A visit to the MG

So on a cool Saturday afternoon the Jehu boys went to visit the donor MG, in hand were some socket sets some jump leads and a long power lead, along side the every present and faithful angle grinder. The usual anticipation of sparks was felt in the air as we cleared snow from the entrance to the garage so we could get our portable floodlights, ie headlights close enough to be useful if necessary.
First things first thought the boys, and so, they set about getting the engine moving again, after not being turned for a year, and sitting in only a summer jacket, outside through some pretty bad weather last year. Its a resilient beast, very accustomed to English weather though, and so it turned over no problem at all, without even spending time to prep it first.

Now the Jehu boys had planned to go the whole way and start it up, but time is always short, and so they got on with more pressing matters. The bonnet and boot lid came off easily enough and were dispatched in a couple of minutes. The wings proved a little more troublesome however. MG in their wisdom decided that each wing would need 20 bolts to hold it on, not too much trouble except they haven't been touched for a long time. Not only that but the MG's previous owner had welded one wing in place when the bolt holes had corroded. Making life a little more complicated. Ah well a perfect opportunity to break out the grinder.



Some of the bolts are also in fairly inaccessable places, especially when the liklihood is there will be corrosion of some sort! Eventually the two wings were removed (with a little more juducious grinder usage), spilling some very old dirt on the floor in the process.

So then we were on to the doors. Once again very over engineered hinges wee to prove a little feisty. But after some persuasion and waving a blow torch about the final phillips head bolts were removed allowing the doors and hinges to be removed from the body.



The donor now looks a little more like the project shell, which is nice. And we got to inspect the wings and doors, as ever with this project the closer you look the more corrosion you see and the more work is required. But its all good. and progress is progressing. We are starting to build a litle momentum, and the micra should get an update before long as well. We are getting on with it!