has begun.  I have decided to take the car all the way down to the frame and restore it from the bottom up.  This decision was not arrived at lightly as I may end up with a whole pile of parts and nothing to show for it. The internet is littered with “project cars” for sale.   However, I do have the memory of how fun it was to drive around in this fall driving me forward.  I would *love* to have it back on the road come spring but I don’t know if that is a pipe dream or not.  There is some body work to do and of course the painting…. 

So far the “garage in a box” is holding up well.  I have a small heater out there and after about 15 min it takes the bit off.  Now, it hasn't been “really” cold yet so the jury is still out on how this will work in a few months time.   I do have the basement for smaller rebuild projects so I have that to fall back on as well.

These pictures are from about two weeks ago.   Last weekend I removed left from panel, the bonnet, windshield, and most of the stuff from the heater shelf.   Then I tackled the dash and all the instruments.  I was able to get all that stuff removed in pretty short order.  This weekend I hope to finish off the front and start moving backwards…   More pictures to follow.