My 1974 MGB Restoration Project

5-24-2010 through 5-28-2010

2010-06-02T16:49:00.001-04:00

5-28-2010
Well the high power relays for the new interior fuse panel arrived. I got a 40-amp relay plus a spare.
I received the seat heater kits in the mail also. The switches are smaller than the holes I drilled in the center radio consoel…dammit! I guess I’ll make some little filler plates out of washers or something.
I think I’m going to paint a big Union Jack on the bottom of the new gas tank. That way you can see the British flag when you are working under the car or if I’ve just run you over. Or I may make a decal instead of painting it…not sure yet.
I’m going to put a few coats of rust proofing/under coating spray on the top of the old gas tank and then a few coats of paint to finish it out.
No more MG work this weekend…at least not Saturday. I’m DJ’ing a wedding reception tomorrow and also doing the photography along with my wifey…it’s gonna be a busy day. It’s also Memorial day so…well I don’t now what that means but it might actually be a day off for me. YEAY!

5-27-2010
I finished repairing the old gas tank top. It was in much better shpe than I thought with only a few pinholes to patch. After I patched them, I put down about three layers of truck bed liner. I also sanded, primed and painted the underside of the tank. Turned out nice. I’m going to put a few layers of paint and undercoating on the tank top and then I’ll be done with it.
I’m finished with the rear suspension re-busing work and it is all back together now. It was a bit tougher on the driver’s side since the diameter of the bushings where the bolt pass through them seemed a bit tighter than the last set. I had to squeeze the bolts thorough with a c-clamp but it all went back together without too much struggle.
I also got the slam panel and under-hood area in front of the radiator painted with pewter paint. I found one can of pewter spray paint at Advance Auto Parts on clearance…that is good since it cost me less $$$, bad since it means they won’t be carrying that paint anymore. Oh well.

5-25-2010
I know what I’ll be doing tonight-finishing the rear suspension rebuild. The UPS man brought me my new toys so I think I finally have all of the urethane bushings I need…I just have to figure out how to replace the rear axle bump stop pads…
I’ll also be replacing the front sway bar end link bushings even though I ORDERED THE WRONG ONES FOR THE REAR SWAY BAR THAT MY CAR DOES NOT HAVE…SHIT! I’ll have to send those back and reorder the new ones. Luckily, I won’t need them immediately since I’m most likely not doing the front suspension for at least a few more days.
I drilled out the center caps on new 3-eared knock-off spinners I got for my Western Superlite wheels (converting them from 5-lug so they fit a 4-lug wheel.) I decided to mount the center caps to the wheels since they are just a slightly smaller diameter than the wheel center opening and won’t stay in place when the wheels are off. I basically just ran a bead of Liquid nails around the inside of the cap and pushed them into place after cleaning the inside of the wheel. I then put the wheels on the car, put on the lug nuts and tightened them up to press the caps on tightly against the wheels and compress the adhesive. I’ll let them dry like that overnight and they’ll be fine.
I put another coat of rust converter on the old gas tank. It is almost ready for rust repairs (on the tank top) and repainting.

5-24-2010
Didn’t get much done this weekend. Had my son with me and we kinda tinkered with the car…but when you’re working on an MG with a 9-year old boy, tinkering is about all you can do.
“We” installed the oil cooler and he tightened up the lines…that means I got them finger tight, lined up the wrench, he turned it and I move the wrench for him to turn it again.
I don’t really expect him to retain any knowledge of working on the car, I just think it’s important to establish the mindset of being able to work on anything from cars, to electronics to landscaping timbers and two-by-fours.
So the oil cooler is installed and I got the starter back up under the car. I still have to hook up the wires but that will take all of 5 minutes.
I would have done more on final removal of the rear valance but we are babysitting the Rat Terrier of one of my daughter’s friends and it has decided (not less than five times in two days) that he really likes shitting on the garage floor right behind the MG…just where you don’t see it until too late…Rocky the yippie dog is really crapping on thin ice.
I got the Summit Racing center caps/3-earred knock-off spinners for the Western Superlite wheels.
They are made for 5-bolt wheels, not 4-bolt so I have to modify them to work on the MG. All that really involves is lining them up in place on the wheel and tracing out the hole locations with a Sharpi marker and then drilling them out where the lugs will go. I’ll be using one of the large, conical stepped drill bits that goes from a diameter of like ¼” to 1”. I really like these type of bits for drilling through thin metal, they seem to bind up less than conventional bits.
Lining them up with the wheel when you are mounting them to the car is a bitch so I may wind up using some type of flexible adhesive to hold them in place on the wheel.
I also started working on the old gas tank I have. I got it dipped and flushed several months ago but just didn’t like how it looked so I bought a new one. This tank, however, is one with baffles which are hard to find an fairly expensive so I don’t just want to throw it away. The top has some rust pin holes in it so I decided to fix it up and either keep it or sell it. I wire brushed the top down and then put a few coats rust converter on it. The stuff seem to work well and, although I’d never use it on any part for the car’s body, I think the tank top will work fine. I’m going to sand the rest of the tank and prime it then seal the top of the tank with fiberglass and resin or some JB Weld (it‘s just a few small pinholes. Then I’ll spray a few coats of truck bed liner, then a few coats urethane sealer and finally a few coats of black enamel. The rest of the tank will also be painted black. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the inside of the tank to keep it from rusting…probably swish some light oil or Marvel Mystery Oil around and then drain it. Then I’ll seal it up in some big plastic bags with a few big packs of desiccant.
Still waiting on my Victoria British parts order (along with the sound system order) to arrive so I can get the rear suspension re-bushing work done. Once they get here it shouldn’t take more than an hour to finish it all up since most of the tough stuff (removing the old, pressed-in front spring bushings) is done.
Then it’s on to finishing up the rear valance and getting the front shocks swapped out and the front suspension re-bushed.

5-22-2010 PICTURES

2010-05-23T01:34:00.005-04:00

My parts have all started arriving.

Here are the bullet mirrors i got. I'm replacing my stock mirrors but luckily somebody on the MGE forum needs my old ones for his car so they wont go to waste.

I got the 3-eared knock-off spinners for my wheels...nice.

I got the roll bar and the Falcon stainless steel factory exhaust system installed

I got the gas tank ready to install but it won't go in, of course, until the rear valance is welded in place.

5-20-2010

2010-05-21T03:09:00.002-04:00

5-20-2010

Got the exhaust all installed and pretty so I turned to the rear suspensions.
I pulled apart the driver’s side and removed the leaf spring.
I used a socket and c-clap to remove the forward, metal-sleeved bushing from the spring. I had to use a propane torch to heat it up for a few minutes but it eventually slipped out.
I got the new urethane bushings in and then went to install the new rear-shackle bushings on the spring but guess what…no rear bushings…gone…missing…probably thrown away when I cleaned out the garage two weeks ago. I spent 3 hours looking for them but no joy so the MG is up on stands with the rear suspension torn apart and I can’t do anything until new bushings arrive in the mail.
Dammit!!!!

So I dumped a buttload on $$$ on new parts this week…here’s what I’ve ordered:
New 3-eared center caps for the Western Superlite wheels.
Two seat heater kits.
Two chrome bullet racing mirrors.
Rear spring shackle urethane bushings (dammit!)
Front wheel bearing kit (I already have one)
Urethane rear axle bump stop set
Thermostat blanking sleeve

It looks like I’m going to have to get new stainless braided oil cooler hoses since the ones that Butch gave me are not for an MG. Don’t know yet whether I’ll get stainless or stock…probably stainless.

Got the under-hood area in front of the radiator painted pewter and reinstalled the oil cooler. I’ll just hook the old stock lines back up since they are already in place.

Well, back to the fish-n- chips mine…

5-11 through 5-19, 2010

2010-05-21T02:54:00.002-04:00

5-11-2010

Hey, welcome back to me. I’m back to work on the MG after my long winter’s rest.
I got most of the garage cleaned out so I can get to the car. Still have a lot of stuff to get rid of but that’s because I’m trying to de-clutter my life from all the “stuff” I’ve accumulated over the years but have no real need for.
I’ve been organizing parts, both new ones and those I already had. I’m really close on having all the parts I need to finish up the car.

Quickies:
I bought a padded roll bar from a nice member on the MGExperience.net forum and it got here today. Tight fit but it does look pretty good and it cost me half of an unpadded new one..
Last week I bought a bunch of parts from forum members who have gotten out of MG’s. Sad to see nice people leave the hobby but I’m sure they’ll be back J
I got a bunch of stuff I needed for my car plus a few parts left over to sell to help cover the costs of the purchase.
I got the following parts for me: tonneau and top boot in great shape, a complete Falcon stainless steel exhaust system, a brand new Lucas electronic (no contact points) factory fuel pump, complete front brake rebuild kits with new rotors, a 1972 steering wheel, brand new clutch master cylinder, a Kenwood cd-stereo, rear shocks with links, two factory jacks and a brand new Hayden electric cooling fan.
I also got two SU HIF AUD 135-R carbs & manifold in great shape, a split stow-away top frame and split rear bumpers.
I also got other assorted stuff like gauges, switches, gaskets, nuts and bolts, etc plussome stuff that I didn’t need, like radio face plates for old style radios with shafts, a top boot cover that was dry rotted, various rear-view mirror parts, none of which fit together…

My friend Kevin just made a big MG score too except that he picked up two whole cars, a 77 and a 72 plus extra parts. I’m hoping he parts out the 77 so I can get the windshield off of it.
Hey, Kevin, I have those rear shocks and chrome over-riders all ready for you…wanna’ trade for that windshield?

I ordered the new sound system including two amps, four speakers and the EQ. I won’t actually have a traditional stereo system in the car, I’ll just plug my Ipod, satellite radio, cd player, etc into the EQ and I won’t have to worry about anyone stealing my stereo.

I got my Western,10-spoke wheels (they look like Minilites with 2 extra spokes) cleaned up and painted. I used Krylon stainless steel color paint followed by about 6 light coats of clear and they look great. I also found 3-eared spinner center caps through Summit racing since the wheels didn’t come with center caps.

I need to pick up some clamps for the exhaust system before I install it. The factory exhaust on it now is still okay but you can see where the rust pitting in the pipes is a bit thin. I could probably get another 10-20 thousand miles out of the exhaust, more with a few quick welds if there are any rust-through spots, but why bother. The falcon stainless system is used but is nearly new and in great shape and, once on the car, it should last longer than me.
If breaking loose the nuts on the hangers cooperates, it shouldn’t take more than an hour to swap out the system, even with the fun of getting to the bolts that connect it to the exhaust manifold.

Then the new roll bar gets installed which shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. I have to drill 8 holes through the floors and put reinforcement plates on the other sides when bolted together but it’s not hard to do.

After that I’ll finish out the rest of the rear end rebuild; I have half the stock bushings replaced with the urethane replacements so far. Then it’s on to the front end bushings and replacing the shocks, brake rotors and wheel bearings.

Then I guess I’ll have to finally start the welding…there’s no more avoiding it…blech!!

5-14-2010
Got the roll bar installed.. It has a zippered black vinyl cover and while I might not trust it in a rollover to save my life, it does give me a nice sense of false security and the potential for major head trauma if my skull hit’s the bar in a accident.

My drill gave up the ghost while installing the roll bar so I got another one at Harbor Fright…and remember Harbor Freight’s motto: “Half our stuff is shit…but you don’t know which half until you get it home!”

I also picked up an auto-darkening welding helmet. It has blue flame decals on it so that makes me really cool. I’m still a shitty welder but now I’m a really cool shitty welder.
Actually, it is a pretty cool helmet and it’s solar powered…green welding, whodathnkit
Also picked up another spot weld removing drill bit, some blades for my sawz-all and a tarp for my semi-retired Corvette which is apparently the bombing target for neighborhood birds on high-fiber diets. I’m not kidding-if I left it sitting in the driveway for a month without a cover it would grow a protective coating of bird shit.

I gotta’ pick up those exhaust clamps so I can get the Falcon stainless steel exhaust installed on Sunday night.

I want to have the rear suspension rebuild finished (half done now) and the front suspension rebushed and the new shocks installed by next weekend.

So here’s my work order for this week:
INSTALL STAINLESS EXHAUST SYSTEM
FINISH INTALL OF URETHANE BUSHINGS & PADS ON REAR SUSPENSION
INSTALL URETHANE BUSHINGS ON FRONT SUSPENSION
INSTALL NEW FRONT SHCOK ABSORBERS

Bonus stuff:
REPACE FRONT BEARINGS (REPLACE IF NEEDED
INSTALL NEW FRONT BRAKE DISCS.
GO TO GREEK FESTIVAL ON SUNDAY & EAT A SHITLOAD OF GYROS AND BAKLAVA
Edit: didn’t go to the Greek festival…Wifey went on Friday and said it sucked.

May 16, 2010
Got the old exhaust hangers disconnected and the clamps put on the new stainless exhaust. I’ll be breaking loose the manifold nuts/studs tonight, dropping the old exhaust and installing the new one. It shouldn’t take more than an hour’s more work. I’ve already had the nuts off once to replace the exhaust donuts so they won’t be rusted or frozen. The exhaust hangers look brand new even though they’ve been on the car for 20+ years so I won’t have to spend money replacing those at least.

I cut away a large portion of the rear valance today. I drilled out most of the spot welds with a remover tool (two actually since I shredded one spot weld bit about half way through) I separated the panel from the car using screwdrivers, an air hammer and a good old air cutoff tool.
I should finish that up tomorrow afternoon since I can’t work on that at night---too loud and the air tools would wake up the whole house.

Looking up inside the rear “frame” of the car after the valance is off, I can see that I’m going to have to spray some penetrol and paint up in there.

Okay…this sucks. I was looking for parts on Ebay for the MG and found a rear bumper that needed re-chromed but was in otherwise good shape. The opening bid on it was 99 cents so what the hell, I bid a buck on it. Well guess what…I won a rusty fucking bumper which is in no better condition than the one I have now. Even worse, the shipping is $40.00. Be careful what you bid on…you may win it. I really can’t bitch though…over the last two years I figure I’ve gotten about $5,000 worth of parts for about $1,000 so one bad deal won’t sour me too much…well, maybe a little bit.

Getting ready to make one of my last parts orders, this time from Victoria British. I’m getting
Front wheel bearings, urethane rear axle bump stops and urethane front sway bar bushings, and a windshield…yippie! I get to replace a windshield. I can’t fucking wait!
There are still a bunch of other parts I need like the wheel center hubs, tires, battery and paint and body supplies but not a whole lot of MG -specific parts.

At the same time I’ll be doing landscaping in the back yard so I am one multi-tasking kind of guy!

My buddy Paul said he’d help me with the welding when I was ready. He did the welding on the TR-250 he restored a while back so that’s good enough for me. Nice to have friends.

May 18, 2010
Got the old exhaust off and the new one installed. It took a bit longer than I had hoped (of course) mostly because I had trouble with the center hanger pin and the old exhaust donuts were so corroded on the down-pipe that it took a while to chisel all the old gasket off.. It also didn’t help that I was doing landscaping work in the back yard at the same time.

I should be able to get most of the old rear valance off tonight though I can’t use my noisy air tools while my wifey is asleep.

It may take even longer, however, since the last episode of the TV show “Lost” before the finale’ is on tonight…have to get my Lost on when I get home from work J

I should also get the rear suspension bushing replacement finished up tonight or tomorrow. It’s dirty and sweaty work but not too difficult.

I was going to install the new gas tank. I got the tank sealed and painted and the sending unit installed. I also attached the rubber mounting strips and foam filler-neck ring to the tank top and I was going to install the tank in the car but since I still have to replace the rear valance, I’m going to hold off.

6-16 tthrough 9-1 2009

2010-05-21T02:54:00.001-04:00

Big parts haul, carbs back and actual work 6-19 through 6-22, 2009

Went out to see Butch in Burlington. He finished my SU carbs and they were in pretty good shape. The needle and jet assemblies still looked like new though they have about 165,000 miles on them. New solid butterfly valves on the throttle shafts, new seals, springs and a few other minor bits and the carbs should be good.

Went out to his MGB graveyard to pull parts. About 30 MG’s and a billion crickets, wasps and weeds…what fun on a hot southern day.

I got a new vapor recovery canister for the engine bay (it will be show since the car has been desmogged) a center consol and radio consol, various little clips for the upholstery and to hold down the hydraulic lines n the engine bay, mirror bases, fresh air grill, window crank, back up lights and a bunch of other little parts.

I also found a set of Mini-lite alloy wheels that I think I’m going to get for the car, a deal at $200 for the set.

Other tidbits. I got the steering wheel and hub painted and the new gas tank finished. I cleaned and degreased the tank on the outside and sanded it. On the top I sprayed two layers of truck bed liner followed by two coats of paint and two coats of flexible rubber undercoating so I shouldn’t have to worry about the tank top rusting anytime soon.

On the bottom of the tank I sprayed on two layers of self-etching primer and four layers of Rustoleum black gloss paint. The tank has a better finish than most cars.

I started on the major body work today. I began by getting out my new air cutter and taking off the lower half of the rear valance. The freaking thing has like 300 spot welds in it and I’m NOT going to try to drill all of those out. I’m just cutting off as much of the old panel as I can and welding the new one over it. It already test fits well so good for me.

I cut off the starboard side dogleg and cut out all of the bad metal in the sill areas. The outer sill which extends up under the dogleg was all but gone and now I just have to drill out the spot welds that are left and I can start the final welding prep. The front of the inner sill has a hole in it so I’ll cut out the bad metal and will weld a patch over that before the outer sill goes on.

Cutting off that metal afforded me a peak inside the inner sill behind the castle rail and it looked pretty good. At some point a previous owner had slopped some kind of rust preventative up in there and the metal is still pretty strong. I reached in with assorted wire brushes and a dryer vent cleaning brush and got any dirt in the area cleaned out,.

I then put the nozzle and extension tube from a brake cleaner can on a can of spray-on bed liner and shot it up into the area via the small drain holes along the bottom or the “frame” rail. The coverage was pretty good for doing it blind and I sprayed up in there until it was dripping heavily from the drain holes. I’ll do another couple of coats of that after it dries.

Then it’s onto the other side to repeat the process.

Oh joy!

6-23-2009

Got all of the remaining pieces of the starboard sill assembly cut out. Very much a pain in the ass.
The toughest part was the section towards the rear that is sandwiched in the center of 3 panels where the door goes vertical and up beneath the dogleg.
I drilled out the spot welds on the outer piece that curves upward on the rear area of the door sill and then just jammed a chisel up inside to cut the aft sill section under the dogleg out of the area. That part of the rear sill section is still sandwiched up under the side panel but I’m just going to weld the new sill section over it.
I still have some more grinding to do in the area and I have to split the remaining pieces of metal off the wheel arch where it meets the rear of the dogleg.

I test fit the new sill section and it fit pretty well. The new dog leg fit is more “problematical.” and it is going to need a lot of fudging and wrangling to get it to fit even close to how it is supposed to.

I used my new air panel punch to knock out all the holes all along the edges of the sill piece that I’ll use to plug weld it to the car. Took about five minutes to punch out all of the holes. It would have taken at least ten times that long to drill them all out. I’d say the $29.95 tool from Harbor Freight was well worth the money since it save me a great deal of time, sweat and swearing.

I cut the bad metal out of the front of the center membrane and bought some 16-gauge metal to replace it. I’ll cut that out and weld in place.

When everything is all welded up I’m going to wiggle a modified garden sprayer up inside all of the sill and “frame” rails areas and spray several good coats of paint mixed with Penetrol (which I also bought today) as the final rust protection.

I got the fiberglass air dam cleaned up and sanded and laid down two coats of filler primer. I then filled in the scratches and factory flaws in the air damn and imperfections in the holes I cut out for the daytime running lights. I’ll fine sand and clean up spot filler, put a final coat of primer on it and set it aside until I’m ready to spray the epoxy primer/ sealer on the whole car. On Sunday I test fit the LED DRL’s and got the brackets adjusted so the lights will just bolt right in place when the car is finally painted.

I finally found my box of around 500 LED’s that I used to use for scale model work and with any luck I’ll have enough white ones left so I wont have to order a bunch of new ones. I’ll be using LED lighting for everything but the headlights and turn signals which will drastically reduce the stress on the old wiring and pretty much insure that I won’t have to replace a burned out light bulb until I’ve retired.
I already have some of the cold cathode lighting tubes (CCL’s) that I’ll be using for interior and trunk lighting. The neon lighting you see for cars isn’t actually neon but is cold cathode lighting. The tubes are sealed in clear plastic tubes to protect them, put out a lot of light and use very little power so they are perfect for use in an MGB. I’ll be putting CCL’s in each footwell, up under the lip in the cargo area behind the seats. They’ll be controlled via a radio consol-mounted switch that will also control the LED task/map lights. There will also be at least two CCL tubes in the trunk in addition to the center trunk light, all of which will be controlled by the stock trunk pin switch.

4 August, 2009
Haven’t gotten much done in the last two weeks…dog days of summer and all. Prepping for vacations, kids, near total failure of the brakes on the Corvette (over $200 for a new brake master cylinder) and, of course, the ongoing search for a used school bus. Yup, you read it right…a used school bus. Wifey wanted a camper or some type of RV for us and I basically said no since you need a large, dedicated vehicle to pull it and that ain’t cheap. I then told her for the cost of a nice trailer we could fit out an old used school bus as an RV (I could) so now she is searching for them high and lo.

But frankly, with the Vette repairs, the $$$ I need for the MG and a week in New Orleans starting on Friday, I don’t see a school bus in our driveway any time soon.

So back to the B. I ordered and received the Pro-thane suspension bushings and the replacement front shocks. I pulled the rear spring off the starboard side and found out that the front mounting bushing was pretty much frozen to the spring, I assume it is a pressed in bushing. About 20 minutes of steady pounding with a drift and a large socket finally popped the old bushing out and the new one slid right into place. Starboard side is done and I’ll do the other side tonight after work. With the new urethane front and rear bushings on the rear springs and axle mounting pads, the rear suspension should be pretty tight for the next 100k miles. When I replace the front shocks the front suspension will also be fit with the urethane bushings.

Still waiting on some of the electrical stuff like the 80-amp relay and LED lighting to ship (all on back order)…good thing that I’m working so slowly.

Don’t know how much I’ll get done before leaving for the Big Easy Friday morning but I’ll try to be semi-productive by at least doing the other side of the rear suspension and some more electrical work. I do know, however, that once I get back from vacation the marathon sessions of work begin. I want this car on the road and running well before the weather gets cold again. Since most of the mechanical and electrical work is at least 90% finished, the balance of the work will be the cutting and welding on the body and then the finish body work.

27 August, 2009
I am a total slackass. I haven’t done anything on the B since getting back from vacation. In all fairness to me, however, I have been puttering around with my Corvette which seems to be disintegrating before my very eyes. I have at least $2000 worth of repairs to do on the Vette because it is my only car and it has to be on the road. Of course, that also means less money to spend on the MG.
Well I got back out in the garage and finished off the port side rear suspension and replaced all of the stock rubber bushings with Prothane urethane bushings and I’ve started of the front suspension and shock replacement.
The shocks won’t be all that tough as long as none of the bolts are frozen in place. Replacing the bushings on the lower control arms will be a bit pissy since I have no spring compressor and have to use a floor jack and the weight of the car to compress the springs and get the arms off. A bit of a wrestling match but more irritating than difficult.
After that the carbs are gong back on and I’m gonna get her running again.

28 August, 2009

It is official. I am moving the completion date of the MG to Saturday, Something-Something 30th, 2010. There is no rhyme or reason for me picking that date. I just figure it will give me enough time to finish everything mechanical as well as about 1 to 1 ½ months of warm weather to do the final finish on the body and paint work.

1 September, 2009
The 80-amp relay for the interior fuse panel finally came in along with the LED’s and cold cathode tube lights for the interior. The relay has been on back order for about 2 months and it finally arrived though the package was supposed to include resistors for other LED’s but it didn’t.

The weather has cooled significantly here with nighttime lows in the 50’s…that won’t last but it is very nice to have cool fall weather back.

July 10, 2009

2009-07-12T17:58:00.001-04:00

My Wifey made me go camping this weekend…so many things to take away from my manly MG restoration efforts…but I got tent loving so it’s okay!!!

I finally decided on a configuration for the switches on the radio console. I am replacing the factory switches wherever possible with the racing toggle switches that have the flip-up cover over them to prevent them from being switched on accidentally.

The center console will have two cigar lighter/power outlets on either side and the heated seats controls under them. There will be six toggle switches across the center to control the fog lights, driving lights, two interior light switches and one switch to kill the daytime running lights. The DLR-kill witch will be mounted upside down so that turning it to the “on” position will actually turn off the daytime running lights. The sixth switch will turn the heater fan on and off.

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That switch is in the center consol because I have rewired the hazard lights switch and indicator lamp and moved them to the dash. I pulled off the old dash light dimmer rheostat and jumped the two leads together and then pulled the fan switch out of the dashboard, I them added jumpers to the wires on the hazard switch harness and ran them up to the dash with the indicator light where the old rheostat used to be.

So now the hazard light switch and indicator are where the fan switch and dash light dimmer were and the fan switch is now on the center consol where the hazard switch used to be.
I will be having an aluminum panel made to place over the old, beat up center consol face which will hold the switches. It will be more sturdy for holding the switches and it should look pretty good too.

.
I finally broke out the mig welder for my first attempt at welding. After about 30 minutes of screwing around with it to get the wire feed to work right and keep it from just spattering little dots of molten metal all over the place, I finally got it working properly. I started laying down some nice, long beads on 16-gauge steel. They looked good with a nice, smooth bead and good penetration. Then I tried some plug welding…not even close to acceptable. Holes that weren’t distorted were burned through and a total mess. I need some more practice on my welding but I guess it’s an okay start.

I ordered the LED and cold cathode tube lights for the interior as well as the 80-amp relay for the new interior cockpit fuse panel. The headlight relay kit has arrived and my shock absorbers should be her in another day or two so I’ve got some work to do.

New fuse panel installed

2009-07-06T14:33:00.010-04:00

The new 8-fuse panel is installed and the headlights/horn relay kit is on the way. I still have a lot of cleaning up and redoing of the wiring left but it is all getting closer to finished. When the healight relay kit gets here I'll install that along witht he new headlight harnesses I bought.

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I've also started work on the new 6-fuse accessory fuse panel that will mount on the cockpit fire wall behind the glove box area.

The relay sitting at the top center of the panel will actually be replaced with an 80-amp relay which will provide power to the entire fuse panel and be triggered by a line from an igintion-on circuit.
The relay to the left will turn on the audio amplifier and the two relays to the right will turn on power to the seat heaters.

Perhaps too modern for some but this car will be a daily driver and I'm a lot less of am LBC purist when it is 4-degrees outside and my butt is frozen to a hard vinyl seat cover :)

Airdamns and fuses and carpet...OH MY!

2009-07-01T06:24:00.003-04:00

6-30-2009
I’ve done most of my work inside lately and primarily on the electrical system. I’ve completed wiring up the new 8-fuse panel to replace the factory fuse panel with 4 glass fuses. It sends the wires going into and coming out of the factory fuse panel between the 4 original glass tube fuses and splits them between 6 modern blade-type fuses. The remaining two fuses will be used for the fog and driving lights which will also be connected to relays. I’ve run a new 10-gauge power line up from the starter to power the two additional fuses.

I’ve ordered the new relay kit for the headlights and horn from one of the members on the MG Experience forum and I got a new 6-fuse panel that will mount under the dash on the starboard firewall for the new accessories such as the heated seats, stereo, amplifier, video system and new interior LED lighting. I’ve also run an additional 10-gauge wire from the starter to power the accessories inside the cockpit.

I’ve found out that redoing an MGB electrical system involves buying a shitload of new wire and connectors…and I do mean a shitload.

Instead of buying the premade carpet set for the car I purchased two 4’ x 8’ rolls of low-cut-pile carpet on sale at the Home Depot for about $36.00. IT is the right color, cheap as hell and all I need is a pair of scissors and some contact adhesive to install it. I made my first carpet set for the MG back in 1989 out of a roll of carpet and I can do it again…and save about $200.00+ in the process!

I pulled the gear shift lever off, ground off about 1.5” and cut new threads for the shift knob.. It was a bitch and the die I used to cut the new threads was a crappy Harbor Freight die so it did a shitty job. Not to mention that the grinding down I did on the shaft looks really sloppy…but it worked and you won’t see any of it since it will be under the gear shift boot. Of course, after I spent two hours shortening the shift lever I found that the guy on the MG Experience forum that I’m buying my front shocks from also makes shortened shift levers that look like they come straight from the factory…oh well, oh hell.

I finished cleaning up and priming the Factory Tuning air dam and I test fit it on the car. It fits like a glove…OJ Simpson’s glove. The car was hit hard on the front starboard nacelle (which the previous owner never bothered to mention to me) and the whole front end is a bit screwy now. The air dam looks to be hanging low on the starboard side but I won’t really be sure until I have the car back on all fours and the front fenders reattached. I think I’ll have to do a fair amount of fudging to make everything line up properly.

Not going to do much this week since I’m going up to my boyhood home of Youngstown Ohio with my son for the 4th of July holiday to see old fiends and maybe take in a Pittsburgh Pirates game.

When I get back the serious work starts. I’m going to get al the electrical, suspension and other mechanical work done plus the rebuilt carbs go back on and I’m going to get here running properly. Then, of course, back to the body and a ton of cutting and welding…now that’s what I call fun.

I found four, 14” Mini-lite replica wheels for $200 for the set plus a friend of mine runs a tire shop and offered me tires for his actual cost…the problem is that they are Firestone tires and there is not one hunk of crap Firestone tire I’d ever put on a car…even if they were free. Life can be such a crapfest…why couldn’t he run a Pirelli or Kumho dealership.

6-14-2009 through 6-23-2009

2009-06-24T15:25:00.005-04:00

6-14-2009

Been working on the air damn some more. Sanded down all the rough edges and the resin drips on the front. It likes it will all work well.

I set the LED fog lights that will be the daytime running lights. They fit in just fine but I still have to fill, smooth and prime the openings.

I cleaned up the steering wheel and hub, wire brushing and sanding them smooth and down to bare metal. I primed them and painted them gloss black. The leather still needs replaced but the metal looks good.

Big parts haul, carbs back and actual work 6-19 through 6-22, 2009

Went out to see Butch in Burlington. He finished my SU carbs and they were in pretty good shape. The needle and jet assemblies still looked like new though they have about 165,000 miles on them. New solid butterfly valves on the throttle shafts, new seals, springs and a few other minor bits and the carbs should be good.

Went out to his MGB graveyard to pull parts. About 30 MG’s and a billion crickets, wasps and weeds…what fun on a hot southern day.

I got a new vapor recovery canister for the engine bay (it will be show since the car has been desmogged) a center consol and radio consol, various little clips for the upholstery and to hold down the hydraulic lines n the engine bay, mirror bases, fresh air grill, window crank, back up lights and a bunch of other little parts.

I also found a set of Mini-lite alloy wheels that I think I’m going to get for the car, a deal at $200 for the set.

Other tidbits. I got the steering wheel and hub painted and the new gas tank finished. I cleaned and degreased the tank on the outside and sanded it. On the top I sprayed two layers of truck bed liner followed by two coats of paint and two coats of flexible rubber undercoating so I shouldn’t have to worry about the tank top rusting anytime soon.

On the bottom of the tank I sprayed on two layers of self-etching primer and four layers of Rustoleum black gloss paint. The tank has a better finish than most cars.

I started on the major body work today. I began by getting out my new air cutter and taking off the lower half of the rear valance. The freaking thing has like 300 spot welds in it and I’m NOT going to try to drill all of those out. I’m just cutting off as much of the old panel as I can and welding the new one over it. It already test fits well so good for me.

I cut off the starboard side dogleg and cut out all of the bad metal in the sill areas. The outer sill which extends up under the dogleg was all but gone and now I just have to drill out the spot welds that are left and I can start the final welding prep. The front of the inner sill has a hole in it so I’ll cut out the bad metal and will weld a patch over that before the outer sill goes on.

Cutting off that metal afforded me a peak inside the inner sill behind the castle rail and it looked pretty good. At some point a previous owner had slopped some kind of rust preventative up in there and the metal is still pretty strong. I reached in with assorted wire brushes and a dryer vent cleaning brush and got any dirt in the area cleaned out,.

I then put the nozzle and extension tube from a brake cleaner can on a can of spray-on bed liner and shot it up into the area via the small drain holes along the bottom or the “frame” rail. The coverage was pretty good for doing it blind and I sprayed up in there until it was dripping heavily from the drain holes. I’ll do another couple of coats of that after it dries.
Then it’s onto the other side to repeat the process.

Oh joy!

6-23-2009

Got all of the remaining pieces of the starboard sill assembly cut out. Very much a pain in the ass.

The toughest part was the section towards the rear that is sandwiched in the center of 3 panels where the door goes vertical and up beneath the dogleg.

I drilled out the spot welds on the outer piece that curves upward on the rear area of the door sill and then just jammed a chisel up inside to cut the aft sill section under the dogleg out of the area. That part of the rear sill section is still sandwiched up under the side panel but I’m just going to weld the new sill section over it.

I still have some more grinding to do in the area and I have to split the remaining pieces of metal off the wheel arch where it meets the rear of the dogleg.

I test fit the new sill section and it fit pretty well. The new dog leg fit is more “problematical.” and it is going to need a lot of fudging and wrangling to get it to fit even close to how it is supposed to.

I used my new air panel punch to knock out all the holes all along the edges of the sill piece that I’ll use to plug weld it to the car. Took about five minutes to punch out all of the holes. It would have taken at least ten times that long to drill them all out. I’d say the $29.95 tool from Harbor Freight was well worth the money since it save me a great deal of time, sweat and swearing.
I cut the bad metal out of the front of the center membrane and bought some 16-gauge metal to replace it. I’ll cut that out and weld in place.

When everything is all welded up I’m going to wiggle a modified garden sprayer up inside all of the sill and “frame” rails areas and spray several good coats of paint mixed with Penetrol (which I also bought today) as the final rust protection.

I got the fiberglass air dam cleaned up and sanded and laid down two coats of filler primer. I then filled in the scratches and factory flaws in the air damn and imperfections in the holes I cut out for the daytime running lights. I’ll fine sand and clean up spot filler, put a final coat of primer on it and set it aside until I’m ready to spray the epoxy primer/ sealer on the whole car. On Sunday I test fit the LED DRL’s and got the brackets adjusted so the lights will just bolt right in place when the car is finally painted.

I finally found my box of around 500 LED’s that I used to use for scale model work and with any luck I’ll have enough white ones left so I wont have to order a bunch of new ones. I’ll be using LED lighting for everything but the headlights and turn signals which will drastically reduce the stress on the old wiring and pretty much insure that I won’t have to replace a burned out light bulb until I’ve retired.

I already have some of the cold cathode lighting tubes (CCL’s) that I’ll be using for interior and trunk lighting. The neon lighting you see for cars isn’t actually neon but is cold cathode lighting. The tubes are sealed in clear plastic tubes to protect them, put out a lot of light and use very little power so they are perfect for use in an MGB. I’ll be putting CCL’s in each footwell, up under the lip in the cargo area behind the seats. They’ll be controlled via a radio consol-mounted switch that will also control the LED task/map lights. There will also be at least two CCL tubes in the trunk in addition to the center trunk light, all of which will be controlled by the stock trunk pin switch.

Doing little things here and there

2009-06-15T05:20:00.005-04:00

6-12-2009

Well I got the seats reupholstered. I bought the vinyl seat covers in used but nearly-new condition but didn’t realize that they were for later models MG’s. My original 74 seats had a smooth stitched surface whereas these have the mesh/waffle pattern. Not too much of a problem but the headrest covers are different and I can’t use them. No biggie since my headrests are in okay condition.

I stripped the frames, primered and painted them and then lubed up all the mechanisms. The seat recliner mechanism on the driver’s side was completely frozen with rust so I got that cleaned up and lubed and it now works as it is supposed to.

I began work on the special factory tuning air damn I ordered from Moss Motors. It is so flimsy and thin that I’m pretty sure a bug strike at 60 mph would tear it off the car. To cure this I laid another layer of fiberglass and resin on the back side of the air damn and two layers on the lip that mounts to the car.
I also took my hole saw and put two openings on either side of the air damn for the LED daytime running lights. I fiberglassed in two metal brackets to support the lights. It should wind up looking pretty good though I still have a lot of sanding to do to clean up my work and the flaws in the air damn.

The resin is pretty tough stuff but a palm sander should take the edges down fairly easily (I hope) and then it’s hand sanding, roughing up the gel coat and priming. After I get the lights and their wiring done it should be ready to put on the car.
I’ll leave the final install, however, until the front fenders are back on so I can be sure it all lines up properly.

I’m still working on the wiring diagram for the new fuse panel that I’ll be installing under the starboard side dash in the cockpit. I’m figuring with all of the additional lighting, sound and other electrical components I’ll be adding to the car I’m going to have to get a GM alternator conversion since the wimpy little Lucas alternator just won’t put out enough juice to keep the battery charged.

6-14-2009
Been working on the air damn some more. Sanded down all the rough edges and the resin drips on the front. It likes it will all work well.
I set the LED fog lights that will be the daytime running lights. They fit in just fine but I still have to fill, smooth and prime the openings.
I cleaned up the steering wheel and hub, wire brushing and sanding them smooth and down to bare metal. I primed them and painted them gloss black. The leather still needs replaced but the metal looks good.

battery cut-of switch

2009-06-08T18:02:00.003-04:00

I picked up two battery cut-off switches at Harbor Freight this weekend figuring on installing one for the negative and positive leads off the battery.

But... where to put them, where to put them...

Well, I did a rear tube shock conversion which I was, and still am, happy with and looking at the rear cockpit shelf that the old plugged holes used to fill the shocks with hydraulic fluid were just sitting there unused. Drilled two holes, bolted the switch in place and viola'...premade mounting hole for the battery cut-off switch.

I was reinstalling my turn signal and wiper arm assemblies onto the steering column and noticed a wire on the underside of the ignition switch which seemed very loose.

I barely touched it and it came off. The plastic clip the wire plugged into on the column also broke in half...brittle with age I assume since it seems more like bakolite than plastic

The wire is purple/pink and plugs into a little plastic clip that in turn snaps into place on the underside of the ignition switch body

In the picture below the little clip that snaps into place on the underside of the ignition body is being held in the vice grips (as the JB Weld sets) The P/K wire is to the left with the clip on it and the little recepticle the clip snap into is the recess with the little nipple on it just above and to the right of the vice grip.

The wiring diagram shows that the P/K wire goes to the LH door switch then to the buzzer and on into the seatbelt module (which I assume was bypassed by the DPO since there is no buzzer or seatblet lockout and/or warning function) I don't see this clip in any catalogs, the Haynes manual.

A member on the MGE says it is just for the door buzzer so I assume I can seal off the end and not worry about it. I'm going to try to repair/replace it and hook it up anyway.

I am a loser today

2009-06-07T02:45:00.002-04:00

Today, June 6th 2009 was my target completion date for my restoration project...

I'm not even close.

I did my last resto in less than 10 months and that included a full engine rebuild.

Oh well shit.

I shotened my shifter by about 1-1/2"

That is all.

Work, work, work

2009-06-04T08:17:00.003-04:00

06-03-2009

Well this morning was just more cleaning up small stuff.

After organizing the buttload of various electrical connectors I bought I crawled under the car and started cleaning up the wiring.

I finished taping up the harness that runs along the undercarriage. I added the new wire for the fuel pump and soldered BL bullet connectors to it and the pump and ran two additional wires into the trunk.
I blue electrical taped the entire harness form the rear all the way up into the engine compartment. I also crimped a large eyelet connector to a 10-gauge wire and ran it up into the engine compartment. It will be connected to the starter positive post and power the relay-activated aux fuse panel.

I’ll be ordering relay kits from http://www.bits4brits.net/ that will be powering the headlights and horn plus their relay fuse panel which will replace the original fuse panel and starter relay plus an additional relay for the heater blower motor.

I’ll also be adding relays for the following: Fog lights, driving lights, seat heaters (2) stereo and amplifier.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to install LED fog lights under the rear bumper to use as backup lights and I’ll be installing red, super-bright 12-v LED’s in the original backup light lenses to act as additional brake lights. I’ll also put in a 3rd high brake light if I can find one that looks good. A daytime running light setup is also in the works since I want this car to be as visible as possible when doing highway battle with distracted soccer moms in SUV’s.

I got the transmission cross member with all new bushings installed. Took about an hour and was a bit of a pain but not as bad as I had feared. The key, as I was correctly told on the MG forum, was to put in every bolt only loosely and then tighten them all up when everything is in place.

I also did the cross member modification to allow a socket to fit up behind the square rubber transmission mount blocks. That simply involves drilling two holes in the bottom of the cross member at an angle that allows a socket on an extension to get up inside.

Also added the new battery boxes I got from Moss and wired the port side one for the battery. They aren't as sturdy as I would have imagined them to be ut I think they'll work nicely. I'll use the starboard side box for tool ans spares storage.

Relay wiring diagrams

2009-06-04T08:09:00.001-04:00

Here are two wiring diagrams I did for relay installation.

The first is a typical relay setup using the Bosch 4-pin relay available at just about any auto parts store. It will work for any setup and take most of the current load off of the fragile switches.

The second is for adding an aux fuse panel that comes on with the ignition or accessory via the key. The relay used for that should be adequate to handle all of the amps going through the fuse panel. I’ll be running about 40 amps through mine so I’ll be using at least a 60 amp relay so there is some cushion.

Feel free to use these if you need them.

Back to work…again!

2009-06-02T04:42:00.002-04:00

Still looking for front shocks. I can get them from Butch at Imports Europa for a great price but I have to go pull them off a car out in the middle of a field and I’ll have no idea if they’re good or not until they’re off the car. A member on the MG forum also has a used set but I really don’t feel like paying $100 plus shipping for used shocks that could give out a week after I put them on the car.

Well my shoulder is to the point where I could begin working on the B again without feeling like somebody has stabbed a few knives into my arm.

I pulled the cross member off the transmission to clean it up and replace the rubber mounts…what a joy that was.

I supported the rear of the tranny with a floor jack and started trying to pull the bolts off. The four on the tranny mounts weren’t so bad though I did find that I only had three since one has vanished. The four bolts holding the cross member to the body were really tight but they haven’t been turned in 20 or more years so that is understandable. I can already tell by how the plate inside the frame moves around that they are going to be a bitch to get back in.

Getting the cross member over the exhaust wasn’t so much fun either. I didn’t want to drop the exhaust so I took a 6-foot brass pipe I had and levered the exhaust down just far enough that I could wiggle the cross member over it. I know that I’m going to have to drop at least some of the exhaust to get the cross member back in so more fun for me coming up.

When I got the cross member off I found some nice things. First, the rubber mounts were all but gone. The large square mounts were half hard as a rock and half mushy goop about the consistency of soft foam rubber soaked in motor oil. The center pin bushings were still kind of round but were also gummy mush.

Since the cross member is u-shaped and points upward it acts as a collection point for all sorts of garbage. It was nearly full of the oil/grease/dirt gunk that builds up on cars after a long time. I measured six heaping cups of the stuff inside the cross member after I scraped it all out.

After much scraping, wire brushing, degreasing, washing, more degreasing and more washing I finally got to the point (after two hours) that it was clean enough to paint.

I also cleaned and painted the engine/tranny stayrod, mounting plates and hardware and those will get new nuts, bolts and rubber buffer pads as well.

I put on two coats of gloss black on the cross member and all the mounting hardware. I’ll put it all back together tonight and see if I wedge the bastard back in place.

I’ve been working on the electrical as well. I ran a new white wire for the melted one in the harness that powers the fuel pump. I also ran two additional heavy wires along with it to the rear for future power needs such as an amplifier in the trunk. To get the wires through the sub frame that the factory harness goes through on the underside of the car I slid a wire coat hanger through the rubber bushings, bent a hook in the end of it and looped the three new wires around it and pulled it through. It was a tight fit but it worked.

I taped the new wires to the factory harness with the correct blue tape and then opened the clamps and reattached them to the underside as the factory original harness was.

I dropped the starter to change out the clutch master flexible hose with the stainless braided one and took the opportunity to clean up the starter harness and all the other little sub-harnesses in the area. I’m adding two additional 10-gauge wires to the power hookup point on the starter and running them up into the engine compartment. These will be taped into the harness and used to power the new additional fuse panels I’ll be adding for new electrical components. I’ll be adding fog and driving lights, daytime running lights and (hopefully) seat heaters so all of those will need new dedicated power. I’m certainly not going to trust the 35 year old factory wiring for that! Of course, all of the new wiring will have relays to take the load off the wiring…as soon as I figure out how to do that! Time to call my buddy Paul.

Lazy

2009-05-28T18:20:00.000-04:00

Didn't do shit today.

We don't need no stinking left shoulder!

2009-05-27T04:10:00.001-04:00

The big-ish news is that I have apparently either torn the rotator cuff in my left shoulder or have something called peripheral neuropathy (some sort of damage to my nerves) I won’t know for sure unless I get an MRI but since I have no health insurance, it may be a while before I know. Not too easy trying to turn wrenches with constant pain and occasional numbness radiating from your shoulder to your fingertips and your arm in a sling. But such is life.

In spite of that I got some more done last night.
I got the suspension, drive shaft u-joints and parking brake cable greased (because I finally went out and bought a grease gun) and I installed the cotter pins in the parking brake cable clevis pins where they meet the levers as well as the pins in the clutch and brake pedals at the master cylinders.

Upon closer inspection I’m going to have to replace that clutch pedal again since the hole in the end of the arm that links it to the master cylinder via a clevis pin is noticeably egged out.
I pulled the starter out and cleaned it and its contacts and got it nicely painted. I’ll be cleaning and retaping the starter harness next and adding additional wires for more power circuits and fuse boxes.

The reason I pulled the starter was to be able to replace the flexible rubber hose to the clutch slave cylinder…fucking pain in the ass that was!!!
I finally managed to get the old line off and the new one in place but it was a huge wrestling match. I had to hacksaw off the metal of the hose where it meets the support bracket so that I could get a deep well socket on it since a wrench just couldn’t turn the fixing nut without stripping it.

I also installed an Ezi-bleed bleeder nipple on the slave and just “sorta” bled it. It seems that Ezi-bleed bleeder works as advertised. When I do the others on the braking system I’ll report back.

5-21-2009 Fighting a multi-front war

2009-05-23T04:17:00.007-04:00

Well the brakes are all back together but not without a bit of struggle on one side.

I went to adjust the port side brakes and found that the adjuster was nearly impossible to turn. I wound up pulling the brakes off and removing the adjuster. I sprayed it with PB Blaster and that made no difference.

I finally but a big vice grip on it and heated with a propane torch. I then put a wrench on it and just worked it back and forth until it started loosening up. I finally got it to go all the way in and back out until it turned smoothly.

Still not idea as to why it was so tight as it looked straight and clean but it moves freely now.

I put a small dab of high-temp grease on it and ran it back in and out and then installed it back on the car. I put the brakes all back together and got them adjusted with no problems.

I tackled the parking brake cable while I was down there. Pain in the ass to do but not the worst job ever. Took the compensating lever apart (the one bolted to the differential pumpkin) got it cleaned, painted and greased. It is important to do that on a regular basis since most problems with the parking brake are a jammed or corroded adjuster.

I replaced the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear axle with the braided stainless one. A bit of a bitch at one point but it’s all nice and tight. The brake lines are now hooked up to the new cylinders and the parking brake cables are connected to the levers (but I do need to get some new cotter pins for them)

As I wrote in the title I am pursuing a multi-front war on the restoration. I’m trying to do as many things at the same time as possible.

I’ve started to tear the seats apart for then new foams and covers. Cleaning, painting and cleaning up the mechanicals while I also start tearing the rusted body panels off the car and cleaning up the wiring.

I had a nice little surprise when I pulled apart starboard seat. I found that the seat back was completely packed with old fiberglass and assorted junk, courtesy of a nice little mouse community. I pulled most if it out when I realized I should probably get a picture of it.

I got out the spot weld remover drill bit and started cutting into the car. This is going to take some time. I drilled out the welds on the top of the outer sill where it meets the top of the starboard forward kick panel. The welds were not even close to straight so I fear I may have gotten a “Monday-Friday” car!

The rear valance is going to be an absolute bitch. There are so many welds in so many places for such a relatively small panel that I may just cut the thing of with the cutting wheel, grind it up and weld the new valance over it. The way the old panel is installed will let me fudge it in that way and still wind up with a perfectly good new panel install.

Note on the new dashboard coverlay:
I put the new coverlay in place and it really looks good. The fit is great compared to the ones available 15 years ago and the texture, unlike the plastic-looking crap surface on the old one, actually looks like it is made of soft vinyl. I’m pretty happy with it.

Wednesday's work 5-20-2009

2009-05-23T04:05:00.003-04:00

Received and installed the new axle hub oil seals. The day before I pulled the oil drain and fill plugs from the differential and drained the unit. When it was empty I sprayed brake cleaner fluid to clean any gunk out of the bottom of the unit and let it sit overnight. Letting sit that long let any little bit of old axle oil drain out plus it ensured that all the brake cleaner solution evaporated out.

I reinstalled the drain plug and refilled it with 90-wt gear oil. Half synthetic gear oil and half regular gear oil with Teflon additive.

Tip: removing the drain and fill plugs is easy if you just push a ½” wobble drive extension into the square opening of the plugs and turn them with a ratchet. You don’t need the special tool and the wobble extension has the perfect taper for a snug fit.

After the oil seals were installed I reassembled the split seal plate plates and rear brakes on both sides, fit the whole brake assemblies to the axle, put the hubs back on and hooked up the hydraulics. I doubt I got the 150 lbs of torque on the hub nut since it is so damned hard to so without brakes to hold the hub in place and with the car off the ground. I’ll do a final torque when the wheels and tires are on and the car is back on the ground. I haven’t bled the system yet since I still have to replace the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear end with the stainless braided Teflon hose.

Thursday I’m going to replace the flexible rubber brake hose on the rear end, and the parking brake cable, adjust the rear brakes and do any final paint touch up on the differential. I’m then going to bleed out the hydraulics to test the Ezi-bleeders on the rear end. I also got a new engine oil drain plug with the magnet on it to pull any metallic junk out of the engine. I’ll install that when I change the engine oil before the next restart. I also received the second palstic battery box, yippy for me!

My dash coverlay came in and it fits perfectly unlike the one I bought in the early 90’s which fit like OJ Simpson’s glove. I also got the fiberglass “Special Tuning Air Damn” from Moss (part # 475-195) and I must say it is a huge piece of shit. It is one of the worst casting I have ever seen. The cutout in the center is not even close to symmetrical, there are creases and dimples all over it and it looks like this particular one was dropped on the pavement and dragged over to the shipping box. But it was on sale for around $75.00 so I really can’t complain much. I was gong to put a few layers on fiberglass on the back of it to reinforce it anyway so a little cleanup work isn’t such a big deal.

Put in another parts order today. Had to get new seat back foams (the ex wife threw my new ones away when she cleaned out “her” garage. I also ordered the urethane bushings for the tranny center mounting pin, splash guard extension seals, metal plates for the tranny stayrod pads and the poly bushings for the shock absorbers when I replace them.

Aside from some big items like the windshield, tires, battery and carpet, I have just about all of the small assorted parts needed to finish the car. Of course, not that I’ve written this, I’ll find out I need a buh-zilion other little things that I missed on this parts order…such is life.

Brakes getting close

2009-05-18T08:31:00.002-04:00

I pulled the port side rear brake assembly of as a unit after pulling the hub and disconnecting the brake line and parking brake cable.

I then rebuilt the starboard side assembly right next to the one I just pulled off.

It is so much easier to rebuild these things off the car. Especially if you are replacing the brake cylinder since you have to use that little frakking that just loves to shoot off into the great unknown as you try to put it back on.

After that, I pulled apart the assembly I just removes, cleaned it all up and painted it. I used brake cleaning spray since these things are loaded with asbestoes and getting it all we with the cleaner keeps it from getting blown into the air and inhaled into your lungs.

I'm hoping my parts order arrives today so I can replace the axle oil seals and reassemble the axle and rear brakes. It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to put everything back together.

Unlike the front brake calipers, the Ezibleed bleeders I bought screwed right into the rear brake cylinders without the heavy resistance I encountered with the calipers. As soon as I bleed the system I'll post here how well they work.

I relplaced the axle rebound straps. It went fairly smoothly though the bolt on the axle for the port side strap was a bit of a bitch to get off.

Next comes replacing the flexible rubber brake line on the rear axle with the teflon stainless braided hose and then replacing the parking brake cable assembly. I'll bleed the brake and clutch hydraulics and then get back to cleaning and repairing the electrical systems.

The carbs are off and go in for their rebuild today and the oil cooler goes to the radiator shop for cleaning, pressure testing and any leak repairs if needed.

Not a whole lot got done last night…I has tired.

2009-05-15T05:36:00.006-04:00

I got the battery boxes cleaned up. I cut off the bad metal on the starboard side box, wire brushed them both down and put on two coats of truck bed liner. I then put two coats of white paint on them because that’s what I had laying around. I bought some more silver paint tonight and sprayed two coats on the box frames.

I touched up the underside of the car, painted things like the transmission cross member black. I also finished cleaning up the rear suspension and painting it. I was going to wait to paint the rest of the rear axle until I got the cover gasket changed but it’s not leaking so I skipped that step.

Got two coats of ultra high temp paint (1200 degrees) sprayed on the exhaust system. It is 16 years old but still looks to be in pretty good shape. If I can get another two or three years out of it I'll be very very happy and getting the high temp paint on it should help protect it a bit.

The insides of the new sills and lower front fender quarters are lined and painted. I’ll probably put a few more coats of paint on them just to be sure they are well protected before I weld them onto the car.

The parts for the rear axle oil seals came today. Unfortunately, nobody was there to sign for them so I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow for another delivery attempt. I’ll be stripping down the port side brakes tonight in preparation for the oil seal install and brake rebuild. I’ll be pulling the backing plate off with all the brake hardware still attached so I can rebuild the brakes on both sides on the bench instead of on the car.

Didn't get around to pulling off the oil cooler or carbs for servicing. Hopefully in the next few days but I've got a very busy weekend so it'll be a bit here a bit there....

Clarification on left/right/driver/passenger side definitions

2009-05-15T05:31:00.007-04:00

Since we are dealing with a British car here and driver’s side of the car means the opposite here in the States as opposed to the UK, I have decided to use ship terminology from now on to avoid confusion.

From now on the left side of the car (if you are sitting in the driver’s seat acing forward) is the PORT side. The right side is the STARBOARD side. The front of the car is FORWARD or BOW and the rear of the car is AFT or STERN.
Specific parts of the car offer a different challenge. Since a hood in the UK is the convertible or hard top and in the states it is the lid on the front of the car over the engine, we have to be very specific.
Here are the definitions, or UK to American translations

UK USA
Wing -------------------- fender
Hood -------------------- top
Bonnet -------------------- hood
Boot -------------------- trunk
Windscreen -------------------- windshield

Others terms
Petrol -------------------- gasoline
Spanner -------------------- wrench
Impulse extractor -------------------- slide hammer/dent puller
Torch -------------------- flashlight
Wanker --------------------jerkoff

Hope this was helpful :)

Wifey graduates from college!!!

2009-05-13T08:30:00.004-04:00

Well I didn't get much done this weekend because my Wifey graduated Cum Laude (sounds dirty) from Winston Salem State University with a degree in Molecular Biology!

Most impressive and I am so very proud of her.

Blond, smart and hot. And as you can tell by her graduation cap, she is also a Battlestar Galactica fan like I am...I be a lucky man!

Please note that the colors on her cap, Black and Gold, are Steelers colors! And yes, we are both Pittsburgh Steelers fans!

Knocking it out!

2009-05-13T07:56:00.007-04:00

Much done in the last two days.

Cleaned the entire underside of cars plus wheel wells
Put two layers of spray-on truck bed liner.
Painted two coats of silver paint on entire underside and wheel wells.
Completely finished the cockpit sound deadening and thermal installation install.
Applied two coats of truck bed liner to the inside of the new body panels- i.e. both sills, the lower front fender halves and the doglegs. When those are dry I’ll put at least three layers of rust preventative paint on them. When they are actually welded to the car I’ll pump paint mixed with Penetrol into all the body cavities and then finish it off with an application of Waxoyl.

I’m still waiting on the latest parts order to arrive so that I can replace the oil seals on the rear axle. Once that is done I can finish rebuilding the rear brakes, clean and paint the rear axle and refill it with 90-wt gear oil. Then I’ll be replacing the parking brake cable plus the rear flexible brake line and clutch slave line with the braided stainless ones. Then, of course, all of the hydraulics get bled and I can test out my Ezi-bleed bleeder tool.

Tonight I’m pulling the oil cooler back off to get it flushed and pressure tested and to get what is apparently a small leak repaired. I’ll also be pulling the carbs back off and sending them off to Butch at Imports Europa in Burlington so they can get rebuilt.

Work is actually going fairly quickly now and I hope to start the major body work and welding in the next 8-10 days

Oh, I also got a like-new set of autumn leaf seat covers from a member of the mgexperience.net forum. They were installed but not liked so they got pulled back off. They are just about new and I got them for next to nothing compared to the $400.00+ price that Moss Motors charges for a

new set.

5-09-2009

2009-05-09T05:27:00.007-04:00

Did I tell you all that I got a new grill? Well I did from a member on the MG forum.. A brand new one with the black honeycomb inside…very purrdy.

I also just got a new in-the-box autumn leaf interior panel kit from another member on the forum. Got great prices on both so I is a happy little bee.

Finished installing the sound deadening material and thermal insulation in the cockpit. I think it will work out nicely and, again, all of it only cost a total of around $100.00.

I also got the emergency brake handle cleaned up and the metal part painted. The chrome was a bit pitted and ratty looking so I just sprayed it silver. I’ve also just about finished respraying the cockpit silver. Still some touch up and some painting behind the dash but I’m pretty much done.
I’m going to pull the shifter lever out and shorten it around 1½” -2” to give it a more modern throw. I’ll have to grind it down and use a die to make the new threads and then cut the top off of it.

Ordered the outer oil seals for the rear axle. Only the passenger side seal was bad but since the entire brake assembly and backing plate are coming off the driver side too, replacing the oil seal on that side becomes a “might as well do it while I'm in there” job.

I finished cleaning and repainting the driver side front suspension. I’ll still have to pull it all apart again to replace the shocks but I hate working on a dirty, greasy car.

Final cleaning, sealing and painting of the underside is going slowly, but it is going. The rear axle and suspension are all cleaned and repainted except for the area right around the differential cover. Since I have to change the lube in the differential I’m waiting to paint that area until it is refilled and the new cover gasket is in place.

Low cost sound and thermal insulation

2009-05-09T03:50:00.002-04:00

Here is how I did the low-cost thermal and sound insulation for the cockpit and a comparison between it and a sound deadening material such as Dynamat Extreme.

Instead of Dynamat-type sound deadener plus an additional layer of thermal insulation, I did the following in the following order after stripping the floorboards, tranny tunnel, firewall and vertical metal of the rear deck of the cockpit. (This was not done to the following areas. The rear vertical walls behind the door, the rear deck, rear bulkhead and inner door threshold sills.) I also applied a layer of fiberglass mat and resin to the floorboards to repair some small holes.

A.---I sprayed on two layers of truck bed liner and let them dry.
B.---I painted all areas coated with the truck bed liner (i.e. the entire cockpit)
C.---Sprayed two coats of urethane sealer
D.---Sprayed on two layers of quality rubberized undercoating and let dry
E.---Applied the foil-backed butyl rubber (similar to Dynamat) on the floorboards where the factory sound deadening material was. Also on the entire transmission tunnel, vertical lower bulkhead behind the seats and forward vertical and horizontal panels of the firewall.
F.---Sprayed on 3M adhesive and then placed the mylarized sunshades as insulation.

The truck bed liner is really tough and, when painted/sealed with a rust-preventative paint, should offer good corrosion resistance. It also adds a thin layer of dense, sound-absorbing material to the metal.

A good quality, spray-on rubberized rust proofing adds not only protection from rust but also adds vibration absorbing characteristics. Two or three layers should make a difference in the area of vibration dampening but one or two more layers wouldn’t hurt. Any more probably wouldn’t help (though I could be wrong)

Instead of installing Dyanmat (or the like) sound deadener which would have cost several hundred dollars I bought some roll-on roofing material at the Home Depot. It is a butyl rubber material with a thick foil backing but costs a lot less. I cut it and placed it in the same pattern as the original factory sound deadening material on the floorboards. I also put it on the firewall, entire transmission tunnel and the vertical bulkhead behind the seats. This material comes in rolls 6” x 25’ and two of them will finish out the areas I described above if you are careful with it and apply it in the same pattern as I did, five rolls would finish out just about every square inch of the cockpit if you did the floors completely and not just in the factory pattern..

I chose the sunshades for the thermal insulation because I saw them first. Mylar bubble insulation which is the exact same thing (except it comes in a big roll and at a lower cost per square foot) is available at big hardware stores.

The only thing I would do differently is to glue down the Mylar bubble insulation with contact adhesive instead of the spray-on type. I just feel it would hold up better and be a stronger bond.
I’ll probably wind up adding the butyl sound deadening material to the inner sills but since I still have welding work coming up in that area I’ll do that after I have the new outers sills installed and the rest of the body work finished. It will add about $17.00 to the costs.

Total cost, as seen below, was $107.00. Quite a bit less than what conventional Dynamat-type material plus any thermal insulation would have cost.

Spray on truck bed liner, 2 spray cans------- $7
Rubberized undercoating, 2 spray cans--------$16
Urethane sealer, 1 spray can---------$6“Auto-Shade” dashboard sun shades, ---------$27
3M adhesive, 1 spray can-----------$8
Metal HVAC tape, 1 roll-----------$7
2 rolls roofing butyl with foil backing------36
Total cost---------------$107.00

For comparison:
Dynamat cost: $9.50 per square foot
Hardware store butyl with foil cost: $3.00 per square foot
Total cost for Dynamat plus thermal insulation and all other costs installed: $396.00

My total cost for the way I did it: $124.55 (includes extra roll of butyl material for inner sills, outboard footwells and inner doors)

Quite a difference. And yes, the Dynamat is thicker than the butyl sound deadener I installed. But even if I doubled the amount used and also did the sills, the total would be $178.10...still way less than half of the Dynamat (or comparable) material.

The foil on the two materials is the same thickness and both provide sound deadening and thermal blocking. And I have no doubt that the hardware store butyl material will stand up to the heat coming off the exhaust. If you’ve ever done any roofing work (and I have done a lot) you know that roof surfaces can reach temperatures of over 150 degrees on a sunny day.

The materials I used have comparable performance to the Dynamat-type materials and cost much less than half. In addition, I found that installing the 6” wide rolls of the butyl material was much easier than trying to cut up or maneuver the larger sheets of Dynamat.

I tried the Mylar bubble insulation on the floorboards of my Corvette and a single layer practically eliminated the previously substantial heat coming up from the floorboards.

Final assessment: This one is a no-brainer. While many things people do to save a few bucks often wind up costing more money, this one seems to actually be worth the difference. I expect that the sound and heat levels in the car will be dramatically reduced, especially if a hardtop is in place.

The Mylar thermal insulation works well at stopping heat transfer and the foil-backed butyl it basically the same, in practical applications, as Dynamat-type sound deadening materials.
For what it’s worth, I like it (but I’m a cheapskate)

NOTE:
At the last minute, after I was done with the passenger floorboards, I decided to glue down the rest of the thermal bubble wrap insulation with brush-on contact adhesive instead of the spray on. I had it left over from some other project so it didn’t add to the cost and it gives a much stronger bond than the spray-on stuff. It also costs less than the spray adhesive and a $6.00 can is way more than you need to do the entire interior.

INSTALLATION NOTES:
If you use spray-on rubberized undercoating make sure it is fully dried and painted. If not painted, dragging a brush of contact adhesive across it can loosen it or even liquefy it.

Before applying adhesive to the Mylar bubble wrap insulation or the foil of the butyl sound deadener, be sure to wipe it down. There are often manufacturing residues and oils on them (especial the butyl foil) that will weaken the bond of the contact adhesive.

Some shots of the cockpit

May 3, 2009...Back to work with a vengance!!!

2009-05-04T07:55:00.005-04:00

My friend Kevin came over Sunday around noon and we started working on the B again. Put her up on jack stands, pulled the wheels and got to turning wrenches.
We started on the front brakes.

Here’s what we did:
Pulled calipers, cleaned and painted them with red, high-temp paint, replaced the pads, retaining clips and pins, flat tab washers and the flexible rubber brake hoses with stainless braided Teflon hoses. It all went back together without a hitch.

While we were in there we also replaced the rack boots (always a royal frakkin’ pain in the ass)and cleaned the inside of the steering rack and filled it with 90 wt. synthetic gear oil.
We also replaced the jounce bumpers (as our friends in the UK call them) which are the little things under the upper control arm with the 4 rubber nipples that keep the front suspension from bottoming out. That job wasn’t too tough but it wasn’t easy either since the aluminum spacer on the passenger side had welded itself to the old jounce bumper.

I later painted the passenger side suspension with a black metallic paint and it looks really nice.

Bad news:
The shock absorbers on both sides seem to be leaking fluid at the pivots which means bad seals. I’ll be calling around for rebuilt ones or good used ones.

We then started on the rear brakes and that’s when the work ground to a halt.

I pulled off the rear passenger drum and found everything inside caked with greasy gunk. Much of the she lining was gone apparently from oil contamination..

It looks like the oil seal is leaking and , luckily, it only costs about $5.00 so I’ll be replacing them on both sides.

After much head scratching and a call to my buddy Paul (my MG lifeline) we finally figured out how to get the old seal out. I’m pretty certain we looked like two monkeys trying to figure out an iPhone. I cleaned and painted all of the parts on that side of the rear end including the backing plate and then went inside and ordered the parts from Chris Roop. ( roopsmg.com ) great prices and a great guy to deal with.
Late last night I put down the sound deadening material on the passenger side floorboards and footwells and the tranny tunnel. I used a foil-backed butyl rubber that I bought at Home Depot. The stuff is for roofing but it is the same stuff as Dynamat-type sound deadening material. I cut it up and put it on the floorboards in the same pattern as the factory sound-deadening material and completely covered the tranny tunnel and forwards part of the footwell and firewall.
Total cost for the material is $36.00 as compared to the $200.00+ for the Dynamat-type sound deadening material.

I then glued down the bubble-wrap like thermal insulation and sealed it to the sound deadener with HVAC foil tape. I’ll do the same with the rest of the cockpit this week.

The total cost for sound deadening and thermal insulation for the cockpit will be around $100.00. Pretty damned good if you ask me.

For the record I did the following:
Fiberglass mat and resin on floorboards, two layers of truck-bed liner, two layers of urethane sealer, two layers of rubberized undercoating, one layer of Dynamat-type sound deadening material and one layer of the Mylar-bubble insulation.

All of that together should make the cockpit quieter, more comfortable and pretty much safe from rusting anytime in the near future.

SPEED BLEEDERS UPDATE:
They don’t fit…at least on the front calipers. The stock bleeder nipples seem to have a slight taper towards the end that screws into the caliper, the Speed Bleeders don’t so trying to put them in offered a great deal of resistance.

I decided to not put them in since there was a chance of stripping the threads out of the calipers. I’ll call the manufacturers this week and see if they have any suggestions. I haven’t tried the ones on the rear brakes yet or the clutch master. I’ll post it here when I get some more answers.

Once more into the breach dear friends

2009-04-22T17:25:00.005-04:00

4-22-2009

Well it’s about time for me to get back to my work on the MG.
Since my work on the basement has come to an end (for now) I can devote my attention to my LBC.
I’ve been gathering materials and parts while the restoration has been on hold.
Here’s what’s going on.

Major change in plan. Instead of painting the B white with a white interior it will be silver (2005 Corvette pewter) with an Autumn Leaf interior. Of course, I now have to strip out the engine bay to repaint it as well as repainting the trunk and cockpit. Oh well, what’s 30 more hours work on a project 3 months behind schedule…

Have to clean out the garage again…three months of it being the staging area for major home remolding tends to make things a bit messy …

I found material for the cockpit thermal insulation. I found a bubble type material with Mylar on both sides and a strong yet flexible material inside…its an windshield sunshade I found in the Walmart auto section! They are $6.00 each and I’ll need five of them to do the entire cockpit but they look like they’ll do the job. I’ll still need some Dyna-mat-type material for the doors but $30.00 for the thermal insulation is a lot better than the $300.00 I was looking at before.

I think I’ll be having an all day work party on the MG on Sunday, May 3 so anyone in central NC who wants to come get greasy feel free to join in the fun...beer, pizza maybe even strippers!!!! I have no shame.

Since I’m heading into my busy season for work it’s going to make consistently working on the B harder but a few hours here a few hours there adds up.

It seems that my last few posts have had nothing to say except for why I haven’t been working on my MG…very sad.

4-7-2009 Why I haven’t done anything on the MG lately

Well, I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t done a damned thing on my B in around six weeks now except for moving it around and piling junk on top of it.

Last year, our basement flooded while I was remodeling. Not too bad but just bad enough to get everything wet and moldy. So I’ve been working on that while the weather was cold. Not just because it needs it but also because mold us a major health concern and I’d really not have it all over everything.

So far I’ve finished the den and installed all new hardwood flooring and covered the fireplace, hearth and stair landing in a mix of Vermont and Indian slate…very nice. Aside from some finish trim work and other small things it is all finished. I’ve also finished the stairwell, gym, office and all I have left to do in that part of the house is the kitchen hallway. I’ll still have another hallway, a bedroom, the kitchen and a bathroom to do but I wanted to get the main common areas finished up. The rest is sealed off and can be done over the course of the summer.

I figure I’ll be able to get back to work on the B this coming weekend. I’m going to have to bust ass to get even close to my self-imposed deadline for finishing it by June 1st.

After cleaning out the garage (again) I’ll put her back up on jack stands and start to work. I’ll pull the carbs off and send them to Butch at Imports Europa in Burlington NC to have them rebuilt. I’ll also pull the oil cooler off to get it pressure tested and fixed since I recently found a nice little puddle of oil under it from an unseen leak.

I’m then going to pull off the wheels and do the front and rear brakes and steering rack gaiters and anything else suspension related. This will give me the chance to try the Speed Bleeders I bought and see how they work. I’ll also be replacing all the flexible brake and clutch master lines with Teflon/stainless braided hoses and checking the condition of the clutch slave cylinder.

While I’m down there, I’ll finish cleaning, sealing and painting the wheel wells and underside of the car. I’m also going to run the new wiring for the melted fuel pump wire plus a few additional wires to the rear end for future accessories such as an audio amplifier and the like. I’m going to finish cleaning up the wiring in the engine compartment and dash areas and finish sealing and painting the rest of the cockpit and inside firewall.

When the carbs come off I’ll check to see if the seals on the side covers are leaking or not. If they are, I’ll swear a bunch and then pull them off and try sealing them up again.

The mechanical stuff will be easy for me compared to the next step which will be the major body repairs. Sills, doglegs fenders rear valance and a bunch of other body panels have to be cut off and replaced. I’ve never done major metal repair this involved so it will be an interesting learning experience for me. I’m getting lots of good advice on the MG Experience forum so I’m hoping it will go well.

Getting back to the B

2009-03-01T17:42:00.003-05:00

I haven't done much in the last few weeks. I've had to concentrate on remodling the basement in my house which has flooded twice in the last 4 years.

It has become a health issue since a lot of mold and mildew has formed on the walls so it's been tear out the walls, rebuild repaint and live with the smell of bleach permanently burned into my nose...yummy.

But I'm getting close on the final stages of the first phase of the basement so I should be able to get back to work by the weekend.

Plus, the weather has sucked here but it will warm back up by the weekend. We're supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow here tonight which, for North Carolna is a big deal. But it is going to be back near 70 degrees by next friday so I'll be getting back to work on my LBC. I'm now nearly a month behind on my schedule so I'll have to bust ass to get caught back up again.

1-26-2009

2009-01-27T05:01:00.004-05:00

Broke the sandblaster out and got to work on the car again. This time, however, when it came out of the garage, it drove out under its own power! Runs rough as hell but at least she runs :)

I spent about two hours sandblasting on the car and in all that time, all I got done was the front right wheel and suspension and the trunk underside area where the gas tank mounts. talk about slow going. My compressor isn't small but it's not a big industrial unit either so you only have about a minute or two of effective sandblasting time before you have to wait for the air tank to fill back up again.
Plus, it's a Sears sandblaster which loves to clog up every 30 seconds or so...slow going to say the least.
I'm seriously considering just pulling the wheels off and spending $50 bucks to have them done at a sandblasing shop. It would be much easier and I wouldn't have to spend a few days picking sand out of every square inch of my body. Then I can just blast what needs blasted, the rest of the suspension, the underside of the car and the few random remaining parts that are too big to clean up with the wire wheel on the bench grinder.

I got my speed bleeders for the brakes and the clutch slave in today. They are basically bleeder nipples with built in check valves. you loosen them a bit and pump the brake pedal until the air is out of the system and the built in valves prevent air from being drawn back into the lines when you let off the pedal. Supposedly, it allows you to bleed the brakes by yourself.
I'm planning on flushing out the 15 year old silicone brake fluid from all the lines and replacing it (I'm sticking with the DOT-5 silicone fluid) by hooking up my Ezi-bleeder. It is a unit which sends pressurized fluid into the master via a special cap and on through the brake lines, pushing the old fluid out as it goes. I've never used one before but they are supposed to work fairly well based on what I've read on several MG forums.
When my latest parts order comes in early next week I'll be working on rebuilding the brakes so I'll let you know how the Ezi-bleeder and Speed bleeders actually work.

It's going to be cold and rainy here for the next few days so I'll probably alternate between working on small parts inside and working on the house. I still have to finish cleaning up the rust on the outside of the tank and seaing the pin holes on the top of it so that will probably be my next step.

I've also decided that in addition to documenting my restoration efforts photographically and here on this blog, I'm going to start doing them on video as well.
The videos will be a combination of how-to MG restoration and visual documentation. Hopefully, somebody out there will find them helpful. If not, then 20 years from now my kids can at least see what their lame-brained dad looked like when they were young.

2009-01-25T16:18:00.003-05:00

Still not done anything on the MG. The weather has now just started to warm back up an I'll be getting some done tommorrow.

But for now...

THE STEELERS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!

Wifey got tickets to the AFC championship game in the 'Burgh and it was a blast.

I have a great wifey.

1-14-2009 Too damned cold and GO STEELERS!!!

2009-01-14T16:02:00.002-05:00

It's too damned cold to be out working on the B right now so I'm back working on the inside of my house for a few days.

Wifey is trying to get tickets to the AFC championship game in Pittsburgh...I love my wifey.

All I want is to see the Steelers beat Baltimore 100-0...is that asking too much?

GO STEELERS!!!

01-01-2009

2009-01-05T10:54:00.003-05:00

Let's see if this works.
Here is the video of my restart efforts on the MG.

Some r-rated language so this won't show up on the Disney channel anytime soon.

The funniest part in the video is my wife Laura. I was joking with Kevin (AKA Fieldbuilder here on the MGExperience.net forum) that she was an ex-Army MP and swears like a sailor so, of course, she goes out of her way to swear constantly...not knowing that I am taping the whole thing.
I showed this to her last night and she is so embarrassed.
The first half of the vid shows us trying to get the B restarted. The second half is after I replaced most of the ignition parts on Sunday and she actually runs.
I replaced the rotor, dizzy cap, plugs (NGK) coil wire and plug wires.
I still have to replace the points and condensor. She fired right up and kept running which I didn't expect at all.
Last saturday Kevin and I just managed to get her running for about 10 seconds at a time at the most. But, Sunday I discovered this ingenious device called a...um what is it...oh yeah, a choke.

DUH!

Pulled it out about 1/3 of the way and she fired up and kept running, much to my surprise. she ran for about 15-20 minutes on Sunday and got up to operating temp, the t-stat opened, no oil or coolant leaks and consistantly showed about 55-60 pounds oil pressure at idle. It's all even more surprising that she ran considering that the carbs and the balance of the ignition system haven't been touched in about 15 years...they built these things tough!
I even drove her back and forth in the garage...about 3 feet forward and back. At least I know the clutch isn't frozen up

Me very happy

12-27-2008 FIRST START DAY!!!

2008-12-28T16:47:00.004-05:00

Saturday was the day! Kevin came over and we worked on the MG from 10:30 am until around 8:00 pm to get her started, breaking only for lunch around 2pm.

We spent most of the day safing bare wires, reinstalling things like the carbs, distributor fuel lines and about 100 other little things.

...there were problems, of course...

The fuel tank isn't back from the radiator shop yet so I hooked up a small gas can in the trunk with some extra fuel line. I put gas in the lines where it promptly spilled out all over the garage floor. Fixed that and then found it flowing out at the front carb. both were cases of loose or missing clamps.

The distributor would not go back in with the rotor facing the right direction so Kevin turned it 180-degrees around and it slipped right in (he then swapped the wires around)

When the wires were all safed we hooked up the batter. No fires, no sparks, no smoke and the fuel pump kicked on. After chasing problems for a while longer we tried to start it but no joy.

Ran the battery down cranking it to get oil pressure but still no start. When I hooked up the second battery I noticed that the first one whas hooked up out of phase! No wonder it wouldn't start.

After the second backup battery was hooked up (correctly) and we fiddled with the distributor some more (and sent the wife to the parts store for a new plug wire) we had our first backfire after cranking it for about 10 seconds! Not much but it was a sign of life.

We fiddled some more, determined that we were getting spark at the plugs and fuel at the carbs so we tried again and TA-DA- she fired up!

She only ran for about 10 seconds but she was running. The oil pressure was around 50-60 pounds, which is very good, and she ran surprisingly smoothly considering how old everything was. She started and ran for 10-15 seconds a few more times after that so I felt good calling it a day.

Next up, I'll be replacing the points, condensor, plugs, plug wires, cap and rotor. The carbs come next. They need rebuilt so I'll be sending them off to either Butch in Burlington or one of the other pros from the MGExperience forum.

Other than that, it's back to work on the other 12 buh-zillion things I need to do.

I just wanted to see if the engine would run and hold pressure so the rest is easy since that is the case. At least I can be relatively sure that when the car is ready to rollout, it will be drivable.

When she fired up for the first time in 10 years, I was laughing and smiling like my 7 year old son on Christmas day.

I taped it and will try to get the video posted here this week.

Merry Christmas to me :)

2008-12-23T05:03:00.003-05:00

Well, there’s lots to catch up on in the last few weeks. The holidays are still cutting into the time I’d be spending on the MG but I got a lot done the last few days.

Some good news, some bad news; I’m going to try to start the engine up on the weekend between Christmas and New Years. On the bad side, when I pulled the clutch and brake pedals of to replace them I found that the push rod on the clutch master cylinder is badly egged out and the clevis pin is also shot. Luckily, my MG buddy Kevin who is going to be helping me try to get the B restarted, has an extra pushrod.

I got the heater core back from the shop, it only cost $25 to get it flushed, pressure tested and have the crack soldered. I reinstalled it back in the heater box and got the whole thing back into the car. The heater box is supposed to be a bitch to reinstall and I recall them being exactly that when I last did one nearly 20 years ago. But this time, I pre-compressed the big puffy seal on the back of the box by stacking a bunch of slate tiles on top of it for a few days. I pulled it out from under the slate tiles, quickly glued it to the back of the box, sprayed a little WD-40 on the seal, lined it up in the opening and it slid right into the opening on the firewall with just a light pop of the heel of my palm.

I got the radiator back into the car as well as the oil cooler and lines (I need new lines for the oil cooler, they are both way too long and look stupid) I have at least 60% of the wiring cleaned up and re-taped in the engine bay. I installed the new stainless braided fuel line hoses in the engine bay (they look sweet) and in the rear at the fuel tank.

The tank should be done in the next day or two. I’ll still have to reseal the top of it because it was in really poor shape but the rest of it was in good condition and since it is an original tank with baffles, I decided to keep it.

I reinstalled the blank plate on the top of the firewall on the passenger side. I used double seals and drilled out and added four extra securing screws since I got tired of it always leaking no matter what I did when it rained.

I got the exhaust downpipe reconnected to the exhaust manifold with lock washers and the brass nuts. It is a lot harder to get some of those nuts installed with the manifold bolted to the block but not too much harder.

My buddy Paul is looking at my alternator and hopefully will get it fixed before this weekend. If not, I’ll just have him put it back together and I’ll stick it on the car as is for the restart since the car will run with or without it in place.

I put the front of the B up on jack stands and a heater under the engine for a few hours to heat it up and then drained out all of the old oil. I got at least 10 quarts out of it! I then sprayed a bunch of brake cleaner up the drain hold and down the dipstick hole to clean out any gunk in there. When I was done I blew compressed air down the dipstick hole to dry it out. I’m sure that it didn’t get the sump completely clean but it knocked out a lot of any old gunk that may have been up in there.

I’m waiting on an order from Moss for the little doo-dads I need to get the engine running again. Hopefully they will be here by this weekend, but with the slowdown because of Christmas shipping I’m not sure they’ll get here on time.

As I said above, I’m going to try to start the thing on the weekend between Christmas and New Years so I’ll have the fire extinguisher and camcorder standing by. IF it works and I get it started I’ll put the video up…it will probably show me jumping up and down like an excited nine year old. I have no idea if it will start or not. The valves need adjusted and the carbs and the rest of the electronics are around 15 years old…keeping the fingers crossed!

Merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, the winter equinox or whatever you celebrate this time of year.

2008-12-15T07:05:00.002-05:00

So sorry good people for not posting much in the last few weeks. I have been recovering from second heart attack in as many weeks courtesy of the Pittsburgh Steelers. :)

Getting closer to the engine restart Got a few small parts yet to order and I'll have the lump back together. I'm using the NASA all-up testing philosophy. Put everything back together, assume it all still works and fire light the bitch off.

The alternator is not putting out anything but as long as it is in place the battery will hold a charge long enough to work. I replaced a few rubber bits in the carbs but I have no idea of their condition. Both of the return springs on the carb bodies are broken so I'll need those and it is missing the fast idle adjust screw and locknut but they were fine when it was parked...after 10 years sitting? who knows. Folks on the MG forum and Butch seem to think there is a good chance they'll work since I took the time to clean all of the old gas out of them when I first parked it in 1998 (doesn't seem that long ago...I must be getting older)

Oil cooler and lines are back in but I've always had that one line that is way too long so at some point I'll be replacing that. I still have about 3 gallons of oil in the engine to drain out and replace...that'll be fun. I still have to take the heater core and tank to get flushed/repaired but the guys on the forum recommended a place in Kernersville that they does a real good job...and it's close by too.

I still have the mess that is the wiring to clean up. I'm replacing a bunch of the bullet connectors and female receptacles and plan to add a relay system and second aux fuse panel for the stuff that takes lots of juice to run...don't now why but I just don't trust 35 year old British wiring to hold up.

I plan to try starting it weekend after next so if anyone wants to swing by for the fire...um, I mean start up, I'll keep you posted. Kevin, who lives over in Bermuda Run and is very MG knowledgeable, has offered to help and he has many of the tools I'll need. He's a really nice guy and has been a ton of help so far.

11-20-2008 TO 12-02-2008

2008-12-03T04:47:00.005-05:00

Well the Thanksgiving holiday and work interests have pulled me away from working on the B as much as I would have wanted to. Plus, I’m trying to get some more remodeling work done on the (formerly) finished basement in my house that flooded this spring. Wifey wants me to get the gym I’m building finished for her Christmas present so I get to mix in drywall dusting with the paint fumes from MG restoration. What fun!

I have gotten some stuff done, however, just not as much as I would have wanted to. The radiator is all finished and pretty. After it was all cleaned inside and out I buffed the brass with steel wool, soldered the metal support brace back on where it broke loose from the top and then clear coated the brass to keep it all nice and shiny. I also put a thin coat of gloss black on the tops of the radiator fins since those are what you see when you look down on the radiator when the car’s hood is open. I also painted the steel supports on the radiator with several coats of gloss black paint and glued two cork buffer strips on the parts where it attaches to the radiator support in the engine bay. I’m not big on metal to metal contact with painted parts since it tends to rub off the paint over time and allow a path for rust to start.

I’ve decided to take the heater core to a radiator shop to get the crack soldered. I did it myself but the core is just too hard to get out of the car if it fails. So I’ll have the shop solder it up and pressure test it so I can be sure about it. The same goes for the gas tank. Now I just have to find a local radiator shop.

NOTE:
When you use material s such as Perma-Tex or other gasket sealing products, use it very sparingly. In fact, when you are installing your heater valve, you shouldn’t use any at all. When I flushed the radiator and (especially) the heater core out, gobs of old Perma-Tex came out. This was old gasket sealing material that squished out when a part was tightened down and broke loose, making it into the stream of coolant. There is no telling how much of the radiator and heater core was clogged by this loose material. This is especially important with the heater core since it is so small and inefficient already. Any blockage at all in the core make an already weak unit even weaker as far as heat output is concerned.

Printed up some of the homemade stickers that I made with my Canvas-11 illustration program. They look really good but I’m not sure how they’ll hold up in the engine compartment. I put about 6 coats of clear coat on them and I’ll be cutting them out. After I apply them I’ll also put some more clear coat over the area where they are placed to, hopefully, seal them up. It is an experiment but if it works then I don’t have to spend a butt-load of cash on some little stickers.
Since the weather has turned decidedly colder I’ve been doing as much work as possible down in the basement on cleaning parts. Nuts, bolts and various other parts, it at least lets me do work on the B when it is to cold to be out in the garage. I have one more parts order to make and I’ll start making an earnest effort to get the car running.

11-22-08...In praise of CLR...Part-II

2008-11-24T04:59:00.009-05:00

Well, the radiator and heater core have been soaking over the weekend now and the
results are pretty dramatic. The first picture is of the radiator as it was before this restoration began. It wan't too bad looking, just dirty and tired.

The next is a picture of the radiator and core soaking in the hot bath of CLR and water. I soaked it for about 3 days and the amount of crud that came out was amazing!

I took a hunk of super-fine steel wool to the the radiator top for only about 20 seconds and it shined up like it was brand new! I still have to fiinish cleaing off the old paint from the radiator support, painting it and then cleaning up the rest of the brass but that is all just a detail.

I soldered the crack in the heater core and then soldered the upper part of the radiator support bracket back onto the passenger side radiator top.

How I did it:

I took the core and used a wire wheel brush to take the area all around the crack to bare clean metal. The wire wheel expanded the damage from nearly invisible to a 1-inch long opening around 1/2 to 1 mm wide. I smeared solder flux all around the area and heated it with a propane torch until it was very hot. I then dipped the solder into the flux and onto the crack and the solder was sucked right in like it is when you are soldering copper pipes together.

I built up the solder on top of that and then all around it to the sides and it seem pretty solid. I hooked a garden hose to one end of the core and blocked the other opening and turned on the hose...no leaks.

Since the pressure from a home's plumbing system is much higher than that which the core will experience in the car I think I am safe to assume that this will hold over time.

I'm very lucky the pressure didn't blow the core apart but the solder held so I think it'll be okay to install back in the heater box.

11-19-2008 In Praise Of CLR

2008-11-23T11:36:00.000-05:00

I decided to clean out my radiator and heater core myself thus saving at least 100-200 dollars. I bought a bottle of CLR (calcium, lime, rust) remover and a bottle of Lime-Away gel. I flushed the radiator and core with hot water and then poured half a bottle of CLR in the radiator and about a half a cup in the heater core. I put the core in the sink and filled it with hot water and then poured some Lime-Away in. I then put the radiator in the basement bathtub and filled it with hot water until it just covered the top of the radiator. I then dumped the rest of the CLR into the tub and some more of the Lime-Away and let it soak.

After just a few minutes I could see the brass top of the radiator begin to look like brass again.
I pulled the heater core out of the sink and shook it as it drained an huge gobs of crud poured out of it, even though it had previously been repeatedly flushed with hot water.

I’ll let them both soak for a few days and then post some before and after pictures.
There are still a few small pinholes in the core but since they are right along an edge and not in the area of the cooling fins I should be able to solder those up myself.

I took my alternator into an auto parts store today and had it tested; no output. The brushes or stator could be rusty or the thing could just be scrap. I’ll have to strip it down and check the insides but since it sat for 10 years I am not entirely hopeful. Alternators are relatively cheap but I’d rather not have to replace one if I don’t have to. And if I’m going to do so, I’d just as soon do the AC Delco alternator conversion so that I have higher output at low rpm’s.

11 16-2008

2008-11-23T11:34:00.003-05:00

I started working on the wiring harness in the engine bay, cleaning bullet connectors with a gun barrel cleaning brush, sanding male bullet connectors and coating them with conductive grease, cleaning 35 years of old paint off the wiring harness tape…the usual stuff.

I noticed that the harness which comes off the main loom and goes down under the car to the rear near the starter had a bullet connector who’s wire had no sheath on it, just bare copper wire. I tried to pull the tape off but couldn’t because a wire was melted to it! It appears that a white wire in the loom had shorted out at some point and completely melted to the harness and to some of the other wires in the loom. I cut away about a foot of tape and every bit of the wire was melted. Apparently, the previous owner just put another layer of tape on the harness instead of actually replacing the bad wire. The scary thing is that I drove the car for ten years with it like that, not knowing that I was an inch away from an electrical fire.

So add one more thing to my repair list. I’m not going to pull the harness since the rest of the wiring actually seems in good shape. What I’ll do is test the wire and see where it goes (I think it is the power supply for the fuel pump) and then run a new wire along the length of the harness and then cover it with a quality blue electrical tape that matches the color of the original harness tape. That will seal it up and add further protection to the older wires in the original harness. I’ll do that when I am under the car cleaning and sealing up the underside of the car.

Unlike the rear harness, the front harness seems to be in remarkably good condition. Even the bullet connectors are relatively tight and corrosion-free so a thorough cleaning should be all that is required.

Tonight I’ll be cleaning out the metal fuel line by spraying a whole lot of brake cleaner down the line from the engine compartment and then blowing it out with compressed air. The brake cleaner spray should break up and dissolve any gas that was left in the line and turned into varnish.

I’ll be taking the Lucas alternator to the parts store tomorrow to get it tested. I want to do the Delco alternator conversion but right now, if a part works, it is getting reused. While I’m at the parts store I’ll also pick up a few feet of fuel injection hose to use as the rubber lines for the fuel system along with some new vacuum tubing.

I started calling around radiator repair shops in Greensboro and Winston Salem since the shop I used to use years ago has since gone bye-bye. The radiator needs flushed and pressure tested and I already know that the heater core has a leak in it. I’ll also need the gas tank dropped into the cleaning bath since there are probably 35 years of crud and rust in it. I have to get all of this done in the next few weeks since I can’t really get the car running until these parts are finished.

I got the radiator support panel installed along with the intake and exhaust manifolds. They aren’t torqued down yet but, since I still have to connect the exhaust to the manifold, it isn’t vital yet. The engine is slowly coming back together and once I get the carbs reassembled I’ll put those back on and work on getting the rest of the car ready to fire up in the next few weeks. I hope to do that in the second week of December so it gives me about 18 days and $400.00 to go.

Improving MG heating and insulating the heater box.

2008-11-12T03:49:00.003-05:00

11-11-2008
Since I’ll be using my MG as a daily driver starting next year, I’m trying to think of ways to get maximum efficiency out of the heating system. The cockpit will, of course, have sound and thermal insulation on the floors, tranny tunnel and firewall and I’ll be redoing the heater valve by either modifying the flow of the original one or replacing it all together with a ball valve assembly.

I’ll also have a fully carpeted interior and I’ll be making an insulated headliner insert for the convertible top. But one other area I’m looking at is insulating is the heater box itself.

I figure that if this box remains warmer, the air passing through it will have to be heated less than if it was passing through the cold steel of the box. I had considered using something like the stick on Dyna-mat but I’m thinking that the heat in the box will cause it to break loose and sag into the box, possibly blocking the core or interfering with the blower fan.

What I think I will try is to apply several layers of 3-M spray-on rubberized undercoating to the insides of the box and then sticking a layer of heavy aluminum foil to it while it is still tacky. This undercoating material has stuck well to the harsh environment on the underside of the car and has been subjected to high heat in the area of the exhaust system without coming off so it should hold up well inside the heater box.

The aluminum will provide a thermal reflective barrier and will leave a smooth surface so as not to increase the drag on the airflow through the box like the rough surface of the undercoating by itself would.

I think this should greatly improve the thermal characteristics of the box and increase the amount of heat entering the cockpit.

Of course, the best improvements would be a 3-speed blower motor and a hardtop…but one thing at a time as my budget allows.

11-10-2008

2008-11-12T03:43:00.005-05:00

Spent a lot of time with a soft wire detail brush cleaning up sand that got stuck in the primer. Vacuumed as much sand out as possible and started spraying the area with white paint. Most of it went on pretty smoothly but a few areas wrinkled and lifted where they overlapped older paint. I’ll clean those up and make them all white and pretty. There was also a fair amount of overspray on areas that were not white but that should be easy enough to clean up as well. As soon as everything is dry I’ll be detailing the hydraulic lines with silver paint and touching up all the other detail painting work in the engine bay.

Once that is all done it’s back to reassembling the motor. I’ll be hanging the alternator, fan pulley and fan and reinstalling the exhaust and intake manifolds. I’ve got to get the radiator, heater core and gas tank to the radiator shop so they can get them cleaned up and flushed out. Then it’s more sorting out of the wiring in the engine by…oh joy.

I found the little arm on the heater box that controls whether the air goes to the heat or defroster ducts was broken off. So I got out my trusty pop-rivet gun and fixed that fairly quickly. I’m going to do a little experiment and insulate the inside of the heater box…I figure anything that adds to the heating ability of an MG heating system will help.

11-2 to 11-9 2008

2008-11-11T14:35:00.004-05:00

A REALLY NICE DAY 11-02-2008
This isn’t the usual blog entry but I just kinda’ wanted to share it. Today I went outside in the early afternoon and started tinkering with my MGB on what was a beautiful fall day. My Wifey was inside studying and instead of her being in there and complaining that we weren’t spending any time together (which lately, we haven’t been due to our horrible schedules) she grabbed a chair and her computer, set them up right next to the garage door, and studied outside while I worked on my little British car. It was really nice. She was there with me and while we weren’t really doing much together, we WERE together. I’m a pretty lucky guy…I love my Wifey and we actually enjoy each other’s company. Just a really nice day.

11-06-2008
While I did install the new thermostat and housing on the engine this morning, today was sandblasting day. I got bundled up in my hat, ear protection, breathing filter, scuba mask and nylon jacket and started blasting a bunch of the little parts that needed to be cleaned up I blasted the front and rear halves of the heater box inside and out, one of the front fender splash panels the inner halves of the air cleaner cans and their bases, the small oval shifter surround plate on top of the tranny tunnel, the fan belt pulley and the brake and clutch pedals Kevin gave me. After they were all blasted and cleaned I sprayed a coat of etching primer and then gloss black paint.

In an earlier blog I wrote that I had decided to not sandblast the entire car because you can never get all of the sand out and it invariably winds up getting in the final paintjob. Well I cleaned all the parts I blasted with compressed air for an amount of time almost equal to the time it took to blast the parts. I primed them and no sand showed up. Then I painted them and no sand showed up…until I sprayed the front of the heater box. Sure enough, as soon as I got it almost completely painted, sand appeared and totally ruined the finish. And, of course, it was on the front of the heater box, the most visible part of all. Oh well, so I guess I have to blast that part again. Since I still have the wheels, front suspension and a bunch of other small parts to do I guess I can live with that.

I’m getting close to finishing the engine bay cleaning and painting but I have a quandary; the area surrounding the brake and clutch master cylinders is filthy and corroded but it is too tight to get inside of with wire brushes and scrapers to thoroughly clean, prep and paint. I didn’t want to pull the hydraulics but it looks like I have no choice. The area really needs cleaned and painted or it will wind up a rusted-out mess in a very short number of years. I hate to pull the brake and clutch masters because they aren’t leaking and, when it comes to British cars, if it isn’t leaking you do not ever touch it!

Though I hate to do it, it looks like I’m gonna wind up pulling the lines of the masters and pulling them out as a single unit while attached to the pedal box support structure. It is held in by 8 bolts and may be a bit tougher than pulling the masters out individually but I think it will put less stress on the units.

And, as much as I also hate to say this, I’m going to probably have to sandblast that part of the engine compartment. I’ll seal off as much of the engine itself and other various openings in the bay as well as covering the majority of the car in a large tarp to keep sand from getting in ever little nook and cranny. The area is solid but there is enough surface corrosion and grime that it justifies blasting the whole thing. I don’t want to have to go back and clean and paint the area again in the next decade so it has to be well sealed now.

11-9-2008
Broke down and bought a MIG welder today. It’s one of the cheapo harbor freight 90-amp welders. I’m sure it won’t last long but, then again, it doesn’t have to. All I need it for is the bodywork on the car and after that, I really don’t care. It was on sale for $119.95 so not too bad a price. I also bought the welding gloves and small clamps to hold the pieces in place while welding. It came with a cheap-ass welding mask but that is better than none. I also bought a wobble extension set and a regular extension set plus a tap and die set. I got everything on sale because I am …(survey says) That’s right, Cheap!!!

11-10-2008
Rolled the B out of the garage today and started sandblasting the engine compartment in the area of the clutch and brake masters. I covered everything with a tarp, covered the engine with plastic and another tarp and stuffed foam rubber in every opening I could (the car, not me). The results, of course, is that sand got everywhere! That’s exactly why I didn’t want to do any sandblasting on the car in the first place.

It took about 20 minutes to blast the area and then I spent at least an hour with the air nozzle blowing sand out of the car…the sand is still all over the place and when I primed the areas I blasted, it was, of course, polluted with sand. Oh well, at least it is all clean and de-rusted.
I loaned my Olympus digital camera to a friend of my ex-wife (ain’t I nice) for a scuba diving trip. I have the underwater dive housing for it and I’d rather loan it than see someone spend a butt-load on something they’ll only use a few times a year. And she’s a nice person to so it’s all good The only problem is that I am now without a camera to document the resto for at least 10 days. I tried taking a pic with my phone (see below) and that turned out shitty.

I’ll see if I can borrow my daughter’s camera because this no camera crap is for the birds.
I sprayed the front of the heater box and, as I wrote previously, sand got in the paint. So I took some 400-grit sandpaper and wet-sanded it and took off as little paint as possible while getting the sand out. Then, I resprayed it and, as my luck seems to be holding, it wrinkled and lifted. So when it was dry, I wet-sanded it again and noticed something that looked really cool. The letters of the words “Smiths” is pressed into the metal on the front of the heater box from behind and when I sanded it, I took the paint off just the letters. The contrast of the silver letters on the black box looked really good. So when I resprayed the piece, I wet sanded the letters again and I’m going to leave it that way. I’ll put a few layers of clear coat over it but the contrasting letters look really cool. The paint lifting off, it turns out, was a fortunate accident.

11-01-2008

2008-11-03T03:18:00.003-05:00

I did some more sandblasting today and got a lot of the smaller parts of the engine bay cleaned up I started with the air cleaner covers and they cleaned up nicely. I then primed and painted them and (except for some small dents in one of the covers) they look brand new

I then got the brake/clutch master cylinders cover blasted, primed and painted. It looked great for about an hour but then the paint started to wrinkle. It looked like the crinkle-finish on the metal dashboards on the MK-I MG's...I'm gonna have to redo it and I'm still not sure why it wrinkled up on me...oh well.

I also finished up the opening into which the heater box fits. I had previously cleaned it out and applied a few coats of truck bed liner to it. Today, I primed and painted it thouroughly. I want to make sure this area is well protected because if it rusts, you have a world of trouble replacing the metal in there. It is buried inside of a lot of other metal and is one of the most involved repairs to make on the whole car...I'd rather avoid that!

I also got the radiator support panel sandblasted, primed and painted black. It also looks like new. I ran out of sand when I was 75% finished on this panel so I had to get out the broom and sweep old sand up off the driveway, sift it and reuse it. Got it finished, but just barely. I'll need a few more bags of sand since I'd rather pay $7.00 per bag than spend half an hour getting a half a bucket swept from the driveway...I'm cheap, but not that cheap!

I started cleaning the driver side of the engine bay inner fender well. I got it about half done and primered after I pulled off the brake hydraulics. I'm gong to have to get into the area surrounding the support frame for the brak/clutch master but it is really tight in there. I may have to go ahead and sandblast the area and spend the rest of the year getting sand out of the car.

10-27-2008

2008-10-29T09:50:00.004-04:00

I finally got the sandblaster out and started blasting away. I love the Sears sandblaster, blast for 30 seconds, spend 30 seconds unclogging the blaster, blast for another 30 seconds…and so on, and so on…

Still, it’s better than sanding or using a wire brush. First, I got the valve cover sandblasted and cleaned. I decided to paint it gold but the only paint I had was lacquer and I didn’t know if that kind of paint would hold up to the conditions in the engine bay. So, being the impatient person that am, I went ahead and sprayed three coats. I then sprayed three coats of lacquer over that. It looks pretty good and I guess I’ll see if it holds up once the engine is running.

I still have all of the other stuff to do (clean the rest of the engine compartment, cockpit, underside and get them all sealed and painted) so I won’t bore you with that until it is done. What I really want to do, however, is get the car started. Now to do this, I’ll have to get a lot of stuff done. I admit that one of the main reasons that I want to get the car started is just because she hasn’t run since 1998 and I just want to hear her running.

But, on the more logical side, since she has not run in 10 years, I’d like to get her started sooner rather than later because I just have no idea of her mechanical condition after she sat so long. I’d hat to get everything done and then start her up in the spring, just to find that there is something seriously wrong and I have to pull the engine.

I figure that I’ll have to do the following at minimum: Get the wiring cleaned up and loose wires safed so there is no shorting out, get the fuel tank cleaned, repaired and installed, replace the rubber fuel lines, gaskets, hoses, etc. I can borrow a radiator so I don’t have to get it or the heater core flushed, pressure tested and repaired yet and I can pull the battery out of my old, unused Chevy van so I don’t have to buy a new one yet. I’ll also need to adjust the valves and get the distributor cleaned up and reinstalled. As for the carbs, they seem to be in fairly good shape after 10 years of inactivity. I’ve cleaned them out, adjusted the float levels and I’m replacing the float chamber and throttle shaft seals so, hopefully, that will be enough to at least get the car running..

I also got the distributor cleaned up, haven't relaced the points, condenser, rotor, etc, but I'm hoping they are good enough to get the car running. I lightly sanded the points to make sure they were corrosion-free and reassembled the unit after cleaning.

I also got the dashpots on the carbs polished until they are nice and shiny...it won't last long but they sure look good now!

I have parts orders placed with Moss and Victoria british. Mostly small stuff-screws, rack boots, hoses, etc. I'm concerned about the quality of the parts as most MG owners on various forums report that they get stuff that doesn't fit or is just low-quality crap...We'll see...I'm not one to pay good money for something and not bitch if it isn't worth the $$$ I shelled out for it.

10-25-2008

2008-10-25T10:06:00.009-04:00

I Spent last night making gaskets for the engine. The only ones I'm not making are the valve cover gasket (which I already have) and the exhaust manifold gasket (shich is made from metal) The rest I'm making myself...$20.00 for a sheet of treated fiber material and 1/8" thick sheet of cork is a lot less than just a few of the gaskets and I'll also have plenty left over for future repairs.

After making the gaskets, I reinstalled the cleaned and painted water pump. It seems in good shape and if it winds up failing it only costs about $50.00 for a new one and is easy enough to swap out.

I pulled the side tappet covers off of the engine and cleaned them up. I put the rubber gasket I had on the rear cover and a new, home made cork gasket on the front cover. I used Indian Head gasket adhesive on both and reinstalled the covers back on the block. They get tightened down but not much. If they are overtightened the gaskets squish out and the plates warp which is what usually causes them to leak.

Once they were back on I went ahead and sprayed them with the high-temp engine paint so they're all nice and purdy.

I'll finish up cleaning and painting the rest of the engine bay as well as pulling the valve cover and cleaning and painting that too. I still have parts to sandblast for the bay...so much to do, so little disposable income.

The exhaust manifold is ready to go back on. I wire brushed it until it was down to bare metal, cleaned it thoroughly with acetone and then sprayed three coats of the 1500-degree (supposedly) high temp silver paint. I do know, however, that no matter what, the heat of the manifold will cause the paint to "go away" sooner than the marketing claims say it will. Such is life with a red-hot mainfold. It looks nice now though!

10-21-2008

2008-10-22T07:18:00.005-04:00

I got the remainder of the engine block cleaned and painted. I purchased one of those “as seen on TV’ battery-powered rotary bushes that look like a giant toothbrush. It works okay but the most useful part of it is that the small, circular brush tip has very stiff bristles. I sprayed brake cleaner on a part of the block and then scrubbed it with the brush. On or off, the brush seemed to work about the same.

I got the driver side of the block cleaned and put down two layers of the black, high-temp paint. While I was in there, I also cleaned the steering shaft and rack and got them sprayed black as well as the engine cross member.

Tonight I’ll get under the car and finish cleaning the underside of the engine, the oil pan and the rest of the cross member and engine area. I’ll spray those with the appropriate black paint and then move onto the remainder of the driver side engine bay. I’ll be cleaning, priming and then painting it white after I have the fun of pulling off all of the stuff attached to the inner fender well on that side of the engine bay.

I’ve decided that I’m just going to replace the rear wiring harness with one that my MG friend Kevin pulled off of his 73 parts car instead of trying to repair Stevie Wonder’s work on my current harness. Kevin has many parts that I’m gonna wind up needing so I think he’s going to have the opportunity to sell those parts very, very soon…yay for both of us!

I also got the back half of the heater box out. The area below the heater box was pretty caked up with dirt and small debris. I got my little rotary brush out and cleaned and vacuumed all of the crud out, washed it down with brake cleaning fluid and then sprayed a coat of truck bed liner. When dried, I’ll primer and paint it.

Above and below: heater box opening

I have to go do early voting tomorrow so I may not get much done before I trundle off to work but some things must supercede my MG project…I’m so patriotic:)

10-19-2008

2008-10-20T04:45:00.003-04:00

I rebuilt my 74 engine in 1988 at 62k miles. swapped out (p.o.s.) Ansa exhaust for nearly stock exhaust with stock exhaust manifold.

My work on the B (which sat from 1998 to 2008) has resumed and one of the items on my list was to repair the side covers which were leaking oil.

So I pulled the carbs, manifolds, etc. and braced myself for the hell that is getting the six bolts out of the bottom of the exhaust manifold that connect the flanges to the exhaust system.

I slide under the car with a can of PB blaster figuring I'll soak them and come back to them tomorrow. I shine the work light on the bottom of the manifold and notice 2 things.

1. one of the nuts is missing from a stud...no biggie, that just means one less nut for me to wrestle with.

2. the rest of the nuts are shiney and clean.

I spray PB blaster on them anyway but decide to see if they have welded/rusted themselves tight like manifold studs and nuts usually do. I put a deepwell socket on one and turn and it slips free with almost no effort. I quickly try the rest of the nuts and they all turn easily. I removed them by hand with one stud coming out intead of the nut. I then proceeded to turn all of the studs out by hand!!!
Not one was frozen or rusted in place.

Then I recalled that when I first went through the hell of replacing the exhaust over 15 years ago, (broke an ear off, cracked the manifold and had to get another one!) my MG mechanic Butch told me to get special studs and nuts so the next time I would have no trouble. I did so though I recall them being somewhat pricey at the time.

I assume I used some type of high quality stainless steel stud and nut set though the nuts appear to be brass. I wish I could remember what they were so that I could recommend them but if you are going to replace yours (again, assuming they are stainless and/or brass) then use these.

10-18-2008

2008-10-18T03:04:00.002-04:00

SCHEDULE NOTES:

I have now been working onthe car, primarily the trunk, cockpit, wheelwells and engine bay for two months now. I planned on ten weeks so I'm right on schedule.

I also planned another month to clean, undercoat, seal and paint the underside of the car. One month for the major body repairs, six weeks for the engine and drivetrain, electrical and hydraulics and six weeks for the body and paint work.

I then planned on six seeks for the final assembly and finishing work.

Adding all of that up puts me finishing sometime in late April/early May 2009. Adding in unexpected occurences (and they always happen) and, with some luck, I should finish up by my target date of June 2nd, 2009.

Keeping all my body parts crossed!

10-17-2008

2008-10-18T02:24:00.011-04:00

I finally got the passenger side floorboard fiberglassed. After restripping the primer from it and cleaning it thoroughly with acetone, I started to glass it.

Instead of patching just the holes like I did on the driver side floorboards, I covered the entire passenger side with glass mat and poured the resin on.

Since there were only a few small holes in the driver side, I felt the patching method was justified. while the passenger side was by no means really bad, I decided since there were so many little holes spread around the whole area that a complete covering would be better.

Fiberglass provides a strong and nearly moisture proof fix for that area provided you apply it to a clean surface and make sure there is no air between the glass and metal. You do this by working the resin-soaked mat with a small brush, pushing the air bubbles out and making sure that it has good contact with the metal. I did that for about 45 minutes until the glass was starting to set up. I then put a small space heater under the car and allowed it to heat the floorbaords up a bit from underneath. Not too hot, just warm enough to aid the curing process of the resin. It was a bit chilly tonight (around the low-60's) so I felt that the additional warmth would help.

Much later on in the evening after the fiberglass had enough time to cure completely, I put down the first layer of spray-on truck bed liner. Tommorow i'll apply a second coat and let that dry thoroughly and then I'll finish stripping out the transmission tunnel and the rest of the footwells. I'll apply truck bed liner to those as well.

After I have all of the cockpit finished with the truck bed liner, I'll roll on a coat or two of urethane sealer and finish it off with a layer of primer and two layers of paint.

Spray on truck bed liner is great stuff. It is durable, tough as nails and really protects the metal. However, it is also not great at preventing the transfer of moisture at the molecular level so an additional step is needed to be sure the steel is prtected from rusting. That is what the urethane is for. The primer and paint layers add an additional barrier to moisture as well.

10-14-08 TO 10-16-08

2008-10-17T04:27:00.001-04:00

Continued work on the engine compartment. I pulled the wiring, fuse box, coil, etc. from the passenger side of the engine bay and started cleaning it up for painting. At first I sanded it and vacuumed out the dust and debris but then decided to use a cleaner on it even though it had all been degreased and steam cleaned.

I just wanted to be sure that there was no old grease or oil on the inner fender wells so I got out a can of aerosol brake cleaning fluid. I sprayed it on the inner fender wells and the top and front of the firewall and was reminded of something I had forgotten: brake cleaner makes a great paint stripper! Sure enough, after a minute or two, the old red paint I had applied in 1988 started to lift and bubble up like I had sprayed paint stripper on it. After that, I took a series of scrapers, wire brushes and the drill-mounted wire brush wheel to the areas I sprayed with the brake cleaner and it all cleaned up nicely.

I also scraped away a much of the factory tar-like rust proofing and seam sealing material that appeared to be applied rather sloppily. After the final cleaning, I put down two layers of etching primer followed by two coats of Krylon white gloss paint.

I’m going to pull out the heater box frame tonight as well as the brake/clutch master cylinders cover and start working on cleaning and de-rusting those areas. I’m not going to do the driver side of the inner fender wells until I get the exhaust manifold pulled off and that side of the engine completely cleaned and degreased. Until that is done, there is no point in cleaning the inner fender well on that side since the cleaning process will probably kick up oil and debris which will then have to be cleaned as well.

Sears finally saw fit to send me the ceramic tips for my sandblaster…two day shipping only took eight days…swell! I’ll have to pick up a bag of blasting media but I’ll be able get a lot of parts cleaned up like the radiator support, valve cover, heater box, etc. and get them painted by this weekend.

I’m running out of warm-ish weather so I want to get everything painted that needs painted (with the exception of the body which I will do in the spring) before it turns cold and rainy. I don’t mind doing the mechanical/hydraulic/electrical work when it is colder (I can always get a small kerosene heater for the garage) but the painting stuff can’t be done when the weather turns so I have maybe a month left to finish it if I’m lucky.

10-12-08

2008-10-13T05:25:00.009-04:00

I started working on the aft wiring in the trunk today. What a freaking mess! Four layers of electrical tape, paint overspray, wires that were twisted together with no connecctors and no solder. I'm gonna have to print up the color wiring diagram and go at it because, as it is, it is a fire waiting to happen

Starated working on the engine compartment today also. I took the portable steam cleaner to it and competely cleaned off the passenger side of the block and the front of the engine and the timing gear cover. I then washed everything down with acetone and put on two coats of high-temp black paint (1500 degrees supposedly)

It looks really good though it is hard to see in the picture below since it is a black engine and the picture was taken at night. I also sprayed the timing gear cover with high-temp silver and it came out pretty nice.

I didn't do the driver side of the block yet and for good reason. After I pulled the intake and exhaust manifolds off I found that there was an oil leak on the two side covers of the engine. These are also called the tappet covers and the are notorious for oil leaks. Judging by the amount of oil it was a small leak but over the years, it was sufficient to put a light coating of oil all over the side of the block. It also allowed the paint on the covers and the block to peel off.

I haven't yet cleaned up that side of the engine because I have to break the exhaust manifold to exhaust pipes bolts loose and pull the manifold out. There are six bolts on the manifold studs and I can guarantee that several of the studs will get broken off when I try to remove them. I sprayed them with penetrating oil and will let them sit a day or two before I try to break the bolts free and I'll put a small torch on the manifold to help it expand away from the studs some. Unfortuantely it will probably be for nothing. Over so many heating and cooling cycles and with so much moisture exposure, the bolts and studs are almost universally "welded" in place.

I'll wind up taking the manifold to a machine shop to have them remove the old studs and replace then with new stainless steal studs. I could probably get the old studs out on my own but the manifold ears are very easy to break and I don't want to risk that.

Once I do that I'll clean off the driver side of the engine and get to work trying to seal up those tappet covers. There is probably a 50% chance that they will leak again no matter what I do so I might just have a set of thick aluminum plates machined to fit. The old covers are pretty thin and they flex so much it is hard to get a good seal.

I also got some of the parts for the engine cleaned up and sprayed with high temp paint. Since Sears has not yet seen fit to send me the ceramic tips for my sandblaster that I orderd a week ago I had to do the parts cleaning with the whire brush wheel on my bench grinder and drill followed by a thorough cleaning with acetone. In the picture above, the top two are of the intake manifold and the bottom left picture is the heater tube which attaches to the valve cover bolts and carries the hot antifreeze to the heater box. On the bottom right are the water pump and thermostat housing. They all cleaned put pretty nicely.

I was going to leave the intake manifold unpainted polished aluminum but no matter what, it would have tanished and looked like crap again in just a few months. That is the nature of aluminum. So, I just put the high temp silver paint on it and it looks like it is brushed aluminum but it isn't.

I also stripped down and sprayed the two radiator support brackets white to match the car's future color.

My idea of using a smal .17-.22 caliber gun barrel cleaning brush worked perfectly on the female bullet connectors on which I tried the brushes...worked perfectly, that is, until my dog stepped on one of the brushes and got it completely tangled in his paw hair. My wifey had to hold him while I cut the brush off with an exacto blade...what fun!

10/6/08

2008-10-08T06:09:00.001-04:00

I finished spraying the truck bed liner in the trunk. I put down 3 coats and it looks pretty good. Its dried as hard as a rock so I don’t think I’ll have to worry about rust for a very long time.

When it set, I put down a layer of sandable primer, sanded it with 220-grit paper and then sprayed the first coat of white paint. The liner has a rough texture as compared to a regular painted surface but it still looks good. Besides, I’ll be putting carpet in the trunk anyway so the surface texture really doesn’t matter much.

I put down a second coat of paint tonight and it looks nice and even. I’ll let the paint harden for a few weeks and then spray on a final coat of white.

Next comes stripping the paint from the tranny tunnel and the rest of the cockpit, primering and painting them and fiberglassing and finishing the passenger side floorboards and spraying the truck bed liner.

The more I think about it, the less inclined I am to remove the dashboard. Not because I really don’t want to (I don’t) but because, unless there is some major work to be done on the wiring harness behind the dash (which I don’t think there is) I really think that my limited restoration funds should be going to more important mechanical necessities. A replacement dash cover will cost over $300.00 while the dash-top cover only will cost me about $50.00. That $250.00 difference will buy me a lot of little parts that will do more than just make the car look good.

After the cockpit is completely finished, I’ll do the final cleaning on the engine and engine bay. I’ll then paint the engine, manifolds and the rest of the bay and get started on cleaning up the wiring until I get the new wiring relay systems for the high-powered electrical components (headlights, heater fan, sound system, etc.) Then its back to replacing the sills, rear valance panel, doglegs, front fender quarter panels and driver‘s side door skin…still need to get that mig welder

Sometimes bad things lead to good things.

2008-10-08T03:24:00.002-04:00

10-01-08

So I decided that I wanted to put down the spray-on truck bed liner in the trunk though I have already primered and painted that area. I figure if I spray a real light dusting of the liner several times and slowly build up layers of liner, it won’t lift the painted surface below. Well, of course, it didn’t work out that way. While only about 10% of the paint bubbled and lifted up, it is in an exposed area that I want to look good and since it is lifting up, it means that the metal underneath is not protected. So I get out the scraper and start taking of the lifted parts since figure I can respray those areas like I did when I had the same problem with lifting on the driver’s side floorboards.

As I start scraping off the liner (which pulls the paint off with it) I find that the metal under it is rusting, even though it was primered and had two layers of paint over it! Then I remembered that I didn’t use zinc etching primer, I used regular sandable primer instead. The etching primer does a lot to help prevent rust from forming over bare metal. In addition, I sprayed on very, very humid days and that does make a difference.

The more liner/paint I removed, the more rust I found. So I guess it was a good thing that the liner bubbled the paint or I wouldn’t have seen it until the metal was rusted enough to really piss me off.

Luckily, the liner/paint peeled off very quickly and what didn’t came off very fast when I used the twisted wire brush wheel on my drill. I stripped out the old liner/paint, made sure to get up all of the surface rust, sanded it all down and started over. After I cleaned up the area with acetone, I sprayed a layer of the bed liner over the metal and let it set up. I’ll probably put down two more layers tonight and then let it set for a week or so. When I’m sure it has fully cured, I’ll put down a layer of primer and a layer or two of paint and that should be the last I have to worry about the metal rusting. And with no hurricane remnants rolling through the area, the humidity is way down compared to the first time I did the trunk, so the liner should do a good job protecting the steel.

Of course, I’ll have to do the same thing on the underside of the trunk floor since that area holds a lot of water on the top of the gas tank…

After I took the trunk down to bare metal this time and I got the first layer of liner down, I conducted a little experiment. I scraped off some of the paint in the cockpit in an area where it was prepped and painted in the same way that the trunk was. The only difference is that I used the etching primer instead of the sandable primer. I did them both around the same time and the condition of the meal in the two areas was about the same before I started working on them. However, the area where I used the etching primer showed absolutely no rust when I scraped off the paint while the trunk area showed considerable rusting.

ALL RIGHT, TIME FOR A RANT!
I have a Sears sandblaster and I was going to use it to start cleaning up all the parts that need blasted. Well, the sandblasting gun has a replaceable tip in it made of ceramic. It is a sacrificial part designed to wear away as the sand passes out of the tip so that the metal of the gun’s tip doesn’t get eaten away. So I go to Sears to buy it…only about $6 bucks for two tips, no big deal. Well, they don’t have it in stock. Fine. I go to another Sears, again, its not in stock. So I call the Sears part supply store and they don’t have it either. So I’m going to have to order it online and pay $6.95 shipping on a $5.oo part! And every person I talked to said the same thing; “Well just buy a new gun, its only about $25.00...) Yeah, I get the scam. Don’t sell the tips and maybe the customer will just buy the more expensive item because they’re in a hurry. No wonder Sears only has like nine customers left…

9-28-08

2008-10-01T07:10:00.003-04:00

I finished prepping the metal and the fiberglass repairs on the driver’s side floorboards. After I did, I sprayed on the first layer of the truck bed lining. I left it to dry overnight and came back and found that about 30% had bubbled and lifted. It did so where the metal had primer applied to it. The bed liner spray, especially where the layer was slightly thicker, just ate through and loosened the primer. It was easy enough to fix. Since it takes at least a day or two for the liner to fully harden, I just took a wide wire brush to it and the lifted parts just sort of rubbed right off, taking the primer with it and leaving bare metal. I did a light wiping with acetone to make sure it was clean and then sprayed a new layer of liner and there was no lifting or bubbling at all. The spray on liner doesn’t affect old or fully cured paint or fiberglass but it lifts new paint or primer right off. You can be sure that when I spray the passenger side floorboards, I’ll have taken any primer or paint off before I do.

Before and after of the driver's side floor pan.

I sprayed three more layers since and it looks like it will work out well at protecting the metal. Truck bed liner is tough as nails, easy to apply and is way less toxic (and way less expensive) than Por-15. When I prep the metal in the rocker panels I may still use Por-15 to protect it but I may go with the truck bed liner…haven’t decided yet. I figure it will take 6 cans of the spray cans of the bed liner to do the entire cockpit (not counting the rear deck area which is already primed and painted) and at about $7.00 per can that’s pretty cheap…just like me.

One of the guys I met on the MG forum (mgexperience.com) stopped by to look at a part I have as reference for some panels he needs to cut out of a parts car. He’s a really nice guy who pulled up to my house in a red B that looks like mine back when it was newly-restored. (I am jealous) Its really nice to be getting back into the MG community again after being away for around 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever met an MG owner who wasn’t a really nice person. Maybe it just goes along with being an owner of such a unique little car. By some unusual coincidence, there happens to be a very large number of MGB owners on the forum who live within 50 miles or less from my house…and a large number of those live within 15 minutes of me. I’m really looking forward to getting to know more people on the forum.

9-20-08 through 9-25-08

2008-09-25T05:50:00.008-04:00

9-20-08 through 9-23-08
I’ve gotten most of the ancillary components stripped out of the engine bay except for the intake and exhaust manifolds which are coming off tonight. I pulled the water pump out and I’m still debating on replacing it with a new one or keeping the one I have now. It only has about 40-k miles on it and seems ok…I’ll have to think about this some more. I also pulled the distributor out and boxed it up for rebuild. I’m going to send it to THE distributor guy I know from the MG forum and have him make it all happy and new and set me up for a conversion to electronic ignition.

I degreased and sanded down the extreme forward part of the engine bay including the hood locking platform. I put a layer of etching primer and then a layer of gray primer and then I painted the area with Krylon gloss white paint. The finish looks great which it always does if you take the time to properly prepared before spraying. I am so tempted to paint the entire car that way. I’ve done it before and if you prep it right and know how to wet sand properly, it comes out looking just as good as a mid-priced paintjob. But, since there is no hardener in spray paint, I’m gonna avoid that temptation. I’m going to get a spray gun and real paint and do it right.

After I pull the intake and exhaust manifolds off I’ll clean the intake up and wire brush the hell out of the exhaust manifold. That will be followed by a few coats of gloss black high-temp paint. I use the brake caliper paint instead of the engine paint because it seems to hold up better to the temperatures experienced by the exhaust manifold.

After one more cleaning and a final pressure washing, I’ll finish out the engine bay by painting the engine block and then prepping, priming and painting the inner fender wells and firewall. I’ll also be pulling the valve cover and smaller tubes and brackets to sandblast and paint them. I need to run to Sears to get a new tip for the sandblaster and more blasting media so I can start cleaning up all the parts I have that need a good blasting.

I haven’t gotten the heater box all the way out yet but the front panel is off and the heater core is finally out While cleaning it up, I discovered that it has a leak on one of the edges. Hopefully it can be repaired since a new one will cost upwards of $100.00.

9-21-08
I also found a replacement for the throttle and choke securing plate from one of the people on the MG forum. He lives about 30 minutes away and he only wants $20.00 for it so I’ll take that deal. It’ll be much easier to replace the old bracket than to drill out the broken screw and retap it.

9-22-08
The oil cooler is out and I sprayed out the inside of it with carb cleaner. I then filled it up with more carb cleaner and hooked one of the oil cooler lines that I pulled out of the engine bay to the cooler. I looped it around so that both ends of the hose are connected to the two cooler ports. I move the cooler around and shake it up from time to time to let the carb cleaner soak and break down the gunk in there. After a few days, I’ll drain it out and repeat the process a few more times to make sure it is nice and clean on the inside.

9-23-08
I got the rear cockpit (bulkhead, rear deck and inner wheel arches) painted today with the good old Krylon spray can paint but it turned out great. Nice gloss, good coverage…its all in how you prep what you are painting.

I looked into the prices of all the little stickers that go into the car (you know, the valve cover and air cleaner stickers, the emissions stickers, the negative earth sticker, etc) and, while they don’t cost that much, when you buy a bunch of them at once it really gets expensive. Since I had no desire to spend $40-$60 on some stickers I opened my Canvas-9 illustration program and drew up a bunch of them. It took about a half an hour and they really look good. I’m gonna print them up as both water-slide decals and stickers, the decals going on the parts that don’t get really hot (like the bonnet platform and battery bay) and the stickers going to the hotter places (like the valve covers.) I figure I’ll have about $3.00 cost in all of the stickers and about an hour’s worth of work (the time it took to create them and the time it will take to print them up and cut them out) Not too bad, especially if you’re a cheapskate like me.

9-24-08
I got the fiberglass laid on the rust holes over the driver side floorboards. It looks pretty good and has cured well. I may or may not put down another layer over it. I’m gonna stand on it and see how strong it feels, if it doesn’t seem strong enough then I’ll put down another layer. If not, I’ll move on to the passenger side floorboards and do the fiberglass there. When the floorboards are finished to my satisfaction I’m going to go ahead and spray the Dupli-color truck bed liner. In the few weeks that the floorboards have been sitting with just the primer on them I already see some rust forming so I need to get them cleaned up and sprayed as soon as possible. Then I’ll finish up the rest of the cockpit, spray it with truck bed liner and then get it painted all nice and purrrrrdy.

You may have noticed that I still haven’t pulled the dashboard off of the car yet though I‘ve been saying that I will for weeks now. Yes, I keep putting it off because I know it will be a giant pain in the ass. I’m hoping that my father-in-law brings back his pressure washer in the next day or two so that I can do the final engine bay, suspension and undercarriage cleaning rather than pulling off the dashboard. I figure that if I keep writing that I’m going to pull the dash, it will be LIKE pulling the dash. And, of course, spending the time talking and writing about it takes up the time I would use for actually pulling it…I do so love avoiding unpleasant things.

9-25-08
So I’ve been trying to figure out how much time I have to spend working on the B between now and June. Like most people I have a busy life and I was beginning to wonder if I’d be able to get her done by my target date of June 2nd. Then I did some math. If I only work on the B for 1 hour per day, five days a week between now and June it adds up to over 200 hours total. It might not sound like a lot but I estimate it will only take about 50 actual hours to do the body work. Even if I’m wrong and it takes 100 hours to do the body work, that still leaves over 100 hours to do everything else. Of course, I forget that me adjusting the carburetors myself will probably take about 200 hours so maybe I should increase my estimated time to finish the car.
And, as always, the problem isn’t the time, it’s the money.

Your thought for today…
“I’d rather push my MG than drive a Miata.”

9-12-08 through 9-19-08

2008-09-19T19:10:00.002-04:00

9-12-08 through 9-14-08

Began working on the engine bay. I pulled the radiator and oil cooler and I’m letting the oil cooler lines sit for a few days to drain as much old oil out as possible. When they have, I’ll pull off the long line at the back of the block and then loop the one attached to the oil filter assembly back to the long hose’s rear oil cooler port.

I’ll be taking the radiator to the shop to get it flushed and pressure tested. If it is bad I’ll have them re-core it instead of replacing it with a new unit. There have been quality issues with new, non-British made radiators but I really can’t afford to get one from the UK. When the radiator goes into the shop I’ll also be taking the fuel tank in to, first of all, see if it is still usable and, if it is, to have it cleaned out.

The oil cooler I’ll clean out myself with carb cleaner, acetone and boiling water (but not all at the same time) I’ll do the same with the oil cooler lines so that they can be used when the engine gets finished and restarted. When the car goes into service I’ll be replacing the lines with the stainless steel braided hoses.

To clean the cooler I’ll first immerse it in a pot of near-boiling water and let is soak to loosen up the old oil and sludge in the unit. Then I’ll drain it and shoot carb cleaner into it, shake it around a bunch and run some small bushes in it as best I can. I’ll do that a few times then flush it a few times with acetone and that should clean it out pretty well. Sounds complicated but each step only takes a few minutes and its really pretty easy.

I found a used grill on an MGB forum. A nice chap in Canada only wants $40.00 for it so I will take that deal as it sure beats nearly $200.00 for a new reproduction grill. It has a few minor bends in it but I can straighten those and buff it and it will look nearly new.

9-14-08
I’m planning out my next steps for cleaning up the engine bay. I tend to work on the car from several angles at the same time. While I’m cleaning up the cockpit and trunk I’m also pulling parts from the engine, cleaning the engine bay, etc. that way I’m less likely to get bored and just say to hell with working on the car today.

The first thing I need to do is roll the car outside and take the pressure washer to it. I’ve already done a lot of degreasing in the engine bay but the pressure washer will take off any of the remaining gunk and crud. I’ll also be pressure washing the suspension and the whole underside of the car.

I’m going to be pulling off and boxing up a lot of the ancillary items from the engine. The carbs and heat shields are coming off too so I can send the SU’s to my British car guru to rebuild for me. I’ll be pulling the alternator (to get it tested) and also the water pump. I’m not sure if I’m going to replace the water pump as it was only 5 years old when the B was parked but it has set for 10 years and I’m not sure I want to trust it when the car is back on the road.

The heater box will come off to be cleaned up and painted. I’ll also take the heater core to the shop for cleaning and pressure testing when I take the radiator and fuel tank in. I’m considering replacing the heater fan assembly with a more modern, 3-speed unit. Not sure yet if I’m going to be that ambitious but the current 2-speed fan (slow and off) just doesn’t cut it.

The exhaust and intake manifolds are also coming off to be cleaned and painted along with the two side covers on the driver‘s side of the engine. When all this stuff is off the engine it will be a lot easier to clean up and paint both the engine and the engine bay. The engine, of course, will be painted with high-temp black gloss paint. The engine bay and inner valances will be stripped of electrical and hydraulic components cleaned, paint-stripped then primered and painted. I’ll use a spray can for priming and painting the engine bay. If prepped right it yields very good results.
I’ll hopefully be doing more working on the car than writing about it over the next few weeks. I may not post as often but I’ll get pictures up frequently. We had our first colds night here in the Carolinas this week (cold for the Carolinas, at least) so I want to get as much work knocked out while it is still relatively mild outside.

The fall is the absolute best time to drive an MGB…it is also the best time to work on one.

9-15-08
The carbs are off. I’m going to clean them off with carb cleaner and send them off to Butch in Burlington to rebuild. (I don’t like to send dirty greasy parts out for repair…just seems rude)
Unfortunately, the little set screw that holds the accelerator cable in place, the plate that is bolted to the top of the carb heat shield, is broken off so the only way to pull the cable is to cut it off. I was planning to replace it anyway but that plate with the set screw is no longer available so I’m either gonna have to find a used one or find a way to fix the old one.

Started pulling the heater box out…it’s a bitch! If its this hard to get the heater box out, I can’t imagine the hell it will be to get it back in…much fun awaits, methinks.

9-16-08
I pulled off the alternator but I’m not sure I’m going to use it. There is a fairly simple Bosch or Delco conversion that I may do since the Lucas alternator is rather lacking in certain areas. It works fine at speed but at idle it barely puts out enough and with the greater electrical demands from new stereo systems and other electrical equipment that will be in the car, an upgrade is probably warranted.

9-16-08
I sprayed the engine and engine bay with foaming degreaser and let it soak. I’ll do that again before I whip out the pressure cleaner and clean up the entire drive train and underside of the car. I also hate working on a dirty, greasy car. You’re gonna get dirty no matter what but 10 years worth of big grease globs and road funk I can do without.

9-18-08
After I get the car all pressure washed and dried off this weekend I’m gonna start back to work on cleaning out and stripping the cockpit and glassing the rust holes. Then I think I’m gonna whip out the sand blaster and start cleaning up all of the various odds and ends that need blasted and painted. Things like the wheels, suspension, air cleaner pots, radiator surround panel, you know…just about everything. Then (unless the budget allows for me to purchase that MiG welder to do the rockers) the dashboard gets pulled.

As a side note, I’ve decided that I’m going with the new LED lighting systems where ever possible. The taillights, side marker lamps, dash and instrumentation lights will all be the LED lamps. They have a much, much, much lower current draw and a lifetime of at least 25,000 hours. The back up lights, however, will be halogen lamps. I took the old back up light bezels, cut out the insides and drilled a mounting for a small 12-volt halogen lamp. It puts out a lot more light than the original incandescent…I’m just afraid of melting the lenses!

9-19-08
Rolled the car outside today and sprayed off the grease from the engine compartment and engine. still have more to do. Just found out the pressure washer won't be available until next week so I'll have to wait for the final cleaning until then.

Pulled out the heater core and was cleaning it out when I noticed it had a small hole in it. when I take it in for professional cleaning and pressure testing I'll find out if it is reparable. If not, its another $100.00 or so that I didn't want to spend.

And so it begins...all over again!

2008-08-20T15:37:00.007-04:00

This will chronicle my efforts to restore my 1974 MGB. I originally purchased the car in 1988 for $850.00. It barely ran, had no interior save the seats and dashboard and was painted in at least three different shades of primer. But everybody instantly fell in love with “The B.”

Above: The MGB in 1988 the day I bought her

My first restoration began in early 1989. A friend of mine (who recommended that I buy the car in the first place) found an MGB engine at a local machine shop which had been stripped, cleaned and bored .40” over. It had new competition pistons, rings and cam shaft and a ton of other goodies. It had about $400.00 worth of work and (at the time) about $500.00 worth of new parts and the machine shop only wanted $150.00 for all of it since the owner had never come back to claim it. If you think that deal didn’t get jumped on, you’d be wrong.

I bought the silica bronze hardened valve seals so the engine could run on unleaded gas, had the shop completely rework the head and valve assembly and started to work putting it all back together. I had never rebuilt an engine from scratch but with my trusty Haynes manual, it was actually a fairly straightforward procedure. When I was finished, I only had two washers and one bolt left over so I figured that was pretty good!

Being a still rather young man, I couldn’t afford to have the very rough body of the B done by an auto repair shop so I did what any other idiot would have done in my place: I got a job at body shop. I’d work on other peoples’ cars during the day and my car at night. When the body was finished The painter at the shop sprayed a Dupont base coat/clear coat Corvette flame red paintjob for me and I began putting it all back together.

Left: The MGB in 1989

Once it was all back together with the addition of new carpet, panel kit and tan top, the MGB looked pretty damned good! I drove that car for 10 years as my daily driver, rain or shine, hot or cold and I drove it everywhere. All over the east coast of the USA. On vacations. To work. Everywhere. Unfortunately, I had done patch and fill when I did the bodywork so after 10 years, the sills, doglegs and door skins were pretty much Swiss cheese. Mechanically it was fine but the body was just too rough to keep her on the road.

So, in the fall of 1998, the MGB went into the back of my garage and she was replaced by a 1995 Corvette. I thought after two years or so I would finish up restoring the B and she’d be back on the road again in no time at all. But home improvements, vacations, work and the birth of my son got in the way of that and she sat in the back of the garage for 10 years. I did do some work on her during that time. I stripped off the hood, trunk, doors front fenders, top and interior. I also stripped out most of the other things that I could except for the engine and drive train, electricals, hydraulics and suspension. I also ordered a fair number of parts that I’d need during the restoration, including new outer sills, doglegs and a bunch of the other body parts that would need to be replaced. They all sat for quite a few years too.

Well time passes and things change as they always do and I found myself a divorced man who moved 40 miles away from the home I lived in for nearly a decade. Well, a move, getting remarried, another move, more house remodeling, two new kids and a bunch of other things got in the way of the MGB restore. But finally, in July of 2008, I trailered the B to my new garage and began the real work of bringing her back to her full glory.

Here is the story as it unfolds.

Bringing you up to speed

2008-08-20T14:49:00.006-04:00

7-28-08
Got a trailer from U-haul and Steven, my father in law, and his ginormous Chevy pickup and drove to Greensboro to get the B from the ex wife’s garage. I decided on the car trailer instead of the tow dolly since the tires on the B were 15 years old and didn’t want to seem to hold air for very long.

Aired up the tires and she wheeled right up on the trailer with no trouble at all. Got most of the body parts and tied them, along with the front fenders, onto the car. Very classy, driving down the road with a car that has the fenders held on by ropes.
Got it home and rolled it right into the garage ass first (the car, not me)

8-6-08
Started tearing off the passenger side outer sills.

Luckily, the inner sills are still sound with just one little spot of rust-through right at the forward end of the sill. That will be easy to cut out and replace.

Still going through boxes of new parts and old ones pulled from the car. I’m doing all the easy to do work first (and the easy but sucky work too)

Cleaned out the cockpit floorboards, the driver side has a few small spots of rust-through but not too bad. The passenger side only had on small rust hole so both sides should be easy enough to take care of with some fiberglass.

Cleaned and undercoated the front wheel well areas. They were in perfect shape so no need for real work there.

The cockpit and trunk are going to be a total bitch to bring down to bare metal. Both have four layers of paint and primer on them and the cockpit also has old carpet adhesive on it. I ruled out sandblasting the car, mostly because I have no desire to chase hidden sand out of the thing for the rest of my life. And when it come time to paint it, the sand always shows up right when you spraying the body.

8-7-08
Went and got more parts from the Ex’s garage. I know there is some stuff missing.

8-8-09 to 8-15-08
In New Orleans on vacation. Too drunk on Bourbon street to think logically about the MG. Maybe that idea about converting it to a Speed Racer Mach-5 wasn’t such a bad one…

8-16-08
Assessing what parts I’ll need to finish this job. Have to replace everything on the car made of rubber. I just can’t find myself getting real excited about driving with 10+ year old belts and hoses, etc. Luckily, I had ordered many of the seals and gaskets I needed in the 1990’s so that should reduce some of the expenses. I also have friends who get wholesale pricing on parts…it’s who you know, not what. Great news, the brake hydraulics seem to be in good shape. There are no leaks anywhere. Probably because I used the DOT-5 silicone brake fluid instead of regular fluid. It does not hold moisture so there’s no rotting or rusting in the system. I’m still going to replace the seals but at least I don’t have to replace the master cylinder, rear brake cylinders or front calipers. The bad news is that there is a leak somewhere in the area of the tranny. It is either the always p.o.s. clutch slave cylinder or the rear tranny seal. Both of which I’ll replace anyway.

8-17-08
Now the fun begins. I’ve decided to strip the paint out of the trunk area. I have two cans of paint stripper, scrapers and wire brushes so here I go. There are four layers of paint and primer in there so I is scared.

8-18-08
Bought two more cans of stripper, this isn’t going well. I take off one layer and the one underneath it is untouched. Why the hell can’t the paint on the body stick this damned well?
And I was right; I’m missing parts from the ex’s garage. One interior door panel, the grill and a few other small parts are gone. She might have gone a bit crazy when she cleaned up after I left but she loved the car too and let me store it there for over two years so I guess I can’t bitch too much. But damnit, the grill was really nice and they cost so much to replace…

8-19-08
Finally, I’ve gotten the paint all stripped out (after seven cans of stripper!) and the good news it that the metal in the trunk is nearly perfect with only some minor surface rust and one area about the size of a pea with rust-through. All taken down to bare metal and primered now and it looks really good. I coated the insides of the rear fenders in the trunk behind the wheel arches with a layer of spray-on rubberized rust-proofing. That should help reduce the noise and hopefully seal it up more effectively.

After the cockpit and engine compartments are also cleaned, stripped and primered I’ll get back to the outer sill and dogleg replacements. Guess I’m finally gonna have to take the plunge and buy a MiG welder.

UPDATE:
I found a MiG welder for less than $120.00. It is only a 120-v/15-amp welder but that is fine for me since I don’t have a 220-v power outlet and the circuit in the garage is only 20-amps. Oooh, I want that plasma cutter too…and that spot welder…and that… I can see myself getting trouble really fast here.

8-21-2008
Finished the trunk area (except for the wheel arches) and got one coat of white paint over the primer. There will be more but the whole restoration will take several months and I wanted to get the metal and primer covered. The wheel arches have the flexible spray-on undercoating applied to them so I'm letting it and the primer sit for a while before I finish them.

8-22-2008
Started chipping out the factory floor sound-deadening material in the passenger side. It sucks! there has to be an easier way to get this asphalt tar paper stuff out. Guess not

8-23-2008
Finished taking the driver's side of the cockpit floorboard to bare metal. Got it cleaned and primered. The small rust-through areas are easier to see when everything is primered. I'm going to grind the primer back off those areas and put down a layer or two of fiberglass then seal it all back up afterwards.

Next comes the rear deck, passenger floorboards and all of the vertical cockpit metal.

Oh joy of joys, removing the dashboard...
that should be fun.

8-25-2008

So the paint stripping saga continues. The cockpit is more difficult than the trunk. Not only because it has more surface area but also because there are so many more complex curved pieces and weird angles...and little recesses...and hard to get to areas....and this bites the big wanker. (UK reference for all of our friends across the pond)

To add to the fun there is a layer of what appears to be tar-like rust or sound proofing material right above the factory paint (three paint layers down) and it is all over the aft cockpit area) I don’t know if this is factory applied (doubtful but very possible) but it is nor affected very much by paint stripper so I have to remove it mostly by good, old-fashioned scraping. The wire brush wheel on my drill makes the paint/tar stripping a bit easier but it is still time consuming.

SAFETY NOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know that it is most likely that 95% of those reading this are guys…don’t get huffy oh those of the internal naughty bits variety, it is true.

And guys, we know how we are. The label on a product says “wear respirator when spraying” and we just hold our breath for a few seconds when we start and think that it is enough to protect us.

Or it says “use eye protection” and instead we just squint.

Yeah, I think I’m bullet proof too (Which I shouldn’t after I recently lost a nice chunk of my thumb and wound up in the hospital after the intake cover broke off my leaf blower and decided to try to eat my left hand)

Well here’s my tidbit for all of you to gnaw on: You know how wire wheel brushes on drills throw a bunch of debris around? Well they are also really, really good at throwing nice gobs of paint stripper directly into your eyeball. And by your eyeball I mean MY eyeball.

Luckily you (I) were able to flush out your (my) left eye and remove your (my) contact lens which, amazingly enough, MELTED! Let me repeat: MELTED!

Do I wear safety goggles now when I work on my car. Oh hell yes!

When I finish the rear deck of the cockpit I’ll be moving on to the transmission tunnel and then its back to chipping off the factory floor sound proofing material.
Don’t you wish you were me?

9-1-08
I got the rear deck, wheel arches and side panels done. It was a PITA. I ran into the undercoating that just didn’t like to come off. But I got a super heavy duty rotary wire brush, the kind used to knock concrete off of masonry. The wires are twisted and are thick enough that you can’t bend them easily and it cuts through the paint and undercoating very quickly. Once it was stripped I cleaned it all with acetone twice and then put down a coat of etching primer (you just need a light dusting of the stuff) and then a layer of regular primer over that when it dried . If you use this kind of wire wheel be careful with it because it can very quickly warp the thin sheet metal in the car. I would not recommend using it on outer body panels.
Next comes the passenger side floorboard, inner sill, the transmission tunnel and then the outboard sides of the foot wells and the firewall. Once those are stripped and primered I’m going to repair the floorboards with fiberglass.

9-2-08
With the trunk primered and with the undercoating all dried, I sprayed two coats of paint. I’m not really excited about using paint from a spray can but if you properly prep the area and use a good quality paint, the results are usually pretty decent. Plus, I needed to get the primered trunk metal covered. It is very humid here and with the string of hurricanes about to roll in here (and the buckets of rain that they bring with them) it is going to get even more humid. It isn’t perfect but that’s okay for now. I probably won’t be spraying the car for another 8 or 9 months so protecting it is more important for right now.

9-3-08
I’ve gotten the sound deadening material off of the passenger side floorboards. It was a bee-atch! I tried the heat gun method but it either didn’t work well for me or it turned the material into sticky goo. Instead, I went to the grocery store and bought a small block of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) I put it in a couple of plastic bags and an old pillow case and crushed it up with a hammer. I then put it on a section of the sound deadening material and let it sit there for about 10 minutes and then moved it and took out the old hammer and chisel. The dry ice is so cold that it hardens up the stuff and makes it really brittle. When struck by the chisel, the stuff just chipped off cleanly, sometimes in really big chunks. While I was working on one area I moved the bag of dry ice to another area and let is harden up that material. It was much easier than heating up the stuff with a heat gun and it all came off very quickly. (Alternate method: drag the car to northern Minnesota and wait for January)

Words of caution: Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide and it is VERY, VERY COLD, in the area of 150-degrees below zero. Wear eye protection and heavy gloves and be very cautious when working with it because it will stick to your skin instantly and can cause tissue damage if stays in contact with your skin for too long. As a fun bonus though, when you are done with it you can throw what’s left in a pot of hot water and it will make that really cool ground-hugging fog that you see in scary movies.

9-4-08
The passenger floorboard is all stripped and clean. I'm applying a light coat of etching primer followed by the regular primer. The rust on the floorboard isn’t too bad but it is muchh worse than the driver's side.

A few small holes which will be pretty easy to fix with fiberglass. I’ll glass the passenger and driver side floorboards at the same time but before I do that I have to strip down the transmission tunnel and get it all pretty and primered. I’m also going to clean up as much of the inner firewall as I can reach and also strip down the inner outboard foot wells.

Then comes the really fun part…the removal of the dashboard. I’ve never done that before from all I’ve heard it is not very easy. But it has to be done so, once more into the breach my dear friends (for those of you who are into Shakespeare.)

Short and long term plan for the restoration:
After I get the dash out and finish up the cockpit I’m going to start cleaning up the engine bay. I’ll be pulling the radiator and it’s support shroud, the oil cooler and heater box. When those are out I’ll be pulling all of the various little doo-dads from the inner fender wells, degreasing and stripping down the paint and then spraying a few good layers of primer and paint.
I’ll also be cleaning the engine and repainting it with high temp paint after I strip off all of the ancillary components which will also get cleaned up and tested for functionality. At that point I’ll start on cleaning up the wiring. I’ll be pulling apart each bullet connector and cleaning them out then applying a conductive grease to them. I’ll also strip off all of the old electrical tape of the wiring harnesses and recover them with the correct blue-colored tape.

Then I’ll start on cleaning up, undercoating and sealing up the underside of the car. Also, at any give point in this process I’ll be doing the welding and replacement of the rocker panels, doglegs and other rusted out parts. That is dependant on when I have the extra funds to buy a mig welder.

After that is all done I’ll start the reassembly process and prepare to get all of the other little things finished that I have in order to get the engine up and running again. It will be nice to hear that little 4-cylinder engine fire up again after 10 years and to be able to move the car around under her own power. I imagine that after 10 years the clutch will be frozen to the pressure plate so the car will have to be running to break it free. I’ll also have to get the radiator flushed and pressure tested and the fuel tank flushed and sealed (or replaced) along with about a thousand other little things. That will happen later in the year towards the winter months as I don’t want to be working on the body in my unheated garage when its cold outside!