Hood latch panel replacement

I am in the process of replacing the hood latch panel, the lower support, the radiator duct panel and the duct support panel. At some point in the cars past the hood latch panel and support had been replaced. It was held in with rivets and bronze brazing. Now I have a bunch of holes in the inner fender where the now one will mount. Should I just fill these with my mig or should I cut a small replacement panel and weld it in? I am still fairly new to welding and am good with plug welds but butt welding a replacement panel is not my strongest point.

Ben

Also how far back from the front of the inner fender should the front of the latch panel sit? and do the tabs on the panel bend forward?
Thanks
Ben

As far as where to exactly locate the new panel, I'd suggest you find a similar car and do some careful measurements. Tack your new piece in and double check everything, then weld it in.

Good luck.

Ben. (confused, scratches head)

I think you are missing the obvious. The holes on the inner fender are where the original spot welds were.

When you offer up the new panel, it should line up with these holes. Then it's just a question of puddle welding the inner fender to the panel using these holes.

You probably will need to clean them up a bit, plus make sure there is no braze material where you are going to be welding.

I'll try to get you measurements from the 1973 that's sitting next door.

Been there, done it. See my Journal entry #4.

I put a patch in on the inner fender section that was 'swiss cheesed' when removing the spot welds. I reused my slam panel, just took it off to get to my crunched radiator panel. I welded on new flanges to my slam panel, since they were pretty torn up by the removal process as well.

The front of the slam panel lines up with the fwd edge of the inner fender.

The tabs go backward, twd the rear of the car.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3385137/2

Scroll part way down the page for two photos of a slam panel being installed.

Guys thanks for the advise. Kelvin that never even crossed my mind. I guess that I was thrown off by the brazing and rivets. I ended up plugging them up and grinding them smooth. Now I need to find a car I can get measurements off of. I know of a MGC GT locally I can probably get the measurements off of. They should be the same right?

Ben.

No. The MGC front panels are totally different.

Well, maybe not that different as the bonnet peg is in the same spot. But you would be better off with measurements from a B.

I was going to take pictures and measurements, but the R&D shop is already locked up. Sorry. Hopefully someone else comes through. No computor tonight, as I have to tear my '79 LE head down to inspect it.

kelvin.

I know that the hood is different but the inner supports and where the hood latches should be the same. Well I will try to look at the C and maybe they know of a B.

Ben I'm new to this welding stuff too,these guys giving the advice are experts but I know where your coming from.If I was in this situation to give myself more confidence I would g clamp the slam panel in place and then as many panels back on that I need to,wings ,bonnet etc,and if it all fits and looks OK then tack it in place remove the panels and your good to go.

Put the new panel in place where you think it goes. Most likely the holes in the side will dictate the location. Now hold it there with some sheet metal screws and try the hood to see if it closes. Trust me, there is no replacement for offering up a panel 50 or so times to make sure it fits.

You should also set aside some time to practice filling holes with the welder. Even without a piece of copper on the back, you should be able to fill a 1/4" hole without too much trouble.

Now is also an ideal time to create a removalble slam panel.

You will need to make "ears" on either side of the inner fenders that are about 6" to 8" long . (I made mine with the remnants of the original slam panel) ....then reduce the length of the slam panel that you are putting into service such that it will clear the fender channels (drop straight down).

The new slam panel rests on top of the ears, and is bolted into place, through the ears..

You can then remove the radiator and slam panel when removing the engine for clutch work, etc...and the engine will come straight out rather than having to lift the arse end of the MGB up and still tilting the engine at an unGodly angle to clear the supports.

Just a thought.

Rick that was a good thought. But I am hoping that taking the engine/trans in and out isn't a regular thing. :) I think that I will do as Peter suggests but I am going to try to get some of the measurements off of the C for a starting point. The holes that were there were pretty hacked up and I would really like to have a better idea of placement. This is my first MG and I am looking for something correct to base my repairs upon.
Also Rick I need to get a set of your hood struts can you pm me with the details.

Ben. Here you go. It's obviously not very critical, based on the measurements I took on our 1973 MGB.

Vertical position.

The rear of the panel should be even with the bend line of the inner fender
The front of the panel is approximately 1/4" below the fender mounting lip.

Horizontal position.

This varied from one side to the other. On the right side the distance from the vertical tab to the front of the inner fender was 0.4" on the left side the distance was 0.25"

I'm attaching images so you can see a bit better how it looks.

The first image shows the front of the panel on the right hand side.

Here you can sort of see how the rear of the panel matches to the bend line in the fender. The top surface of the panel is level with the bend line.

I've just checked on the mg is born DVD that shows how a shell is built at heritage.When the slam panel goes in all the operator does is smack his hand against the back of it on both sides,then a jig comes over into the hole in the middle and thats it,hardly precision made but thats how they do it.

There is a lot of adjustability on the bonnet catch and safety catch, and you can see why.

Here is a fuzzy image of the left fender location. Note the front of the shut panel is much closer to the front of the inner fender than the right one was in the first image.

Hopefully this is enough information for you to get the panel located on your car.

Thanks everybody. This helps a lot.

Benny. My apologies for the orientation of the photographs. For some reason I thought you were in Australia. :spinning:


kelvin