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MG MGA - Loosening Fenders

Hey Folks,

It been a long time since I said hello. Hello!

During the off season I had a little body work done. I found a great fellow north of Grand Rapids who was recommended by Carl Heideman. His name is Mark Kenworthy. Highly recommended. He did some dent repairs and most notably some fender to door matching work. I had a tight budget an Mark happily met it.

As a result of my tight budget Mark did the repair overpaints without loosening the fenders from the body tub. It looks just fine except its hard to polish in that trench.

I'm now wondering about loosening the fenders at the top myself and polishing.

What kind of Pandora's box issue is this?

On an unrelated note I just switched out my traditional ignition wires and distributor cap for modern cobalts and the necessary distributor.

Highly, highly recommended. I did the alternator last season and saw a big improvement in idle and accelaration, this just added to it.

Thanks as always!
T McCarthy

I know Mark Kenworthy, he used to work for John Twist. He does good paint work so you probably have a nice paint job. I thought he did painting for Carl Heideman, but I could be mistaken on that. Regarding fender loosening; some of the bolts may be difficult/impossible to back off due to rust (what's the condition of the flange areas on your car?). Simple enough to snap the bolts off, but then you have the problem of getting the threaded portion out of the captured nuts on the flange. I would try repeated applications of a penetrating oil (several brands available), and with patience, they all might at least back out enough to pull the fender away. The splash shield in the fender well might also get in the way up near the scuttle area. Good Luck!
George
G Goeppner

George,

Mark is still doing paint jobs for Carl. Carl is pretty much only doing full restos, He pointed me to Mark for my "small" job.

Honestly, he's a great guy.
T McCarthy

If the car was painted with the wings (fenders) on then they will have been masked at the beading. When you loosen the wing you will split the paint and there is a risk that it will peel back from the beading. If you polish the paint along the join, there is even more chance of damaging the edge.

It's difficult to judge without seeing the car, a picture would help. Otherwise I would leave the wings in place until you need to remove for repairs or are ready to do a full repaint.

Neil
Neil McGurk

Moving the wings (fenders) could be opening a can of worms - the beading may not go back exactly as before as the holes in it and the fender are sloted. Also, the fender to door gaps will be difficult to maintain. Polishing in situ is a lot easier, in my opinion.
Peter.
P. Tilbury

Why not call Mark and ask him what he recommends?
dominic clancy

This thread was discussed between 24/04/2008 and 26/04/2008

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