So much to tell you

Well, much time has passed since my last blog entry.  I spent the summer enjoying the GT.  I drove my10 and 12 year old sons to the swimming pool quite a bit and it wasn't nearly as hot in the summer as I feared...but "Toaster" is still a great nickname for it.
So far I have completely rebuilt the braking systems, front and rear suspension with the heritage springs.  I have about half of the interior panels restored/recovered and in the spring I'll get new seat cover kits.
the car is mchanically sound except for one little thing.
THE FUCKING MOTOR BLEW!














Actually, It spun a rod bearing while on interstate 40.  I have never, in around 42+ years of driving, ever had to have a car towed...until now.

So I've been stripping down the motor to prep it for pulling and I'm either going to put the Roadster engine in it or see if I can buy a running one locally (which I'd prefer to do)
Unfortunately, I am also now unemployed so money has become an issue.
I also pulled the fuel tank, cleaned up the area under it and got it all painted and sealed up before I installed the new tank.

Oh well. At least I'm getting some work done on the car.







Yes, I know you aren't supposed to tow a wire wheel car backwards but I kept checking to be sure the  wheels weren't coming loose.

While the engine is coming out I'm also replacing the drive shaft u-joints, clutch kit if it needs it and I'm converting to negative ground and a spin-on oil filter. Ill also be cleaning, degreasing and painting the underside and engine bay so it's all pretty too.  Plus I'll tidy up the electical system.
In other words, I'll be doing a rolling restoration on the car that was just supposed to be my "hop in and drive" daily-driver.
Damned British cars.

These cars can KILL YOU!!!

After finishing the rear re-spring and suspension/brakes rebuild the other night on the GT, I immediately started on the front rebuild.

I pulled the passenger side wheel off and started fighting with 44 year old bolts which mostly wanted to break off rather than turn. I then noticed the tie rod end seemed to be sticking up from the steering knuckle about 3/4". I wiggled it and it was very loose and completely worn out.

I got that side stripped down, cleaned & painted everything,etc. then moved to the driver side. I looked at the tie rod end as soon as I got the wheel off and it looked just as worn out.

But when I pulled up on the driver side tie rod it just came apart. The post in the tie rod that is attached to the steering knuckle just popped out of the tie rod body with almost no effort!

That certainly explains why the front end felt so loose driving down I-40 at 75 mph.
If that had come apart while driving the result could have been...challenging. The two front wheels pointing in different directions while driving is not a good thing.

Reminds me why it is important to check EVERYTHING on these cars on a regular basis.
I do trust the engineering of these little cars but some of them are almost half a century old now.

A nice reminder for me as I get back into working on and driving MGB's again after a 12 year hiatus...lest I forget they are machines and do not care if they kill me.

Rear rebuild finished. 4-2-2011

After 4 weeks I’ve finally finished a job that should have taken one or two long days. Most of that was due to the fact that every time I’d be deep into the job, I would find something else that HAD to be done or I would find there is one small part I didn’t have and have to stop and wait for it to be shipped. I’m still waiting on some parts so I just wound up cannibalizing my 74 roadster whose rear end was already completely rebuilt.

So far, here’s what I’ve done…
New heritage leaf springs
Teflon-impregnated suspension bushings
New brake shoes, pads, springs, cylinders, adjusters. Bled and adjusted
Underside, wheel wells axle, suspension, completely scraped, wire-brushed, degreased, rust-treated, undercoated and painted.
New metal welded in to replace the rusted rails at the trailing driver side leaf spring attach point.
New axle oil seals, adjuster cleaned, adjusted and lubed. Axle fluid topped off, breather cleaned out. Driveshaft u-joint nuts & bolts checked
Exposed wiring harness covered with plastic split loom
Trunk/cargo area repainted and new carpet installed.
Factory wire wheels degreased, cleaned and repainted.

I still have to replace the oily, dented and apparently leaking fuel tank but that can wait a bit.
Next comes replacing the rotted metal in the floorboards, firewalls, and inner sills on the driver and passenger sides, urethane bushing replacement and front end rebuild, Acoustic and thermal installation and installing new carpeting, interior panels and a bunch of other misc interior work.
All this has to be done by April 17 for the British car show at Shelton Vineyards in Dobson, NC.

Oh, and I have to get the Spitfire running too…
…and the 74 Roaster…
…and the Corvette…

The fun is in the overdoing!

Quick update 3-3-2011

Update:

The leaks from the rear axle were actually the rear brake cylinders leaking. Surprising to me since the previous owner said all of the brake hydraulics were replaced. The oil seals seem to be okay but since I’m tearing everything apart anyway, they will be replaced as well. I ordered the brake kit from a member of the MG Experience forum which includes all the springs, clips shoes and cylinders for the rear brakes. Rebuilding brakes is fairly a fairly easy job, but since it is so damned filthy up under the car, half the battle will be getting it all cleaned off so I can work on it without looking like the Swamp Thing when I’m done.

3-14-2011

Happy Pi day…my stepson instantly thought that it meant we should go out and get a pie for him. We did not. What it meant is that everything takes 3.1415 times longer than you think it will.

Here’s the list of fun in changing out the rear springs and bushings that has turned a single long afternoon job into one that is up to a week and counting.

1. The sub-frame rail right over the aft driver side spring shackle mount had some fairly serious rust through which meant I had to do some welding…and I am a shitty, shitty welder. But I got it done, ugly done, but done.

2. I broke one of the rear u-bolts that connects the axle to the leaf spring so I had to scavenge that off the roadster which took for-fucking-ever. Then I had some stripped shafts on the old GT u-bolts so I had to rethread them. Actually, I didn’t have to, I’m just too impatient to wait for the new ones that I ordered.

3. The underside was so caked with 40+ years of grease, crud, dirt, road spooge and rust that it took forever to get it all clean. But it is better than working on a dirty, greasy car.

4. I got rear axle oil seals for the GT at O’Reilly’s auto parts. The girl behind the counter assured me that they were the correct ones. I had her cross-reference the part number with other year MG’s to check it. She assured me that they were the correct seals. They were correct…for a Volvo! I went to another O’Reilly’s and talked to a greasy guy behind the counter. He couldn’t figure out how the girl got that part number, but we both knew how. I should never order parts for an MG from somebody who was not yet born when MG’s were still being made. Greasy guy had to order the correct ones so after another 2-day delay I finally got the right ones…but greasy guys are worth their weight in gold!

5. The brake kit I ordered was missing two springs and the clip that holds the hydraulic cylinder to the back plate broke when I tried to use it…they’re all junk. Luckily I’m a hoarder so I had extras to use.

6. The brake shoes were so tight that I had to tap the brake drum on with a very big hammer. I’m still not sure why it’s still so tight, especially with the cylinders retracted and the adjuster backed all the way out…hmmmm…

7. I spent about an hour looking for the castle nut that holds the hub onto the axle. And then I spent another half hour trying to get the passenger side hub nut off. It is not being very cooperative. I shot PB Blaster on it a few times and I’m letting it soak overnight. Hopefully that will let me get the little bastard loose. If not, I’ll have to hit with the torch to try to loosen it up a bit. If that fails I may have to break down and buy an air impact wrench.

And if there wasn’t enough bad news, I found more rust on the front reinforcement panel called the “trumpet” that extends forward off the outer, upper areas of the firewall underneath the rear tops of the front fenders. The one on the passenger side has been repaired and still has a rust hole on the top. The driver side one seems intact.

The replacements are only $35.00 each for the 2 Heritage panels but to install them, I have pull off the front fenders which involves a whole ’nuther horror show of rust for me when I see what’s under there.

2-28-2011 It's the brake cylinders stupid---and...re-compressing

So I checked the brake master cylinder on the GT just before a shitstorm of rain and wind hit today. The master was about half full of brake fluid though I just filled it two weeks ago and have only driven the car a few dozen miles since.

So the river of oil on the garage floor is actually a river of brake fluid.
No biggie. The rear brake cylinders are being replaced and I'll be replacing the rear axle oils seals at the same time anyway. I'll pull the complete brake assemblies off the roadster rear axle tonight or tomorrow and they should bolt right up to the GT.

I picked up a compressor yesterday. it's a 20-gallon Campbell Hausfield and nowhere as big as I needed but I need money more than a big compressor. I can just pick up a Harbor Freight cheapo as a back up and just switch back and forth between the two if I'm doing any high-volume air tool work.

2-26-2011

Well it rained here the other night and, while Wifey was out of town, I took the opportunity to park the GT in the garage. I figured it would be one less chance for rain to leak in there while I was repairing the rusted metal plus I could look at the garage floor to see if there were any oil or other fluid leaks.

I found a small river of oil. There was one small spot under the engine area which does not surprise or concern me. What did concern me was the oil all over both rear tires and the 3-foot long trail of oil coming from the rear right wheel. I had suspected that the axle oil seals were bad because of the radial streaking on the inside of the rear tires-I just didn’t know it was this bad. The left side isn’t as bad, almost, but still not as bad.

I was going to order the new seals plus the brake shoes which were certainly oil-soaked and in need of replacement which meant I’d also need to order the rear brake cylinders etc., etc., etc.

But then it struck me, I had just done the exact same job to my 74 roadster sitting right next to the GT. I’m just going to pull the entire brake assembly with the rear shield and cylinder and then swap them with the GT’s. I’ll also pull the complete oil seals with their holders off and bolt those right up. The only difference between the roadster and the GT is hub which is for the wire wheels on the GT.

By doing this I don’t have to wait for parts or, better still, pay for parts and I can rebuild the Roadster’s rear axle at my convenience.

While doing all that, I’ll be installing the new Moss Heritage leaf springs plus installing the Teflon-impregnated suspension bushings and pads in the rear suspension. While I’m in there, I’ll clean up the entire area and paint the underside. I’ll also finish cleaning up the axle and repainting that as well as lubing and adjusting the parking brake.

This will save me a lot of time for a few reasons:

1. I’ll be installing pre-assembled units.

2. I won’t have to clean and repaint the assemblies and wait for the paint to dry.

3. I just did the exact job on the roadster a few months ago so I know what mistakes to avoid.

I suspect I’ll be able to do the suspension, seals and springs in less than 4 hours…maybe three if I use air tools. But if I decide to pull the PITA pressed-in bushing from the leaf springs and replace those with the urethane bushings that should add another 30 minutes to the job…melting them out with the torch is fairly fast but still a pain.

Which brings me to my next topic: The piston on my air compressor decided that it didn’t like the cylinder head so it pushed it right off, shattering the entire cylinder head in the process. It was covered under warranty at Northern Tools but when I took it back, I was told they no longer had that air compressor and asked if I would like to buy the one that cost twice as much? I answered that I did not. So I tried buying one from Sears but, sadly, that was a great illustration for me of why people don’t shop at Sears anymore. I’ll probably wind up getting a Craftsman anyway; it’s just a huge pain in the ass to deal with Sears anymore.

I keep bouncing back and for the between working on the GT and the Spitfire. I guess I’m just a multi-tasking fool. Wait, I’m restoring three British cars and a Corvette at the same time…that makes me a plain fool.

Work to be done

In addition to the rust repair, here's what else is to be done

FRONT SUSPENSION REBUILD, NEW BUSHINGS, REBOUND BUMPERS, BEARINGS, ETC/
REPLACE REAR SPRINGS AND ALL SUSPENSION BUSHINGS
REPLACE REAR AXLE OIL SEALS
REPLACE CAP, WIRES, HOSES, FUEL FILTER, ETC.
NEW BRASS HEATER VALVE
ATTACH AIR DAM, WIRE IN RELAY AND DLR’s
FIND HEADLINER MATERIAL AND REPLACE
BUILD & INSTALL NEW CENTER CONSOLE
CONVERT TO NEGATIVE GROUND
CONVERT FROM GENERATOR TO ALTERNATOR SET UP
NEW SOUND SYSTEM
NEW DASH SWITCHES
RESTORE METAL DASH
RELOCATE COIL TO INNER FENDER WELL
CONVERT TO SPIN-ON OIL ADAPTER
INSTALL BATTERY CUT OFF SWITCH
INSTALL ELECTRONIC FLASHER
INSTALL LED BACKUP LIGHTS AND SWITCH
INSTALL LED SIDE, TAIL & REVERSE LIGHTS
REPLACE WIPER AND HEATER MOTOR SWITCHES
INSTALL DRIVING LIGHTS AND RELAYS
GET LIMEY KIT AND INSTALL HALOGEN HEADLIGHTS
GET TRANS STAY ROD
REPAIR/REPLACE TACHOMETER
RECOVER INTERIOR PANELS
INSTALL NEW SOUND SYSTEM
INSTALL ACOUSTIC AND THERMAL INSULATION
REPLACE SEAT COVERS,CARPET AND OTHER INTERIOR SUNDRIES
RESTORE WIRE WHEELS AND GET TRUED
CARPET TRUNK/STORAGE AREA.

I have about half the stuff on this list so far. I have all the urethane suspension bushings, carpet, and new rear leaf springs.
I've got about half of the interior panels restored and I bought red vinyl and stitched up some red seat covers...just too much to buy to drop a lot of cash on new seat covers.
I've already installed the center console just to make the car a bit more livable while I drive it around.
I'm going to try to knock out the rear leaf springs and bushings install this weekend. I need to get the rear oil seals since the car is leaving a little river of axle fluid wherever it is parked.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...
So many LBC's to work on...so little time

Problems! BIG PROBLEMS!

RUST!

I knew there was some rust in the floorboards. ButI've torn inot the car and found extensive rust throughout.
The forward/right side of the passenger side floorboard is pretty much gone and the forward most part of the inner shelf is gone and also rusted along half its length towards the back.
at least half of the inner sill is gone and I haven't even gotten into the driver side yet
The firewall has serious rust, some holes and the upper engine bay shelf also had holes in it.
I'm hoping the triangular re enforcement panel above the suspension inside the fender well is not rotted out.

I an only assume the driver side is as bad if not worse.

Totop it all off, the previous owner/repair shop did not cut out the rusted metal and weld in new, they did what the previous owner of my Spitfire did; rivet galvanized sheet metal over the old rusted metal and packed home fiberglass insulation in the repairs, making the metal around the repair rust out even faster.

I've started cutting out rusted meal and cleaning out as much rust as I can. I've treated the remaining surface rust with rust converter and I got some heavy sheet metal from my MG friend Kevin. I also bought a metal break to shape the metal. I'll weld in the new metal instead of getting replacement factory sheet metal. when I'm done with the welding I'll rustproof, seal, prime and paint everything as best as possible. I'll also lay a layer or two of fiberglass on the floorboards to add a bit of strength just like I did in the Roadster and the Spitfire.
My goal will be to stabilize the car and stop the rust and to be certain that is it safe to drive. If I can do this I can drive the car for a few years and work on the other cars. when those are done, I can tear the GT apart and do all the repairs with actual heritage replacement metal panels.
I want to drive this one,not buy it then put it up on jack stands for a year or two,

SOME PICTURES

ENTRY #2

After talking to the sell, I found out that the tires were at least 15 years old, possibly more. I wasn’t about to drive a 43-year old car home on major highways with old, dry-rotted tires. So I got on line and found 5 wire wheels with almost new Kumho tires for sale on the MG forum I frequent. Even better, they were in the Raleigh area.
So my LBC partner in crime drove out to south Raleigh and picked up the wheels and tires and then drove to north Raleigh to pick up the car.
Got the title transferred, put the new wheels and tires on the car and then set out on the 120 mile trip back home.
We kept to mostly non-highway routs just in care the car decided it wanted to explode or otherwise fail.
I got it home and started examining the GT more closely.


After driving a few hundred miles in the first week of 1967GT ownership I realized that even the slightly-better amenities in my 74 made a huge difference in the comfort level when using these cars as daily driver.
I want to make this car a bit more livable but without making any major changes to the car.
Since the floorboards need some-semi major attention, after repairing them I’m going to apply acoustic and thermal insulation to the floors, sills and rear deck before replacing the carpet,.
Driving the car when it was below 20-degrees outside also pointed out the need for attention to be paid to the heating system. Not many changes can be made there except for the home-made brass heater valve and maybe an uprated heater core. Adding in the replacement of door and window seals should make the interior fairly toasty in cold weather.
One other creature comfort I missed was a center console with an armrest like the one I had in my 74 B. I picked up one for free earlier this year. It was bleached out and chalky from sun exposure but it was free. I scrubbed and brushed it until he chalkiness was all gone but the faded look remained. So I simply painted it with gloss black paint and it turned out looking really nice. I then pulled the armrest off my good console since it was a home made armrest and put it on the newly-painted console after spraying it with red vinyl paint.
The install was straightforward though not made for the MK-I transmission tunnels.
I had to drill a few new holes for the shifter beauty ring but other than that it fits very well.
The radio console is in fairly good shape. Unfortunately the PO drilled into the side of it to install an ammeter so it is not perfect. The speaker grill and trim ring, however, are perfect so I’m gong to be very careful with those.
I could install two 4” speakers in place of the single speaker in there now but I think instead I’m just going to make a custom console so that I also have room for any additional switches, power outlets and anything else I can think of..
Seat heaters are going in but they will be the kind that sit on top of the seats, not the kind installed inside the seats like the carbon heaters going into the 74.
I’ll be doing this after I convert the car to negative ground and upgrade to a high output alternator instead of the generator currently installed.

MGBGT PROJECT. Entry one

MGBGT PROJECT.

In 1988 I bought my first LBC (little British car) a 1974 MGB convertible. I restored that car, drove it every day for 11 years and then parked it for another10 years. I’ve recently started restoring in again but it won’t be done for a while.

Since I missed driving an LBC, I decided to get a Triumph Spitfire. They are not too expensive, easy to work on and a load of fun. I picked up a 1979 Spit that seemed like it needed a little bit of work to put on the road…boy was that wrong. Basically, I wound up with TWO British restoration projects at the same time with an additionally restoration coming up on my 1995 Corvette. The earliest I could get the Spitfire on the road would be spring of 2011, ten months after I purchased her. It was even worse with the MGB since that would be fall 2011 at the earliest, if I was lucky.

What to do, what to do? Well I did what any other logical intelligent person would do in my situation: I bought another MGB!

Not just any MG but a 1967 MGB-GT. This is the story…

Shortly after I bought my 74 MGB back in 1988 I found a blue 1971 MGB-GT sitting in the parking lot in an industrial park-area one afternoon, I stopped and took a look at it and it truly was a total piece of shit. Not a body panel wasn’t rusted or dented and the rear fenders had so much surface rust that I thought he car was half covered with brown primer. It also ran like the cylinders were filled with hamsters. The only thing it actually had going for it was that it was the very first GT off the assembly line for that model year.

Well the asking price was $150.00 which I was not about to pay for a car like that…mostly because I didn’t have $150.00. What can I say…I was a poor twenty-something year old.

So I waited and I kept my eyes open. I wound up getting married, starting a family, buying a 1995 Corvette and, as my MG was relegated to storage duty, the GT-dream was pushed to the back of my mind like my B was pushed to the back of the garage. (Wow, what a amateurish analogy)

So time passed, new wife, new home, new life but same MG. She sat there and screamed at me to finish her. So I started working on her again. A friend of mine even helped me get her running again for a while. But there was so much to do on her that the 1-year plan to finish her turned eventually turned into a 3-year + plan.

By summer 2010 I was pretty tired of not having a British car to play around in so, after careful consideration and much research, I purchased a 1979 Triumph Spitfire off of eBay.

When I brought it home, I was not amused. To say that it was not as described in the listing would be a colossal understatement. Let’s just say that the previous owner wasn’t exactly accurate in his description in the eBay listing In fact, it was junk…but it was my junk!

When I bought it I told my wife that it would be on the road in 2 or 3 weeks…yeah, that’s it. December rolled around and it wasn’t even close. Rotted floorboards, messed up electricals and the ugliest giant black plastic bumpers in history. It was a mess.

So I continued to play with the Spitfire while my MG roadster sat and sat.

I finally started looking for another British car, this time a GT. I wasn’t really serious about buying another one but I always look.

I found one every week or two online that I liked but always too far away or too expensive or needing too much work.

Then in December of 2010 I found two on Ebay that were in North Carolina. One was out towards the coast, the other one a bit closer in Louisburg, just north of Raleigh.

I low-ball bid on both and was outbid...had my laugh and put it out of my mind…for about two days. Both cars looked good and seemed to be daily driver candidates. The one in Raleigh looked in better shape than the one out at the coast. I watch them and the auction for he one out at the coast ended a day before the other with the final bid being around $4000.00.

I knew the one in Raleigh would go for more so, and I’m still not sure why I did it, I bid $3200.00 on it…and, of course, I won it…exactly how I won the Spitfire.

I knew that wifey might kill me or cut of a vital body part of mine but you win an auction and you have to pay for it.

Here I go again!