1973 MGB GT- A little rust 30/08

Managed to get a bit of work done to the car today, ever since I fitted the new wheels I've been getting some rubbing of tyre on arch at the back to some degree. It's gotten better to the point where it rarely rubs if its just me in the car, but if I'm carrying a passenger or some luggage I get rubbing on corners.

So a mate came round with an arch roller to see if we could improve things

It turned out to be a bit of job in the end, the drivers side rear arch had already split before from where I tried to pull it out and it would seem there were at least a couple different panels on there, plenty of work with a hammer and a bit of work with the roller got the inner lip folded up and out of the way of the tyre though

On the passenger side, the rear wing was much newer and seemed to all be one panel, so the hammer was used a bit initially to start the lip folding then the roller could be used to fold it the rest of the way





Doing this has also had the effect of flaring both the arches out a bit which helps with the clearance to the tyres, the passenger side looks good but the drivers side had a fair bit of filler flake off and is a bit tatty, so I may go over the crack in the wing with a bit of filler and paint just to neaten it up. The car's bodywork isn't its strong point anyway so I'm not bothered if its not overly pretty for the time being

Also while sheltering from a sudden hailstorm the wet footwell problem appeared again, I decided to check the scuttle panel vent and sure enough there was a little puddle in there which is no doubt a result of a blocked drain causing the water to find other ways out, so I'm gonna have to get underneath and see whats up with the drain.. oh joy..

I spent a long time looking at sebring kits and fitment and eventually decided against it due to so many bad fitments and poor quality kits. The work required would also have set me back by a year on my build and would have left the car weaker in my opinion, if you take the approach of cutting out the rear wings and replacing with GRP. Golf rear arches can fit, I did a trial fit on my build thread.

Looking good though, when do you plan to fit the new dampers? I'll be interested to know how you find them compared to the old lever arms.

If I go Sebring with mine I'll be doing the arches in steel. Alternatively for something different and a bit more subtle, check out the arches on this one from Berlin Classic Wheels

I'm toying with trying that also.

Mmm there do seem to be a few ways of doing the rear wings, hopefully I'd be able to find one that uses a decent amount of steel/doesn't weaken the shell too much, though the shell is a bit over engineered really to begin with. I've seen some other styles of wide arches, particularly ones used by some of the racers in the US look cool, but price and shipping would be a factor, plus they do look pretty huge

Erm hopefully I'll be looking to get the dampers on in the next couple of weeks or so, just need to get a few days where I don't need the car for work, I'll be sure to give a review of them compared to the lever arms once I get them on though

The scuttle drain is just under the heater box shelf in the engine bay on the drivers side.

Regarding the rubbing; If it's mainly on one side it might be that your rear axle is one of those that were welded in the "knocked out of alignment" jigs at the factory. Can't remember how much these axles are out, but I think they are offset som 1/2" to one side.

Regarding flares; Golf MK1 fender flares have been used to good success, however you'll have to convert to round rear arches. And if fitted too low the car will look as if riding o stilts.

Escort MK1 bubble arches might also look good if fitted correctly.

IMO the Sebring fenders look good in the back, but I find them too large at the front leaving too much air around the tires.

Aye, I do remember feeling a bit of a difference in arch gap on one side over the other, and in the long term I'd like to look into fitting a panhard rod to keep things a bit more square at the back

Yeah I'd like something a bit wider but the car needs to keep the low stance, I see too many sebring MGB's which are way up in the air and they look silly to me Also I know what you mean about the front arches, careful wheel choice is going to be needed to ensure the arches are filled

In comparison to a Triumph 2000 the B is not quite as stiff or even as strong as a Stag dare I say, hence why the rear arch area is said to be critical.

I did the Sebring kit but as said, the quality of the kits is pretty poor. I ended up using my steel wings up front and grafting on the FG arches. If I were doing it again I would make the rear as I did but use a steel arch on the front (Escort Bubble arches should be fine) or go for the rather pricey ready built wings (I understand the arches are more sensibly sized on these). I have come to the conclusion that my shortcomings in prepwork would probably end up costing the same (despite me shaping the wings on my 'B, the quotes for a respray were steep to say the least).

Some great progress present. I see you are treating your car to a few goodies. Do you reckon you shall be going to the MG show in Feb?

More like an unbuild thread, I wasnt able to do any work on it last year as Ive been skint, got the bulk of the welding done, and stripped the rest of the car for paint although as its such a major expense who knows when that will happen, pretty frustrated as its got a completely new stage 3 engine, new suspension brakes and gearbox which I only managed to get 1k miles on before it came of the road 2 years ago... Have been checking out the plasticote stuff people use on here although I want to keep it Harvest Gold as everyone seems to hate that colour. Recent pic...