Thanks all. More reassurance! I've been busy with the house build (lockdown has some benefits) but will be at the garage over this weekend so will have some more pictures. I did do some stick welding on our weathering steel stairs, which I was quite pleased with. I'm considering an Architectural thread with the strange steel efforts we're coming up with. I'm making skylights at the moment.
Fixing up the car when I can't and don't need to go anywhere has taken rather a back seat!
The front valance is shot, so that's coming straight off. The lower edges of the wings are full of holes, but I hope I can get away with trimming them back and using the small repair patch panels available for these areas. This is my first and only car, and I'm at the life stage where 'keep it running with minimal money' rather than concours d'elegance takes precedence, so practising my welding, painting and testing hand-skills is more important to me than panel gaps and heritage shells. I'm sure the bank manager would have something to say as well.
I see Andy Jennings and eBay have lots of MG panels in reasonable conditions for more approachable prices. I have heard that the BMH panels are deteriorating in quality because they need to invest in re-doing the tooling, which is worn out after many, many years of making MGB panels.
I invested in a big Halfords hydraulic jack last week and propped the whole thing high up on one side to get a better look at the nearside bottom edge. Goodness, how much easier it is than being on the gravel drive with a scissor jack! Getting the scissors low enough to get under the car means it's a real pain to start the jacking as there's no purchase.
At some point the sills have been redone, rather untidily. I'm considering a borescope to look inside them.
I'm sure I'll manage with the help available here, and thank you RWD3M for the kind offer of photographs. As things get more advanced I may well have to take you up on that.
Fixing up the car when I can't and don't need to go anywhere has taken rather a back seat!
The front valance is shot, so that's coming straight off. The lower edges of the wings are full of holes, but I hope I can get away with trimming them back and using the small repair patch panels available for these areas. This is my first and only car, and I'm at the life stage where 'keep it running with minimal money' rather than concours d'elegance takes precedence, so practising my welding, painting and testing hand-skills is more important to me than panel gaps and heritage shells. I'm sure the bank manager would have something to say as well.
I see Andy Jennings and eBay have lots of MG panels in reasonable conditions for more approachable prices. I have heard that the BMH panels are deteriorating in quality because they need to invest in re-doing the tooling, which is worn out after many, many years of making MGB panels.
I invested in a big Halfords hydraulic jack last week and propped the whole thing high up on one side to get a better look at the nearside bottom edge. Goodness, how much easier it is than being on the gravel drive with a scissor jack! Getting the scissors low enough to get under the car means it's a real pain to start the jacking as there's no purchase.
At some point the sills have been redone, rather untidily. I'm considering a borescope to look inside them.
I'm sure I'll manage with the help available here, and thank you RWD3M for the kind offer of photographs. As things get more advanced I may well have to take you up on that.