Exterior is Done, Front Suspension Causes Troubles

The exterior of the car is now done, looks great!  Even let the new owner install the ultimate "bling" on the car, the MG logo in the middle of the front grill.

Next we wanted to replace the front suspension bushings, a very typical failure on these cars that causes the wheels to be "bowlegged".  When we took it apart though we found we needed more than bushings.  The lower trunnions on both sides are supposed to have a bolt connecting them to the front and rear A arms which rotates within the bottom of the kingpin.  These bolts had seized in place, which meant the rotation now occurred between the bolt and the A arm.  The likely reason they seized is lack of grease.  And the effect is "wallering out" of the holes in the A arms:

In addition, on one side this high pressure on a small area of the bolt had caused the A arm to cut half way through the bolt, clearly a possible safety issue.

So the lesson here is - grease your front suspension components!  Not a real expensive fix, but it is time consuming, including waiting on parts to arrive.

Dreaded Windshield is Done!

Installing the windshield with new rubber along the bottom of the frame is one of the toughest jobs on an MGB from our experience.  It wasn't easy on this car, but was reasonable.  We tried a method we read about using fishing line to hold the rubber in place, we weren't that impressed with this method.  Good thing we also did our prior trick of putting a wire inside the rubber extrusion to pull the flap back forward after installation.  Turned out real well:

There is a little bit of graying around the edges of the windshield, actually shows up more than in real life in the above picture.

The front headlight buckets and turn signals are installed plus the front bumper:

And the rear bumper is installed:

Things are lining up quite nicely.

And so the assembly work begins

Vince got started on assembly work while Ray is out of town.  We also have a friend named Greg who is interested in buying the car, and is willing to come help with the assembly process. 

So Vince and Greg worked today - Vince on doors and Greg on trunk and rear lights.  Greg got the trunk cleaned up and the rear lights installed (well, only one works but we'll get that worked out).  Here's Greg with the lights:

Vince has done a lot of work on doors, sometimes even earning the nickname "the door man".  He got the driver's door done (vent window, rollup window and regulator, all rubber plus lock/handle mechanisms).  Passenger side almost complete, needs rollup window to be installed.  Here's a view of that driver's door:

All going very well so far.

Painting Done!

A major milestone, the paint is done!  Here's four pictures that Ray took 5/3 at Darrell's:

Change in Plans

We decided to switch body shops, going with our old standby Darrell Smith.  So on March 30 Ray and Dave Mullen moved the car to Darrell's shop.

Darrell has had a slow start, but is now moving much quicker on the car.  He's got the bodywork done, and has started primer.  Ray stopped by April 26 and took these pictures:

Darrell thinks he will get the car painted this first week in May.  We look forward to getting the car back and starting the fun job of re-assembly.  Vince has been out of town, but Ray has received a shipment of lots of small parts for putting the car back together.

Delivered to Baize's Body Shop

On Friday March 9 we delivered the car to Stan Baize.  Here's some pics:

Car fired up and Ray drove it onto Dave's trailer which we borrowed.  Ran good.

Stan estimates 6 to 8 weeks to get the car painted.  He also pointed out some "ripples" in our bodywork.  He claims is takes ten years for someone to get really good at eliminating these ripples.  We don't have ten years, so we'll let him finish it up for us.

Getting Ready for Paint Shop

The progress since mid January has been focused on getting the body panels ready for paint.  This does not tend to provide great photos, so it's been a while for updates although we've both been working hard.  Plus both of us got to enjoy extended vacations in Florida to avoid the cold weather, very nice.

We got the trunk lid and hood installed with decent gaps and the ability to close and latch both of them.  This did require that the trunk lid rubber seal be modified to make the trunk lid fit better relative to the body.

We removed all four wheels and applied rubberized undercoating to the wheel wells.  This turned out real well.

From here it's basically been a matter of getting the panels ready for paint.  Lot of applications of body filler and then sanding it smooth again.  We have learned a lot about sanding, especially the importance of getting the surface flat.  We had been using an orbital sander in some places because it removes the filler very quickly.  But orbital sanders do not maintain a flat surface.  So now we are using an air sander with a 2.5 inch by 16 inch flat platen or block sanding.

We have had two body guys stop by to give us quotes to paint the car.  Our intention is to get the body fully ready for paint plus paint the door jambs, inside trunk, and inside hood ourselves.  This only leaves the outside surfaces.

We bought some single stage paint from our local supplier.  He used the inside surface of the trunk to get a reading of the color to match it.  Could have used the original paint spec, but cost per quart dropped by factor of 5X by having them match the paint.  Here's the paint we got:

We then are suing a Preval paint system to apply the paint.  Kinda neat, you mix the paint, hardener, and reducer all in the glass bottle at the bottom of the device, then use it like a rattle can to apply the paint.  Here's a picture of the Preval device:

Then here are pictures of the hood underside, area around hood opening, and inside trunk:

We plan on loading the car up next week and delivering it to our selected body shop.  We are waiting for one more quote, but we're pretty sure who we are going with.  Costs for painting are a little higher than what we wanted, but we think we're still OK on our overall costs and can make a few bucks.

For what it's worth, there was a tartan red 1964 MGB just like this one that was auctioned 2/13/18 on Bring A Trailer (BAT).  It was probably a nicer restoration than ours, but not a whole lot nicer.  It sold for $20,250!  Here's a link:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1964-mg-mgb-10/