MGB GT V8 project - Here we go again!

[chodjinn]

For the past few months I've been cleaning and stripping the shell back to bare metal. There's a few holes in the passenger floorplan and boot, so I'm planning on learning to weld, and I need to do some work in the engine bay to fit a V8 in as well. Haven't taken any pics yet but will do!

Ok plan for the project is;

Strip shell, repair & reinforce shell with stitch welds and some other little tricks.
Full FIA weld in roll cage (Custom Cages I think)
Front coilover converison

I've also got a lot of parts left over from the twin turbo project that will bolt straight on;

Shortened SD1 rear axel, LSD, sierra cosworth brakes
Jag front brakes
5-stud hubs
Wilwood Bias pedal box
Custom dash/gauges

And finally I'm selling the current sebring kit as I managed to get hold of a set of BCV8 Championship V8 "Big Wing" Sebring arches. These are wider and taller in the arch than the standard sebring kit, the racers run 16" x 10" wheels on them! They're currently stashed at my parents place until I need them, but these are a few pics I got off the ebay auction;

[3xpendable]

Keep us posted!

[chodjinn]

Well I'm off to get my rollover jig tomorrow hopefully so I can get cracking under the car. Took a few pics last night of how it is now;





I've removed the supports for the false boot floor. You can see the dash that I made years ago, had to chop it about a little as I'm using a later steering column which has the small collapsable section and slightly different mounts, went on a treat tho!


Also removed the centre console/radio support, weighed a ton lol


Getting the sound deadening gunk off was a chore


Trim holes were already welded up very nicely, but caked with a thick layer of filler. The nearside was the worst, had about 10mm of filler from the B-post all the way down. Looked like it had snowed in my garage after grinding all that off!


Nearside corner has a bit of rot, should be an easy fix and doesn't have to be neat as the Sebring valance will be bonded on & blended.


Offside corner, bit worse.


Rear axel, not sure whether I should strip it or give it a lick of paint at the moment, had no probs with it when the car was running. Also got a decent aluminium bonnet for £15, which is lighter than the fibreglass one I have!

[chodjinn]

Picked up the rollover jig, man it was heavy to take on a train! Got the A frames assembled after redrilling two holes but need to get the car mounts drilled properly before I use it. Spent today stripping the front suspension and cleaning the cross member.

These are the bits that are going to get blasted/powdercoated, only part of the suspension that I'm doing for the moment are the stub axel/kingpins & hubs which will get new bearings/bushes. Brake rotors are hardly use just need a freshen up. Antiroll bar drop links are going to be replaced by some rose-jointed ones, and I'm using a larger 3/4" antiroll bar which I already have some poly bushes for.


These bits I'm not restoring as they're in good nick and will be replaced at a later date with uprated items. The lever arm shocks & springs weigh a lot tho!

[chodjinn]

Been a while since I last posted so thought I better update! The shell requires a lot more restoration than I originally thought, bit gutted but as least I'll get a lot of welding practice. It needs complete sills both sides, floors, front inner arch repairs including the reinforcement pieces, and both rear corners. The boot floor isn't in great shape either and the rear valance has three crude patches which need sorting. So I've been busy taking the shell back to bare metal while collecting parts. I got lucky on ebay twice in the past month have got most of the bits I need, managed to score about £1k of heritage panels for £300 so pretty happy with that! Also loaned out my compressor for a mates welder ... had a quick practice go today on scrap, but it was a bit of a disaster so I've now bought the correct size reel and bits for thin metal (was 0.8mm as he was welding a landy).













Also started on restoring the arches today. Took all the excess filler off the front ones, the drivers side was clearly in a smash at some point as part of it has been rebuilt with fibreglass, but it's still missing a large portion of the corner and bottom.






The passenger side is in much better shape, so I started on that one first. Cut out some perforated alloy plate and got busy with the fibreglass and resin, love doing it but it's messy!

[ChrisJC]

Good stuff.
I hate welding thin steel - good luck with it.

Chris.

[chodjinn]

Been stripping the sebring arches this week. The drivers side had a lot of small bubbles, started to sand off but in the end used the heat gun as there were 9 layers over most of the arches! Mainly paint but a couple of skims of filler in places, sometimes 3-4mm thick and put on over older paint. Hard work but I want it done properly. The drivers side has a larger repair down the middle, and an arch add on that came off pretty easy ... turns out the drivers wing is a standard sebring arch that was widened so the profile by the headlight is slightly wrong. So even more deconstruction was/is required and I got busy hammering some more perf alloy sheet to make the right shape, using the passenger side as a guide. Came out pretty good, I used both ends of an old chisel as a dolly as I didn't have anytning else!














Also gave the arches a mock fit and measured the gap, 4.75" outer rim-to-rim, fair bit wider than normal sebring arches

[kiwicar]

Hi
I have been looking, from your post in the for sale section I had assumed you did not have easy access to the Diff casing (ie it wasn't the one on the bench). . . .
I must confess that this set of photos scare me, repairing fibreglass and removing rust are two of my pet hates in life so I take my hat off to you!
Best of luck
Mike

[andyv8van]

looks like plenty of hard work done so far !!!!!

Andy

[chodjinn]

I'm actually thinking of selling the axle, wheels and hubs as getting other wheels to fit the 5x5" pcd is a nightmare. If I switch back to 4x114.3mm there are plenty, got my eye on some Rota's.

And yes lots of work! But I enjoy it hah! Got all the bits I need to sort the mig welder out now so planning on practice Round 2 next wk. One thing I'm not looking forward to is starting the sills ...

[volospian]

Doing a sterling job there matey! Much more patience than I have, but after the Cobra build... I fancy something classic...

[chodjinn]

I'm starting to regret it lol, particularly as I've bene offerd a Skyline R32 shell with full BDC cage, tubbed f&r and plenty of other custom work done for half the price that my custom cage is going to come in at ....

I'm half thinking to scale back the MGB project massively, usign the bits I have and a random engine, and spend the proper money on the R32 (since, it's like my favorite modern car and I've wanted one for two decades!)

[volospian]

Always the way... you get so far along and then think "actually.... that looks like a nicer option". lol.

[chodjinn]

Always the way... you get so far along and then think "actually.... that looks like a nicer option". lol.

Well, in the end I decided I wanted the MGB to be a bit more user-friendly, so it's not having the mad £2k cage, nor the 5-link rear suspension or coilover front conversion, meaning I won't be spending £4.5 on the MGB which I don't have.

So I bought the Skyline to build into a track monster. It's currently under a tarp in my back yard.

The MG will still be having a Lexus V8 I hope. The problem at the moment is motivation, I am really, really struggling to get to grips with welding and because there is so much to do I haven't worked on it much since my last pic post apart from remove the inner wheel arches ready for tubbing and finish stripping the arches (I reckon I have 40hrs in them so far). I haven't even managed to get the welder set up correctly, and the new 5kg reel of 0.6mm wire I bought got damp from a leaky roof and rusted itself together. Bah! I was so close to binning it off last week and selling all the repair panels etc. I've accumulated. But no. Just need to stay positive.

Off on holiday next week so I plan to reboot myself on this mid-august. I want the shell ready for paint by xmas (hah yeah right!).

On the plus side, the guy who bought my other shell (which, as it turned out was a million times better than my current one, but the repair panels would still have cost more than what I have spent so far on the new shell + heritage panels + welder!) has sorted me out with a load of bits.

I swapped my chrome bumper front end (in pieces) for a complete rubber bumper set up so at least I can get the shell rolling easy when I've done restoring it. I also swapped my original chrome bumper gauges & steering rack for a complete MGB rear axel and a second steering column/rack (bargain!). So I can now fit 'original' axel rather than the SD1 and have much wider choice of wheels, and it has literally cost me nowt, he even delivered them to my door in two trips! Only problem will be front end ride height but eventually, that will get sorted with coilovers (a long way off, I'll be fitting big 16" minimum so ride height won't be as noticeable as in a 'normal' serbing rubber bumper conversion). I needed the rubber bumper cross member to give me an inch or two extra clearance from the steering rack to front of V8 (in my old RV8 TT, the rack was 2mm from the front pulley!).

So, not much work per se but lots of long term planning. Trying, at least, to do it right this time.

Cheers

[scudderfish]

If you ever find yourself saying "it'll be ready for Christmas", just mentally note to yourself that you're not saying which one.