1971 MGB GT V8 Drift Car - Prospect D

Defiantly looking at improving the rear suspension. Still looking at options but concentrating on getting it running, driving and solid at the moment. I'm close now. Got a couple of bits welding left now and have removed all the under seal and seam sealed the bottom ready for shoots.

Hopefully finish the welding and shoots it next weekend ready for running brake and clutch lines!!

this is going to look freaking awesome!

So ended up working sorting the running gear this weekend until an unfortunate incident with an angle grinder (grim picture at end)...

Started with stripping down the rear axle, cleaning it up the pistons etc and priming the axle. Didn't get any pictures of that (very good reason for that) apart from a before and after of the the rear cylinder.


Then I got on with welding up the diff. I looked into a few different ways to do this. You can do weld gears to gears or to the housing but I heard the strongest way was to weld in a bit of metal and weld the gears to that.

Here's how I did it:

Cleaned up ready for welding. Used some petrol and paper towels and made sure I got right between the teeth.


Next I measured up a plate that would sit nicely in on the teeth. I rotated the diff to make sure that as many teeth as possible were in contact with the plate. I also put a wee curve in the long edges as it so sat better. I used some scrap metal that was about 1/4" thick.



Next I wet some rags and packed them around the diff to stop any welding spatter getting on anything else.


Then in with the metal


Turn the welder up to eleven and melt away! I took my time to make sure the welds were melting the teeth so I'm pretty sure I got some decent penetration so the welds should be strong (fingers crossed). I then turned the diff and repeated the whole thing on the other side. I then waited for it all to cool down and cleaned it up with the wire brush and washed it out with some degreaser. I then game it a liberal coating of WD40 as I was not going to fill it with transmission oil just yet as I need a new seal.


Now I've not tested it and this is the first time I've done it so I'm hoping that I'm going along the right lines but cant guarantee it will work. It is however definitely locked so if it does work sideways ahoy!

I then turned my attention to the front sub frame. I dismantled it all, jet washed it and gave the hubs, lever arm dampers and king pins a coat of rust eater to prep them for priming. Last was the brake calipers which were not to bad but I thought I'd give them a going over with the wire brush on the angle grinder to make them shiny!

Well that went t&ts up big time!! Christ knows how but somehow my cuff got caught on the wire brush and the wire brush got slammed into my wrist where it jammed! Managed to get it turned off but knew I'd done something bad. Pulled it off to see some blood and could see that I'd removed all the skin down to what I thought was the bone or muscle. Managed to grab a bandage and wrap it up after making sure it was not bleeding to much. Then thought I better tidy up the garage a bit a I'd left it in a bit of a state. Jumped in the car and drove 20miles home hoping my girlfriends mum hows a retired nurse could just stitch it up. Decided that was maybe not the best idea and my girlfriend drove me over to A&E.

Had a wee wait there and the doctor had a look at it. He told me the bit I thought was muscle or bone was actually a tendant!!! I was fractions of a mm of going through it!!!! There was a slight nick but if should be fine. They ended up having to send me for an operation under a general anesthetic to cut it open and clean it all out but boy was I lucky! Now I've got 10 stitches and a had that cant do much for about 3 weeks...

And for your viewing pleasure the grim pic (the white bit in the middle is the tendant):

Just got my massive tyres! A bit bigger then I was thinking they were going to be but should do the trick. They are 255/40/17 Yokohama Advan Neova.

good work, I would love to do this but with Honda S2000 running gear!

Not set yet. Going to get the front subframe mounted tonight and get it on its wheels then see about getting the engine back in to see where everything is sitting.

Nice - it's not a proper car project unless you've spilt blood. Bonus points for a hospital visit!

Jeez, I was wire brushing something the other day and it slipped and carved up my jeans and did not think much of it, did not realise they could do that much damage!!!

Cars coming on great, way more progress than my MGB

Wow love to see more of this car, sorry to see your injury tho.
Accidents are to easy when your being creative unfortunately, but the finished product will be worth it I'm sure.