Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,303
Club RR Member Number: 160
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May 16, 2012 22:20:44 GMT
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got the arch repairs all finished and smoothed out fairly well with a skim of filler. arch lip has all been dressed back ready for the wheels Need to skim over the weld from where the car has had a new sill put on. wish it had been done a bit tidier but its all fresh steel I guess. Then at last a panel is finished prep-wise.. Trail fitted the door I got from Bryn, needs a lot less work to get it looking nice over the door that was on the car. Hinges still need a tweak but its ok.. Little hole that needs some sparkystick action.. More soon!
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Torquesport
Part of things
Astras all the way!
Posts: 453
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A fetching hat! Are you related to Fred Dibnah?
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,303
Club RR Member Number: 160
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May 22, 2012 21:46:49 GMT
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Are you related to Fred Dibnah? not that I know of Dragged daddy Rich round today to help, he's been doing the bodywork with me, mainly i've been wielding the angle grinder and he's been doing the more detail-y work.. I decided to stay out of his way and put the knotwheel to the front passenger wing corner, knowing that there was some filler there.. There was THIS much filler! about an inch thick in places! Underneath the filler was perfect, undamaged wing! Someone has re-profiled the wing to make the old, damaged bonnet fit. Needless to say, the bonnet I got from Bryn fits pretty much perfectly now. Normally when you find this amount of filler it sets alarm bells ringing, but I was so glad its just a very very weird bodge. Its slow going but were getting there
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Last Edit: May 22, 2012 21:51:28 GMT by Rich
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May 22, 2012 23:34:13 GMT
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Sweet jesus! To build that much filler up and make it look anywhere near good would have taken some real skill and time. The mind boggles as to why they didn't just get a bonnet that fits!
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,303
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Jun 15, 2012 22:12:54 GMT
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its that time again.. last few days I've been finishing off getting all the paint off the car, as shown.. hee-yah.. Rear arch to tackle. Nice fillered in wire.. Also, the drivers wing bottom is gone quite bad, so I have a wing 1/4 repair for that. Just saves time really.. Started on the drivers corner of the rear valance too. Had to cut the old light pod off to make work easier. mmmm.. Crusty Sorry, no peeking at the wheels I covered it with this tasteful cat 'sticker' on the photobucket editor. Nice, eh? Getting there.. zap.. But then I ran out of wire and apparently camera. More soon!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,939
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jun 15, 2012 23:16:21 GMT
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Nice work on the b there, i have one the same age and colour the paint on mine is a bit crappy too but I'm gonna try and put off a full respray as long as possible haha
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Jun 15, 2012 23:50:03 GMT
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Awesome work Rich, I still can't quite believe how thick that filler was! All to compensate for a damaged bonnet, madness.
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Sierra - here we go again! He has an illness, it's not his fault.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,256
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Sweet jesus! To build that much filler up and make it look anywhere near good would have taken some real skill and time. The mind boggles as to why they didn't just get a bonnet that fits! Quite a few MGB panels prices are very pricey IMO (years ago I considered £200 to be too much for a new wing, now they are over double that at closer to £500, making secondhand prices soar in value. Whilst bonnets are cheaper, cheap they are not compared to many cars). Cost really, but as others have said, it must have taken a crazy amount of time in grafting that filler on, but it's amazing how tight owners can become about their car only to be disappointed later! Great progress, it does not look as bad in the rust stakes as many of them .
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,303
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Nice work on the b there, I have one the same age and colour the paint on mine is a bit crappy too but I'm gonna try and put off a full respray as long as possible haha I know the feeling. The roof had been painted many many times with aerosols though and all the weird and wonderful solvent combos had reactivated literally all the paint down to the factory rust proofing, so any longer and I would have had a rusty roof to deal with That said, it was also cracking along the coachline, the paint was so thick there were air bubbles under it all. Awesome work Rich, I still can't quite believe how thick that filler was! All to compensate for a damaged bonnet, madness. Cheers dude Quite a few MGB panels prices are very pricey IMO (years ago I considered £200 to be too much for a new wing, now they are over double that at closer to £500, making secondhand prices soar in value. Whilst bonnets are cheaper, cheap they are not compared to many cars). Cost really, but as others have said, it must have taken a crazy amount of time in grafting that filler on, but it's amazing how tight owners can become about their car only to be disappointed later! Great progress, it does not look as bad in the rust stakes as many of them . I do get that to a degree. I had been looking at rear valances and the rear panel below the boot as mine is rather denty and the valance was shot, its just for too cost prohibitive. I'll have to carefully beat the back panel about a bit and give it a skim, and as for the valance there was no way I could form the compound curves myself, so I bought the cheapest curviest repair panel on ebay to chop up- Classic mini, £11. ;D To be fair, i've been impressed to a degree with the lack of rust, I think its mainly down to the car being covered in so much paint and filler that no moisture has had any hope in hell of getting close to the metal!
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,256
Club RR Member Number: 170
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The earlier cars don't seem to rust quite as bad as the later cars IMO:). Bar 'cosmetic' rust (well, arches, and the front of both wings), a '73 GT I owned was still pretty solid, running on its unwelded floorpans, bootfloor and chassis legs. Yes it had a set of outer sills, but it was still quite surprising and made for getting it back on the road a relatively easy affair. My '79 on the other hand had the tinworm and welder attention far more (both floors, chassis leg work, boot floor, inner wings...), as did a '76 GT which I used for many parts (that was the opposite to the 1973 GT, where the outside looked fine, but it was just rotten beneath the skin, with the doors acting as a structural part of the car when closed! You can still pickup a number of spares cheap (I think I paid £100 for a pair of poorly painted, but mint set of wings not too long ago), maybe not quite as easily with the current fuel prices (they were in Durham last time!) but naturally it's about keeping your eyes open .
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Last Edit: Jun 16, 2012 9:22:23 GMT by ChasR
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speedy88
Club Retro Rides Member
"Nice Cortina mate"
Posts: 2,296
Club RR Member Number: 118
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Jezus! Just got round to reading this. Looks like you're making fairly steady progress with those wheels on to keep you inspired
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,303
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Nov 26, 2012 23:58:40 GMT
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whoooooah. Long time. Lots of stuff happened. Then rain stopped me working along with moving house. Lets keep this going now, shall we? Rewind back to june some time! As I was going to have to strip the car completely, all the earlier work on the back panel came off. Work continued, and I unearthed quite a few of these. Mouse nests. Still finding them now. Ground the drivers arch back. Worse this side than the passenger side. Further investigation revealed the sills were not all they seemed. a rush or bodge job had left the sill ends in the arches still rotten, just plated over with ally print plate sheet and underseal. Need to go back over the passenger side later to check this out. Thought I'd tackle that wing repair at this point. Nothing like flitting back and forth over jobs and getting nowhere ;D Best and worst decision ever. This revealed to me the cars previous 'restorations' true nature. As if the wheel arches, sill ends, valance and paint were not enough, feast your eyes. Initially, looks ok, eh? My face tells a different story. That inner wing in almost its entirety, was made of fibreglass resin, zinc gauze, under-seal and filler. And we had been driving this around. People who think repairing,.. no.. replacing a structural member with plastic padding is a good idea are just.. well.. you work it out. So. The inner sill was gone. LONG gone. The toe board was gone. The side of the footwell was holed. the wing rail was holed. The strengthener was gone entirely. Along with vast other amounts of structural panel work. Sad car is sad. So I started into the repairs. Found this in the remains of the front sill. Biggun too, like about 7mm. Nothing like cracking on. First to get done was the sill, so I could jack the car up with less fear. Then turned my attention to the rest of the work required. Gulp. Needless to say, that work is all now complete and I can't find the photos. Joy! Fast forward several months of rain. And inactivity. As the more astute of may have noticed, I have been working outside. Not an option when its wet. So I pulled my finger out and this happened. You may have also noticed, I have given up guarding the wheel colour. Yes, Its just like that 'other MGB' And here we are. At my works rented.. work. I am a mechanic, who works for a sales company, and we rent workshop space in a body-shop. Weird set-up, yes. I am now also renting a little bit of room while the body-shop is quiet. For how long, I don't know. Hopefully long enough to really get going but who knows. But, that said, in the past few days, the arch is underway.. 'that' keyhole in the wing has gone.. the pillar and scuttle has been repaired (with metal, I'm not very good at applying filler with finesse, usually the old man helps out with that!) And today I didn't feel like welding bodywork so I fitted an electric fan. Freebee nissan skyline A/C fan I think. Does the job well. And that's all for now, until next time! ;D
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,939
Club RR Member Number: 58
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wow, seeing dodgy bodged repairs like that makes me fear what might be hiding under the paint of my car outside good luck with it!
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Glad to see you back on this Dude. Fingers crossed having a dry space with decent access to power, light and tools will see this making some good progress?
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,303
Club RR Member Number: 160
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wow, seeing dodgy bodged repairs like that makes me fear what might be hiding under the paint of my car outside good luck with it! Go round it with a fridge magnet, and be wary of any really thick underseal. I'd hate anyone to find their daily quite as rotten but seemingly roadworthy! Glad to see you back on this Dude. Fingers crossed having a dry space with decent access to power, light and tools will see this making some good progress? Yea, seems to be flying along. hardly any 'cosmetic' welding left, all that's left is the floor-pans and rear arches/sill ends and whatever else is lurking under the passenger wing. Will have to see! having ramp access though is also handy
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sumpcracker
Posted a lot
Yes, I’m still here.
Posts: 1,751
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Well done! mny would hve run away - myself included.
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,303
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Well done! mny would hve run away - myself included. I've been close to it, I mean I could make two or three times my money back breaking it for parts, especially as it has a brand new overdrive and fuel tank. But I've put too much time into it and despite the car being a general cliche among British cars, I love the way it drives. I needed it back on the road
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Nathan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,649
Club RR Member Number: 1
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Nov 27, 2012 10:01:17 GMT
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Chin up mate. To be honest they all go in the front wing section, mine did on both sides. At least onces its done you know it will be done to a good standard.
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cianha
Part of things
aka VDubbin
Posts: 923
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Nov 27, 2012 12:03:12 GMT
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Didn't realise the rot was so bad, you're a legend to keep it on the road, simple as that.
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Nov 27, 2012 16:41:56 GMT
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you are a very brave man indeed. When I pulled the sebring kit off my MGB, I discovered it had been in a front/rear ender, and although the front chassis member had been straightened properly, everything else was fillered up!
Good work keep it up!
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