[Mgs] MGA Rebuild

Barrie Robinson barrie at look.ca
Tue Jan 3 10:25:40 MST 2012


David,

I did my Austin Healey BJ8, and my MGB GT V8 down to the 
frame/chassis/body and I have done my 1955 Aston Martin down to the 
bare frame.  (Frame is now back from powder coating place). I was 
advised by a professional outfit NOT to take the body off.  But I 
did.   This, contrary to the advice, was dead easy as the aluminium 
body is rigid on a steel body frame.  And I can say that neither the 
AH or MG were difficult.   If bits fitted before they will fit again 
- just like your pants - as long as you do not alter your body 
(waistline).  The big decision is do you sandblast or chemically 
strip the chassis.  With sandblasting you cannot get into the nooks 
and crannies and getting rid of the blast media can be a pain.  With 
chemical dipping you have the problem of weeping from the nooks and 
crannies with destroys the paint.  If I was to do another one I would 
do chemical dipping as the weeping problem goes away if you get a 
good powder coating professional outfit with a bl**dy big oven.  They 
wash it out with steam and then cook the chassis so there is no 
moisture inside.  The powder coat then seals everything up.  I powder 
coated my AM chassis and it is beautiful  - every single piece is 
covered - all the nooks and crannies.  As to whether you go down to 
the chassis just depends on your values.   I don't do my cars for 
anyone else but me - I like people to admire them but I am just as 
happy belting down a lonely county road as I am at a show.  I like to 
feel that I have done a good job - I polished all the brass things 
behind the AH dash, and I have done this for the AM.  Neither of 
these parts will be seen BUT I KNOW THEY ARE THERE !!

So going the whole hog just depends on how you feel - but I would 
hazard a guess that when you have done a real fine job you will look 
at the car and extol  WOW.  But if you do a semi-good job you will 
just murmur "nice".


At 10:04 PM 1/2/2012, David Breneman wrote:
>  From: Thompson Allan <allan.thompson at ntlworld.com>
>
>
> > I have had a 1960 MGA
>for a few years - nut haven't had the money nor the
> > time to tackle a
>rebuild.... but 2012 should allow some of both... so I am
> > wondering if
>anyone has a master-plan for a strip down to the frame and a
> > full rebuild?
>Well, I ended up not taking the body tub off the frame on
>mine because the
>fellow who did the body work told me it
>wasn't necessary, and that I'd end up
>paying a lot for the
>bragging rights of a "frame-off" getting everything lined
>up again when it wasn't necessary.  So YMMV, but here's
>my experience:
>http://tildebang.com/mg/
>_______________________________________________
>
>Mgs at autox.team.net
>Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
>Suggested annual donation  $12.75
>Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
>Forums: http://www.team.net/forums
>Unsubscribe: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/mgs/barrie@look.ca

Regards

Barrie
barrie at look.ca
(705) 721-9060 


More information about the Mgs mailing list