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It's not a Rover build thread, MGB with Ford 302 power :D
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So I started this thread on another forum but I decided I'd rather keep up with it here so there is going to be a couple of years of thread added today. It is funny looking back on the posts and seeing how plans change, then change again etc. Here is the story of my MGB.
Well my other toy has finally come home, so the real fun can begin. A full restoration is in it's future, and there will be plenty of British engineering involved. It's a 1972 MGB roadster, 66k on the clock, one owner(my Dad bought it new in 1972) so one family still I guess lol. He gave it to me around 20 years ago. I didn't want to destroy it and had no place to store it so it has spent most of it's time sitting in his garage. Flame red, has the optional hard top and is going to need some love. As she sits in the picture, I had already done new plugs, wires air filter Weber two barrel carb conversion and a new top. I'm so excited to have another money pit around :beer: Attachment 35909 |
She looks a lot better in the picture than it does in real life. The paint was done 26 years ago in the driveway of our house. The paint is in a bad way.
The plan as I see it. The body work will stay the original color with the stripping etc. it will receive a full pro repaint though this time. I plan to add a led high mount stoplight up by top boot. I plan to change the factory rostyles for mini-lite rims, eventually. Thats about it for the body changes. The interior will get new carpeting and a MG factory wood steering wheel. The seats are shot and extremely expensive to rebuild. So I have located some very nice Mercedes Benz c280 black MB-tex seats with seat heaters to swap in. I will also be upgrading the sound system, with a android tablet as the headunit/gps. This will be built in to the factory console. I have bought another one to use so I can keep the original one un-molested. The drivetrain, will eventually get replaced. The orginal engine requires premium, and only makes about 66 bhp, such a shame in such a fun to drive car. This will be the last project after I get the rest done. It will either get a Saab 2.0 turbo with front mounted intercooler, 2.5 inch exhaust and stage 3 tune, good for about 250ish horsepower. Ford T5 manual gearbox backing it up. The second option is a 3.4 SOHC V6 out of a Camaro and a T5 manual gearbox, only good for 180ish horsepower, and has the usual GM problem of blowing intake manifold gaskets. Both choices will improve fuel economy and give it a much needed boost in horsepower. I will of course be storing the original drivetrain so I can put it back in if I need to, but I don't see this car being sold ever. This will be nice when I retire in 5 years and move back to New England, touring the white mountain range with the top down and power on tap will be a nice way to waste some of my pension check. I never thought I would be talking about being retired in 5 years at the age of 35. My goal is to have it all done by then lol. |
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So was bleeding the brakes today to see if I could find where the system is leaking. I think the fluid was done.....
Attachment 35907 Oh and I picked up this for a $100 Attachment 35908 It came with a couple huge bins of new parts, and a few used parts I can pull off of it. Then it will be a part out and off to the scrap yard, it's to far gone to be of use to anyone. |
Well this Brit in keeping with the finest traditions of British Engineering burned up it's fuel pump. It started arcing and smoking when I turned the key on.... Sigh there is another few days wait and $130 gone lol...
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Well with the up coming move to Colorado, I'm keeping the RRC unless someone has a series they want to trade me for it :D
Well I got the brakes rebuilt on the front and rear drivers side and refinished a couple of the wheels. While I was waiting on the fuel pump to show up. On the fuel pump I learned something don't order parts you need off of Amazon.com They lied to me repeatedly about delivery dates, 22 Aug, 24 Aug, 25 Aug, 27 Aug and now 24 September. I finally had to cancel the order and I'm going to reorder it from a reputable vendor. If they could have been honest about delivery dates I wouldn't have had such a problem with it, but lying to a customer, by a business of that size is just not excusable for me.. Here are some pics of the progress. Some things have taken more time since I refurbishing things as I go. I need to redo the black rim eventually I tried out the color scheme out and it didn't look good on the car at all luckily that was the spare lol. Attachment 35892 The rusty rotor was the original one that had been on the car for 40 years. Attachment 35893 Sprucing up the disc brake shield. Attachment 35894 Another part to order, the kingpin bushings are shot.. Attachment 35895 Freshing up the hub assembly. Attachment 35896 Getting 40 years of grease and grime off. Attachment 35897 Going back together. Attachment 35898 Brake assembly. Attachment 35899 Attachment 35900 When I go back in to replace the brake hose and kingpin busings I'm going to paint the calipers, but here it is for now. Attachment 35901 Trying out a new color scheme on the rim, I chalked this up to lesson learned and a fail. Attachment 35902 Attachment 35903 Attachment 35904 Working on something I haven't seen in years, drum brakes. Attachment 35905 All done with the drum brakes and back together. Attachment 35906 |
Got the fuel pump ordered again and it is in route. In the mean time I have been working on finishing up the brakes all the way around.
Once I get it fired and see where I'm at with the motor, it will be time to trace out and repair the clutch fluid leak. It all takes time, and 40 year old cars seem to want more of it then most lol. |
Well, got the pump got it in. Got fuel pressure to the new carb, and still no start. So I check spark and it's good. Check the timing it's good.
Do a compression test and awww **** kicks in. Looks like the valve seats designed for leaded fuel have died. It's supposed to be 160 psi I registered 117, 120, 119 and 89.. ****! So I did the oil in the cylinders but that didn't help a bit. So I'm sure the valves are the culprit. So the engine swap has moved up on the to do list before everything else. So if anyone in the chicago area has a v6 manual camaro or firebird that is a good runner and cheap let me know.. Of course I would rather do something like this but with a better tranny.. That engine would be a monster in the MG I know it was in my Dad's Taurus. LeRoy Barton's Ford/Yamaha SHO DOHC 24V V6 powered MGB |
Borrowed a engine hoist today, so this weekend out comes the motor and trans.
I'm trying to get in contact with the guy that did the SHO conversion. The GM conversion is tried and true, but that SHO motor would be so sweet in a MG. |
It dawned on me that I'm retarded, I know big surprise huh....
This has manual valve adjustment. I found half the valves were way to tight and one was so loose you could slide the rocker off the valve and pushrod. Adjusted everything back to spec at 15 thousandths and went to bump it over to do a quick recheck of my work. On my way to the key I noticed I had disconnected the coil and not thinking plugged it back in. When I hit the key she fired right up.... IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!! and running quite smartly I might add. |
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Well the brakes are 100% now. I was hoping I could salvage the clutch hydraulics and I thought I had. But no it blew seals out and started leaking all over the place. That's the last step left for it to be driving though. Well and a new U joint as the rear one looks like it got mauled by a bear. Sad part is that one has been replaced twice in the cars life and the front one is original...
Parts buying will be slowing down though, as I bought the MGB a new big brother.... :D |
Been awhile since a update so...
Made a junk yard run for some seats for the 110 and found a wrecked Miata in the yard with a pair of very nice condition black cloth seats. Picked those up for $70 and have made the adapter for the driver's side seat need to make two more for the passenger side seat next. Of course this project made me by a new tool a 8" drill press :D The seats look like they were made for the MG and are very comfortable compared to the original crap. Took a bit of fidling to get it all lined up right but well worth the effort. With the parts MGB-GT I got my hands on a oak steering wheel for the MG and it's now all re-finished and looks fantastic. I can't wait to install it. Also got a good driveshaft off of the GT, to replace the one in the MGB the yolk was damaged in the rear of the shaft. Probably why it kept eating u-joints. So I rebuilt that so it's ready to go in. Today, I installed the new clutch master cylinder so now the clutch is functional. Once I get the new drive shaft installed she should be drive-able again! |
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So finally got the driveshaft installed today. Did a few little jobs here and there and finally after 8 years I drove the MGB today. I forgot how much fun that little go cart is lol. I had the top down, and my wife thought I was crazy. It was 45 degrees and sunny I didn't see the problem.
It was funny seeing it next to the 110 in the driveway... |
So far I have put about 700 miles on the MGB. She is running good but is having some temp issues idling in traffic. Checked all the usual suspects but everything seems good with the cooling system. She has never liked traffic, but the way she is now just doesn't work for my commute to work. So I'm off today to poke around the junkyard for a small electric cooling fan. I feel it just needs moving air through the radiator to be fine.
After that it's time to work on the front suspension and steering components. The tie rod ends look pretty shot and the bushings are completely gone. So that will be the next weekend project. In the last few days I have topped off the shock oil, fixed the horn and installed a audio system. I also started a custom front bumper due to some towing damage my dad did to it about 8 years back. Hopefully I'll have that sorted out today and will post some pics even though, only 4 of us are reading this thread lol. |
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So, today I installed a electric pusher fan to help out with stop and go traffic. That was actually a pretty easy and straight forward task.
I also got the "custom" (read booty fab) front bumper done out of two old scrap bumpers. The front frame horns were damaged during a tow bar incident with my dad a long time ago. Making it impossible to install the stock bumper. It is nice to be legal though so I came up with this. As you can tell the bumper bracket angles are a bit off.... |
Well I've been getting a slight vibration and it's getting worse. I put it up on a jack and have play when the wheel is grabbed top and bottom. So I have some searching to do to figure out exactly what is dead.
It never ends with these Brit's but I'll be damned if I don't love driving it. |
Well I talked SWMBO into the garage to give a bit of assistance. She pushed and pulled on the wheel while I laid under the MG watching the suspension bits and it looks like it is the wheel bearings that I thought were fine last fall when I did the brakes. Well that came back to bite me in the ass lol
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Finished up the bearing replacement and tie rod end as well. Found the shock was still low on fluid so I topped it off again and now it is riding pretty smoothly. I decided I should do the driver side as well so I had to order another wheel seal since they only stock the bearings it seems at the local parts store. So I'll get that done tomorrow along with the other tie rod and then take it for an alignment.
It was great though today, my 7 year old daughter and I spent about 45 minutes just cruising the country side with the top down talking. It reminded me so much of when I was kid driving with my dad in the MGB. |
Haven't been doing much with the MGB as far as work goes until today. Just been driving it and enjoying it.
Noticed a few days ago that that the clutch slave cylinder was leaking, had to do a roadside fill and bleed it a bit to make it home. So this morning I went to pull it in the garage and see about fixing her up. She was running like crap missing hard idle was all over the place etc. Chalked it up to being cold and went on to replacing the slave cylinder. Got that done and thought with the SWMBO's help I had it bleed. Fired up the old girl and she was running even worse, and the clutch was not functional at all. So decided to take a break on the clutch for a minute and look into the problem with the engine. Found a vacuum cap had fell off leaving a huge vac leak on the intake manifold. Got that squared up and she is running like a top again. Tomorrow back to the clutch.... |
Well it took forever today but I now have a clutch again!
After that I tackled the windshield wipers getting them working. Cleaned out the rest of the wiring from my Dad's old stereo/amp install. Made a radio blanking plate out of some plastic from the old center console, and a little chrome edge trim to finish the look. After that I got my old cell phone mounted up as the head unit for the stereo. Even without service it can still do navigation, play music, and pandora using the wifi off my current phone. |
Well I've put over 1500 miles on it since the odometer picture about a month ago.
Yesterday I took the valve cover off and adjusted the valve lash. I can't believe how changing a few thousandths of inch can make such a difference. When I did the adjustment last time the car hadn't been driven in quite a few years or ran for that matter. So it was done cold to .015. This time I did it with the motor warmed to operating temp and set them at .013. Huge improvement in the smoothness of the engine and a bit of power to boot. I replaced the valve cover gasket while I was there and decided to move on to the weber carb.... After watching a youtube video of a Chimp tuning a weber carb successfully I decided I had 50/50 odds of being successful. So I followed the directions tuning by ear, and it made a huge improvement as well. I'll recheck the plugs in a few hundred miles along with keeping an eye on the tailpipe to see how she is running. Fingers crossed I think I did it right! |
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Here is the reason for all the work, that one thing that makes it all worth while...
Taking my 7 year old daughter to her first classic car cruise-in at Culver's in McHenry! Attachment 35891 |
Well got a fan shroud for father's day to help the cooling system be all that it can be. I'm planning on putting that in this weekend. I also picked up new cooling hoses, T-stat, gasket, and some three point inertia reel seat belts to make it a bit safer.
On the safety front the Brake master cylinder died today on my way to work. Still had some brakes but definitely not where they needed to be. Apparently no one in Chicago stocks this damn thing so it's being over-nighted to the house so hopefully my wife can bring it to the unit tomorrow before she heads out of town for the weekend. |
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Updates:
1. Got the master cylinder got it in and hand a hell of time getting the brakes to bleed. It was insane how difficult it was to get those damn things right. 2. Had a front rim failing, strangest thing I have ever seen. The rim was bent but on top of it the lugs started pulling through the rostyles on that rim. 3. Found a set of old Datsun 280z rims on craigslist and got him down to $80.00 for set of 4. Got new shoes put on them 195/60/14 Falkens. Really improved the ride quality and handling. Downside is they rubbed in the back wells and they lowered the car about 3/4's of a inch. I did not need it sitting any lower but oh well. So I rolled the fender lips and that helped a bit but it didn't make sense why they were rubbing since others run this combo with no issues. Did some measuring and found the rear suspension is sagging about 4 inches. So that explains that and new springs are going to be ordered soon. 4. Today I cleaned up the rims and got them painted up, I'm damn happy with the results. Attachment 35890 |
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Put some new headlights in the MG today, projector style with replaceable H4 silverstar bulbs. Very happy with the results, I can see in the dark now. The bulbs I took out weren't even halogens....
I'm going to be cleaning up the surface rust spots here and there and smoothing out the cracks in the paint, in prep of plasti-dipping the car. I can't afford a full strip and paint right now so I'm going to do this to protect the body and spruce it up a bit. Attached are the colors I'm trying to decide between let me know what you guys think.... All photoshop'd by my loving wife. The first pic is how it is now, trust me the paint looks much better in the pic than it does in person. Attachment 35885 Attachment 35886 Attachment 35887 Attachment 35888 Attachment 35889 |
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Appreciate all the input on color guys lol. My daughter decided it will be a satin finish Royal Blue Candy Pearl, the target day to spray is Tuesday if the pigment arrives on time.
I'll let the pics speak for themselves I've been one busy boy on my vacation. Attachment 35874 Attachment 35875 Attachment 35876 Attachment 35877 Attachment 35878 Attachment 35879 Attachment 35880 Attachment 35881 Attachment 35882 Attachment 35883 Attachment 35884 |
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And the work has progressed missed the time line by almost a week due to the weather. Tomorrow is the top coat of Royal Blue. Here is the MGB with the base coat of matte black and one before we taped it off for spraying.
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Took the MG to the local cruise night, she had expensive neighbors.....
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Well it's been awhile since I have updated. The MG has been running great 15,000 miles this season. I've been spending more time working on the 110 though as of late.
I put the original hard top on it a few weeks back for the first time since 1974. Fit like a glove and water no longer pours down on me when it rains. Life is good as today for the first time in a year I drove both the MG and the 110 on the same day. |
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Been a long time since a update so here goes.
I've finally installed a radio and some speakers. The big news is I have finally squared away the suspension. The purists are probably puking in their cheerios but, new springs and poly bushes all the way around and tube shocks replacing the lever arm shocks. I went with QA1 3 way adjustables and it handles like it's on rails. Here are some pics of the suspension going in: Attachment 35846 Attachment 35847 Attachment 35848 Attachment 35849 Attachment 35850 Attachment 35851 Attachment 35852 Attachment 35853 Here is the rims getting the paint stripped off since the wheel paint was coming off in chunks. Just going to polish the aluminium and call it good. Attachment 35854 Attachment 35855 Attachment 35856 Attachment 35857 Attachment 35858 And finally a shot of it in downtown while I was getting a hair cut... Attachment 35859 |
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Got it back up and running. Even added a little something to the front. Just need to decide if I'm putting the bumpers back on now.
Attachment 35837 Ok so for now I decided no bumper for the front. Then my little helper helped me peel the dip off of the MG to start the prep for a color change. Attachment 35838 Attachment 35839 Most of it peeled pretty well there were a few spots that required some goo gone and a pressure washer to clean off. All in all I am really happy with the ability to remove it and the protection it gave the body. I then took off to my Dad's place for the final strip down. Attachment 35840 We then set to work putting down the new color. First a Vintage Gold base coat. Attachment 35841 Attachment 35842 Then it was time for the Saturn Yellow Pearl top coat. Attachment 35843 Attachment 35844 And finally a bit of reassembly. Attachment 35845 |
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Done with the body. I did some mechanical work today. I upgraded the 30 amp lucas alternator, with a 70ish amp RRC alternator. Dropped right in and now I can run the headlights and wipers and the same time :D
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It is he bought her new back in late 71 off the showroom floor, it's been a member of the family longer than I have. The best part for me was growing up working on it with my dad. It's probably to blame for my love of cars and british cars in particular. It was there for my ride home from the hospital when I was born. The first car I drove when I turned 16 even took my driver's test with her. She took me to Prom, took me to and from my first duty station, to visit friends in Virginia and my first real date with my wife.
My Dad and I spent countless hours in the garage back in the mid 80's working on her together. It is probably the reason my Dad is my best friend and I hope it will eventually have the same effect on my daughter and I. She won't come out and work on it with me yet, but she loves to ride in it. She is always asking if I can take her to gymnastics in it and to car shows. Her appreciation of old cars and respect for the love and work that goes into them is growing with every trip. For a 7 year old her interest of old cars their styling and features is amazing. My wife has done a wonderful job raising her with me constantly being away, I didn't even have to explain to her why we don't touch cars at a car show, she knew. The downside is she has informed me when she turns 16 she expects the MGB to be her first car. I'm not looking forward to giving the MG up, but it makes me so happy to know my daughter wants to continue the family tradition of MG ownership. On the work front on thursday I had a loud bang followed by a nasty lower intensity banging noise any time it hit the slightest bump from the front left corner. I limped her home 40 miles like that, praying she wouldn't loose a tire or something. I had pulled off and couldn't see anything off hand that looked out of place so she and I Soldiered on towards home. Got home and got it up on jack stands pulled both front tires and started inspecting. To my surprise it was pretty obvious once I looked what was wrong. The caliper bolts had rattled loose. One had fallen out and the other was 3/4 of the way out. Picked up a new bolt and some lock tight, topped off the oil in the shocks and put her back together. I'm glad to say that fixed the issue. So the MG is continuing her daily driver duties in grand style. 12,000 miles so far since I put her on the road earlier this year. |
Well I've been enjoying the hell out of the MG this summer. I took it to Columbus OH and back last week, on the way back the 42 year old starter packed it in finally. No biggie stopped at my Dad's place as I was nearby and swapped it out for one of his extra cars ordered the starter and finished the last 1.5 hours to home.
Well the starter showed up and my Dad was feeling frisky so he put it in for me. I went to pick it up on Saturday and I was going to look at the exhaust since I had a leak. When I was about 45 min out my Dad decided to put the MG on ramps for me so I could just jump right into the work. I pull up and my Dad is coming to meet me at the curb which is a bit odd. Then the bad news hits, as he was jacking it up using the jack point he didn't seat it fully and the MG slide right off the floor jack. It crushed the rocker panel tearing steel and taking out the fresh dip job. As I type it's at a body shop, sitting on a frame machine seeing if they can pull it back out and save the rocker. :'( |
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Well was going over the MGB for the drive to expo east. What do I find the head gasket is blown.....
I swear my cars hate me |
Got the head gasket replaced and all seems to be well.
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