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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Rear fender question

I have long pondered this one. These cars were all spotweilded together right? Ok I understand how the rear wings can be spot weilded along the bottom seams, that makes sense because as i understand it those spot weilds are all visible from the outside. What I have trouble figuring out are the spot weilds along the upper seams where the rear wings join the rest of the rear top panel. there is a moulding strip to hide this seam from the outside, but the flange is turned inword for spotweilding and it looks REALLY tight in there. I am asking because I got a complete rear fender a while back and while I will probibly reshell my current car, I am curious how one would replace the rear wings without cutting a patch out of the new fender and seam weilding the patch in.
S.A. Jones

When I replaced the rear fenders on my midget I welded the top seam from the inside of the trunk. Cut the the old fenders off leaving the flanges still attached to the car using a cut-off wheel. Make sure you cut on the outer fender side of the bead. Grind off the flange of the old outer fender all the way around the fender including the "B" post. Next grind the flange off the bead so that you are left with just the flange of the inner fender.If you don't remove these flanges the seam will be too wide creating a poor fit. Fit and clamp the bead to the inner fender. Put a few very small tack welds along the bottom edge of the flanges to hold the bead in place. Remove the clamps and punch or drill 5/16" holes 1" apart along the length of both of these flanges(bead and inner fender - two thickness). Punch holes along all the flanges of the outer fender-EXCEPT FOR THE TOP FLANGE BETWEEN THE INNER AND OUTER FENDERS. Fit, clamp and tack the outer fender in place. Plug weld all the holes that you punched. The top seam will have to be done from the inside of the trunk. This is difficult but not impossible. If you aren't very experienced with a mig welder then this is one job that I would hire out. I hope you were able to follow the procedure I just described.
C Roode

and presumably it is an awful lot easier to wok inside the trunk if you have a rotating 'spit' to mount the body on...
David Smith

This thread was discussed between 18/03/2009 and 27/03/2009

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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