1973 TA22 Toyota Celica - Patchwork quilt

Now if you are going down the 'MUG' route



Obviously



Occasionally



Quite often

Friday bought a welcome escape from the office/house, and remarkably contrary to my predictions we were able to go and look at a house we've found, albeit donned with gloves and looking like something out of CSI to only see the outside areas/spaces. Good news is that it ticks a lot of boxes for both of us, and even comes with one of these which I'm very happy about


No not the snot green Honda! A nice double garage with room above. Issue now is that things aren't likely to go anywhere for a while. So close

So with that somewhat positive yet a rather frustrating activity out of the way, it was on to the workshop to carry on with the current antics, need to keep momentum going.
Pedal floor repair was firstly made permanent


and as the old reinforcing bracket was starting to feel a little flimsy and rusted in places I made a replacement



with that together it was time to test fit the homemade support bracket to the outer sill


which slotted into the rebated edge perfectly - almost as though it was made for it*


*it wasn't, this was just blind luck as I hadn't noticed that the top edge of the sill was stepped slightly - lucky boy!

Now on to something I'd overlooked on the other inner sill before I fitted the outer - ensuring the fixings for the kick panel were in place. As I'd left it too late to weld on some captive nuts, I decided to go down the nutserts route - simple enough to fit and would do the same job, so decided to test on the open side first.


That all sorted, it was onto the welding marathon that was permanently joining the support bracket, inner sill and other sill strengtheners, so out with the spot welder and mig to pin everything in place






Before refitting the outer sill so that I can remove the bracing and refit the door and wing so things can be finalised with positioning at the next visit. All looks good so far so will see what happens.


Lastly with the slight let up in house viewings (can't think why!) and the potential threat of isolation lockdown etc. I've been allowed some 'homework'. So in addition to some of the Celica parts in the loft I loaded up some tools and a couple of the MG parts I want to get sorted including the new V8 front cover


but for that and a little more besides, you'll have to read the other thread

So how do you make progress on a project that is not at your home while all this is going on, and when you don't have the room to make it happen at home... simple answer, you don't... except if you get 'distracted' while delivering supplies to said car location. The other minor benefit is that there are no interruptions and so is the perfect 'social distancing' environment - my kind of heaven!

Had a few MG jobs to do while I was there, see that thread for what I got up to, but I also wanted to have a quick play with the Celica and finish what I started last time.

As the inner sill was now back in place, it was on with removing the bracing


So the door and wing could be refitted to check all the alignments


The good news was that the sill is in the prefect position with the gap to the bottom of the door being perfectly even (well as much as it can be with the tin worm in the door skin!) and the wing bolting on nicely


The wing and door aligned perfectly at the front and top too



but the not so good news was the door gap at the rear


even but an absolute chasm to correct...and try as I might I couldn't get it to close up.

So needing to have a think about what to do next - elongate hinge holes? See if the hinges will move on the door?

I decided to leave things where they were and crack on with the MG bits. Still nice to see it looking more like a car again though


More soon hopefully

I would look at @grumpynorthener 's door lengthening process.
A gap that wide might need some flat bar or similar added though?

Finally managed to get that pic of my partner's mug uploaded too! 

That is exactly how I would sort it - get the front gapping correct and to match the nearside - then clean rear edge of the door skin off - if its not too much that you need to bridge out you can just tack down the edge and form a weld bead then dress back with the flap wheel - a long flat file helps true the edge up - this is fine for a few mm of bridge - any more and you may want to consider welding a bead edge of round bar / thick welding rod that roughly measures the same thickness of the door skin edge here's a few reference pics from a type 2 camper I did a few years ago - although this is done on the front panel rather than the door due to the door hinge clearance - obviously you need to add to the rear edge of the door (from experience I would not recommend building the aperture edge of the rear wing out to meet the door)



Gapping wide enough to drive a bus through due to spurious ill fitting after market front panel



Edge beading going in



Dressed back / sorted - let me know if you need any further tricks / tips to sort it

Chris

Many thanks Chris, much appreciated. That looks to be the best way forward and probably the simplest too given that the door needs some tlc in any case. Shall investigate further when I'm next on a supply run

Just looks curse word especially side on - the front gap is nearly half the width of the rear one - it would look so much better for having matched gapping

Another weekend supply run meant a quick diversion into the shed once more...

wing and door got removed (again!)


and the spot welder came out to make things a little more permanent for the inner sill



It's not the lightest bit of kit so working my way along proved to be somewhat awkward as I was contorted on the floor with it balanced at various angles to get the contact I wanted. Still we got there eventually after much muttering


Attention was then moved to the inside and welding up the floor edge - have I mentioned how much I like this new Mig?!


That's not going anywhere soon.

The inner was then prepped and painted along with the outer sill before it got attached once more - spot where I've run out of my usual etch...




along with the wing and door... which I had a play with again to see if I could even the gaps a little better this time


where the door and wing meet the scuttle, heightwise yes


the rest... ummm... not so much


A job for when I have more time.

Playtime/mental respite over, it was time to grab some homework for the week and get back home. I've a few days after Easter booked off from overdue leave from last year so may see if I can get over for a few days playtime, will see what the wider situation brings and if I'm allowed etc.

Back to MG bits in the meantime then! 

Nope, it also gets a little warm if you pick it up awkwardly!