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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - rusty front

Do I have to take the wings of the front apart to get rid of the rust? I tried it with sandblasting and it did not help after 7 years.

Flip Brühl

It depends on what it is you want to achive


Considering its you flip, and your love for this car and will be keeping it for many more years then yes i would disassmly it ""If"" there is rust in the joints, then i would, if your going to spend the time and cash to do this then might as well fix it correctly the 1st time....but if your tossing in the towel and selling it in a few weeks and just tiding it...then i wouldnt

Prop
1 Paper

Paint cracking at the top of the seam is usually because the shroud and wing are flexing one to another. So you can de rust it and fill(or lead load)it back again, but unless you address the flexing issue the new paint will tend to crack again in the same place. So unfortunately the best long term solution would be to remove the wings, clean all mating surfaces to bright metal, and have them carefully spot welded back together again with new beading.
f pollock

I'm about to do this but it's part of a full rebuild. I didn't want to separate the wings from the bonnet but my seams were badly corroded, missing in places, and the beading rotted away. Currently at the paint strippers. Re-aligning the wings will be challenging as you're handling such a large hunk of metal but it's the only way to do it. Your beading doesn't look too bad assuming it's all like that - depends how much effort you want to go to.

Bill Bretherton

Media blasting will only get the surface rust. As I see it you have two options. Take it apart and work each piece individually or take it to a company that will chemically strip the paint and then dip it in a chemical rust removing bath. The choice is labor to R&R or "pay the man". Anything less will just allow the rust to bleed back over time.
J Bubela

7 years ago I "payed the man" for a dip but the rust came back. I guess they stripped but dit not remove all the rust and did not dip it in a phosphorus bath. But wil the bath cure the rust even in the narrow space between the two or tree shields of steel?
An other question is how to stop the flexing?
Flip
Flip Brühl

I have heard of people removing the beading by grinding away from the top, then brazing the seam up from the top (this addresses the flexing issue) then cutting the lower part of a new beading strip away and soft-soldering to the brazed seam. Not sure about all those dissimilar metal joints though...
Simon Wood

Simon,
I did that on the rear wing beading on my '71 car. Only rather than braise I set the new, truncated wing bead, back in using a lead/tin solder mix. There should be less flexing of that rear wing bead anyway so braising probably not particularly needed.
It lasted fairly well but afer some 20 years rusting has re-appeared along the sides of the beading.
GuyW

You'll notice that if you look underneath the bonnet, the crack coincides with location of the hinge stiffener. If you elect to separate the wings and rely solely on cosmetic braising the upper surface, the chances are that the top joint will act as a live hinge and the cracks will re emerge as the bonnet is lifted and weight is applied. It's really reliance on good spot welds on the drop flange that give the (stiffener+shroud+bead+wing) as an assembly the required stiffness.
f pollock

Agreed, the wings have to be welded properly from underneath. I will need to re-make parts of the flanges, then drill through both bonnet flange and beading and plug weld through to wing flanges. Laborious but the only way.
Bill Bretherton

This thread was discussed between 14/09/2017 and 16/09/2017

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