5-22-2010 PICTURES

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

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

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

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

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.

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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

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!

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.