Yesterday was a day that I've been waiting for for the better part of two
years...
I set out to separate the body of the 1957 MGA from its chassis. I had a friend
(Rob) come over for the "about an hour" job. I had removed all of the
necessary
wiring, cables, and nuts & bolts last weekend, so today's task was to be a
simple
one - lift the body from the frame, put it on a trailer, drive it about 4 miles,
and deposit it NEATLY in the garage of my parents house (which is currently on
the market).
As one might expect, this "about an hour" job stretched into close to 6 hours
when all was said and done. It started with Rob and I trying to lift the body
from the frame, and having it hang up on something. That *something* turned out
to be a bracket which holds the pedal assembly. I had removed all of the bolts
that the criptic BMC shop manual had pointed out, yet the brackets were still
in
the way "No problem", I said, "I'll just remove the brackets." With only a few
bleeding scratches on my hands, the brackets were free and the pedal assembly
was
no longer resticting the body from lifting. "About an hour" had passed at this
point, but it looked like we were well on the way to lifting the thing and
getting on our way.
We tried lifting again, and although the pedals were no longer a problem, the
body just didn't want to end its 36+ year bond with the chassis. Rob got a
puzzled look on his face and said "How are getting this thing past the steering
column?". "We're not!" I said confidently from the front of the car, "the
steering wheel column stays put and the body lifts off around it..." I walked
to the side of the car to show him the elegant simplicity of the car, "...I
removed this bracket, its free to lift right off!". After saying that, I
realized the elegant stupidity of the way I braced the car. I used some 2x4's
bolted in such a way to keep the body stiff while lifting, etc... One of them
was under the steering column, and there was no way in hell we would be able to
lift the body up more than 3 inches without the 2x4 hitting the steering column.
"No problem", I said, "I'll just remove the steering column." As one might
expect, this was no easy task. We tried some WD-40 after removing the bolt
which
holds the steering column to one half of a U-joint setup. This was a exercise
in
futility. We then decided that removing the U-joint was the better idea. I got
out my "Northern Hydraulics" $5 special "Circlip tools" and attacked the
circlips
on the U-joint. After liberal use of WD-40 and some British swearing, the first
circlip came out. Spinning the joint over (by turning the front wheels) I
started to remove the second circlip. On the second try, the wonderful circlip
pliers became "rubbish bin" material, because of the little round ends had
broken
clean off. If someone can figure out why I buy cheap tools like this, please
enlighten me, so I won't do it again. Anyway, another attack at the circlip
(with another "Made in Taiwan" circlip plier from the set) removed the circlip.
So far so good - bang out the U-joint and we're in business! NOT!
The U-joint wouldn't budge. We then decided that it was a good time to play
with
fire. We were both freezing and it just seemed like the thing to do. I had
already soaked the entire area with WD-40, and figured that if nothing else, it
would be fun to burn it all off other there. [For all of your safety nuts out
there, there was NO chance that the car and/or garage was going to burn down as
a result of this, so you can relax]. We heated up the surrounding U-joint
holder, then applied a liberal dose of WD-40. Most of it boiled away, but I
figured that the capilary action from the heating might such some of it into the
area between the holder and the rust rozen cap. Again, if nothing else, it was
fun to see a petroleum product boil away like water. It still wouldn't budge,
and my long Craftsman 1/2 inch extension was starting to look the worse for wear
(no problem - its guaranteed!). A couple more cycles of heating/WD-40/banging
and U-joint was free. The column came out relatively easily after that.
We then tried to lift and decided that although I had read that "2 guys" could
lift the MGA body, those two guys weren't Rob and I. Perhaps Arnold
Shwarzenegger (sp?) and a big guy that I see at Gold's Gym in Nashua could do
it. We decided that I should solicit some help - 2 more regular sized guys - so
we went inside. I bribed Rob with a beer, since it was now after 12:00, and the
"About an hour" job turned into 3 and a half. I made a couple of phone calls
and
both recipients (Brian and Don - who has a show winning 1960 MGA 1600) jumped at
the chance to, as I put it, "Have the opportunity to see a 35 year old sports
car
frame in its original form". We warmed up, ate lunch, and drank a couple of
beers while we waited for the re-enforcements. They showed up after about an
hour and we were, indeed, in business.
The four of us lifted the body with relative ease, and put it on the trailer.
We
took the obligitory pictures of me sitting in the body, holding the steering
wheel, and some of the not so pristene (but not too rusty!) chassis. We
transported the frame and dropped it off with ease. On the way home we stopped
at the Don's place to see his 1600. He uncovered it and Rob and Brian oogled
over it for a while, then after many "Thank You"'s from me, we dispersed. As it
turns out, once the body is off the chassis, two guys can carry it; its
separating it from the chassis that requires more power.
Now the fun can really begin, since almost everything on the car needs to be at
least cleaned and greased, if not totally rebuilt or replaced.
-Al
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