With high hopes that the works on MGB bodyshell will start this September, I wanted to ensure that at least the panels we already identified for replacement are at hand when start. A trip to the UK in August to pick them up was unfortunately out of scope right now.
In Germany Bastuck seemed to have the best price on the BMH panels – even with shipping fees. It would have been a 2-hour drive (one way) to pick them up and I favored this idea as it would have been a nice road trip. But still due to Covid Bastuck told me that pick up is only possible as an exception. It is also not possible to order now and do the pickup in a few weeks. So, this majority of the panels will be shipped from Bastuck – except for the A-post with the part number HZA2137. Bastuck could not order/deliver this. At Rimmerbros it was available for 137,50GBP without VAT. After shipping & handling and German tax the total cost for the A-post was 230€, however. It is exactly those additional costs which are all too easy to overlook in a budget spreadsheet/calculation.
On a positive note: the delivery from the UK including customs clearance only took 3 days – looks like the Brexit related custom problems we had last year have been sorted. Also positive is the fact that I able to rent some additional space to store Mildred’s (the 1973 MGB GT) bodyshell for a while. I need to do some prep work on Molly (the 1970 shell) before September. Step number one was/is to drill out a few screws and rivets that just have been cut off before. To be honest – I did not look out for this when I bought the shell back last December. It is an annoying and, on some screws, quite difficult tasks. I am glad that I removed all screws from Mildred’ shell immediately when I took her apart.
One item that got into my path too often was the spare MGB axle. A few weeks back I did not finish the overhaul of this one as I could not get the pin out that holds the small gears. I bought a smaller drift and used the small hole in the pin to slowly whack it out. After that I noticed that one of the bronze washers was completely missing and that the pinion bearing makes an awful sound. The workshop manual roughly explains how to change the bearings, diff, and pinion – and I think this needs to be done. I really want to learn this, but it is difficult without any experience. I think I focus on this when the shell left my garage in a few weeks.
Fixing C6622 
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