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Mike, You are right, but I'm not that good. I'm going to try the adapter, it's not that pricey. It sets up the right distance and makes everything vertical and uniform, so I'll try it out. Those pins are a good idea, I may pick some of those up soon. Right now, I have really easy surfaces to work with, so clamps and magnets work fairly well for now. Thanks again for the tips, they are all very helpful and will improve my work and speed up the process.

Thanks, unfortunately, I don't have one of those, but having the part number may help others help you out.

Assuming you want an original Delco Remy, do you know what part number it would be?

Left work early (or late, considering I had extra hours for the week) and did some more fREAL work on the MGA. It's getting easier as I go since I'm learning along the way. Today I bought some better grinding wheels and spent time grinding most of the welding on the rocker support mostly flat. Opened up a lot of holes in some sections where my welding was not the best, but overall, not too bad, most of it turned out satisfactory. Started on the front section by cutting out the bad portion (Photo 1). The front was better protected, so didn't have to cut quite as high. Good at that, as there is a support bracket welded toward the front on the other side, so I didn't have to mess with that. The only sheet steel I can find is 24" long, and of course, I need about 26", so had to leave a gap which I'll fill later (Photo 2). So far, treated the overlapping metal at the left end with weld-thru primer, as it overlaps the center piece, and cleaned up the rust where I'll be welding. Right now, just held in there by a large magnet to get it set up. Will probably weld it tomorrow. After that, I'll weld in the gap, then grind it, then double back and weld up the holes that are left over from the bad welding from before, then grind it again. I'll throw a good dose of weld-thru primer over the whole thing, then do a little hammer and dolly on the bottoms of the door pillars, as I had to fight with them to get out the rusted inner rocker. After that, I'll prep the repro inner rocker. Not sure how I'm going to spot weld it yet. My friend never got back to me about how his home spot welder plugs in, so I'll probably just use the Eastwood spot weld adapter, which will unfortunately involve me drilling dozens of holes in the inner rocker in which to put the "spot welds." Pleased with my progress since I've never done this before.

Mike, That's a great site you put together. I'll have to jump back in more in depth, but quite helpful, thanks. Nice garden, too!

Steve, Thank you, the other link worked, so I was able to get the ticket. Another problem solved, thanks! Chris

Steve, Thank you for the reply. However, if I go to the website for the Concours (just the "car show" part), click the "buy tickets" link that I've circled in the photo, it will take me to a page by "Extreme Tickets," which says that there are no events available. Either the online ticket capability is broken, or I'm going about this the wrong way. Would you be kind enough to show me where to purchase tickets online, if the below location(s) are incorrect, please? If the below method is correct, then there is an issue that should be rectified. Thanks again, Chris

Hello, I tried to get tickets to the Elegance Concours Garden Party today, but the link says "No events available." Is the event sold out? Chris

Mike, Thanks, I will definitely take a look! Chris

Well, yet another setback. I called the British car shop today about my engine. It has been there for over six months. I was greeted with "good, you got my message!" I never got a message. Supposedly I was called on Friday. Good timing, but never got the message. Anyway, long story short, my engine was farmed out to a machine shop (which is fine) for line-boring, cylinder boring, honing, magnaflux, or any other service the block needed. The block was finished about 2 weeks ago, returned to the British car shop, who then discovered a crack at the rear of the block near the oil journal, or something like that. The shop was very upset with the machine shop, as they should have caught this. To repair the crack requires another specialist and will be about a 6-8 month wait, plus only a 50% chance of success and an 80% chance the crack will come back in the future. The British car shop located another block that may fit the bill. Luckily, my engine tag can be moved to another engine, as nothing is stamped in the block, so I'm not too upset. Anyway, they need to now check out the "new" engine to see what it needs. I'm supposedly at the top of the list, due to it being their error that they didn't catch it earlier, so the British shop is estimating 1 month more, if everything checks out okay, which means 3 months to me. I do think the British car shop is doing fairly well for me, although they are not keeping up with communication. I don't know the exact issue with my old block and if the crack was simply missed during the magnaflux process, or it developed over the last 6 months, so I can't really get upset, just frustrated and disappointed. I really wanted to get the engine in the car before spring, now it's looking like mid-summer at best. At least I got in some more grinding on the welding after work. I'm going to have to find a coarser grinding disk, it is taking forever.

It's getting harder and harder to find any time to work on the MGA, but I found some time today. Having tons of long-term issues with my other cars, like a power steering system in my old Camaro that can never be repaired no matter how much effort, money, time I throw at it over a 6-year period. People not knowing the correct bearing to use in my Plymouth water pump (has been rebuilt 4 times, yes, 4 times). People "correcting" old parts without asking me (converting an adjustable generator to non-adjustable, which, of course, needs an adjustment), a parasitic drain on the battery of another car that no one can find through 3 shops and 5 years of effort. I could have retired years ago if I never got involved with cars. Ok, for the MGA, I continued on the rockers. I went to Moss Motors and got repro inner rockers and vertical rocker supports. Here's the whole panel mocked up (Photo 1), but I found the top of the original panel to be okay, plus if I removed this panel, there'd be nothing between the front and back of the body and I don't want to have to get involved with jigs and flexed bodies, if I can help it. I spent half the day cutting out the rest of the bad metal around the door pillars, which was incredibly difficult do to without destroying everything I did some minor damage, but I should be able to make it look fairly nice and no one will see it anyway. As long as it's structurally sound. Here's the cut-out piece sized in (Photo 2). Here it is about half-way welded in. My welding is still not very good, plus it's tough to weld onto the formerly rusty and probably thinner original panels. Lots of burn-through and some warping, but I think I got it on there fairly nicely in the end (Photo 4). It will need a LOT of grinding, probably some pin-hole touch-ups and more grinding on the other side. Then, some hammer and dolly work to get the warping straightened up. The next job will be the front section (these panels are composed of three separate panels that overlap). The front part is more solid, so I will only have to cut out maybe the bottom 1 1/2" to get to good metal. Once that's done, I can weld in the boxed inner rocker panel as one unit. That can be all spot welded. I have a friend who has a home-spot welder, but I think it takes a special voltage or plug, which I may not have. Plus, for most of the panel, you can't get behind. Eastwood makes a spotweld adapter for my welder. You have to drill a hole in the first panel, then you can make the connection with the welder adapter that should be somewhat clean, so I will probably buy that for the main rocker and the outer rocker. Once I get the passenger side done, I'll move on the the driver's side, which I can use now as a reference. In the meantime, I just hit over 6 months of my engine being out at the machine shop. I check in every two months and it's always "it's at the machine shop, they just finished this and just did that, should be ready soon. I think 6 months is too long. They originally said it would be ready around Feb 1st, when I first dropped it off. Time for another visit, but this time, we're going to have to establish some deadlines, I'm getting a little fed up. Also, I've had a better heater ID tag at the engraver and it's been there for about 3 weeks now. How this takes more than about 3 days is beyond me. I never get any updates from any of these shops, the burden always falls on me to call them, they rarely or never call me. Hmmm, really frustrating last few months with car repairs and repairing.

You are a true craftsman. Great work, enjoy seeing all the attention to detail and the great progress you and others are making on their cars.

I have a Camaro that started like that. I think you have a really great Nova there!

I agree, Roger. My experience has been the same, and I'm American. I think the problem is a lack of character and integrity, a little greed, general lack of caring, a little lack of knowledge, a reluctance to learn from one's mistakes, a lack of pride, lack of shame, loss of craftsmanship, lack of consequences for poor performance, and some general laziness. That being said, there ARE great shops out there in the USA, it's just that only about 15% of the shops are great. I found a great chrome shop, but not before I found a really really bad one. I found two good mechanics, but after 4 bad ones. I found a good water pump rebuilder, but after a bad one. You get the idea. I think the best way to handle this in the future is to always ask around your car friends and club members, and the cream of the crop will always come up in conversation. Just because they advertise in Hemmings doesn't mean they are any good. Really enjoy the postings, even with the insults (all true!) of your American experience. Let's hope we are entering a new era of American craftsmanship, like we used to have.

Jeff, I've forgotten, but what "colour" are you going with? This car is going to be amazing when completed.

In what region are you? There's a junkyard in north central Virginia that probably has many of these.

Got a lot completed this weekend. Finally finished the heater (still missing one ID tag on top, though) (Photo 1). Turned out well. Compare to the "before" photo on my Feb 3rd post. Ok, I have most of the small stuff I was working on completed, so now focusing only on the body, now that the warm weather it just about here. I re-assessed my inner rocker panels again. I think the large panel that is left is called a "castle panel" or something, but it's the only thing left preventing the car from being cut in half. It looks like the upper 3/4 of the panel is in good shape, just has a lot of surface rust, but the lower 1/4 on both sides is a disaster. So, I decided to save the top part, but cut off the bottom 1/4 of the entire panel (Photo 2). I still have a section of the inner rocker I need to move at front, but I was able to work on the back part for now. I first cut out the rear panel (there are actually 3 panels lapped and spot-welder together) and replaced it with fresh metal (Photo 3). The section where the line is at right is actually depressed by about a 1/16" so that the main panel can go over top of it. Turned out okay, but I'll have to be very careful about lining up the holes at the bottom for the long trim piece that goes along the bottom to cover up all the spot welds. I next cut out the same portion for the the entire middle piece, which goes up to the front door pillar. This piece is also lapped and spot welded with the front piece. So far so good. I'm going to hit Moss Motors in about 2 weeks to buy repro inner rockers to complete the repair. Going to do one side at a time, so I can keep the other side intact for reference.

Not sure if you're trying to go back to factory stock, but you're obviously missing about half of your A/C components and your smog equipment.

Very productive weekend; hard to find nowadays. I finished painting the rest of the heater parts (Photo 1). Will assemble the heater, minus the blower motor as soon as I get the "Smiths" ID tag back from the engraver. I also completed the front bumper brackets. I'll put them on the car as a good storage location for now. Big milestone today, was able to remove about 65% of the passenger side inner rocker panel. The Eastwood spot weld remover works very well, I'd highly recommend it. Once you get the hang of it and set the depth of how deep you want to drill, it's a piece of cake. This has already paid for itself. That being said, it's of minimal use in tight corners. Here's what it did for the top portion (Photo 2). And here's where I am currently (Photo 3). There are still pieces attached under the door pillar that will require some more work, as I want to save the door pillar, as it's solid. I will probably do some damage I don't want to do, but there isn't an easy way to get some of the flaps from the door pillars to the inner rocker easily. I was also not able to do the section at the front door pillar and in front of it, as the car is supported up in the air under that section, so I'll have to make some adjustments so I can reach it when I get back to the job. I now need to buy some new inner rockers from Moss to see how everything lines up. The inner support panel is rough, but it looks salvageable. I'll have to weld in a few patch panels at the bottom to make it look nice and have solid metal to spot weld on the rockers and attack the trim piece after the car is painted. I will probably wait until I get the repro panels so I can compare what I currently have to the new rockers while the driver's side original rocker is still installed and take some measurements, then I'll probably wait to get the whole body blasted to get rid of the surface rust before I install the inner rockers. I think once I get the body blasted, I'll officially be on the downhill portion of the restoration. I'll be 3 years in in May. A guy in my local MG club called me "anal retentive" as I am taking so long to do this resto and I'm a stickler for originality or at least accuracy. Most of the club owners drivers, not show cars, which is great, as these cars should be driven. This just motivates me more, as I'm going to shoot for the best MGA out there and hopefully win some AACA awards with it. Don't worry, I'll be driving it, too, it won't be a trailer queen. If it doesn't win anything, I don't care either, I'll still have a great MGA to enjoy that I built with sweat equity. Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Back from some travels and a lot of work hours locally. Was finally able to finish the rear numbers plate assembly. Turned out well overall. Still some minor pitting, but you can't see it when it's on the car, so good enough (Photo 1). I have the chrome frame for the light headed to the chromer. Re-wired the light as the old wires were disintegrated. Otherwise, I'm finishing up on the heater box. Taking a long time, as I still have the blower motor out at a shop, which seems to have been closed for quite a few days now, so not sure what's going on there. Not out of business, just closed up. I'll have to investigate further. I got a repro "Smiths" ID plate, but it's pretty crappy. I was not pleased with it. I found a company in the UK that makes repros that are very close, so I ordered one of those and it's at an engraver now to get the numbers on it. The rest of the parts are in primer and will be painted tomorrow. Should have the whole thing done in a week or so, minus the missing blower motor. Tomorrow, I'm going to continue trying to remove spotwelds from the inner rocker. Just bought a spot weld remover gun/drill from Eastwood, so we'll see how it works. Won't help on the thin tabs that come down from the door pillars and the attachments at front and rear of the rocker, but it should make short work of the upper and lower portions, where you can get the C-clamp portion of the drill assembly around the pinched areas.

Hello, for which specific model do you need? Hard to tell from your photo and I'm not a Buick expert. I may be able to find a set for you today. Please elaborate.

I appreciate the note, but I'm giving up and starting over. Even if I can get the pump working, at this point, I'm pretty sure that the steering box must have something to do with it. The odds of me burning out a freshly rebuilt pump 3 times because of a bad pump are almost zero. Burning out for a 4th time is not worth it. I'd rather pay big bucks to have the whole thing examined at this point. When you're this frustrated, I don't even care about the expense anymore, I just need it fixed. The hoses have different sized connectors, so there is no chance of reversing the hoses.

I have done that. No fluid flows when cranking the engine with the ignition disabled.

Thanks again for the thoughts. Hoses are different sizes, so hoses are not the issue. I've taken all the thoughts here and tried to do some research. The only logical conclusion I can make is that something is wrong with the steering gear box. It's possible my pump has an issue as well, but being that I've been through 3 rebuilds with the same negative result, I'll going to pull the box, pump, and hose and send them off. I'll get the box rebuilt, which must be the problem, then have the other stuff retested to makes sure. Thanks to all for replying, that was very helpful towards making a decision that the steering box should be checked.

Phil, I don't remember, but it is very similar to the thin part of a baseball glove in the palm area. I can try to look into it further when I get some time away from work. I should have the receipt somewhere.