Done: Restoration Complete, Car For Sale

 

She is done, restoration complete. I am working with BaT and it will be listed soon.

Some of the final steps included getting the mixture just right. The plugs are in order 1-4, left to right. Due the geometry of the Siamese intake runners in the head, this is what happens, the center cylinders start getting lean before one and four, so this is about as good as it gets. I tried leaner, but started to get exhaust burble, so I richened it back a bit, done. 

I almost forgot, I did get the distributor back from Advanced Electronics, and it is working great!

The spare time is cleaned up and back in the trunk.

I even cleaned up the jack, lug wrench and the tools for the pouch. 

As a proper British car featured in a James Bond movie, it required an ejection seat. So there it is, gotta have it! Thanks for checking out my project. I am not sure what will come next, but I will probably do a blog on it, so stay tuned. 

So long.

A Few More Things

I found the passenger seat had a couple of small separations. After some MGEXP.com research I found IC-2000 from Bob Smith Industries was the right adhesive to correct this problem.

The directions say to apply and hold for 30 seconds, then wait three hours for full cure, that's it. The bottle also stated that it "bonds skin in seconds", so wear gloves. It is similar to superglue but has a black vinyl finish when dry, perfect!

The rear license plate bracket had a spun captive nut. Now it is captive again and of course painted black!

Now that the engine break it is complete, I found the acceleration to be lacking above 4000 rpm so I checked the timing advance and found it to be, well, not advancing, so I took apart the distributor to check the weights and springs. Everything seemed fine, the weights moved freely which leaves the springs. Getting any deeper into this problem would require making some very complicated test equipment so I opted to send it in to Advanced Distributors to let the expert, Jeff Schlemmer take care of it. I should have it back next week and looking like new.

One of the jobs I have been putting off was correcting an under spray, or lack of base coverage on the bottom inch of the boot lid. I tried to correct just that area but was unable to get a good blend.

So I resprayed the whole thing. It turned out great. The spots are from wet sanding some nibbs.

Now it is all one shade of Blaze, and shinny after a quick cut, buff and polish.

There were some other areas that needed small touch ups. All that was needed was a good clean, a dab of paint, wet sand the paint, smooth with 1500 grit, apply some clear over everything wet sanded.

Wet sand the clear with 2000 grit, then cut, buff and polish. It sounds like a lot, but it ends up being a half hour work to clean and paint, wait 24 hours, sand and clear, a half hour work, wait 24 hours then another half hour to sand, cut and buff. No reason not to take on this kind of touch up job as long as you can park the car for a few days. One also tends to get around to these kinds of tasks when waiting for a distributor to get rebuilt. Until next time...

656 miles

So here are a few things that have gotten fixed or adjusted in the last 156 miles. This is the new convertible top header seal that I just installed. The old one looked okay but wouldn't stay in place in the slot it should fit in. This one took ten minutes to install, all good.

I had the usual speedo problems, it was bouncy and noisy. I tried the washers on the drive cable to no avail. The fix that solved both problems was a drop of oil on the input drive gear shaft, one on each side of the gear, done. No more noise, and the needle only moves 2-3 MPH now instead of 10-15.

184 degrees F at thermostat.

184 degrees equals exactly N for normal on the temp gauge, my work is done here! This correction was the result of installing the new solid state gauge power regulator or "stabilizer". At the same time I also flushed the coolant system that was just running just water wetter. The system has proven to be tight and it is now filled with 50/50 distilled water and Prestone antifreeze and a new thermostat gasket. The fuel gauge could still use a little tweaking, but it is getting closer to reality. Also note the stuck oil pressure gauge. After some MGEXP research I found that the needle can hang up on the internal metal part that has "oil" printed on it. There is a small rubber bushing separating the layers of the indicator, they get squished over time and cause a hung needle. I was able to take it apart and unsquish the rubber bushings a bit and then take care not to over tighten the gauge when reinstalling it. Yes, that sounds easier than it is in reality, it really sucks getting that gauge out and back in the dash.

So here is the story of the exhaust. I had been fighting what I thought was a leak that sounded like a whistle. I put on this really nice BMW clamp and it was still making the noise. I rewelded the pipe at a better angle but it still made the noise. I cut out the center resonator and threw it in the garbage because when you knocked on it it sounded like a bell rather than a well dampened resonator, like the rear one on the car. So here is the final result. The car has the original stock header, the down pipe was bent and replaced with the stainless part seen here which required the nice BMW clamp because you can't weld stainless to mild steel. Then we have a straight pipe to the rear mounted muffler, all painted with high temp paint to look real nice.  It sounds great, a nice, mild grumble under load and very quiet when cruising.

Finally we have the chrome trim strips installed. I had a couple of paint touch ups to do before I put them on.

Here we are after its first cars and coffee event at Langley AFB. It was well received which made me happy. Now if the weather ever cools down it would be nice to drive with the top down again.

500 Miles

 

What we have here is 500 miles on the reset odometer. 502 miles actually, on the rebuilt engine and refreshed transmission and rear end. I am happy to report it was trouble free with only minor things to address. I started the break in with just a drivers seat and no interior and between driving 40 miles every few days I have managed to install all the remaining parts. Among the fixes, I had to bleed the brakes, fix a wire on the blinkers, and add sound dampening to the fuel pump.

Among other things addressed, the front grill, bumper and even a license plate!

The door trim was looking a little tired, but a few coats of Dupli Color vinyl and fabric specialty coating has them looking fresh!

The shifter had a bit of squeak. Easy fix, add a little Teflon grease and it is good as new!

Next it was time to change the fluids, engine first. It also got a new filter housing, the old one was starting to strip.

Transmission next.

And finally the differential.

The plugs in the diff got replaced too with new hex plugs, the square ones just suck.

Here are the new parts.

Remember when oil was one or two dollars per quart? Yeah, not anymore. $5.99 a quart for conventional oil!

Spark plugs checked.

They look better than I even hoped!

Here is the setup I used to fill the transmission. My chrome bumper MGB transmission is filled from the top through the dipstick hole. AutoZone sells this pump for $10.99. Worth every penny, took five minutes to put in the 2.8 quarts of oil with no mess, in the car anyway. You sill have to clean up the pump. That is all I have to share for today. This means mechanically the restoration is done. I am really pleased that I got 500 miles with no issues with the drive train. Next I am going to see if I can get the exhaust to be a little quieter, and get the fuel and temp gauges to read closer to reality. And then there is still some paint correction to do, almost there though.

Carpet

 

This, as most things, turned out to be a learning process. I thought my carpet was usable except the trunk.

I had that reversed. The trunk pieces only need a little help, the center tunnel carpet was trashed. Turns out they don't sell separate pieces of carpet, so I had to get a new set. I went with the deluxe carpet set from NW Import Parts, I think it was a fair price.

The first test fit showed there was a noticeable dip in the transmission tunnel so I added two layers of scrap carpet to smooth it out.

I also had to add a little of that pleather to the hand brake area so the insulation would not show through around the carpet cutout.

The instructions, which I found on MGEXP.com, listed the order which the pieces should be installed, starting with the inner frame rails.

Next was the tunnel. I started by measuring out where the shifter would come through and made a hole in the carpet and insulation that came with it. Then I test fit it and found I was only off about an inch which was fine since I was cutting a 3x4 inch hold around the shifter boot mount flange.

I cut the carpet to match the inside of the chrome shifter trim, and cut the insulation to the outside dimension of the trip piece so it would lay flat. I also drilled the four screw holes to ensure and easy install.

Fits nice and neat and the trim holds the carpet from moving, there is no need to glue the center piece in place other than the bottom edges. This is the look I was going for, I don't like the plastic center console arm rest bits.

The bulkhead behind the seats was a little more complicated since you have to fit the top vinyl piece around the snaps and then glue it all in.

The battery cover piece just lays there and is attached by the four snaps on the forward edge.

The real bear of the job was the rear wheel arches. After an hour of trimming I was able to mark the second piece for the opposite side to shorten the process.

They fit, but there is a difficult seam in the middle, just keep trimming, and then keep gluing and pressing.

Eventually you get there and life is good.

The carpet under the seats isn't going anywhere, so I just cut holes around the spacers that I bolted to the floor before the insulation and carpet was installed.

The front pieces are a pain to reach under the dash, but otherwise not too bad to just glue in. Turns out the outboard kick panels don't get carpet. That is what was in there when I got the car, so I didn't know. I will be making new kick panels that will get covered with the black pleather. Otherwise, I am pretty happy with how this turned out. It took about a day to do, so not too bad. Another two hours to put in the seats and belts, such a pain! Time to drive some more, I am up to 280 break in miles. It is hard to drive very long with the summer heat, best to get out first thing in the morning!