Body and Sill alignment...Rats...Photos.

...and I was off to such a good start too. I thought.

Please see below my first attempt at building sills from thin air.

The rear patch panel is otherwise in my opinion very well made, true to scale and form, imported direct from the MG Owner's Club in Swavesey.

The body is bolted in situ., as is this primered panel. (Gotta trust something...) No shims, stuffings, gubbins...or cork worth speaking of is present.

Being a cautious, over-building type, I decided to use a straight-edge as I was cleaning up to see...rats.

1. Am I being fair to myself here? Should a line from the front 'shoot' rearward like that?

2. Are they supposed to be at the same....altitude?

3. If so, I guess that's a pretty large discrepancy already isn't it.?

The repair panel really does seem to be in the correct location by much of the surrounding geometry...otherwise

Please offer your thoughts and experiences.

Thanks,

Landon

Yes it should be in a straight horizontal line. That lower edge of the sill should be about 1/8-inch higher than the bottom of the frame, like you could jack under the frame without smashing the body sill. This is one thing than makes rebuilding the MGA body sills rather simple (so to speak). The inner sill panel is straight, flat, level, and parallel to the frame. The box panel next in line of assembly is also in a matching flat plane on the inside flanges, straight and level top and bottom, but if you are forming one up from flat stock you quickly find it has a couple of progressive bends near the bottom. Do take a look at forming of the inner sill panels here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/restore/restore1.htm

Thought so.

Thank you Sir.

Landon

FWIW. I head the same dilemma. It appears your A post is solid. I put the door on using some shims under the hinges for future wiggle room. I then located the door locking mechanism in the center of its adjustment slots. I then placed the conical door catch into the B post. Put the B post into the door catch as though the door was closed. Now you have some idea of the general area where the B post will be when the door is closed. A little Mickey Mouse but it worked for me. Here's a link to my endeavors. Take you time - you'll get there.

https://picasaweb.google.com/larrymazoway/MGA

Cheers.

Landon, don't worry at all about that at this stage. There is no way to know if it is the repair panel or not. You need to refit the door and front and rear wings, just hold them in place with a couple of bolts. Then set everything up so you have good gaps. You might want to get used to doing this as you might have to do it several times during the repair. I had my wings on and off at least a dozen times and the door on and off five or six.

If everything is ok you can go ahead and fit the inner closing plate and (temporarily) b-pillar and inner sill.

That repair panel position is not too critical as long as the b-pillar can go in the right place. You can trim the lower edge if necessary, but it looks like your straight edge is slightly higher (compared to the frame) at the back. On my RH side that panel edge is too high (short - opposite to yours) so I will have to extend slightly to match the frame and rear wing...

I am at pretty much exactly the same stage on mine on the LHS, but haven't welded that panel yet...

Looks like you bought part # 22 in this http://www.mgocspares.co.uk/acatalog/MGOC_SPARES_INTERIOR_PANELS__MGA__284.html#l22
Part #24 is the mount that gets welded to the back of #22. That corner of the body may have sagged down. Locating 24 on the back of 22 may be what you need to bring it up.
Do you have a "virgin" body to pull measurements from? I have one at work and could take pictures and measurements on Monday.
Do not trim the bottom yet, It may well be the right size after all.

Just measured a car today for someone else. Have one car that we are working on and another to measure from. After we installed the repair panels they both were very close to these measurements. The door posts were not removed on this car and only the inner rockers and lower body panel were replaced. Body is still mounted to the frame and inner rockers came from Scarborough Faire. Replacement body panels were from 1/8 sheet metal. Hopefully someone can confirm these measurements - they were taken before the inner rocker was installed.


16 5/8 from the center of the second (from the top) front fender mounting hole to the bottom of the body panel.

For the rear section I measured 21 1/4 from the top rear edge of the door opening to the bottom of the body panel.

Eric

Before

After

I hear you guys and thank you for the forward thinking. I am aware of how all this truly revolves around the door placement and movement. I shall be doing exactly that very soon.

Landon

Gabe,
Not to be critical, but as a warning to others, I don't weld in the outer rockers yet. Once door gaps are set there will be a little wiggle room to adjust the gap at the bottom of the door last.
My opinion on of the order of assembly is. Fit door to upper front corner where it meets the body. Then fit doors to fender gaps. last outer rocket to door bottom. Some of the replacement rockers are not the right size. They have to be split lengthwise and rewelded together to get a proper fit.
Trying to build the car around the rockers make perfect gaps almost impossible.

Randy,

What you said makes sense.But my rust issues were minimal on this car and these welds seemed to work fine.But I have seen some bloody nightmares.Love this website and all the folks here are top notch... :)