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MG MGB Technical - Cowboy Repairs!

Recently started another roadster project, looked OK, and yes I know they are always worse than you think, but this car has been repaired by a reputable person in Scotland.

I can forgive him the fibre glass repairs to the inner wings and trumpets, just, but why spend all that time bodging and undersealing and then put new steel wings on?

What I cannot forgive is the foam filling of the sill, and then bogging up with body filler.

I thought the days of cowboy restorers was long gone. I am obviously mistaken!

A couple of pictures attached.

Colin


Colin Parkinson

The other pic!

Colin Parkinson

Too bad they don't make that foam in a product that actually can seal out moisture.
Bruce Cunha

When I restored my roadster I found it had 3 outer sills on each side welded one on top of the next and the rear lower half wings held on my pop rivets and filler. (At least they were easy to remove though)!!
G Britnell

As I'm based in Scotland I'd just like to say ....
It wasn'ee me 😂

That is outrageous and should be reported to trading standards if it would make any difference!?

best of luck with the rest of the resto...
MGmike
M McAndrew

This is depressing on so many different levels!

This takes me back to the state of the majority of MGBs I encountered 30/40 years ago (maybe without the expanding foam!).

To do the job properly, as we all know is an expensive and/or hard work/time consuming exercise. Was the reputable person a trader or a 'gifted amateur'? Either way it comes down to the same thing, but there might be some redress with former.

On another tack, it makes me think how fleeting is the existence of the MGB monocoque in the UK climate. My first MGB, a '69, bought in '79, had totally shot outer sills which of course meant that the structural inner sills were also kaput. My '72, bought in '84, ditto. I did various patches on the latter until in '98 I had the bottom six inches of the car between the wheels replaced with new panels and the box sections Waxoyled (added to ever since). This worked fine until...I started to use the car as a daily driver again five years ago. Rust has appeared, and is continually being addressed, all over the car.

How long were they supposed to last in their heyday? Ten years?
Peter Allen

Ten years max, I reckon. I had a late 70s Cortina which needed new sills at five and a half years old. There is a story that when Alex Issigonis sent the original design of the ADO16 (Morris, Austin 1100) to Pressed Steel, they warned him it would rust very quickly. He is reported to have told them to just build it anyway. I wonder if the story is true?

Certainly the original Mini shells had the front edge of the floor pan lapped over the bottom of the bulkhead and secured with spot welds. This arrangement ensured that water, grit and salt was forced in between the two layers of steel with disastrous consequences. I think the design was altered so that the bulkhead lapped over the floor so that the open edge wasn't in the direct line of fire.

I rebuilt my MGB GT shell with great care, finishing in 2009. Every conceivable weld was sealed (something BMC & BL never did) and every cavity was generously sprayed with Dinitrol. 31,000 miles and 9 years later it is holding up pretty well, but there is some sign of bubbling on the front apron where it abuts the wings. But then the car does live outdoors and is used in the winter.

I also have a 16 year old BMW. No bubbling on that at all.
Mike Howlett

In the past I've seen recommendations for the injection of structural foam to MGB sills, and I think the SSV of 1972 did, although unless it stuck to the metal it's more likely to accelerate corrosion than anything else. Definitely not builders foam though.
paulh4

This thread was discussed between 28/01/2018 and 02/02/2018

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