Heating and Ventilation

"I smell mice, don't you?"

Noticed this right away when examining the car and later, found a mouse low-rise residence in the Smiths heater box. This was not the worst of the ventilation system, but it did create some fear of difficult to repair corrosion in this area. Turns out the mouse pee corroded the smiths heater box but not so much the car body, though the adjacent battery platform is thin and pinholed. Not a difficult fix.

In my initial examination of the car I missed the destroyed heater fan though I did note the missing ductwork.

The heater box itself was a beeyatch to remove as the four machine screws securing it to the body were firmly corrorded. Had to drill them out.

Rad and heater core will go to Barrie Radiator in Oshawa - a rare old-school rad shop, 10 minutes away.

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Engine bay dissasembly - reference photos

Firewall area

Front frame repair

Heavy metal stories... As mentioned in a previous post the front frame was in worse shape than I'd imagined. You can see in the photos below and elsewhere the bent frame rail and steering rack mounting beam, plus the really bad work on the front chassis horns. The painful kink in the frame rail. Fortunately, a few very kind folks took the time to explain to me how to approach this sort of a frame repair. So, I bought a "portapower" on sale, and a frame clamp and followed the Eugene's directions. And slowly, carefully, was able to pull the frame mostly straight. Amazing! A great first step. I also used a large C clamp to bring the box section back into square as it had been moved into a parallelogram shape at the site of the bend. As detailed in another post, I was able to salvage he front half of a parts car. Thanks for your generosity Ken! From this I cut some repair pieces required for Miguela. So far, the steering rack x-member and a section of frame...

Front End Fact Find

June 15 - confirmed that the chassis is not bent! Plumb bob and chalk lines. See section R page 18 of the Bentley manual for dimensions and method. Update June 12 - more photos of frame Update - Obvious accident damage and clearly the frame horns are not as they should be. Measurement and verification required. The photo below is rather telling. The horns should be 12” apart (11” between the flanges), parallel to the car’s centreline and level and straight with respect to its the frame rail. I am not certain precisely how far each horn should extend from the crossmember. I will assume but should verify that the rad uprights are at 90deg to the horn, and should verify the height of the rad support above the horn. the threaded bosses for the grill shroud (2 in each horn, 3 in each rad upright) are the most critical location points with respect to hood alignment, as these locate the front end assembly. Straight edge clamped to frame rai...

1968 MG Midget

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