1975 MGB GTV8 Special

Great stuff, thank you. The bonnet looks transformed already. Seeing this has reminded me I need to send you a photo or two.

Was the other bumper just as bad or worse?

Bonnet back off and some more tweaking



Unfortunately some of the damage I just cant get to / work from the underside due to the underframe 

 

There are advantages to fitting panels to a bare bodyshell 



You can place the bonnet in the correct closed location 



Then access the hinge bolts to tighten them up through the underside of the empty engine bay reduces all the effort of open & closing the bonnet then adjusting the fit to the hinges 



I fitted the bonnet locking pin & spring 



Along with the catch to the slam panel 



But the pin will not engage with the catch - its too short because the bonnet underframe has been forced upwards & out of alignment - it would be a heap of trouble attempting to get this back aligned



I went about it from a different angle and extended the length of the pin 



Placement of some temporary bonnet buffers on the wing edges (blue pads) 





And we have a locking bonnet



That isn't too far away from where it needs to be 





Front edge is slightly out of alignment but its sortable 



I shall compare this fit to another bonnet that Sam has and go from there 



Offside door is next 



Door skin is perforated all the way across the bottom 



And is also letting go on the top edge 



And splitting on the rear top edge 



It could be repaired buts its a lot of faff when door skins are readily available for reasonable money 



Bottom of the door frame is also suffering from perforation - Don't think that I have covered removing / fitting a door skin on any of my threads so for completeness I will run through the process tomorrow - if you have one to do or would like to know how its done then you have detailed account - more tomorrow then 

Wow. Two nights of catching-up, and what a catch-up. The usual jaw dropping work. As ever, totally impressive. Enjoy the gin, well deserved. It is so interesting to see so many techniques brought together on a single bodyshell. Looking forward to the rest of this one.

Rear wing & B post panels that were welded in yesterday were dressed back 



The closing plate on the rear of the sill cavity has worked out very well too 



Small repair to the rear edge of the quarter glass aperture 



Then a clean up of the some the original factory welding around the aperture edges (some of which was very poor quality) 





Now at a stage where the shell starts to look better by the minute 



Still several areas that need addressing through and I hate putting the little jobs off - I'm more of a methodical / tick box / done type of guy 



 Need to address the tapering alignment of the gapping between the bottom of the front wing & sill



The door needed to come back off so I could address the bottom corner of the A post to the sill 



Hinge box removed to allow access to dress the corner up



And make up / weld in the aperture quadrant for the door rubber - this still needs spot welding along the bottom flange edge once the spot welder is back in commission 



Door hinges & hinge boxes are identical for the top & bottom - However having achieved a decent fit on the door I would never swap them over - I always mark them to the location - they are removed at the painting stage to allow paint to the underside of the mounting point on the A post but from what I can ascertain the hinges were painted on the car at the factory - even the screw heads are final paint colour 



Hinge boxes refitted & the door rehung 



Offside rear wing has accident damage on it which has creased the panel 



Its been the subject of a previous repair and not a very good one - they have just wacked out what they can quickly then applied thick filler over it - I cant access all of the panel from behind either 



There is little swinging room for the hammer too - but a dolly can be utilised to force some of the panel outwards 



Dressed out the area that I could access with the hammer & dollies 



But still have this area to true up the best that I can 



Lightly linished the area 



I have this piece of kit - its a slide hammer but with the ability to weld the tip of the puller to the panel 



Tacks its self to the panel 



Then a few gentle slides back will pull the area of the panel forwards - then just twist about 90 degrees and the tip comes free from the panel 



Problem 



Soon 



Resolved - the little marks that you see are where the tip has been attached to the panel for a pull - You need to be steady & methodical with it - last thing you need to be doing is pulling too far and creating loads of peaks that extend outwards beyond the actual profile of the panel 



The invertor puller is fine for single panel skins but no good for double skinned panels 



For this I use another trick and weld a pulling tab to the area with which I can use a slide hammer to draw the panel out 



Then the tab can be removed and the area dressed back - again you don't want to be applying too much force with the slide hammer and have the panel come too far forward 



Then dressed back 



Aperture hole in the rear wing was also deleted at the same time  - now I still have problem because with the previous repair then my straightening up - the repair area contains metal that has been stretched and the panel is slightly bowing out of profile from where it needs to be - its much better to have a slightly concave area that you can skim fill or lead load rather than have a convex area that you will never loose no mater how much you work it - so I need to shrink the area - there are all sorts of shrinking hammers & dollies on the market - none of which really work that well - ok (ish) for very minor areas but useless in this case 



Not for the faint hearted this process - I'm going to loose the excess metal by shrinking with heat - it needs to be a fine flame from a welding torch (please do not attempt this with blow torch etc - you will do more damage than good) 



You need to work quickly - heat a small area with the torch (sub 10mm) just has it turns cherry red - remove the flame - the panel will peak outwards - with dolly behind the area tap the area flat with a panel hammer has the area cools it contracts and shrinks - then repeat as required - its much better if you have someone nearby that you can pass the lit torch to quickly whilst you work the hammer & dolly 



Then dressed back - the damaged area is now slightly concave - you will never remove all damage and it will require some form of profiling to attain the correct shape - this I will achieve when I undertake the profiles on the car at a later date by initially lead loading then skimming with a profiling filler 



That's the offside panels completed with the exception of a few spot welds once the spot welder is sorted and the upper aperture gapping on the door once the steel stock arrives 



Rear valance is different on rubber bumpered cars (which this car was) than the chrome bumpered cars (that we are converting it to) 



But not by much - a few aperture holes on the chrome bumper valance 



And 3 bumper mounting plates on the rubber bumper cars - so remove the 3 plates & make good - drill the bumper mounting apertures for the chrome bumper car in the valance and this one can stay on the car 



But it needs straightening up



In a few places 



Along with a few minor welded repairs 



Initial straightening up completed 



And the mounting plates coming off 



Spot weld operator was obviously ex army machine gunner 



Ready for cleaning up in the morning 

Nice job Chris! When i got my MGB both door skins were cracked near the quarter lights. I fitted new door skins and welded a strenghening plate inside the door skin near the quarter lights to avoid future cracking. I am not sure if GT s also suffer from those cracks as mine is a roadster and the cracks are often caused by poor fitted windscreen frames which cause stress on the quarterlights which leads to stress on the door skins.
I also remember well how difficult it was to do the work on the rear bumper brackets. I also used a angle drill. What i also did is weld in a few pieces of pipe into the chassis rail in the front and rear bumper bracket area. If this is not done, it will be difficult to really tighten the bracket bolt as you will crunch the chassis rail if you really tighten the bolts.
What is did not like on MGB s is where the sill meets the rounded B post panel. That area is not welded and i saw rust creeping up on a lot of cars. You can avoid it with seam sealer and waxoil type of stuff by i fully welded it and made a groove afterwards.

Keep up the good work!
Peter

Hi Peter - Many thanks for the comments - I have tube on order for the crush tubes for the bumper bar iron mountings in the chassis rails, roadster door skins have always been a problem with the quarterlight / windscreen fit resulting in panel damage - its not that big a problem on the GT - interesting comment on the panel seam at the base of the B post with the sill - I'll have a look at it - although this shell will have received a decent amount of work to the structure & panels the car really has not had the life that many have and suffered from masses of rust ingress hence the decision to use it rather than a new heritage bodyshell (which still require a lot of work to panel gapping & profiles before they look right)  

I replaced the screen frame to scuttle seal on the rubber bumper one....what a thoroughly hateful job that was!

Sam, I thought you said this was a really good body ? 🤣🤣🤣

Certainly will - Sam has already supplied me with the parts & a set of lamps to trail fit