Fiberglass rear end

Paul from Red Bearing Auto Repair sold me the back half of an MGB ragtop that I could use on the Pink Panther. But before cutting it off, I decided to make a fiberglass mold of it

I started by taking non-stick aluminum foil and laying it out on the rear of the car

Once it was covered in foil, I laid out the woven fiberglass blanket. I made a mistake here, I should have cut it into smaller pieces, it would have been smoother.

I covered the fiberglass with resin and spread it out with a roller and brush

Once it had cured, I was able to just lift it off the car and the foil pealed off without much trouble. It's not very stiff, though, I would need to glass in some balsa pieces before using it.

Rear frame redone

Here is the rear frame with the fenders cut away. There is a lot of extra steel here that can be eliminated or simplified.

Once it was all cut away I figured out how the simplest way to attach the shocks and the Panhard bar.

There is a framework that the rear suspension bolts to and it's welded to a thick steel plate from the original MGB frame. I discovered that this plate is not actually very strong and the whole rear of the car is basically held together with only the tubes going from the roll hoop down to the frame. I will definitely correct this.

The new rear frame, narrowed and simplified.

Door bars and structure

When I cut the top bars out of the roll cage, the center of the car drooped, just look at what happened to the body line where the door and rear quarter panel meet.

I jacked the car up in the middle and welded in these door bars, solving the problem

Since I don't need the doors to open and close anymore, I was able to cut out the latches, hinges and door structure, leaving only the outer skin. It is quite surprising how much all that stuff weighed.