Project MG Midget

There is no point fitting shiny widgets to a rotten shell, so we start work on our 1970 Midget by delving into those suspect sills to see how much metal remains beneath.

It is time to get out the angle grinder and discover exactly what is (and what isn’t!) lurking behind that suspicious looking sill panel.

As detailed last issue, I had compiled an extensive list of jobs to be done on our project Midget, divided into three categories: those required for an MoT, those that I wanted to do before driving it regularly, and those which would be nice to do if time and funds allowed. As is usually the case with any classic car, potentially the biggest jobs in terms of both time and money concerned the bodywork. In particular, the sills were clearly standing proud of the front wings and so were probably over-panels hiding rust, and there was also considerable filler in the A-posts and in the rear wings above the sills. None of this would have failed an MoT given that the areas in question were demonstrably solid, even if there was no way of telling exactly what was hiding underneath – such are the limitations of an MoT, or indeed any visual inspection of a car with shiny outer panels.

However, it also made little sense to invest serious time and money in addressing the more obvious issues if the basic structure was of the rotten pear variety, and so the bodywork was chosen as the first item to be ticked off my lists. And that meant a trip to Alan Denne’s workshop – Alan has been in the bodywork trade all his life and has helped me with a number of previous projects. He had also just finished restoring his own RWA Midget, and so the scars of the model were still fresh in his mind!

The pictures that follow will show a lot of the main things we discovered, but I should also add a few notes here. One of these is not to assume that excessive amounts of filler are always hiding rust. The nearside A-post’s outer skin was covered in filler and sanding this off could have revealed a real mess, but as it happened the amount of filler appeared to be completely OTT because the A-post itself was sound, and if only a thin skim had been used, it could have been flatted back to a much smoother finish.

There was, however, the expected rust at the bottom of the A-post where it sits on the top of the sill. This is prime rust territory on a Midget, and ours had been brazed at this point. Brazing such a repair was legal at one time, but it is not any more for a structural repair like this. There should be a visible seam at the bottom of the A-post where this sits on the sill panel’s top face, and people used to braze this area because you could run the brass right into the joint and it would look original – the inward facing flanges were spot-welded at the factory, but there isn’t

enough access to do that (or use plug welds) on the completed car. Instead, when making a repair these days, people tend to weld across the join and then cut a groove into this to get the correct look while maintaining the required strength. On further inspection, we found that the braze here was even weaker than normal because it was not even joined to the sill! We will have to make up a new section for this area.

We suspect that the reason so much filler had been used was not because the A-post was rotten, but in order to bring its face out to match the extra width of the sill below it. That’s because there were clear signs that a repair sill had simply been welded over the top of the original panel, and of course as well

as harbouring rust, the double thickness of metal would have effectively moved the sill outwards.

Removing the filler from the front of the sill panel showed that previous visitors had cut the new sill panel on its vertical face and welded a new panel to the side of the existing one. Presumably they did this to avoid having to remove the front wing, which explains why the hole in the bottom of the A-post was not repaired either. This method of welding on the new panel made us wonder how much of the old sill was left behind, but the only way to know for sure was to cut the front section off.

Before doing that though, we moved to the back of the sill. There should have been another seam here where the rear wing sits on top of the sill, much like at the foot of the A-post. Ours had been filled, but there was a crack across the filler and the gap between the door and the B-post was not right. We were keen to find out what lay under the filler, and that meant more

destruction. Alan sanded off clouds of filler, but unfortunately there was not much of it by the shut line – had we been able to sand this area back, we might have been able to remove some thickness to open up the door gap. As Alan worked his way through the filler, a picture of past repairs emerged. Again it did not look terrible, but what appears to have happened is that a few flat pieces were brazed in to repair some rust in the bottom of the rear wing, but again like the front not actually joined up to the sill.

In this section you can get to the front part of the join from inside the car so there is no excuse for not doing a proper job there, but there is no such access at the back so you have to do the same as at the bottom of the A-post in that section – in other words weld the two together and then cut out a groove for the correct look.

Alan continued sanding back the filler to determine how far it went, and a third of the way along the rear wheelarch we finally started to see the original paint. That meant we could be

confident that we had got beyond the full extent of the previous repairs. Next we had to cut above the braze line and see what we found behind it in the way of metal.

First though, we returned to the front to cut off the forward section of outer sill to see how much of the old panel they had left behind there. We found there were about two inches of the old sill left, but that it was not finished properly at the ends. This also revealed that the closing panel on the footwell had not been seam welded fully, but at least the inner sill felt good from inside the car further back by the seat and the crossmember.

Then, having gone this far, we decided to just cut the rest of the sill off and have a proper look along its length. This then revealed that the inner panel had gone at the bottom in places, which to be honest was no great surprise. It was not a disaster and in reality no worse than we had expected, but it meant that we needed an inner sill as well as the outer panel. Still, they were great value at £15.95 and £39.95 respectively which, when you see how much metal is included and how complex the outer sill pressing is in particular, is really quite astonishing.

By the end of the day, the Midget had made the full transition for car to project. There was less metal left than we had hoped initially, but this is pretty much par for the course on a 50 year old classic. However, it was pretty clear that this was not going to be a quick project with just a few localised repairs.

2 To gain access, the front wing had to come off. For some reason it had been tack welded to the front panel rather than bolted. We’ll investigate that more next issue.

4 The outer sill should be a single panel that folds across the top and joins the upright panel that forms the outer edge of the footwell. Ours had a cover sill welded on along this line.

3 The front wing itself appeared to be in good shape, which was finally a piece of good news because genuine Heritage replacement wings are nearly £600 – when they are available.

1 As well as the fact that the nearside outer sill was sitting proud of the front wing, we knew there was something funny going on because the inner wheelarch had been stuffed with filler and/or fibreglass.

5 The wheelarch panel should have folded into the sill end, but when Alan started digging around we discovered that this area had been covered with Gaffa tape and then filler!

6 The sad thing is that the structure behind this bodged repair was mostly strong and there were only a couple of small holes, but that they simply hadn’t been repaired.

8 There should have been a visible seam at the back of the sill where it joins the rear wing, but just as we’d found at the front end, ours was covered in filler here and this had cracked.

7 There was a small hole at the base of the A- post on its forward face, but the pillar itself was sound and there was no play in the door hinges. It had been poorly brazed to the sill, though.

9 Using a sanding disc in the angle grinder, Alan started to remove the filler. The amount of dust this created made us wonder if the whole of the rear wing had been crafted from P40...

12 The outer sill is welded to an inner panel, and this can be accessed from inside the car. Removing the carpets suggested that ours was in good shape, which raised our hopes.

10 ...but again like the front end, the filler had been used to bring the wing out to match the oversill. There were more brazed repairs in this area, but nothing too extensive. Here Alan is indicating the section that can be reached from inside the car.

11 Returning to the front end, Alan cut a section of the outer sill off using a cutting disc in the angle grinder. You can see here the remains of the original sill projecting down about 2 inches.

17 These are the two new panels we needed to buy – the inner sill (bottom) is a relatively simple pressing and cost £15.95, while the more complex outer sill (top) cost £39.95. The smaller panel is a closing piece that joins the inner wheelarch to the sill and closes this off. We’ll also need one of those for the other end.

18 With the new sill clamped in place for reference, Alan then started cutting out the previous repairs on the rear wing. He started off drilling out the spot welds with a specialised cutter...

14 There was evidence of previous repairs further back too. These included the area around the seat belt anchorage point, but these looked to have been neatly done and strong.

15 However, by now we were resigned to the fact that we needed to cut off the entire sill and start again. So first of all Alan cut it from one end to the other, then down at the back.

16 Pulling down the outer sill revealed this rust that was behind the heel board and so not visible from inside the car, but still too close to the seat belt anchorage to be ignored.

13 Further forwards in the footwell though, a large plate had been welded on to close off the sill section and form the outer side of the passenger footwell. This had been tack welded in place rather than seam welded, but appeared to still be strong.

19 ...before resorting to an air- driven hacksaw to get in there and cut off the outer panel. He then cleaned up the flange with a cold chisel and finally an abrasive sanding disc.

20 Eventually he had cut out all of the rust and had something he could weld new metal to. At this stage he still needs to cut higher up on the rear wing to remove the last of the brazed repairs.

22 This was the area where the front wheelarch joins the sill. The sloping section is the toe board inside the cabin, while the rusted section of arch had been previously plated and filled.

23 Starting to look much better, there are still some remains of double skin on the floorpan to be removed before everything can be cleaned up and the welder brought into play.

21 Further forwards, the flange around the crossmember (which also contains the jacking point) came away with the inner sill and so this section will need to be remade.