It shouldn’t be surprising that quite often things do not turn out as anticipated. Funnily enough, I had that strange gut feeling that something would go wrong all week. First off: even though I was optimistic – I did not hear back on the 4.11:1 crown & pinion for the Morgan’s rear axle. So, my search for a different rear axle or good used parts will continue. Not a huge problem – but still frustrating.
Work kept me busy most of the week – I just managed to spend a few hours working on the Mini 40 project. Front & rear suspension are out. I also decided to remove the engine. It might be possible to just lower the front subframe to replace the steering – but as all stabilizer bushes need replacement, the bulkhead insulation/soundproofing has been destroyed by mice and refitting the suspension with the engine in is a pain – I am certain that the decision is good to remove the engine.
A planned trip to northern Germany had to be cancelled – which opened a chance to pick up the new shell for the MGB this Friday. Earlier this month I agreed to buy the “remains” of this project here. The “new” shell was sand-blasted and coated with Epoxy-Primer a long time ago. It was stored in a dry condition, and I really wanted to keep it this way during transport. Therefore, I organized a “large” sprinter van – which has a cargo aera that is approx. 4,20m long and 1,70m wide. But I got stuck in traffic badly. It took me 3 hours instead of the usual 50 minutes to get to the pickup location – just to find out that the Sprinter was taken by someone else, and I was left with a slightly smaller Opel Movano. This only has a cargo area length of 3,60m – slightly too short for a MGB GT shell…
On my way to Schwerte, I thought about leaving the back doors open, storing the shell diagonally or something – I even called a place to rent a trailer, but in the end, I decided to just pick up all the additional parts that came with the shell. When I returned to Bonn – a few fire engines passed my way shortly before my garage – heading towards the direction of Stephan’s paint & body shop. It was dark and way after 6pm – so I figured that nobody would work there anymore and that a car accident happened.
Today, I found out that the fire was at Stephan’s shop. The paint booth caught fire yesterday evening. Luckily, nobody got hurt – but a few cars got destroyed/damaged badly. Not that it is that important – but the MGB’s rear axle and a few other parts are also still in this building. As the main building won’t be useable for quite some time – I offered Stephan one of my garages as storage space which I had cleared for the new shell I did not bring with me to Bonn yesterday in the end. So, the Mini 40 ended up where the new MGB shell should have been. There will be plenty of work to sort out the mess when I get back from the UK this week…
Fixing C6622 