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I called and got information about the newsletter (they told me where to find the online version). They also showed me the registration form for each event. They told me since I'm listed as "inactive" on the judges list, that I would not receive a newsletter (I can just access the online version). I read the newsletter and "CJE" is mentioned multiple times, but is not spelled out. What does "CJE" mean? Thank you to the members who have chimed in for helping me out so far. -Chris Lutz

Thank you again. I will call today. -Chris

Thank you for the information. I will investigate further.

Hello, I've never judged with the AACA before, but wanted to start learning about it and maybe get involved. I attended the judging school in Feb at Phila. and received a judging chip. From what I understood at the time, my name would be placed on a judge list of some type and I would receive further correspondence and information on future judging opportunities. I am interested in maybe starting to judge at Fall Hershey. I never received any information after the class, so at this point, I'm not sure how to get involved with judging. I sent an email to HQ recently with this same question, but received no response. I'm assuming they didn't see the email or are out of town for a while. Anyway, I know the forum is the best next step to get judging info. The may be an easy answer for my question somewhere, but I can't find it. For anyone that could assist, maybe a quick primer on how the process works for getting involved in judging would be appropriate as a sticky post, as I cannot find any easy information on how to get involved with judging as a newbie. Thanks! -Chris

Been another while since an update, but not much to report. Still working on the chassis, but ran into some slow times repairing small rust holes on the chassis bracing. Should have cut these whole pieces out and replaced, but only ended up replacing one of them. Spent a lot of time filling in small holes, then making them bigger trying to weld them up, as the metal is too thin. End up cutting out larger holes and working with small patch panels, which adds a lot of time for an amateur welder like me. I'm trying to save as much as the original metal as possible, so this is adding time. (Photo 1) Still need a little more clean up, but replaced the top brace and fixed about 6 quarter-sized holes on the braces and one on the inner chassis itself. (Photo 2) The new battery boxes are about 50% welded on, then I have to make 2-3 patch panels to fix the original battery box support brackets, rather than replace them. The inner middle part of the chassis was blasted to bare metal soon after this photo and is ready for additional metal work, then rust encapsulator, prime, and paint. The rest of the chassis is painted and ready to go. (Photo 3) When I get too tired of working on grinding metal, I switch off to some easy pickins, such as the engine fan or other small misc parts, just to keep things moving along. The good news is, the work is coming along well and the holes are getting sealed up and I'm able to keep most of the original floor board bracing. My welding is still second rate, but I'm getting better at it as I go, thanks to some of the members on the forum here, too! More good news, I'm finished with the sandblasting on the frame, finally. Took much longer than I thought. I still have some more very small rust holes to fix, and two larger patches on the horizontal support that holds the battery trays, then that's a wrap on the chassis metal work.

Beautiful job! In the home stretch now, it looks like.

Beautiful work, Martin. Almost there.

Time to get back to the MG project. Made painfully slow progress while getting some welding lessons and taking a long trip to the UK. I visited Abingdon and the MG Club there, right by the original factory grounds. Seems there isn't much left, just a couple buildings, but the main factory is long gone. for you MG fans, Photo 1 was the main admin building, which has been converted to apartments. Photo 2 is the Kimber House, where the MG Club is located, which is steps away from the gate in Photo 1. Also toured the Mini factory near Oxford, where the sheet metal for my MGA was stamped. So, saw where my MGA was made, sort of. Used the 3 day weekend to continue on the chassis restoration; haven't worked on the MG in almost 4 weeks. My welding skills are still terrible, but much better than before. At least now I can make a solid weld, but have been challenged by it, as it's mostly butt-welding. Lots of burn through and missing the joint as I refine my technique. I'm wearing out a lot of grinding wheels fixing my numerous errors, but it is working and should result in a good result when I'm finished. My lap welding I would call "satisfactory." No photos of the car, as not much had changed, just more sandblasting, sloppy welding, and rust encapsulation. Will get some photos when I finish the welding within the next month. Also working on some misc parts on the side while I want to primer to dry or tire of welding. So impressed by the other posts on here; very motivating to work on the skills that others possess in spades on this site.

Wow, such impressive work. Shows that anything can be restored with some skills, patience, and the right tools.

I would start by trying to find what it looked like originally, then you or others would be able to see what materials or process may be best to restore it. It looks like it is missing a clear plastic cover or maybe it was just all paint? A better photo may help as well, try to take a photo of it outside in daylight so folks can see the rest of it.

Another nice day, another update. I stopped welding, as my welding is quite bad, so waiting for some tips in order to make some adjustments to get a bead instead of a splatter. Thanks to Martin and John for pointing out that I need some adjustments! I really have my sand blaster dialed in now, after many, many trials and tribulations from a Chinese pile of garbage blaster. After replacing many of the parts on it, it's working well now. Was able to blast the whole bottom of the chassis and framework in the middle of the car today (photo 1). Within the floorboard framework, the insides are coated with a a thick layer of oil encapsulated in sand. The bad news is, what a mess! I had to chunk it all out with a screw driver (photo 2). The good news is, this coating of filth has perfect bare metal underneath, so it protected everything where it was quite nicely Threw on a coat of rust encapsulator to prevent flash rusting. Should be able to prime and paint these areas after work this week, then next weekend, should be able to do the rest of the bottom of the chassis, and maybe some of the sides of these pieces. Goal is to have the chassis complete (minus welding repairs) before I take vacation to the UK next month. One of my stops will be the old factory grounds and MG club in Abingdon, where my car was made.

I'll take any advice I can get, so thank you for the offers. I'm using an Eastwood 175 MIG welder with flux core wire. I have an individual wire gun that feeds through the gun, not through the welder. I have the speed setting to "A," the slowest speed, but it still seems to fast. I have the heat setting at "C" on the dial. I'm guessing I have the heat setting too low?

Finally was able to be home AND have warm weather, so time to get back to the MGA after a few weeks of doing very little on it. Was able to do a little painting on it and continued to do a section here and do a section there. At this point, I almost have the front of the chassis before the goal post complete, painted with Eastwood chassis black (photo 1). Doing it piecemeal like I'm doing produces over spray from primer, so I'll be top coating some sections again to cover any over spray or other errors. I also decided to start tackling the welding repairs. I cut out the rusted out driver's side toe board brace (photo 2), cut out the left over metal, cleaned it up and welded in a new piece from Moss Motors. The piece was great, but was not bent at the correct angle, so I had to do it myself with hand tools, since I don't have the correct metalworking equipment. I made it a lot uglier, but I got it to fit correctly. I used the original dry-rotted floorboard as a template for proper hole placement (photo 3). Welcome to amateur hour. My welding is ugly since I have about 3 hours of total experience, but the welds are strong (photo 4). I also cut out a few more small rusted out areas, for which I'll make small patch panels to weld in place (note the triangle hole with triangle patch where one of the fastener holes rusted to about 3x its original size). I'll have to re-drill a hole in the proper place, then weld on a captive nut, as original, to complete the repair. I have about 6 more small rust holes to repair within the floorboard framework, then I have to make new battery boxes at the rear, then the welding is complete for the chassis. The real challenge will be the body rust. Can't wait to get the chassis complete, as I feel dealing with all the smaller parts from then on will be much easier and faster until I get to the body.

Great progress, looking good!

I see I now have 125MB for max file size, so adding a few photos to match the last post. The slow progress I have made is turning out quite well, better than I expected. Should have a great looking frame very soon. No progress since last post, though, too busy at work, snowstorm, tool issues, and too cold. Hope to get back to it this weekend.

Looking great. Hope you bring this thing out to some AACA shows so we can see it when it's finished.

John, I can reduce the photos myself, I was just too lazy and the photos weren't particular interesting, but thank you for the offer. Don't know why the policy has changed on file size.

Pilgrim65, great to hear, and will be great to compare notes. I'm no expert on MGAs, but I'm learning as I go. Going for authenticity and saving as much that's original to the car as possible. Ugh, my last update was almost a month ago. Was out of town for 2 weekends in a row, then had minor surgery that kept me out of the garage for another week. Today's the first day I was able to get back to the garage after being well on the way towards recovery. Still slow but steady progress. Next weekend going up to the Simeone Museum to see the AC collection and a demo run of some race cars. Will be great, but will lose another weekend on the MG. Continuing to work piecemeal on the chassis. Not adding any photos, as it now says the limit is 2MB for Max file size. It used to be 24MB or something. Oh well. Sand blaster continues to be a problem. Getting yet another nozzle for it, as the first one broke and the second one was too light duty and the sand wore through the insides. Getting a dead-man nozzle this time. Also tried to get more blasting media from TSC, they are out of stock. Seems like everywhere I go is out of stock these days, no matter what store it is. So many nooks and crannies with the front of the chassis, I need the blaster working to get in there. Adding to the problem is that the front of the chassis was caked in grease and sand, so the blaster doesn't do too well getting through that. Lots of degreasing, brushing, sanding, trying to get to the paint/rust layer so the blaster can make it clean bare metal. Also ordered some Eastwood Chassis Paint so I can paint the areas I've primed already so I can prevent any new rust from coming back and so I can keep making some progress towards finishing the chassis. Mostly doing the front part now, but doing some easy parts in the back here and there.

FOR looks great. Good to see the progress being made quite quickly.

More perfection. Beautiful work all around.

More slow but steady progress. Starting sand blasting, grinding, wire-wheeling, and sanding the chassis. Also went down to Moss Motors to buy the first round of parts: a replacement floorboard bracket, new floorboards, rubber kit and body packing kit (photo 1). Spent a lot, but the parts look great and saved $20 on shipping after fuel costs. Here's a photo of blasting in progress (photo 2). My blaster is Chinese, so it's a pile of junk. Trying to save money. The sand release valve at the end of the whole works broke after only 2.5 hrs of use. I replaced it with one made in Italy, so we'll see if that lasts. Blasting is slow and tedious, plus the chassis was covered in so much oil and dirt that it won't penetrate some areas, so I have to scrape, blast, scrape, blast, so it will take a while. Other areas with heavier rust required a wire wheel or media pad to get rid of most of the rust. Decided to prime the chassis piecemeal to prevent flash rust once I finish a section (photo 3). Here are photos of the main rust outs (photos 4 & 5). I have a replacement floorboard bracket for the horizontal bar, and I'll have to make a small patch for the rust out on the chassis (photo 4) There are a few other small areas on the other brackets, but they should be easily fixed. In the back, the battery gas rusted out two holes in the rear cross member. I cut out the obvious rust, then I'll cut out a little more to make it more even, as my cuts are quite sloppy. Should be fairly easy to weld in replacement patches after I roll them to the proper diameter. The battery boxes are in rough shape. The outer frames are removable and I'll be able to salvage those and most of the attaching hardware, but I'll have some fabrication to do with the main support structures (photo 5). The rest of the chassis is quite good, although I still need to do the "hammer test" to look for internal rust and finish rust/paint/grime removal. Although my method is slow, I'm quite happy with it, as I'm able to do it myself instead of paying some guy $2,000 to do a medicocre job. I also think it will turn out very well when I'm finished, considering I have about 2.5 hrs of welding experience so far. Quite rewarding building a pile of garbage into an AACA prize-winner (I hope!).

Thanks for the tips, Digger. I just picked up the workshop manual, and I have a tech manual from the MG club in the UK. I'll be making my first parts run to Moss later this week. I'll try the hammer test, too, once I get the frame blasted, which I hope to start today.

John, the body is on saw horses right behind the frame, so it will have to ride the ground for now and jack stands when it's painted. I'm going to try the blaster at home and see how it goes. I'll at least blast the rusted out areas to see what I'm left with. If it's too much work or too slow, once I get the few patches I need, I'll consider taking it to my stripping/powdercoating company. I don't have a trailer, though, so that adds complexity. We'll see how it goes.

Slow progress, but progress none the less. Ended up taking the chassis out in the driveway, putting it up on its side for better leverage, then getting a heavier-duty set of locking pliers than I was using before, lots of penetrating fluid and following some tips you guys have been sending me on the forum(s). Ended up getting out 80% of the rusted-in broken-off screw heads on the floor framework that have been a real pain in the neck to remove over the last couple months. I ended up with 4 than I could not remove, so I ended up drilling them out, collapsing in the remains of the hollow screws and pulling them out with needle-nose pliers. Chased all the threads with a tap. 3 additional ones rusted right through the framework, so at least I got them out. That was the last step in final disassembly. This week, I've just been waiting for sand blasting weather. Rain doesn't work for that. So, I "de-greased" the front of the chassis with a scraper (it was covered in a thick layer of caked on oil held together with sand, photo 1), removed the rubber chassis to body insulator strips on the top of the chassis, and brought in my floorboards to use as a reference for fixing the few areas of the floor framework that are rusted out (photo 2). Once dry weather rolls around, I'll be sand blasting the rusted out areas and seeing what's left. I'll then cut out the bad metal and start getting ready to weld in some patch panels. I'll need the old floorboards in order to figure exactly where the new holes need to be in the part of the floor frame that have rusted out. I'll then tack weld the nuts to these new holes to make them captive nuts, just like original. Wish me luck, since I have about 2 hours of welding experience so far! I'm sure it will take me 10 times as long as anyone else while I learn. This thing should really speed up once I get the welding complete, but still have a while to go, as there are a few other chassis rust outs (not structural) and the battery boxes are a rusty mess and will need a lot of work.

Had 3 days off and relatively good weather this weekend. Finally got it disassembled. Still have a fuel line and about 1/2 of the broken-off floorboard bolts in the inner chassis to remove. Removing those bolts is a nightmare, as some won't come out and may have to be drilled. Have been soaking them in penetrating oil for a while, and have been able to remove about 1/2 of them so far, but with great effort with locking pliers. I think I'll be able to get 3/4 of them out by hand, then I'll have to try drilling or heat to extract the remainder. I not sure if I'll be sand blasting the chassis myself, with my small, easy-clog blaster, or if I'll rent a trailer and haul it to the pro blaster, which will do a faster job, but will be much more money. Can't wait to get to the point where I'm putting parts back on instead of taking them off. Happy with the progress I've made, but will need to replace a lot of parts and every other part needs rebuilding or restoration work. I want to keep costs as low as possible, but may be tough...need a radiator, exhaust, new leather seat covers, engine rebuild, new fuel tank, fuel sending unit, tires, wire wheel repair/replacement, among other items, all of which are things I can't do myself.