5 sp Gearbox

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I purchased a 5sp gearbox direct from  from Hi Gear in England. The kit comes complete with everything you need for the conversion. The gear box is a Ford Type 9, they were used in the mid eights and found on a few different rear wheel drive vehicles, like the Capri and Merkur. The new gearbox closely matches the original ratios and should be a perfect marriage of old and new.

While I had the paint sprayer set up to paint the engine, I couldn't help but paint the the gearbox as well.

The kit is well thought out and it didn't take to long to get it in the frame.

The 2 holes you see in the frame (just above the drill), are the only alterations needed for the new gearbox. The conversion can easily be converted back to original.


 The starter protrudes through a hole in the new bell housing, just like the original.

I drilled and tapped three holes so I could fit the original dust cap for the starter. These caps are fairly rare as most have been lost and I don't think reproductions are being made by anyone. I also tapped in a drain plug on the bottom of the gearbox, since Ford neglected to add one at the factory. Now changing oil will be a little easier.

Here the engine is bolted loosely on the engine mounts while the back is being held up with slings, waiting for the gearbox.

And here, everything's bolted down.

More Engine

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 I returned my attention to the engine while I wait for the body to be completed.  Before I could complete final assembly the cylinder head needed to be worked on. I purchased a cylinder head from an early MGB  1800 engine. This head replicates the 1622 MGA engine almost exact and came as a complete unit freshly rebuilt for unleaded fuel. I only needed to have the it ported before installing it on the engine. The porting process really cleaned up the head, especially the exhaust ports . This should help coax a couple of more horses. From the outside the engine will look stock for the car, except for the "18"  on the top of the head.

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After completing the build the engine needed to be prepared for painting. I used a wire brush and  a little paint thinner to get it down to bare metal. The cheap spray bomb primer was quite easy to remove.

Epoxy primer was applied

I had a local automotive paint store to make up a pint of urethane enamel in MG engine colour, Ditzler DQE 50782Y.

I'm very happy with the results the colour seems right and using the epoxy primer this engine should look great for along time.


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More Body

It's been a while since the last update, since then I've had the body sand blasted and move it to the body guys. With their keen eye we discovered quite a few problems with the body. The body was twisted slightly with the front right twisting down, the front of the inner sills were both warped inwards and the nose needed some flattening to match up with the new grill. The A and B posts needed tweaking on both side of the car as well as the inner structure of the right front fender had to be modified to allow the fender to move closer to the tub and line up with the outside edge of the door.

Although there is still lots of work, the tough part is over. The doors line up beautifully and it's really starting to take shape. This week we will place the body on the frame for a final check before priming with epoxy, then the real work of smoothing out all the imperfections starts.

Front End Panels

After installing the duct panel the shape was returning to the panels on either side of the grill opening.

But before continuing with panel straightening , repairs need to be made to some small cracks on the bottom right (passenger) of the grill opening.

The metal here is quite thin. Using a piece of copper to act as a heat sink and helps reduces the risk of blowing holes through the metal. Drilling a small hole at the ends of the cracks helps prevent the cracks from growing. I was quite nervous welding on an outer panel (even though it will be cover by the grill). 

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This gives some strength back to the panel  and now the beatings can begin!

Actually the panels didn't need all that much persuasion with the slapper to get a proper look.

Final shape will be made when the actual grill that will be going on the car  is available (this one will be replaced by a higher quality one).

The front end is actually starting to look like an MGA!

Front End & Radiator Duct

The car had the scars of being in at least one front-end collision. Body panels on both side of the grill were dented and creased, the radiator duct panel was also warped and misshaped. 

 

Replacing the radiator duct and valance "skirt" should help bring the shape back to the front shroud. Both these parts are available new.

The duct panel and the skirt were both put in at the factory using spot welds. To remove them, every spot weld had to be drilled out.....

 

......about 10 or 12 drill bits and a lot of holes later:

Out with the old :

In with the new:

Long Winter.... but some progress

While I took a bit of a hiatus over the winter months, the car was safely tuck away in hibernation.

This was the first snow fall of the year:

What seemed like an extra long winter season, has finally let up and work has started again.

This pile of junk last fall:

Has cleaned up nicely:

 I was particularly concerned with the valance, although it was not to badly rusted, it had seen a lot of curb damage. The shape was completely deformed and was not even close to the proper curve to allow it to attach to the car.

After sand blasting, I was able to work on the valance in the basement (when no one was home to be bother by the banging). After a good many hours with the slapper and dollies, bends and dings disappeared. Because of the double curves this piece was a bit of a challenge,  I had to work along one curve and then go over it again along the other curve, making minor corrections to the first curve.  I was very surprised to see how well the proper shape returned.

Although some filler will be needed, it will be kept to a minimum. The valance now easily attaches and matches the shape of the front of the car.

Rear Fenders

With the colder weather, progress is slowing down. Still waiting for sand blasting to get completed.

I did get some work done on the rear fenders.

The rear fenders I received with the car were unusable, both have had repairs done. And both are rejects.

After removing a lot of filler I was left with this. Although the MGA rear fenders tend to have rust issues in the dogleg area, I was hoping to see a better repair job then this.

Even the back end show history of damage. To much!

The only choice was to look for "new" ones.

I found two rear fenders in British Columbia removed from California cars.

A few dents, some minor surface rust, but the all important dogleg is in very good shape.

After cleaning off the paint and rust, and introducing it to the slapper, the fender looks great! Very little filler will be needed.

Front Fenders

While I wait for my sandblaster guy to become available, I've begun to sort out my fenders. The two front  fenders that came with the car were in fairly good shape, lots of bumps and bruises but no major problems. This left fender is from a 1600, (two small holes for the indicator lights). MGA  front  fenders tend to rust in the headlight and indicator light area, as well as, the bottom lip behind the wheel.

Someone tried to patch this rust with fiberglass. To repair this properly the rust must be cut out and new metal welded in. A new flange will be installed for the indicator lamp to make it a 1500 version.

First the rust cut out

And new metal welded in, two pieces were used to maintain the crease line. The hole and flange for the signal light will be added.

About 4 hours of panel beating, mostly with the slapper and I have a  pretty decent fender. After slapping, there are slight raised spots which need to be removed before using filler or glaze. I used a auto polisher for this with 80 grit paper. The polisher moves quite slowly and therefore doesn't heat up the high spots making them worse, a shrinking disk could also be used here. After the polisher all that's left are some very small low spots, mostly rust scars, so filler will be kept to a minimum.

The right fender was  less beaten up on the nose area, but a lot worse at the rear in front of the door. Not sure what happened here. Some kind of repair? Hopefully this will look a lot better for the next picture.

This is difficult to repair since the fender support bracket is on the backside of this crease, so banging it out will be difficult.

The flange at the bottom of this fender that holds the valance on was missing and had to be replaced, I used the other fender for a template. Two more captive nuts need to be welded on. You can also see the the proper 1500 signal light flange that needs to be added to the other fender.