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	30 June 2003 Here it's the angle grinder and the cold chisel. You can't get the angle grinder into the difficult bits so in some places I had to drill a series of holes and then knock out the remaining metal with a cold chisel. I had to cut it up into small enough bits so that they could go down to the tip in the back of an estate car.
	You can see that the boot floor and rear panel has been cut out in one lump. The serious metal is where the wheelarch joins the panel between the boot and the cockpit.
	Both rear wings have now been removed. Next step is the battery box area. The wheel that you can see at the front is on the rear axle which just happens to be there!
	A serious amount of work to cut out the battery boxes. You can see that in the back left and back right corners, I've had to work round the strong points. The bottom of the transmission tunnel is another strong point where the layers are metal are thick. Look in the driver's footwell to see how the shell was bodged in the past to fit in an early engine.
	The final picture in this series. This bit was quite difficult to cut out. The sills were one area of difficulty and the strengthener under the middle of the floor was another. The latter didn't help as there was a thick piece of steel in the centre. The tyre lever going through to the heater shows the difficulty I had with getting it out. By the time it was out, it wasn't much use for anything. It wasn't any easier to put the new heater in.
	A New Body Where to get the body from? I'm was in the MG Owners Club and it seemed that their prices were pretty good. I ordered the new body in July 2003 and was told that the bodies were on order - I could expect mine in 6 weeks. I had a chat to my local car body repairer, he suggested painting the bottom and inside of the car with topcoat and only putting a primer on the rest as a first stage. The final coat would be applied only once I'd completed most of the build. I would inevitably collect some scratches during the build (and I did!) and this seemed like a good idea. In September, I got the news from the MGOC that the body was ready - the problem was that my car body repairer had just lost his painter and that he now had a problem. So had I! So I agreed with the MGOC that they would prepare and paint the car - only I had to go into another 6 week waiting list. The MGOC said that they would sort out some of the problems with the Heritage shell, for example the lack of room round the front shock absorbers and the fit of the front grille. I would definitely recommend the partial paint job approach, if you can. The MGOC paint job was OK but not top notch. My local repair specialist subsequently pointed out a few areas where a little more work would have made all the difference. I ordered the front and rear suspensions in advance. The front suspension was the MGOC coil over shock absorber unit with modified cross member (H003). The rear suspension was parabolic springs (PSK02) with Koni shock absorbers. The installation instructions for the Koni shock absorbers are dire and it's quite difficult to work out which way up the shock absorber bracket should be fitted. The front suspension was ready as a complete unit for assembling. The rear axle was subjected to my standard treatment or such parts. Back to bare metal with a rotary wire brush, 2 coats of Hammerite No 1 primer and 2 coats of black Smoothrite. I've found that Hammerite doesn't last very long if you don't use the primer - despite what it says on the can. For the sceptics amongst you, the Hammerite has lasted really well. I spent the rest of the autumn on my database program and the wiring diagrams. I also tried to build up a stock of spares by buying an 'allowance' after I had been paid. This was useful later on as I was rarely waiting for parts.
	The body finally arrived on 17 December 2003 in a special trailer. A temporary front axle was fitted by MGOC to the car so that it could moved. The body was sitting on the battery boxes so expect some paint damage here. The MGOC trailer set up is pretty good. There was a small amount of damage where the boot sits on the rear valance - not enough packing here.
	Lift the back end of the car with a few willing "volunteers" and up into the garage. You can see the refurbished back axle on the right. This really was a milestone and marked the low point in the morale curve. From here, things can only get better!
	So this was it's home for the next few months. Front of chassis rails on axle stands and rear spring hangers on ramps with bits of wood providing some protection. Note the obligatory concours broomstick doing its usual function. If it looks cold in the picture that's because it was very cold! I was keen to do something positive on the first evening to mark the transition to a more positive phase of the project so I fitted the cross member. It wasn't particularly easy to get the crossmember into place single handed but the job was done. Plenty of copper slip grease on the crossmember bolts.
	This is what the front suspension looked like after it was fitted. All the nuts and bolts are loose at this stage - except for the crossmember bolts. Only tighten these bolts with the car fully assembled and the car on its wheels. I think the new crossmember and suspension is much neater than the original. The vertical links are exchange replacements - I went for the ones with the needle roller bearing. The paintwork on these components didn't last anywhere near like as long as my Hammerite painting. Spot the yellow bushes - there's a story behind these later on!

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82 records found. Page 2 of 9 displayed.