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MG MG Y Type - YB Restoration continued

You may recall that in response to a thread about Baby Boomers in November last year, I wrote about our decision to restore our 'spare' Y Type, YB1127
I wrote; 'The car is now in as bad a state as it's ever likely to be; it's amazing what the blaster reveals, however gentle they are. And the least said about the state of the A pillars the better, I don't know how they kept the roof up'.
Well since then things have moved on. Every time we start on a new section, it gets worse. The floor sections looked like delicate lacework, the bootlid and spare wheel cover were disappearing from the inside out (did you know that the bootlid contains a felt sound deadening pad? It was the most substantial part of mine). But, you expect that from a sixty year old car. The real problems have arisen from the restoration work that someone attempted before. Just as an example we discovered that part of the rear wheel arch had been repaired with a bit of fridge door, and badly at that. As one of the guys in the restoration shop said, 'Someone's done an awful lot of welding on this car, but he never got any better; it's all awful'. I've attached a picture of the rear wheel arch repair to give you some idea.
What has surprised me is how badly the original car was cobbled together from spare Nuffield bits. Gerald Palmer's boot section was stuck onto the Morris Eight body pressing, fitting where it touched and then filled in with great dollops of lead and smoothed in. It is sometimes difficult to know what is a bad repair, damage over time or original Abingdon erm, adjustments (bodging?).
It was suggested that I submitted a monthly progress report on the rebuild, and this is it; no progress at all but a lot of time and expense. Do I regret it? No I don't, there's no turning back now. I do regret starting from what I thought was a semi-restored car rather than an untouched wreck...now there are a couple of those on Ebay this week.

P S Sharp

Hi Peter

Cant blame Abingdon - the bodies were shipped in from Nuffield Body Plant (later Carbodies) near Swindon :-).

Don't you just love the way our lovely cars keep us on our toes?

Best wishes Peter and keep up the spirits ... whiskey is a good one to keep up!

Paul
Paul Barrow

Hi Paul,
I was blaming the Abingdon drawing office for the way they designed a Y Type boot and just stuck it on a Morris body, but the Nuffield body pressings themselves were mismatched and stuck together with a fair amount of lead filler. Not that any other cars of the era were any different. Nothing was primed or painted until the body was finished, so they rotted from the inside out. I grew up in Bedfordshire and had relations who worked at Va*****l Motors. The joke at the time was that the last thing they put on cars on the production line was rust. Only partly untrue.
As you say, the deeper you look, the more you get surprised.
Peter
P S Sharp

Oh I see - the DO not bodging the build!

Still, I still think the Y is a very pretty car for all that! I know you agree. Love can, and should, be very forgiving!

Best wishes

Paul
Paul Barrow

Hi Peter,

Thought exactly the same thing when rust repairs were required at the join between the body and boot. Lead fill almost 3/8" thick! See attached pic before replacement lead fill was applied.
N Wakeman

Paul,
Of course I still love the look of the Y, but is surprising to see what lies beneath the skin.
Peter
P S Sharp

This thread was discussed between 16/02/2013 and 17/02/2013

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