As we all know – there are many ways to still ride a Dead Horse. One of them is to get the Dead Horse a website – which I clearly did with this blog. Another way to keep confessing boldly to everyone else that the horse is still alive. Check! I have done this as well. Well, it is about time to appoint a committee to study the horse, I think.
With Mildred mounted on the roll-over-jig a few hours went into stripping the dirt, grime and undercoating as far as possible. As it was clear that the right floor was too far gone away – I drill out all spot welds and used a chisel to separate it from the body. Having previously removed the old sound-deading along the welds – this was a fairly quicky job with the car on the rotisserie.
The pictures below are some of the bigger problem areas from front to back. The front of the duct panel is gone, and somebody did a horrible “repair” in the middle section – just beneath the oil cooler. While the sidemembers don’t look too bad – there is a rust problem on the right where the Anti-roll bar is located.
Both front wheel arches had multiple wild and bad “fixes” in addtion to being quite pitted. The pedal box, outer dash sides and bulkhead has horrible repairs and rust issues. The splash shield mounting flange doesn’t even exist anymore. The windshield surround assembly has holes in all corners and has been previously repaired with limited success.
The left outer sill has been replaced in the shop where I (unfortunately?) bought the car. However, the left side of the crossmember and A-post both show signs of side impact and should have been replaced /fixed too. As mentioned, the right floor is already out – I am unsure if the left floor is worth saving. The right sill as well as the castle rails must have been replaced a couple years before – but due to a lack of proper coating and protection are quite rusty now. The right leaf spring mounting point looks like it needs to be replaced as well.
The right rear wheel arch has three layers of metal welded above each other. Only the lower piece is gone – I believe a repair without a replacement panel is feasible. The left rear arch and the left part of the valance look bad and there are a couple of holes.
Needless to say, that this isn’t even a complete list. These are the biggest and most obvious items. The first estimate I got is that the front of the car up to the windscreen will take more than two weeks – if done by a professional. As I am really bad in welding and don’t have the equipment (yet?!:..), I currently see the following options:
A) Method: “Getting a stronger whip”
Get a complete front assembly from BMH (F11 on the list or part number HZA4051) along with new floors, outer-sills, and some other panels. The body and paint shop I prefer could theoretically do this replacement – but they have done an MGB before. The parts will be >3500€ (if I pick these up in the UK myself) plus the hours to get this welded.
B) Method: “Lower the standard so dead horses can be included”
Only repair essential stuff and do not touch the previous repairs too when not absolutely required. Rust converter and filler will fix the pitted areas – it will be good for a long time, and nobody will care about it.
C) Method: “Train the rider to revive dead horses”
Maybe I should by a cheap welder and teach myself how fix it up..
D) Method: “Change riders”
I could try to sell this shell to somebody that can weld it up…
E) Acknowledge that the Horse is Dead
….to be continued
Fixing C6622 
Looks and sounds very similar to the condition of my shell when I first started working on it, although yours has some rust in a couple of places that even I haven’t seen before, which is an impressive achievement 🙂
Interesting idea to put a whole new front end on it, I almost wish I’d considered that, having replaced most of its component panels on my car. Since it includes the front chassis rails, and if you were also replacing the sills and floorpans at the same time, you’d almost certainly need to have it assembled on a body alignment jig of some kind to stand a chance of getting it straight. But then if you were going to all that effort, inevitably replacing a few other panels along the way to get them to the same standard, you probably wouldn’t be far short of a full bodyshell replacement.
If your motivation is to have a pristine MGB GT in a reasonable time and budget, I would probably advise moving this on and buying a better one, but if you’re after the satisfaction of bringing a basket case back from the brink and making it a usable car again, then B or C both sound like fine options to me. Good luck!
LikeLike
Your progress is inspiring and yes – luck is what this shell needs.
Option A would be ~3500GBP+ in new panels (sill, floors etc) and at least the same to put it back together on an alignment jig. Very unlikely that I will take this route.
Option B(lower standards) is not exactly my way. Ruled out.
Option C might be a lengthy road to option B… 😀
I am going to look at a new shell later this week… Maybe this is the best option
LikeLike