1971 MGB GT Zetec

Brilliant,
Absolutely looking forward to the "more to come" bit,
Nigel

Following the motor fitting, my attention turned to the bodywork. The car was supposedly a California car, so was mostly rust free. But there was some hidden rust and some poorly repaired areas that required some attention. Both dog legs were showing either bubbling or were perforated. Bboth sides where stripped and the inner panels repaired (outer panels were then ordered):







Following that, the undercoating was removed from the front arches:





and given a coating of etch primer:





Next up was fitting the dash, the upper dash/scuttle panel differs between the early and late North American cars, so an early one was cut up and fitted to the body (following removal of the windscreen, and existing dash):







The steering column required the removal of the cowl supports, but I'll have to come up with something to mount a new one.

All of this work took place over a two week period and at the end of the two weeks the engine bay and arches looked like this:







A little while later, the front suspension was stripped from the car and given a fresh lick of paint, and reinstalled:



I really should have cleaned and painted the kingpins, but at the time I just wanted to get the car back on its wheels. Speaking of wheels, the alloys that were on it were sold to a friend (along with the old motor and gearbox). Instead of alloys, I'm going to be using some Nissan steelies that look similar to the MGA Twin Cam wheels:



The rear hubs are cut down wire wheel hubs so that I can use the knock offs, I'm still trying to sort out the fronts though. And, no the knock offs don't hold the wheel on, they're just there for show.

Once it was rolling again, the Zetec was slotted back in and dressed up:



At the end of April the car was loaded up and sent away for paint:



While it was away, the seats were re-upholstered:





They're not perfect, but I'm sure once they're sat in a few times I wont notice the wrinkles as much.

In July the car was back from paint:





Which allowed some reassembly:





And most of the interior was installed:











That brings most of the work up to date, I haven't done much to it in the last month due to being was too busy with other things (work etc), but hopefully I'll have it back on the road in the spring. I'll keep this thread updated as things progress.

Absolutely, it looks stunning in that combination, also loving the wheels.
In fact you are building my dream BGT!