Rapid-fire restoration
Matt accidentally spruces up his daily-driver MGB GT in double-quick time
Having used my MGB GT most days for nearly a year, it had turned a corner from scruffy to rough. As much as I agree with
PC contributor Clive Jefferson when he says: ‘Happiness is a scruffy sports car’, one that is visually as poor as mine was getting really doesn’t give the best impression to other road users – particularly in this contentious time around MOT exemption. Public perception of classic cars should not be influenced towards them being ‘old bangers’. My hand was forced this month when, while inspecting it prior to the MOT, I pulled a great lump out of the bottom of the passenger wing and revealed a rotten end of sill. Oops!
I put in a call to the MG Owners’ Club spares department and soon had a lower front wing repair section en route along with a pair of splash shields and fitting kits, all for a modest price. I then spent a happy Saturday afternoon cutting off the bottom of the wing, repairing the inner sill structure with hefty 2mm plate before cutting, joddling the edge and welding the lower wing repair section into place. Inner wing coated in Rustbuster Techshield wax and with a skim of filler applied to the outer wing, it looked like a good afternoon’s work, ready to prep and blow in with a can of Glacier White paint. Spurred on by such progress and while waiting for the filler to dry I decided to remove the splash shield on the driver’s side, only to be faced with a rotten front-of-sill there, too. The following morning, I grabbed the grinder and carefully removed the drivers lower wing. Much in the same way as the passenger side, once again using 2mm plate to restore some structure to the front of the sill. While off the car, I cleaned the back of the lower outer wing section, made a couple of local repairs and coated it in weld through primer before welding it back into place on two sides and bolting it at the bottom.
Stop poking!
A skim of filler later, it was time for lunch and, while I munched on a cheese and pickle sandwich, I made the mistake of poking the bubbles on the rear arch. Out came the wire brush and there followed a mess. At some point in its past, plenty of filler had been used to disguise holes in the outer wing. With this all removed the actual repair was fairly straightforward. Cut the outer skin away, clean and treat the inner skin that was still intact with Rustbuster Fe123 Rust Converter and fabricate a repair panel to replace the outer skin before welding it in. I even got away with seam welding it along the arch return flange to avoid the need to create a panel with a return.
All the time hugely impressed by the new Telwin Maxima 230 welder we currently have on test from Welding Superstore, I made several more local repairs around the car. A skim of filler, and the car looked 100 times better with neither
‘Poking at the rust bubbles on the rear arch was a mistake’
any gaping holes nor bubbles. It was when standing back, though, that I realised patch painting was no longer an option.
Big patch to paint
I set about removing lights, bumpers and trim and was soon left with a car that could quite easily be sanded flat with a DA sander or long block without inhibition. Preparation was quick, as I wasn’t aiming for anything near perfection – just a tidy up. Once again I utilised a Rustbuster product, this time Epoxy Mastic 421 primer that I applied thickly using a 2mm tip in a gravity gun fed with low pressure to ensure maximum coverage with minimal wastage in overspray. I utilised our Clarke portable garage as my ‘booth’ and was sure to use an appropriate respirator.
Once this was dry, it was on with a guide coat before an hour flatting this back on a Friday evening using a 500-grit disc on a DA sander. Then it was ready for paint. I went for Snowberry White in a single pack acrylic. Like two-pack and unlike cellulose, acrylic is relatively thick and forgiving of minor imperfections in the preparation work – a huge bonus considering the speed at which I’d flatted the car. It is, however, less lethal than two-pack although a proper respirator must still be worn. Twenty minutes was all the paint process actually took, and when I returned to the car on the Saturday it was only a matter of a few hours to bolt the whole car back together. A huge advantage over most restorations was that I’d only just taken the thing apart so could actually remember firstly where I’d put everything but also where it all went.
The finished result isn’t perfect, but it’s an awful lot better than it was and now turns heads for the right reasons. What’s more, the transformation was quick enough that I didn’t even have to miss out on my booking for the BMC/BL Rally just up the road in Peterborough… I fitted a towbar and dragged my caravan along to it that very Saturday afternoon.