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MG MGB Technical - Wings

Hi all - new to autobody, I'm not sure about removing the wings on my 74 b roadster. Do I need to remove the windscreen to get the wings off? Thanks
bld Doughty

Unfortunately yes. The windscreen frame legs poke through holes in the wings so the screen has to come off to get the wings off. There are two bolts holding the wing on the front edge (behind the grille), three small screws along the bottom edge (often rusted), the row of bolts along the bonnet gutter, three big bolts right up under the scuttle and then several more smaller bolts vertically on the outer side of the footwells.

I think that's all of them? Of course the front valence needs to be unbolted first too.

Simon
Simon Jansen

Is this the same with the GT? Not that I am going to embark on this. But the bottom of each front wing has some rust which has gone through. In Percentage terms it only figures at 10% of the wing seems a pity to replace the whole, I was just going to get a shop to cut out the rust and make good. Perhaps then just re-spray from the waist down. Quotes I have had are rather high, so it's on the back boiler. I suppose I could do it myself, but as admitted elsewhere, it is a lot of work, and I would rather tinker with the engine. Mike
J.M. Doust

Mike
Negative to the windscreen frame removal - its part of the monocoque body structure.
With respect to the rust in the bottom "10%" of the wings (guards) it'll be a cert that there is rust in the sill area behind - both outer and inner sill sections.
It's not a big deal to take the guards off and do all repairs at the same time.
Peter Malkin

You can get quarter and half repair panels for the wings, front and rear, and you don't even need all the quarter panel to repair corrosion at sill level. It all depends what was done to the sills last time, repairs can rot through faster than the original. If Waxoyl is sprayed from with the panels in place this forms a bridge across the top of the very narrow gap between the two panels and accelerates corrosion. If the products of that drop down or expand to touch poorly painted sills or wing backs they will rot through as well. I was lucky in that one front and four rear cover sections I have replaced have been over sound sills.

Whilst the bottom edge of the rears do have to be (supposed to be) welded you can use weld-through primer. The fronts are screwed and bolted so should be fully painted before fitting, as should the sills in both cases before covering them up. You can also paint the back of the front wing and sill with something like Waxoyl before fitting, but the rears will need treating afterwards, and spraying oil in from the access holes behind the B-post will allow this (ditto the fronts from behind the splash-panel if the wing is already fitted) and thin cars worked around in the gap to distribute it.
PaulH Solihull

This thread was discussed on 23/08/2011

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