By Henry Wilson

Ok now it is March 8th and I still don't know when the engine will be completed by the shop. I stop by every once in a while to see how things are going, but so far they haven't done much but clean the parts, bore the block, and turn the crank. Oh well there are other things to be done in the meantime.

The driver's side floor pan and side sheet metal that connects to the floorboard and forms the step inside the car at the threshold, was badly rusted on my $400.00 jewel of a body. I cut both peices out with an angle grinder (this took a lot of time and sprayed metal grindings everywhere) Below is a photo of what this section looks like now. I have welded in a new threshold to floor pan peice, but the floor pan that the parts house sent me is the wrong one. It seems that a floor pan from a 1967 or older MGB is significantly wider than that of a model any newer than 1967. I got the wider floor pan, and I am working on a 1977 model. I am trying to get the right one swapped out now. The silver stuff you see is something I found at Lowes. It is made by Rustoleum and is called "Cold Galvanizing Compound" or something similar. It is a clear spray base of some sort that is full of small peices of zinc. It is supposed to stop or at least slow down the progress of rust.

The fenders both needed some work so they are on the saw horses in my workshop (tongue in cheek, I don't have a workshop and have been working out in then open in my back yard). The fender photo is below.

Overall outside views of the car as it sits now are also below:

The dark spots on the rear quarter panel are small bits of body filler for minor dents and irregularities. The door on the right side is not going to stay. It has a significantdent in a place that cannot be reached from the inside (due to safety reinforcement of the door itself. So another door is being readied for the right side. The driver's side door was taken, along with numerous other parts, to a local company to be completely stripped of paint and rust treated. This required more body work than working around the paint and filler that was already on those parts, but I think it will cause the paint to both look better and last longer in the end. The weather has slowed me down significantly since rain and cold have been upon us for months on end now (The gravel you see in some of the photos is actually a french drain I had to put into to drain some of the excess rain out of my yard). As the weather moderates, I expect to pick up speed on this project.

The good news is that my other car, the 1971 MGB is almost roadworthy again. I dismantled it and painted it , then put it back together again. Photos of it are below. I put one of the Fiero seats that will eventually go in the V8 car and the Momo  wheels that will eventually also go on the V8 car on it just to see what they will look like. I think the finished product will look great!

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