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.