Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Fitting Fenders

I attached a firewall pad on the cabin side. This was originally only installed on the coupe versions but will benefit my roadster as well. Heat and sound will be dampened, plus it gives a finished look to the firewall.


The fenders were hung on the car loosely so the piping could be cut and hung. Silver/Gray piping was standard on all MGAs regardless of body colour, and although other colours are available I've kept with the original look.



The fenders were then tighten up and with a little persuasion they lined up nicely with the body tub. But the DOORS.... This car was manufactured more then 50 years ago, the tolerances, techniques  were not up to today's standards, so getting all body lines to line up to modern standards was a bit tricky. I imagine the workers on the assembly line became quite adapt at the gentle massage techniques required to get these little cars ready for the show room floor.
A lot of time was spent with the doors, gentle manipulating was needed more then once. Patients won out in the end, the body lines and door clearances turned out great and can easy compare to a modern car.


Monday, January 30, 2012

The Big Reunion

The paint turned out very nice and was worth the wait.





Some minor imperfections were polished out and soon the body was ready to be reacquainted  with the chassis.




Sunday, January 29, 2012

Final Stages of Body work

The last couple of months have brought many changes to the car. Final stages of block sanding have shown that alll the hard work has paid off. The body panels look straight and the fit of the doors appear to be right on.






Primer coat revealed no surprises







The underside if the body tub, fenders, hood and trunk lid were painted using single stage paint. The factory used nitrocelulos paint, which is unavailable today. The colour is original to MGAs... after a very long struggle with colour choice, I've decided  on MGA 1600 red Chariot Red which is a little "redder" then the MGA 1500 oriental red. The outer panels will be painted with a modern Base Clear, this will help keep the red from fading as well as be a little more durable.