This is some information on the restoration of my MG Maestro Turbo, no 385/505 built in 1989. I bought this car in November 1999 of a chap in Cumbria Whitehaven. Unfortunately, first impressions on viewing the car were not to good! The dreaded rust bug had moved in on rear wheel arches tail gate two front wings drivers door front windscreen pillars! However on closer inspection the rest of the body was in sound condition, most of the infected areas can be unbolted, then replaced with new parts! The only real problem was windscreen pillars and wheel arches. Of coarse, I bought the car, on the understanding that major body restoration will be needed. This is 385 rebuild story........
The original rust damaged wheel arches were cut away from main body of the car, in preparation of new
ones being fitted. No real problems encountered here, wheel arch replacement panels for Maestro can still be found in most good part suppliers, for now. However, I don't think I can say the same in the next couple of years!
My car awaiting further polishing of new paint work. Notice the ride height of standard suspension! New uprated/2" lowered springs and dampers, will be on my order list, for improved handling/looks!
The drivers door needed replacement, due to the rust bug getting into bottom of door trim. But trying to replace this door proved to be nearly impossible! I could not find a good one anywhere. In the end up a found one ok-ish, but not perfect, due to a little dent around door handle.
At this point I decided to de-lock the doors, not only does this improve and sharpen the looks, but also gives the car that bit of extra security! You will notice the de-locked doors in the pictures. Details of the fitted remote Central locking key kit, will be seen on my web site soon.
The window surrounds have not been painted black yet, in this stage of the restoration.
The key hole was carefully MiG welded up, then using an angel grinder to smooth/blend area, for perfect Finnish.I have been informed, satisfactory results can be obtained by using cardboard (or similar) as a tempery support, then key hole filled with auto repair glassfibre filler. Please note, if you decide to use glassfibre filler, remember to taper key hole edges inward so filler has something to hold itself against. This will also aid better blend in with the rest of the door.
The original rear tail gate was also beyond repair, rust again! I was lucky here, as I managed to find a brand new one, that had never been painted. The cost of this was a mere £10 from local body repair shop! cant be bad!! I was told a costumer paid for this new Maestro tail gate 6 years ago, but he was never seen again!
You will notice in the picture below, that the rear boot section below the tail gate, that's covered by the rear bumper has also been re sprayed!
Normally this area is covered with basic body under seal when the car left the factory. But I decided that this should be taken back to bare metal, then re sprayed with the rest of the car, for better sealing. Perhaps a bit of over-kill there, I think!>
The two front wings replaced, with brand new ones, just a nut and bolt job here. The same cant be said about the windscreen pillars. Of all the work on the car, the windscreen pillars where the most difficult to repair. The problem was rust had set in around the pillar area causing the original paint work to bubble and crack, also rubber seal around windscreen had lifted at the top driver side, letting in water! The Windscreen had to be removed for proper repair. Rust infected metal was then cut back to good metal then new metal MiG welded in. Then angel grinder was used to smooth off for perfect repair, no body filler here! Also worth a mention, Wax type industrial fluid, that most body repair shop use, was injected up both windscreen pillars, to stop any future problems! After re spray the windscreen was then refitted with new rubber seal.
You would think by looking at these two pictures above, that I have used two completely different colours of paint! However, I can assure you, the colour is British racing green, all round.
As mentioned, pillars around windscreen where damaged due the tin worm. Once all repairs where complete, a new rubber seal replaced old damaged one. This job was the most difficult of all, A whole day was used up for this repair, however, it was well worth the agro. As you will see from these pictures the job was perfect, as it is now back to new condition. I hope it will stay like this for a few years, I would not be too keen in doing this job to often!! Best to get it right first time, with this in mind.
Original paint work had started to lift around heater intake panel. This had to be repaired by using a special lead metal filler. This decision was taken because there was only little pit marks caused by corrosion, rust had not penetrated too much into panel area. Which meant, once rust is removed it could be filled easily, without any welding.
Some of you may be wondering why theres a paint tin in engine bay. Simple, it's to stop dust and so on from getting into engine air intake were the pipercross air filter normally sits.
More information soon!!
