MGBGT rear sill panel and rear wing rust repair

One of the repair panels I had fitted about 22 years ago had rusted quite badly. I found this strange as all the other panels I had replaced at the same time showed no rust at all. Time to investigate.

Here you can see the nasty rust after a little poking with a screwdriver. Usually when this section has rusted like this, the sill behind it has rusted even more. 

I ordered this repair panel, as I expected this would be large enough to cover the repairs .

This is what I found after cutting away the outer panel. Not terrible. 

But still quite a large part of the sill panel came off before the remainder was thick enough to weld. 

This is the repair panel I made for the sill before welding. I mostly use plug welding as this is strong enough and limits heat distortion. 

Another repair was made to fix the inner wing where it attaches to the outer wheel arch. 

Here both new panels are in place. the sill section is already primered and painted. After the complete repair is done I will smother the resulting hollow section in an anti rust wax. 

I thought I was ready to fit the repair section, but a little poking around the wheel arch some more revealed additional rust damage the repair panel would not cover. 

Also the inner arch needed some repairs. This is the panel I made for the inner wing. 

Repair in place. 

I could buy a full lower wing repair panel, but decided to try and make my own. First I made a panel to fit the outer skin. Then I made a separate panel for the wheel arch flange.  

I clamped the two panels to the car and tack welded them together to emulate the curves needed and added more tack welds off the car.  

After this I could use a flapdisk to flatten the welds. Now I had quite a good repair panel. 

I welded the home made repair panel and the panel I bought on to the rear wing with lots of small tack welds without too much distoprtion. Now I had a very strong rear wing. The flange of the wheel arch is much thicker gauge metal than the original now. 

Now all I needed to do is sanding and filling and more sanding and priming. This is the primered wing ready for paint.  For ease of maintenance I use a paint roller in stead of the spray gun.

Here's the first coat of paint on the car. Yes, there is some dust, so there will be more sanding and more coats of paint later, when this paint has hardenend fully in a few weeks, but it already looks much better than that nasty rust hole. 

At least from a distance the MG looks respectable again. But most importantly, the car is solid now. 

Electric Badge photo tour (the Whatsapp edition)

 

It is a time of travel restrictions and social distancing, so most events are cancelled or postponed and the cars remain in the garage. Unless of course we think of another way to organise an event. 

This is what we did: the entrants of this run subscribed to a Whatsapp group and they all receive a set of route instructions and are asked to make short video and photo reports and answer a few questions.  The instructions tell the entrants to find a landmark, like a building or landcape feature and stop there to answer the questions or take photos or videos. In whatsapp the results are shared to the group, so the group members know what the other entrants are doing and where. 

It is not as good as actually meeting, but still it is good fun and the videoclips, stories and photos can be combined in a report or a Youtube video clip. 

We took Ziggy the blue Pickup. It seemed he enjoyed the run as much as we did, but nearly home he decided he had enough and the starter motor was jammed and couldn't be rocked free. Our last stop coincided with our shed where the Wolseley lives, so Ziggy got a push inside and we finished the last leg of our journey by Wolseley, so we had a bonus-run.  For some reason the next day Ziggy's starter was free and he was ready to go. For now we'll keep an eye on this glitch and if it occurs more often a more elaborate fix might be required.

Overal this event can be considered a success and everybody seemed to have a good day out. 

This is the link to the resulting video, made by combining the clips sent in by whatsapp: https://youtu.be/ir5mGBsjIaI

Below some of the photo's sent by whatsapp:

Driving videos: Austin Half ton and Wolseley 18/85s

 

Catch a ride in our Austin pickup

Hop in the back seat of the Wolseley 18/85s

MGB new starter motor: does size matter?

 

The starter on the MGB GT was not always working. I had cleaned up the contacts in the solenoid a few years ago, but the starter was still somewhat suspect, so I had planned to get a rebuilt or new starter anyway.  

This is a fairly cheap replacement. I could buy this without returning my old one as a core. I' m not yet convinced about the quality, but as I didn't have a proper Lucas spare I decided I could fit this and have the old one rebuilt by a local specialist. 

The new starter is also much smaller. Could this little thing rate the same  torque as the old one? I wondered maybe they didn't manufacture the starter to the original design, but used a modern generic motor and designed a front end and pinion gear to fit the old car. That could work very well.  

On the lower lug I found an obstruction. Although the bolt did fit the hole, I couldn't fit a spanner on the head as there was a ridge near the hole. 

I took a file and flattened the ridge. Now I could refit the starter. The starter seems to work fine, so maybe it's a good replacement. Meanwhile the old one will be refurbished as a spare. 

Now, let' s see if all the problems have gone or if there are more issues in the starting circuit. 

Jeep CJ 5 Ford Pinto engine timing belt change

The Ford Pinto engine is a very strong and reliable machine. It is a more modern engine than the original Jeep engine. When we bought the CJ there was already a Pinto engine in the car. When that engine needed replacement I considered fitting an original Jeep engine, but  found it was much easier and cheaper to find another Ford engine and fit that. This engine has a bit less torque than the Jeep four cylinder, but slightly more power and it is much lighter than the six. Also, by now this engine could be called a classic in it's own right.  One of the very few drawbacks could be that it has a rubber timing belt in stead of the chain in the older Jeep engine. This means it is important to check and change the timing belt once in a while even though  the annual mileage is extremely low.  

In the previous engine we experienced a broken timing belt. As I could not replace the belt by the roadside at that time, I decided to see if the procedure could be simplified. This time I decided to leave the radiator and hoses in place, but I found I will always need some kind of puller to remove the crankshaft pulley.  

I turned the engine until the pointer in the camshaft wheel was lining up with the notch (I used a mirror for that), the crankshaft was at the TDC pointer and the distributor pointed at number one cylinder. Then I removed the cover and I marked the positions with white marker on all sprockets. Then I removed the crankshaft pulley with a puller and released the tensioner.  

Now it was easy to remove the belt and replace it. The camshaft and crankshaft sprockets didn't move at all, but it was possible to move the auxiliary sprocket a bit to slide the belt on. I had expected some adjustment to the distributor timing, but all marks aligned perfectly, so in theory the engine should start without trouble. 

Indeed the engine started at the first try and ran as before. Could I replace the timing belt by the roadside? I would think so, but I'm not sure I'll always carry a suitable puller and white marker paint. After-all I suppose there must be a limit to the amount of stuff I carry in my toolbox.

 

Wolseley 1500 mk1 brochure 1957

Wolseley 1500 was produced from april 1957 to 1965. It utilised the Morris Minor floorpan, suspension and steering but was fitted with the larger 1,489 cc  B-Series engine and MG Magnette gearbox. The car was almost identical to the Riley One Point five, though the Riley was equiped with twin SU carburettors giving it a little more power at 68 hp.