MGB Project

[Captain]

Gett'n Scarry Now !!.........

Hope you saved all the pieces in case you need to weld it ALL back together.........
for Plan "C"......

[DanStokes]

Did. But if push comes to shove I'll just pick up a replacement crossmember. There are several MGB guys in NC that have parts so I can make a run if needed.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Not thrifty. Cheap. It comes from living within my means.

You may be cheap, but never easy. I still maintain thrifty. But then what does Mongo know. Lost in the infinite, stumbling blindly following his path thru the paradox of life.

[Loren]

... Free MGB Parts - Charleston, WV| Parts For Sale forum | (grassrootsmotorsports.com)

[DanStokes]

... Free MGB Parts - Charleston, WV| Parts For Sale forum | (grassrootsmotorsports.com)

Good to know these are out there but I THINK I'll be OK. Thanks for looking.

[DanStokes]

Start of the sexy crossmember reinforcement.


Yesterday and today I did extensive CAD then transferred to metal stock and started cutting. I wanted a 90 degree bend and having no way to bending 1/4" plate I started with a section of rectangular tube.


Layout. Note the drilled holes at the 90ish degree points. Much easier to cut but probably no difference in strength as these areas will be welded anyway. Some sawsall, some cut off wheel.





Rough cut-out after blacksmithing the bent-over tab for the round area. Heat, bend, heat, hammer flat.





What's left of the rectangular tube. We're lucky to have a good steel supply place here in town and they usually have chunks like this one sitting around and they're available by the pound - IIRC, this was like $10.

[DanStokes]

Moving forward today:

I added the 90 degree section to the left extension (I guess you'd call it) for the crossmember reinforcement. Note that the round areas both have an added 90 degree part to make sure nothing bends. Then I tacked them in place as shown.

Top view:





And looking from the front and down low:

I think the right one (left in the pic) may be rotated more than the left. I'll stick the angle gauge on them tomorrow and make adjustments as needed. I don't really mind if they're twisted but I want them to be fairly symmetrical.

[DanStokes]

Crossmember brace:

I spent some time aligning the side plates until they were 90 degrees to the world (well, within 0.1 degrees according to my angle finder) then I cut and tacked the crossbar onto the side plates. The whole deal came out for finish welding, a bit of grinder clean-up (though the welds were fairly decent) and sandblasting. Are here it is ready to go in:





It took some fiddling to get it installed once welded together but it's now pretty much where it goes. Just a bit of adjustment tomorrow and I'll weld the whole deal in place and hope for the best.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

CAD comes to the rescue! Good looking solution. And it looks like you've got enough to trim here and there just in case...

[Captain]

Excellent,
Some "Yank Ingenuity" and we are Back on the Lead Lap....

[DanStokes]

Been a busy lil' beaver - many pics to follow.

Bottom line - the engine is in the hole and more or less where it will live. The front of the cam cover is below the hood line so all the fiddling was worth it. Marine mounts are on order and once here I'll build the plates that'll bolt to the engine and support the engine.


First mod of the day: The left side pan rail hit my modified crossmember so a notch was in order as shown:





There was also some interference at the back from a protrusion from the oil filter assembly. A notch in the top of the footwell fixed it although I think I'll redo this tomorrow to add more clearance, Clarance (sorry - EPA-speak).


The notch:





And with the engine in place:





I'm going to slide in a tool mod here as I realized I hadn't posted it earlier. I use a HF engine leveler without which this engine would be almost impossible to install. When the engine is lifted fully to enter the engine bay the hand crank that they supply hits the boom of the shop crane and is pretty much useless. So I cut off the handle and welded on a 3/4" nut which I can operate with my cheap-o electric ratchet (good buy, BTW). Much easier and it works with this set-up.





A peek into the existing transmission shifter hole. As you can see, the shifter will be in an acceptable position. Feelin' good about this!





Temporary engine mounts. Don't hate - they're oak! They put the engine close to where it'll be in it's final configuration.





Not sure how well this shows but looking thru the shifter hole maybe y'all can see that the tail of the trans sits on a welded-in crossmember that MG builds into the chassis. Kinda nice for those of us build engine mounts as this puts the tail shaft close to where it'll go.

[DanStokes]

All was going well but somehow it wouldn't let me add this final pic in sequence so I'll add it here. This shows the engine in the hole and a template of the hood arch showing 7/8" clearance between the cam cover and the hood. If anything it'll be somewhat more as the fenders are not in place and they hold the hood up higher. All in all, this ought to work.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Looking good Dan. You know, wooden chassis parts are not unusual for a British car. You could say that it's a Morgan engine mount adapted to marry the NGB to the GM contingent.

And besides, wooden it be great if you can meld together your automotive abilities and your carpentry skills? Oak A, so I'm stretching it here. What does one expect from a poor hapless soul like Mongo? Mongo is purely conjecturing and not authority in these matters...

[DanStokes]

Got more done yesterday than what shows.

The only thing pic-worthy was that I made the notch for the oil filter bigger as promised.





And with the engine in place:





I also started working on the transmission crossmember. I'm cutting off all of the MGB stuff which was, predictibly, weird. The engine mount parts and the trans mount are on order so I'll be on idle for a while, doing piddly stuff until I can start fabricating. The trans crossmember mods will be - um - interesting as the trans sits at an 18 degree angle but the mount appears to be straight so I'll need to fab up the part on the crossmember to accommodate that. Another challenge for this weird swap!

[cstmwgn]

And I thought only Triumphs could leak oil without the engine installed!!!