Update

Since last time, I've been busy. I took the drivers side wing off to see whats underneath. What I found was a terrible sill repair by a previous owner. This side is going to be fun.
Today, I spent time removing the interior. I needed to get access to the floorboards and inner sills. I also removed the boot lid and cleaned everything. I'm about one weekend away from some serious cutting and welding.

Grinder Night

Tonight I acquired a grinder and started wire wheeling around the wheel well where there were a few pinholes. Well I stuck hillbilly gold, aka bondo. It kept going down the dogleg where I found that it had been replaced. While this would typically be a good thing, the PO or whoever did it botched the job. Instead of doing it right, they decided to sculpt the body lines around the door with about and 1/8 of an inch of bondo. Oh well, more fun.

Well tonight was the first productive night in a long time. I first took off the bonnet to set it aside so not to damage it in any way. After that I ran to sears and bought a well needed new drill bit set and then harborfreight to buy a spot weld cutter. By far the greatest purchase ever from HF, it worked perfectly.

I pulled the car out of the garage and started drilling. I could feel out the spot welds so there was no need to strip the paint. After drilling a pilot hole, I used the cutter to cut around the spot weld. Everything went well and the rocker panel fell off.Now I have a good idea of what kind of damage I am looking at. I'm pleased with what I have to work with. There seems to be enough of the castle rail for me to just use sheet metal to make a patch.

Day 2, assessing the damage

The last thing that was done last night was cut inspection holes in the front, mid, and aft sections of the rocker panel. What was found was bad corrosion in the lower 1 inch or so part of the entire rocker. At this point it appears that I can salvage the top of the rockers and not disturbing the original welds. Here are the pictures of the rockers starting at the rear most hole.

Day1, Part 2

After getting the wing off, I decided to cut a little into the sill to see the damages. Looks like the castle is rotted the entire length. I don't know about the inner rail, but the castle and outer sill parts defiantly need replacing. The inner rail can probably be patched seeing how simple and flat it is.

The next step will be drilling out the sill removing whats left of the castle.

Pics coming soon.....

Day 1, Right Wing Tear-down

Tonight we removed the windshield and right front wing. I was expecting rust, but was surprised how little I found. I was thinking the rocker was going to be completely gone but that not the case entirely.

A little about the car

This is a 1977 MGB. Since buying it 3 years ago I have rebuilt the front suspension, gave it electronic ignition, new brake hydraulics all around, and a new cylinder head gasket. After driving it for 2 years I have finally decided to address the rust issues.