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More Wing Restoration

Having completed the driver side wings to 80% finished, I turned back to the passenger side wings. I knew that the rear wing was much worse than the drivers side and tackled this first. I had already made a start on it but waited until I turned the car around in the garage in order to see it properly. Moving the car up to this point had been a pain due to a 'seized on' front disc brake. Having unbolted it from the suspension I persuaded it to move from the disc with the help of a piece of timer and a heavy hammer. I was able to quickly turn the car around so I could access the passenger side. I had not seen this side for over a year and was shocked at the poor quality of what was my first attempts at welding on the car. With the wings off I spent a lot of time grinding off excess weld metal and finishing off missed areas. Even so it was amazing how much my metalworking and welding had improved since I first attacked this side of the car over two years ago. I could have saved myself a fortune in grinding discs!

Please refer to the archive pictures for June 2005 as many of the same techniques were used to repair the passenger side wings.

Rear Wing Restoration

	I knew that the passenger side wings were in a much worse state than the drivers side. In above picture I have already had to use a replacement panel for the front section.

	Above you can see how little was left of the rear lower portion which is a complex area of curves and looked daunting. The black is actually where I have chemically treated the rust with 'KURUST' to prevent further rusting and to make welding easier.

	Using the drivers side rear wing as a template I cut out a replacement section to repair the areas where it bolts to the body. The curve comes straight from the body by tracing the shape onto card , marking the bolts holes, cutting it out in card, using the template on sheet metal and the cutting it out with my trusty nibbler (now on its 6th blade).

Welding of the new wing mounting piece was detailed last month and will not be repeated. What was obvious was the hardly any reference points remained around the lower edge through rust. I used the previously repaired wing and bolted the two together (see left) . Using the card templates I had previously used on the other wing I was able to work out where the missing edges should have been and where the repair pieces needed to be increased. Welding the new pieces in resulted in a wing that was roughly the correct shape.


	Having bolted the wing back on the body I was able to see where the repair had not produced smooth curves in all three axes and made use of 'heavy' body filler. I recommend the use of a body filler that has a metal base as it is heavy duty and able to take a lot of punishment but still easy to sand. After sanding a further viewing will highlight where further filling is needed. Fit the drivers side rear wing and keep checking to make sure that the wing you are working on is symmetrical

	At this point you need to replace the inner mudguard to make sure that it fits the repaired wing correctly and that it does not drop below the edge of the wing. The rear wing now needs to have a bracket fabricated that is welded to the wing and connects to the inner mudguard by a single bolt. Note the amount of rust repair welding was needed. Clamp the lower edge of the wing temporarily. Do not drill the body to take the lower wing bolts at this stage. It is highly likely that the rear wing will require further adjustment

	With the rear wing in place I was able to cut out and weld in the roof repair piece. Again make sure that you remove paint from the area of welding and then treat any rust with KURUST. In general all 4 wings will require a lot of adjustment in order to get them to fit and match the doors. My experience has been that you must be prepared to bolt the wings on an off many many times. So be patient and do try to short cut any repairs.

Front Wing Restoration

	This was the condition of the passenger side front wing in the headlamp area. I worked on the other wing in Mar03 and its worth referring to those pictures as well. As usual the passenger side rust was a lot worse than the drivers side. This has been put down to the fact that the passenger side of a car encounters a lot more water than the drivers side due to the road camber and gutter.

	As usual the first step is to fabricate a repair piece from card that lets you 'wrap' the card as required in order to match the curves of the wing. Make sure you allow enough metal to catch rust free areas of the wing. In general you always repair the wing mounting areas in order to be able to bolt it to the body before completing other areas.

	Next step is to cut out the shape in metal. Note the 'tabs' have been included in order to form a base for the headlamp area repairs. At this stage you will need to do some metal bashing in order to get the section that fairs into the curve of the wing. In this area it is quite a slight curve.

	Here is the piece in place ready to weld. The existing rust areas have been treated with KURUST. Note where the existing metal is retained as an aid to make sure it is aligned correctly.

	With the wing bolted back on the car it is possible to adjust the gap under the headlamp where it has completely rusted away. With nothing between the wing wanted to close up so I started off by cutting the headlamp circle as before (see March 03 Archive photos). There is usually enough of the old headlamp ring remaining to give you a good guide as to where the ring should go. You will also see how much the gap underneath opens up. Make sure the other front wing is on and use it as a reference point and as a check on dimensions. The best measure you have is your eye. If it looks right it probably is. The aim is to match both wings in terms of look, size, height etc. I set up a measuring grid on the car using the center of the windscreen lower edge as a datum and measuring to the center of the top of each wing. Height from the ground straight up to the ring is another measure

	Back to the card templates and metal forming in order to fill the gap under the headlamp ring. The wing has a distinctive seam running vertically from the center of the ring so the repair piece has to be in two halves with an inward flange on each piece. The curves are not difficult to make with the aid of a wooden rolling pin. Note I have left the front valence bolted in position in order to use it as a means of getting the bottom of the repair piece in the correct position. Remember that the final smooth curve will be achieved using fine body filler so don't look for perfection with your metal working. In order to give this part extra strength I allow my repair pieces to have a good overlap on top of the original metal. I did this because this area is subject to a lot of water exposure and the original metal though not rusted through, is bound to have a reduced wall thickness.

	After checking all dimensions, and visually for correctness, and symmetry weld the repair pieces in position. The next step is to repeat the fabrication of the return lip that goes along the lower edge of the wing and stiffens the whole front of the wing up. Again having the valence there helps to get the dimensions/location correct. (see June Diary)

Here is the reward. For this first time the MGA has two eyes of equal size after 3 years

August 2002

December 2005

Front Wing Underbody Restoration

When refitting the front wing I had a very poor fit along the top edge with the body. This originated from the amount of repair work that had to be done to the area where the wing met the body (see May03). I made a mistake and set the new wing bolt line too far into the body which left a gap between the body and the wing when bolted up. It was of the order of 15mm at its worse and I had a number of options. I thought about redoing the whole mounting area but decided in the end to used metalised filler in the affected areas. This ensured that I would get a water tight seal. I know the purists will cringe but I was loathe to disturb that area of the body any more than I had to. The strength is still there in the welded in repair sections and the filler merely cosmetic and not structural.

	This is a reminder of how it looked 3 years ago and just how bad that front area of the wing to body mounting area was.

	I took the opportunity to improve on the welding that I had carried out 2 years previously. This area of the car was the first part of the car that I welded and need some tidying up and some welds redoing and others completed. Much grinding improved it no end and I was able to paint it at last. The paint I am using is Hammerite that you can apply directly onto rust areas to seal it. I still prefer to clean up the metal of rust, treat it chemically and then paint it.


	With wing back on I was able to do a first attempt at get a fit of the wing to door by moving the wing within the bolt slots. This highlighted another problem with the bottom of the wing bolting flange being too low and missing the body. Note the second cut and weld I had to make in order to correct a skew in my original repair panel weld and to shorten it so that it met the lower edge of the body panel and matched the door and outer sill under the door.


	Similarly with the rear wing to door fit up. I had to make an extra cut in order to get an acceptable fit up and still be near to the doors lower corner. I cant emphasise enough the trouble you will have around the doors if you have had to replace both front and rear door pillars. In my case in appears that I had positioned the rear one about 15 mm too far out. This meant that the replacement outer sill was too narrow and the bottom edge of the door was proud by 15mm. No door adjustment was possible so I had to refabricate the sill to extend that extra 15mm and modify the rear wing lower leg accordingly.

	In order to finalise the body panel fit up I needed to fit the door latch and striker to see where the door would be when closed mechanically. This meant refitting the complete mechanism after cleaning it up.

	The next step was to fit the door closure plate. I had a replacement part and this need two cuts in order to make it fit correctly. Once in place I fitted the striker plate and spent an hour grinding out areas where the door was binding. The tolerances around this area are very tight even when everything is fitting correctly. Be patient and keep at it. The closure plate is necessary so get it right. You will probably find that in some areas you will grind away some of the metal completely. Don't panic, just get the door to close correctly and then make good the closure plate with metalised filler. It is not structural. I also took the opportunity to weld the seat belt bracket to the chassis and to fit the upper mounting point (by the bottom of the crowbar in the picture) to the wheel arch. These came from a kit supplied by Clarke Spares of the USA who remanufacture the original factory fittings.

End of 2005 Status


The car is quickly approaching the point where I will take the body off the chassis. There are still a number of body welds to complete from the inside and a number of body panel joints to improve on. Next job is to complete the door dilemma on both sides and get the body panels to line up neatly. My door skins are cracked near the latch area so I will be detailing how to weld these areas of aluminium though the process is more like brazing with a propane torch. Keep watching

All the photos up to December 2005 can be found here.