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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Rear fender quarter-panel (outer) renovation

Hi All, and thanks for the read. I have a very solid ’74 midget that’s starting to show the typical rust at the rear quarter-panel fender beading. Now I know that it’s most common to get into such a repair and find that things are much worse beneath the surface, but lets assume the only rust is at this beading location where the two panels meet and are spot welded. Has anyone come up with a trick to properly and 100% clean up this area without destroying the quarter-panel? The spot welds in the trunk/boot make it tough without cutting away part of the fender, plus it may be that the whole thing needs to come off to do it right (which seems like a pretty destructive process at best). As a side note, I bought the Haynes book Restoration Manual MG Midget, Austin Healey and Sprite to get to the bottom of this, but it either destroys and removes the panel for replacement, or offers-up a shortcut way to replace the fender beading (which isn’t really the issue here, I need to get in-between the panels to wipe out the rust). Many thanks.
SS Schwartz

I followed that advice in the Haynes Restoration guide. There was quite a lot of rusting along both sides and under the wing bead. I cleaned out what I could, brushed a rust stabiliser into the groove and soldered a new wing bead in. I finished off with lead loading along the edges, wiping the excess off with a cloth to give a good finish.

That was some 18 years ago. This summer I did a re-spray on the same car, there was just a little rust along the bead edges in places but far less than there was last time around. I think his method is a good and practical solution.

Guy
Guy Oneandahalf Sprites

This thread was discussed on 13/11/2010

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.