And so it begins...all over again!

This will chronicle my efforts to restore my 1974 MGB. I originally purchased the car in 1988 for $850.00. It barely ran, had no interior save the seats and dashboard and was painted in at least three different shades of primer. But everybody instantly fell in love with “The B.”

















Above: The MGB in 1988 the day I bought her

My first restoration began in early 1989. A friend of mine (who recommended that I buy the car in the first place) found an MGB engine at a local machine shop which had been stripped, cleaned and bored .40” over. It had new competition pistons, rings and cam shaft and a ton of other goodies. It had about $400.00 worth of work and (at the time) about $500.00 worth of new parts and the machine shop only wanted $150.00 for all of it since the owner had never come back to claim it. If you think that deal didn’t get jumped on, you’d be wrong.

I bought the silica bronze hardened valve seals so the engine could run on unleaded gas, had the shop completely rework the head and valve assembly and started to work putting it all back together. I had never rebuilt an engine from scratch but with my trusty Haynes manual, it was actually a fairly straightforward procedure. When I was finished, I only had two washers and one bolt left over so I figured that was pretty good!

Being a still rather young man, I couldn’t afford to have the very rough body of the B done by an auto repair shop so I did what any other idiot would have done in my place: I got a job at body shop. I’d work on other peoples’ cars during the day and my car at night. When the body was finished The painter at the shop sprayed a Dupont base coat/clear coat Corvette flame red paintjob for me and I began putting it all back together.

Left: The MGB in 1989

Once it was all back together with the addition of new carpet, panel kit and tan top, the MGB looked pretty damned good! I drove that car for 10 years as my daily driver, rain or shine, hot or cold and I drove it everywhere. All over the east coast of the USA. On vacations. To work. Everywhere. Unfortunately, I had done patch and fill when I did the bodywork so after 10 years, the sills, doglegs and door skins were pretty much Swiss cheese. Mechanically it was fine but the body was just too rough to keep her on the road.

So, in the fall of 1998, the MGB went into the back of my garage and she was replaced by a 1995 Corvette. I thought after two years or so I would finish up restoring the B and she’d be back on the road again in no time at all. But home improvements, vacations, work and the birth of my son got in the way of that and she sat in the back of the garage for 10 years. I did do some work on her during that time. I stripped off the hood, trunk, doors front fenders, top and interior. I also stripped out most of the other things that I could except for the engine and drive train, electricals, hydraulics and suspension. I also ordered a fair number of parts that I’d need during the restoration, including new outer sills, doglegs and a bunch of the other body parts that would need to be replaced. They all sat for quite a few years too.

Well time passes and things change as they always do and I found myself a divorced man who moved 40 miles away from the home I lived in for nearly a decade. Well, a move, getting remarried, another move, more house remodeling, two new kids and a bunch of other things got in the way of the MGB restore. But finally, in July of 2008, I trailered the B to my new garage and began the real work of bringing her back to her full glory.

Here is the story as it unfolds.

Bringing you up to speed

7-28-08
Got a trailer from U-haul and Steven, my father in law, and his ginormous Chevy pickup and drove to Greensboro to get the B from the ex wife’s garage. I decided on the car trailer instead of the tow dolly since the tires on the B were 15 years old and didn’t want to seem to hold air for very long.

Aired up the tires and she wheeled right up on the trailer with no trouble at all. Got most of the body parts and tied them, along with the front fenders, onto the car. Very classy, driving down the road with a car that has the fenders held on by ropes.
Got it home and rolled it right into the garage ass first (the car, not me)

8-6-08
Started tearing off the passenger side outer sills.

Luckily, the inner sills are still sound with just one little spot of rust-through right at the forward end of the sill. That will be easy to cut out and replace.

Still going through boxes of new parts and old ones pulled from the car. I’m doing all the easy to do work first (and the easy but sucky work too)

Cleaned out the cockpit floorboards, the driver side has a few small spots of rust-through but not too bad. The passenger side only had on small rust hole so both sides should be easy enough to take care of with some fiberglass.

Cleaned and undercoated the front wheel well areas. They were in perfect shape so no need for real work there.

The cockpit and trunk are going to be a total bitch to bring down to bare metal. Both have four layers of paint and primer on them and the cockpit also has old carpet adhesive on it. I ruled out sandblasting the car, mostly because I have no desire to chase hidden sand out of the thing for the rest of my life. And when it come time to paint it, the sand always shows up right when you spraying the body.

8-7-08
Went and got more parts from the Ex’s garage. I know there is some stuff missing.

8-8-09 to 8-15-08
In New Orleans on vacation. Too drunk on Bourbon street to think logically about the MG. Maybe that idea about converting it to a Speed Racer Mach-5 wasn’t such a bad one…

8-16-08
Assessing what parts I’ll need to finish this job. Have to replace everything on the car made of rubber. I just can’t find myself getting real excited about driving with 10+ year old belts and hoses, etc. Luckily, I had ordered many of the seals and gaskets I needed in the 1990’s so that should reduce some of the expenses. I also have friends who get wholesale pricing on parts…it’s who you know, not what. Great news, the brake hydraulics seem to be in good shape. There are no leaks anywhere. Probably because I used the DOT-5 silicone brake fluid instead of regular fluid. It does not hold moisture so there’s no rotting or rusting in the system. I’m still going to replace the seals but at least I don’t have to replace the master cylinder, rear brake cylinders or front calipers. The bad news is that there is a leak somewhere in the area of the tranny. It is either the always p.o.s. clutch slave cylinder or the rear tranny seal. Both of which I’ll replace anyway.

8-17-08
Now the fun begins. I’ve decided to strip the paint out of the trunk area. I have two cans of paint stripper, scrapers and wire brushes so here I go. There are four layers of paint and primer in there so I is scared.

8-18-08
Bought two more cans of stripper, this isn’t going well. I take off one layer and the one underneath it is untouched. Why the hell can’t the paint on the body stick this damned well?
And I was right; I’m missing parts from the ex’s garage. One interior door panel, the grill and a few other small parts are gone. She might have gone a bit crazy when she cleaned up after I left but she loved the car too and let me store it there for over two years so I guess I can’t bitch too much. But damnit, the grill was really nice and they cost so much to replace…

8-19-08
Finally, I’ve gotten the paint all stripped out (after seven cans of stripper!) and the good news it that the metal in the trunk is nearly perfect with only some minor surface rust and one area about the size of a pea with rust-through. All taken down to bare metal and primered now and it looks really good. I coated the insides of the rear fenders in the trunk behind the wheel arches with a layer of spray-on rubberized rust-proofing. That should help reduce the noise and hopefully seal it up more effectively.

After the cockpit and engine compartments are also cleaned, stripped and primered I’ll get back to the outer sill and dogleg replacements. Guess I’m finally gonna have to take the plunge and buy a MiG welder.

UPDATE:
I found a MiG welder for less than $120.00. It is only a 120-v/15-amp welder but that is fine for me since I don’t have a 220-v power outlet and the circuit in the garage is only 20-amps. Oooh, I want that plasma cutter too…and that spot welder…and that… I can see myself getting trouble really fast here.

8-21-2008
Finished the trunk area (except for the wheel arches) and got one coat of white paint over the primer. There will be more but the whole restoration will take several months and I wanted to get the metal and primer covered. The wheel arches have the flexible spray-on undercoating applied to them so I'm letting it and the primer sit for a while before I finish them.

8-22-2008
Started chipping out the factory floor sound-deadening material in the passenger side. It sucks! there has to be an easier way to get this asphalt tar paper stuff out. Guess not

8-23-2008
Finished taking the driver's side of the cockpit floorboard to bare metal. Got it cleaned and primered. The small rust-through areas are easier to see when everything is primered. I'm going to grind the primer back off those areas and put down a layer or two of fiberglass then seal it all back up afterwards.

Next comes the rear deck, passenger floorboards and all of the vertical cockpit metal.

Oh joy of joys, removing the dashboard...
that should be fun.

8-25-2008

So the paint stripping saga continues. The cockpit is more difficult than the trunk. Not only because it has more surface area but also because there are so many more complex curved pieces and weird angles...and little recesses...and hard to get to areas....and this bites the big wanker. (UK reference for all of our friends across the pond)

To add to the fun there is a layer of what appears to be tar-like rust or sound proofing material right above the factory paint (three paint layers down) and it is all over the aft cockpit area) I don’t know if this is factory applied (doubtful but very possible) but it is nor affected very much by paint stripper so I have to remove it mostly by good, old-fashioned scraping. The wire brush wheel on my drill makes the paint/tar stripping a bit easier but it is still time consuming.

SAFETY NOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know that it is most likely that 95% of those reading this are guys…don’t get huffy oh those of the internal naughty bits variety, it is true.

And guys, we know how we are. The label on a product says “wear respirator when spraying” and we just hold our breath for a few seconds when we start and think that it is enough to protect us.

Or it says “use eye protection” and instead we just squint.

Yeah, I think I’m bullet proof too (Which I shouldn’t after I recently lost a nice chunk of my thumb and wound up in the hospital after the intake cover broke off my leaf blower and decided to try to eat my left hand)

Well here’s my tidbit for all of you to gnaw on: You know how wire wheel brushes on drills throw a bunch of debris around? Well they are also really, really good at throwing nice gobs of paint stripper directly into your eyeball. And by your eyeball I mean MY eyeball.

Luckily you (I) were able to flush out your (my) left eye and remove your (my) contact lens which, amazingly enough, MELTED! Let me repeat: MELTED!

Do I wear safety goggles now when I work on my car. Oh hell yes!

When I finish the rear deck of the cockpit I’ll be moving on to the transmission tunnel and then its back to chipping off the factory floor sound proofing material.
Don’t you wish you were me?

9-1-08
I got the rear deck, wheel arches and side panels done. It was a PITA. I ran into the undercoating that just didn’t like to come off. But I got a super heavy duty rotary wire brush, the kind used to knock concrete off of masonry. The wires are twisted and are thick enough that you can’t bend them easily and it cuts through the paint and undercoating very quickly. Once it was stripped I cleaned it all with acetone twice and then put down a coat of etching primer (you just need a light dusting of the stuff) and then a layer of regular primer over that when it dried . If you use this kind of wire wheel be careful with it because it can very quickly warp the thin sheet metal in the car. I would not recommend using it on outer body panels.
Next comes the passenger side floorboard, inner sill, the transmission tunnel and then the outboard sides of the foot wells and the firewall. Once those are stripped and primered I’m going to repair the floorboards with fiberglass.

9-2-08
With the trunk primered and with the undercoating all dried, I sprayed two coats of paint. I’m not really excited about using paint from a spray can but if you properly prep the area and use a good quality paint, the results are usually pretty decent. Plus, I needed to get the primered trunk metal covered. It is very humid here and with the string of hurricanes about to roll in here (and the buckets of rain that they bring with them) it is going to get even more humid. It isn’t perfect but that’s okay for now. I probably won’t be spraying the car for another 8 or 9 months so protecting it is more important for right now.

9-3-08
I’ve gotten the sound deadening material off of the passenger side floorboards. It was a bee-atch! I tried the heat gun method but it either didn’t work well for me or it turned the material into sticky goo. Instead, I went to the grocery store and bought a small block of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) I put it in a couple of plastic bags and an old pillow case and crushed it up with a hammer. I then put it on a section of the sound deadening material and let it sit there for about 10 minutes and then moved it and took out the old hammer and chisel. The dry ice is so cold that it hardens up the stuff and makes it really brittle. When struck by the chisel, the stuff just chipped off cleanly, sometimes in really big chunks. While I was working on one area I moved the bag of dry ice to another area and let is harden up that material. It was much easier than heating up the stuff with a heat gun and it all came off very quickly. (Alternate method: drag the car to northern Minnesota and wait for January)

Words of caution: Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide and it is VERY, VERY COLD, in the area of 150-degrees below zero. Wear eye protection and heavy gloves and be very cautious when working with it because it will stick to your skin instantly and can cause tissue damage if stays in contact with your skin for too long. As a fun bonus though, when you are done with it you can throw what’s left in a pot of hot water and it will make that really cool ground-hugging fog that you see in scary movies.

9-4-08
The passenger floorboard is all stripped and clean. I'm applying a light coat of etching primer followed by the regular primer. The rust on the floorboard isn’t too bad but it is muchh worse than the driver's side.

A few small holes which will be pretty easy to fix with fiberglass. I’ll glass the passenger and driver side floorboards at the same time but before I do that I have to strip down the transmission tunnel and get it all pretty and primered. I’m also going to clean up as much of the inner firewall as I can reach and also strip down the inner outboard foot wells.

Then comes the really fun part…the removal of the dashboard. I’ve never done that before from all I’ve heard it is not very easy. But it has to be done so, once more into the breach my dear friends (for those of you who are into Shakespeare.)

Short and long term plan for the restoration:
After I get the dash out and finish up the cockpit I’m going to start cleaning up the engine bay. I’ll be pulling the radiator and it’s support shroud, the oil cooler and heater box. When those are out I’ll be pulling all of the various little doo-dads from the inner fender wells, degreasing and stripping down the paint and then spraying a few good layers of primer and paint.
I’ll also be cleaning the engine and repainting it with high temp paint after I strip off all of the ancillary components which will also get cleaned up and tested for functionality. At that point I’ll start on cleaning up the wiring. I’ll be pulling apart each bullet connector and cleaning them out then applying a conductive grease to them. I’ll also strip off all of the old electrical tape of the wiring harnesses and recover them with the correct blue-colored tape.

Then I’ll start on cleaning up, undercoating and sealing up the underside of the car. Also, at any give point in this process I’ll be doing the welding and replacement of the rocker panels, doglegs and other rusted out parts. That is dependant on when I have the extra funds to buy a mig welder.

After that is all done I’ll start the reassembly process and prepare to get all of the other little things finished that I have in order to get the engine up and running again. It will be nice to hear that little 4-cylinder engine fire up again after 10 years and to be able to move the car around under her own power. I imagine that after 10 years the clutch will be frozen to the pressure plate so the car will have to be running to break it free. I’ll also have to get the radiator flushed and pressure tested and the fuel tank flushed and sealed (or replaced) along with about a thousand other little things. That will happen later in the year towards the winter months as I don’t want to be working on the body in my unheated garage when its cold outside!