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MG MGA - Bucket attachment

Hey all, I hope to mount the head light buckets tomorrow. There are no captive nuts on/in the front fenders, (wings), where the buckets mount. Should there be captive nuts or just regular nuts and bolts? Thanks, Tom
Thomas McNamara

Yes, there should be 3 or 4 weld nuts on rear side of the fender flange.
Barney Gaylord

Thanks again Barney, I'll try inserts for starters. Tom
Thomas McNamara

My SPL and memory both say machine screws, spring washers, nuts.

FRM
FR Millmore

Hey, sure enough, originally nuts. I stand corrected. Of course my car is the freak, because I have been molesting it for decades. My RF wing has weld nuts, possibly because I brazed them in place about 35 hears ago. My LF wing has tapped holes, because I welded in a thicker steel plate to repair (replace) a badly damaged ring in the wing (also 35 years ago). The parking lamps always had tapped rings behind the sheet metal.
Barney Gaylord

A parts book will tell you if there were regular nuts instead of captive ones.

All the MGA's I've worked on had separate washers (lock and flat) and a nut 10/32 thread if memory serves me.

Steve
S L Bryant

Yo Bahney-
"my car is the freak, because I have been molesting it for decades."
Bad dog, bad!

Do dat mean you have not met concrete anchors, sheet metal screws, toggle bolts, wood screws, glue, pop rivets, welds to varying standards, tie wraps, baling wire?


Steve- "A parts book will tell you if th...."
Said parts book will also tell you, to quote myself, "machine screws, spring washers, nuts" - no flat washers.
And if you stare at the book long enough, you will get a clue as to what "SPL" might mean.

FRM
FR Millmore

Quote:
"my car is the freak, because I have been molesting it for decades."
Bad dog, bad!

Do dat mean you have not met concrete anchors, sheet metal screws, toggle bolts, wood screws, glue, pop rivets, welds to varying standards, tie wraps, baling wire?
/quote


FRM, --

You got the idea. I have met all of those features. I'm not sure my car ever had concrete anchors, but it has definitely had all the rest at one time or another. From the late 60's to the late 70's MGAs were orphans that nobody wanted. I drove them in the late 60's because they were cheap, and that's all I could afford. People wouldn't put $.02 into repairs if they could find a way to keep it running cheaper. Very young and inexperienced college students drove the things, and the cars changed owners two or three times a year at semester breaks. When I bought my current MGA in 1977, it had been pranged, pulled out (half way), bondoed over and repainted at least twice. You could count the number of prior owners by the different mismatched fasteners and odd paint colors.

My first chore was to attempt to correct most of the prior molestations as best I could. Being a novice on a steep learning curve at the time, body straightening and welding was particularly challenging (especially since I had a gas welder but no MIG welder). Back then I was not too far removed from doing the cheapest repairs possible, so I spent 40 hours repairing a totally trashed LF fender rather than looking for a replacement. That's when it got the heavy gauge steel ring welded into the wing behind the LF headlight. When I was finished there was no bondo. Must have been a decent molestation, because it's still there today.

There was one time when the engine dropped an intake valve, punched a hole in the piston, pushed the valve guide out the top of the head, and was sucking oil into the intake port fogging mosquitoes as it ran. I kid you not I patched the engine up with a huge wad of chewing gum and hair pin, and drove it 150 miles on three cylinders to get home. Somehow it always gets there under its own power.

Some of my molestation (most of it actually) is to improve reliability, like replacing many of the snap connectors with gas-tight crimp connectors, installing an alternator to get rid of the problem prone aftermarket control boxes, and installing a rubber rear crankshaft seal. Some of it is to improve performance and handling, like installing a larger front sway bar to kick ass at autocross, alloy wheels as a matter of self preservation, an MGB clutch (seemed like a good idea at the time), and more recently a 3.91 final drive. The trailer hitch and navigator's desk are minor mods that are easily reversible (just remove them if you like). The radiator got a short filler neck to use a modern recovery cap, before you could find a long neck recovery cap.

There are a few tie wraps left, and a few odd pop rivets well hidden. I don't think there are any non-factory sheet metal screws or wood screws, any extraneous bits of wood or toggle bolts. Definitely no baling wire (except in the took kit), but there may be a touch of JB weld hiding somewhere. There is now a little body filler where at one time I had none. Since body sill replacement four years ago, at least the doors fit and work perfectly (which they didn't for 20 years prior). In the end most of my molestation is not readily visible, and does not change the appearance of the car (much). It still scores fairly high for originality in a concours car show (if I might actually wash it for the judges to get close enough for inspection).
Barney Gaylord

Barney-
Not such a bad dog atall!
Been working on them since the young 'uns were only 3, (65) watched them go down and up and sideways, and now people have to change stuff to "make it better" They were always good and always reliable if you fixed them correctly, to the point I worked myself out of business. They just weren't fast enough or grippy enough for some of us, so we did things.
I built body panels by hand when there were no repro anything. We supplied Scarborough Faire with the NOS chrome for the first good repros of the air grilles and badges etc.

We had a car we bought for $250 as a parts car about 73, thought we were crazy for paying that, but it seemed worth it with tooth gritting. Dragged it home 60 miles on the 4th of July or Labor day, hot as Hades, rope kept breaking and getting shorter. I wound up driving an MGA on a 6 foot string behind a madman in a Ford Pickup at 60mph in traffic. Stopped a couple times to put out the brake fires and the boiling cauldron of wheel bearing grease.
Made it, two hours if fiddling and it lit up. We hung some bumpers on it and my co-conspirator drove it for a couple of years as his only car, no top, had heat.
We had nothing to do winter 75-76 so decided to replace the brown primer and 10,000 dents. Charlie said what colour? = we had already done most colours. Then he said "well you can't paint it black". I wanted to know whyzat??, and he pointed to the dents. So I said "black it is" and did the whole car by hand without air tools. Had a half horse Sears compressor which I still use sometimes, traded some fenders for an arc welder to do the frame repairs - got a TIG convertor with it that I've been using ever since. Everything else gas welded and metal finished, laid a show qual black acrylic lacquer paint job on it. Looked so good we couldn't put the old chrome back, so we wound up using the hoard of NOS stuff, and the new seats, and new interior - and couldn't hardly give it away. Finally $2000 so we could eat, probably a %25,000 car easy now (or $35K in the late 80's, damn).

And I still don't have a MIG for thin stuff, use my torch - just bought stuff to gas weld stainless & aluminum, instead of TIG. Nice welds on my new stainless Mazda exhaust!

FRM
FR Millmore

I understand just lifting the skirt off the frame is legal molestation. This is the only car I ever had long enough to repaint it three times, each time running my hands over every square inch of the body again and again and again, and .... I have had the body off twice, seats and top redone twice, new carpet three times, removed and replaced engine and gear box at least a dozen times each. To avoid police charges, I suppose this has to be viewed as common law marriage.

When you have done this long enough, and have to live with your own handiwork, you learn to fix things so they won't break again. The more you drive it the more reliable it gets, until it is eventually just about bullet proof. It is by now (or 15 years ago) the most reliable car I ever owned, meaning most likely to get me where I'm going every time without needing a tow. The primary reason for that is utter simplicity, nothing on the car that is not required to make it go down the road. Ah, the last of the great side curtain roadsters.
Barney Gaylord

Holy Cow! Headlight buckets to philosophy! Love it! Tom
Thomas McNamara

This thread was discussed between 03/07/2012 and 05/07/2012

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