Every MG T-Type has a steel chassis and an ash-framed body tub. The chassis is not wooden — that error is everywhere, and it matters, because it is the tub that rots, it rots invisibly, and putting it right is the single largest bill these cars can present.
What you actually have
Beneath the metal panels of your T-Type is a skeleton of ash timber, and the panels are tacked to it. The steel chassis carries the loads; the ash tub carries the shape, the doors, the fittings and, in the end, the value of the car.
Ash was the right choice in 1936 — strong, light, resilient and workable — and it remains the right choice now. But it is wood, and these cars were never waterproof. The hoods and side curtains seal poorly at the best of times, and rain finds its way in and stays. Morgan, who still build this way, reckon a wood frame needs replacing every seven years if a car lives outdoors. A T-Type that has spent its life garaged, or in a dry climate, is worth a genuine premium over one that has not.
Where the water gets in — and stays
The most instructive detail comes from someone who rebuilt one. The holes for the running boards and front wings are the problem, and specifically the horizontal ones: they capture moisture and hold it, right inside the timber, indefinitely. When you drill or re-drill any hole in a new frame, wet the inside of it with varnish or a good epoxy before anything goes through it. Five minutes then saves a rebuild later.
The truth nobody wants to hear
Believe me when I say that behind most every timber there will be rot. You may not see it, but it is there behind the sheetmetal.
That is a restorer speaking after several tubs. It is the single most important sentence in this article. The frame is almost entirely hidden behind panels; what you can see is not the story.
Assessing a frame without dismantling it
You have four honest indicators:
The doors. Doors that have dropped are the first sign of structural trouble. Open and close both. Slight movement is acceptable on a car of this age; sloppiness, a door that must be lifted to shut, or a latch that no longer meets its striker, is telling you the tub has moved.
The A- and B-posts. Look around and between them. The timber below there is the most exposed and usually the first to go.
From underneath. This is your best view. The large main wood rails running down each side are visible from below, where most of the rest of the frame is not. Get the car up and take a torch.
The body lines. Stand back and sight along the car. If the lines don't align, something is wrong with the frame. Be aware, too, that almost any surviving T-Type has had its frame rebuilt or replaced at some point, and there is plenty of scope for that work to have left it neither straight nor symmetrical.
Kits versus making your own
Complete ash frame kits are available, and the consensus among people who have done this is emphatic: buy a quality kit. As one put it, complete timber kits are not expensive — unless you have to do the job a second time on the same tub. The work will be challenging and time-consuming enough without making your own timbers as well.
But understand what a kit is. It is not a flat-pack. Owners who bought precut wood from specialists still report a fair amount of reworking to make it fit their car. The kit gets you to the right shape in the right timber; you still do the fitting. One owner tweaked a new set of TF wood until it was beyond use and had to start again with a second set. That is the risk you are managing.
Suppliers
Complete frames and individual timbers are available from a number of specialists, including Moss, NTG, Andy King (who acquired the stock and machinery from the retired Rique Llinares), the Hutson Motor Company, and Steve Gilbert for a panelled body. In the United States, Craig Seabrook undertakes tub restorations as a business. Good ash can also be sourced directly in the UK if you are making your own pieces.
As a broad guide, a complete new timber skeleton runs to somewhere around £5,000 as a kit, before anyone fits it — and fitting is labour-intensive work that is not for the faint-hearted. Check current prices; this figure will move.
Tools
The people who have done this agree on a short list: a band saw is essential, a belt sander is the tool you will use most, plus sharp wood chisels and a drill press. If you intend to panel the tub yourself as well, add a hand-operated folder. As one restorer summarised it: a belt sander, and patience.
The glue rule
I used construction adhesive on the joints only when I was absolutely sure I was not going to take it back apart — after the last sheetmetal mock-up, when I knew the doors would fit the opening properly. If in doubt, leave the glue out, or you'll be doing the job all over again. Ask me how I know.
Dry-assemble. Mock up the panels. Hang the doors. Check the gaps. Only then glue.
Do the doors
The temptation, having spent heavily on the tub, is to leave the door frames. Don't.
If you're going to rebuild the entire tub, absolutely do the doors. Paint jobs are expensive, and having to restore a car twice because you wanted to save a few hundred on door wood is not where you should be penny-pinching.
Preserving what you build
Boat-building practice transfers directly here, and marine products are what the experienced use.
For new timber: one restorer fitted, trimmed and drilled every piece, then soaked each for a week in wood preservative, let them dry, and soaked them again — before final assembly. Do the preserving after the fitting, so freshly cut surfaces and drilled holes are treated too.
For existing timber with soft spots: penetrating epoxy resins, sold for exactly this purpose in the marine trade, soak into dry-rotted wood and harden it. They are used both to save serviceable original pieces in situ and — importantly — to stabilise rotten wood just enough to serve as a pattern.
For latch screws, which chew out their holes over time: the durable fix is steel inserts in the timber and machine screws into them, rather than ever-larger wood screws into ever-softer wood.
The honest bottom line
A T-Type's ash frame is not a maintenance item; it is a restoration item. You cannot inspect most of it without taking the car apart, so you are buying evidence rather than certainty: a dry history, straight body lines, doors that shut properly, and — best of all — a documented, dated rebuild with photographs.
Everything else on these cars is fixable at the roadside or on a bench. This isn't. Price it accordingly.