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.