[37ford4dr]

my hunch is that this engine will run so i am slowly working around to getting it to that state, it doesnt need to purr at this point just to growl will be a big mile stone.... pulled the carbs off to clean them and put them to the side and found a broken intake manifold, cracked heat shield on what turns out to be an MGB set up soaked one carb last night and the other one is getting soaked tonight. overall they were pretty clean inside. i bet that cracked manifold created a big vacuum leak and made the car run pretty poorly. look closely at the frame and you can see how they wrapped the throttle return spring around it.

[malc]

That motor brings back memories, I had an early sixties Riley 1.5 with that carb setup.

[37ford4dr]

put a couple hours in after work today while everyone was at the pool...

cleaned up the other carb definitely needs throttle shafts and played around with making a piece for the rusted out areas of the rear window, used a sheet metal break and a shrinker and stretcher to make the part will final fit it tomorrow























[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/bobs77vet/MGA%20Coupe/Body%20work/IMG_2499.jpg[/IMG

[37ford4dr]

well nibbled away this afternoon i cut my pieces to size to be an insert fit.






used the best ground ever trick for the mig, i use this grounding strap for all my welding and plasma cutting the idea is that the many copper strands arew always in contact with the ground and the area you are welding better then just the clamp






heres a backing strip so the insert piece doesnt fall through



and voila some mig welding and grinding and here it is, this will be the rough cut and when the sanding for body gets done the final sanding will be done




the clamp is only holding the backing plate in place so the insert doesnt fall through

[37ford4dr]

well my son and I tried a new technique today with my bead roller and a flange die to make this replacement panel..

[deadbodyman]

looking good 37.I cant wait to see more. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one thats not afraid of a little rust...
I almost bought one of these last year but it was just too far gone to rebuild..I thought it was a Healy...Its still there...

[Mr. T]

1962 MGA 1622 MK2, only year they made them. Early60's thru the 70's I worked on these every day. Thanks for the memories& keep up the great work!

[37ford4dr]

wow what a fun day. everything went perfectly i will say i did a lot of prep work for this to make sure i understood the angles and how to make them. layed out the bend lines. i followed Barney Gaylords write up from MGAGuru for these parts



made a to size template to keep every thing straight in my head





made the next bend.







templates verified i was goin in the right direction and i pretty much followed Barneys write up paragraph for paragraph. i bent the flanges 8" at a time and measure them so i would have a nice straight and even bend. when you do this much bending on sheet metal it takes on a shape of its own and the flange bend straightens it out again.






made the graduations for the twist














layed out and cut out the inner panels




the punch and die for the big flanges



rolled the flanges and done!

[35WINDOW]

Very nice work!

[gow589]

Fun project. I have a 64' B I put a GM 3.4L V6. I have changed darn near everything but it still looks stock externally. I think a 302 or something like that fit the MGA well.

[37ford4dr]

Originally Posted by gow589

Fun project. I have a 64' B I put a GM 3.4L V6. I have changed darn near everything but it still looks stock externally. I think a 302 or something like that fit the MGA well.

sweet ride!!!!

[gow589]

Thanks. Are you giving thought to engine conversion? I know the engine out of my B had overdrive. I sold it and it went into an A.

[37ford4dr]

i have thought about an engine conversion but will wait to see what this engine runs like. i have another toy a modified stingray that has all the HP and torque and over drive so when i want to stomp on a pedal that i have that covered.


I got 5 hours of uninterrupted time and the garage today and got a lot done. i started by taking pictures and measurements so i could use them as reference to align all the panels back again. i got lucky and the latch on the shut face panel came right off, not so lucky on the door hinges so i just drilled the heads off.















i then cut out all the rusty areas and came up with a plan to see if could make it out of one panel, after making the panel i decided to cut it into two panels so i could make the seams on the front corner to look like they were originally.











now i have everything mocked up i will sleep on this tonight and ponder what else i need to do in that area

[deadbodyman]

Very impressive work there 37....Not many can see past that rust and fewer still would tackle it....

[37ford4dr]

deadbodyman, thks

a couple of hours worth of more nibbles today, i made the final cuts on the front inner fender piece and the rear inner fender piece and trial fit the inner sill and outer rocker panel.

here i cut the piece and flanged the top so it would fit behind the panel on the tire radius and fit out side of the panel by the bracket.



moving to the back i make a line for the flange and drew up some radius lines for the back



heres a tip transfer the flange mark to the outer die so you can keep track of the line easily



and after that its time for some trial fitting of parts











luckily the out rocker panels screwq holes line up perfectly with the pillar posts so I know i am close on the final fitting. its time to step back and take a breather and come up with a game plan for reconstruction the bottom of the door posts.