Seat Frames

The car sat in an open field for several years in all kinds of weather. The seat padding soaked up and stored water, hence the rusted state of the seat frames. This required much cutting out of rusted sections and shaping and welding in new tubing.

FRAME REPAIR

The frame looked good until I tapped the bottom of the rails with a hammer. Ping, it knocked holes in the rusted out, paper thin frame rails. So, out comes the cut-off wheel grinder, welder, and finishing grinder. The dented cross member looks difficult to repair but it was actually dead simple. My frame rotator was made from two inexpensive engine stands. I could not have done the repairs without it.

Wood Floors & Seats

The original floor boards and seats were made from 3/8" plywood. I made the new ones from 1/2" plywood. The finished boards were given three coats of wood preservative and a final coat of flat black paint.

DISK BRAKES REBUILD

Since I had a set, I decided to replace the front drum brakes with disk brakes. As you can see, they were mostly piles of rust. Everything except the caliper bodies was sandblasted. To avoid getting sand into the small passages in the caliper body they were derusted with a solution of Evapo Rust. The stuff really works. The last picture in this series also shows the completely rebuilt front suspension.

Transmission Tunnel

These pictures show the tunnels that cover the tranmission in the cockpit. As you can see, there was much rust repair to do, then, sandblast and paint.




This is the rear portion of the tunnel, also very rusted.

MGA as found at 100 mile house

I found my MGA restoration project car sitting in a field at 100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada in July, 2003. I thought I would be driving it in two years. Now, four years later, it is not finished. Perhaps in another two years?

This is what it looked like when found.

Here it is in my garage in Chilliwack being dismantled. The fenders are off.
I never expected there to be this much RUST! At last, the body is off. This took about six months. The engine is out.

This is the front frame extension, very rusty. Then sandblasted and painted, ready to bolt onto the frame.