1979 MGB GT Sebring - The Final Incarnation

It's looking more like a car now, as you can tell from the pics:




It needs the rear window sorting as you can tell (the bottom support has snapped off thanks to the people who I took it to in the first place! A rear offside 1/4 light anyone?). Besides that, it needs a couple of other details on the outside (grille; waiting for the fastenings; Front valance; I may take that to a garage, as it does not follow the profile of the Sebring arches at all, and not even the original wings!).

Besides that, it is not far off done now . As for it being brown, it's not the best colour but meh! I restored it on the drive for now. The fact that the major part of the restoration was doing by my now deceased painter saved me alot of hassle. I'll probably change the colour in around a year's time when I have more cash, now that I have decided on a colour it can be .

this is awesome, particularly as the 2 guys i know that own MGB's are proper snooty "has to be OEM or its worth more as scrap" types

what engine are you going to put in it? would love to see a modern turboed motor in there rather than the ubiquitous RV8

^^ with HW on this one. First ever car was a BGT - dreamed of Sebring rep monster until it was stolen.......
Great work so far -and I know it's a load as I looked into doing it.
Have to eb honest, I've NEVER seen the front valance panel looking totally right on a replica, so good luck as it's apparently a b*tch to have 'right'.

Every BGT should be 'sebringed' - FACT

A russet brown sebring. Luv it!

I'm loving the minilights too, but I just cant get visions of banded rostyles out of my head.

Is that a Sebring Arch front Valence as it looks like a standard Sebring one from the picture. The end should taper out to match the wings, maybe this is the issue your having?

Look cock on though bud.

Well, I've decided to take up welding. I may not be great, but I guess we all start somewhere. It's pretty awful what you'll see next, there's still seam sealer to put on them, but at least they're solid welds (I did got at the welds and panel with a chisel and hammer!), which won't go anywhere. First weld shown has been ground down. I guess on the plus side I haven't blown any welds and they definately seem to have penetrated well. Cutting out the old rust was not a problem:





Cut out a very small amount of rot, and put in some new metal. Not the tidiest welding I'll admit, but it's solid (well, a hammer and chisel didn't shift it), and nothing a grinder and seam sealer can cure and futureproof:



However, now the car's solid pretty much everywhere the front floorpan is pretty poor at the moment! I'm deciding between plating it up (a bodge I admit), using the floor out of my Donor MGB, or just looking for a new floorpan. Only thing is that I heard the Heritage floors are not too great. Where is the best place to get them from, and is it worth changing the whole floor if only the front of yours is gone, or should I only weld in what's needed onto good metal once the old rubbish has been cut out?

looks real mean with the arches and wide minilights cant wait to hear what motor its having!

Ahh Smith and Deakin, thats why your having issues dude, none of their kits fit.

Well, I've been a little busier with the Sebring over the past couple of weeks. I was prodding some very poor repairs done to the floorpan near the castle section and found that the mindless patching done caused more damage than harm. The previous people patched the floorpan from inside, leaving the rotten stuff beneath. As a result the floor (and patch) became crusty within years, and it took the flange of the castle section too (thankfully, not the castle rail itself!). So here's my latest efforts. Not the best, but I guess the metal going in will be better than before.



As you can see, I have cut the rot out and the patch (damn moisture trap), and I have now gone back to good metal. It still needs a small amount of tidying before I can let the new panel in, but I'll be getting another floor to repair it off, considering that the rest of the floor is perfect, and the fact that by following the ridges and carefully butt welding I should get the strength back too:

Besides that bit of welding, I also need to weld part of the battery frame from where I guess acid off the old battery got the better of it, but that is easy compared to the floor (it's literally strips of metal :lol:)

I thought after the welding the car would be ready for an MOT once the interior was in. Oh if life could be so simple! Not so fast. I turned the steering wheel onto full lock so as to make access to the floor a little easier, but this highlighted a potentially lethal problem, as well as potentially saving me buying another set of braided brake hoses. To (try and) cut a long story short, with the Spax conversion, longer brake hoses are provided so that the brake pipes do not rub the damper. But I found today that due to the design of the damper kit, that this is inevitable.

So here, besides a crusty brake disc cover, it all looks ok with poly trunion bushes, new lower arms and springs with V8 bushes...:



Until you see this design cock up:



Yes, the hose is being clamped by the damper due to a lack of room with the damper in place. curse word! I've even lost the sill springs for the lever arm dampers, so using them may not be an option! Still, I guess I haven't wasted the braided hoses that came with this kit.

But that is not the end of my hurdle. My original door was very badly rotten at the bottom, but the alignment of it was spot on with the door. Not quite this time though... The door has been re-skinned, but I don't remember it throwing it out this much. I've also noticed that my local places don't have doors either, and I'm not willing to travel to the other side of the country to get a door if it turns out to be worse than this one:





From the pictures, you can see the biggest problem I have is that the back of it does not want to line up with the rear at all. I'm sure it did at one point, so I am hoping that by adjusting the hinges that I can adjust out the closing problem. It shuts, just not very well!

Damn, and there was me getting ready to throw a small portion of the interior in and get that all important green ticket. No rest for the wicked.