How I Built a Body in 1800 Easy Steps !!

[roddguy1]

The first pic shows some of the work done in the shrinker head. A planishing hammer would have been nice right about now. However I managed with the shrinker head and a shot bag.

 

[roddguy1]

Ok, this is pretty much it. All thats left now is to do the final welding grinding and priming. This body will need very little filler to smooth out some imperfections in the steel.

 

[roddguy1]

On a side note, all the work I did making the rear 1/4 skins was done while I had a 102 degree fever. I had a show coming up last weekend, Mar 13,14,15 (Performance World) that I had to be ready for and this body was the main part of the display. I made it, but just barely and then managed the 12hr days at the show. Wow was I nakerd by Monday.

 

[wrecker55]

NICE !!!!!! love them ol MGs . Keep up the great work and you'll have more business than you can handle

 

[cnchotrods]

OMG, you are either one of the finest metal craftsmen I have ever seen, or just plain crazy for even trying that.... That is beautiful work, and just 1800 simple steps too.

 

[Bonehead]

That's a lot of steps! Looks great.

 

[BruceR&C]

Nice work rodguy.

 

[roddguy1]

OMG, you are either one of the finest metal craftsmen I have ever seen, or just plain crazy for even trying that.... That is beautiful work, and just 1800 simple steps too.

Thanks guys, yeah I would chock it up to 90% crazy.
I really love doing this stuff, and I'm very glad to have been given the chance to really tackle something that made me think...... A LOT !!

 

[Gastrick]

Well that looks easy enough. I think I'll just run over to the shop and whip one up. Are you kidding me?. Amazing job.

 

[Thunder1]

Great job!

Thunder1

 

[Flipper_1938]

Thanks for taking the time to document and share your work.

Do you work by the hour? or a firm quote?

 

[moronthethrottle]

I'm not worthy. I couldn't even post a thread for making Kool-Aid seem to be as simple as your mg rebuild.

There was a fiberglass replica of this car in my hometown with a VW 4cyl in it. Looked like crap esp. compared to this...not worth the $12,000 that the guy was asking IMO.

 

[roddguy1]

Thanks for taking the time to document and share your work.

Do you work by the hour? or a firm quote?

Thanks so much for your kind words guys. I thought you might enjoy seeing what I do for a day job. I only do this cause I can't sing. .

Flipper, with the type of work this is, being a one off this is a time a material job. I usually quote on the job, but they are always open ended because you always find more problems and usually the customer comes up with more things they want done as well. I excpect that by the time this job is painted and assembled the bill will come in an little north of 30K. That includes 10K worth of parts in from the UK.

 

[roddguy1]

Alrighty then, I have an update on the MG. After the show in Toronto I blew it all apart again to prep everything for final welding and some glueing. ( Pic 1) Yes, that's right I said glue. Some of the panels at the back are glued together. Particularly on the seams between the rear quarters and the back panel. The glue I used is an epoxy formulated for bonding sheet metal and once dry is far stronger than welding.

The next few pics just show some details in the finished panels, and the finished body in the booth ready for primer.

 

[roddguy1]

All primed and trimed on the inside.

 

[roddguy1]

The one original piece of sheetmetal that I did reuse needed some serious help. on both ends where the windshield mounts.

 

[roddguy1]

Here you can see the scuttle top is finished, and the door latches and handles have been installed. They looked simple enough but what a headache getting things to line up and work smoothly.

 

[roddguy1]

And now it's finally time to mate the new body with the chassie for the first test fit. I'm pretty happy with this.

 

[rustbucket49]

Pretty incredible. Your work doesn't look like my work - I haven't seen you break out the bondo yet ! I'll say it again - you need your name changed from RodGuy to RodGod - Nice work !

So in the sequence above (three posts up from here) where you repaired the windshield mounting area, it appears you used a MIG to weld in the new piece?? Did you have to use a hammer and dolly after welding, or just grind and clean up the weld bead??

 

[roddguy1]

Thanks Rustbucket, I'm very flattered that you think that, but I'm not doing anything that anyone couldn't learn to do. I respectfully prefer to leave the God titles to the one who gave me the tallent in the first place.

I did use a hammer and dolly to fix up some minor heat distortion on this panel. I'm going to do a post in your thread on body work to detail this more clearly on how I control heat and distortion and what I do to correct when needed.