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The Arrival
| It all started when one day dad came home declaring
triumphantly about having bought a 1959 MGA 1600 Coupe on sale on the internet.
Knowing little about cars and less about MGAs I was reassured that it had
to be snapped up immediately. This was done without any inspection
of the car and so I was prepared for the worst but still quite excited. It
came on Monday 5th August 2002. Being optimistic, I saw through the
rust and fibreglass and liked the car as soon as I saw it. It would be a
lot of work, but well worth the effort! |
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The car itself was parked outside on our drive with a cover sheet to protect
it from the elements. Any parts removed were taken into the garage for storage.
Bumpers, Tyres and Wings
 |
As I was away for the first week after the car arrived, I
gather that what didn't fall off of the bumpers unbolted quite easily. By
the shape of the bumper, it was apparent that the car had had a few prangs
in its lifetime. Other initial work consisted of removing front light
fittings, number plates and seats. As the car had been left outside before
we bought it, a lot had to be cleaned out from inside, including a large
amount of blossom! |
| The first major job was to put the car up on axle stands
supporting the rear axle and the chassis at the front. This allowed the
wheel nuts to be removed with a wheel brace. As with most things, nothing
is easy and one nut would not budge. We tried using a nut splitter but
this wouldn't fit. Our only option was to drill through the nut and then
chisel away until it gave way. |
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|
Removing the wing panels involved undoing the bolts that
line the inside of the wheel arches. After scraping away underseal, we
found that the bolts fall into three categories:
- Ones which will shift after soaking in PlusGas or WD40 and applying
large amounts of elbow grease.
- Those that don't shift after that either need to be cut off, or
ground off using an angle grinder.
- The rest just fall off.
A much quicker alternative to grinding was to extend to ratchet
with a pole to gain leverage - this shifted the stubborn bolts and broke
the heads off of the rusty ones!
With the front wings, there are two bolts under the bonnet that need
removing. This involved taking out the wiper motor and various other bits.
The rear wings are attached to the door frame by two screws which we had
to drill out due to rust.
When all of the bolts are removed, we used a chisel to gently pry the
wing from the rest of the body. In some places the two had rusted together
so need a bit of persuasion to part them.
There were mixed reactions to wing removal as it revealed a lot of rust
damage to the body and some quite extensive fibreglass work which would
have to be removed. It did, however reveal some shiny metal on the chassis
which was rust free! |
View all the photos from August 2002.
 
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