Stuff I need to Buy

I'm keeping a list here of items that I've bought (as well as a running total of outlay) and below it the items that I still need to source. These lists will gradually grow over time!

Things already bought:

Item Bought	Cost
Car & Spares	£400.00
Core Plugs	£5.00
Clutch Kit	£51.00
Accellerator Cable	£3.85
Brake Master Cylinder Seal Kit	£5.95
Clutch Slave Cylinder Seal Kit	£3.25
Clutch Slave Cylinder Seal Kit	£7.00
Clutch Flexi Hose	£6.25
Hose Kit	£29.53
Water Pump, Various Lamp lenses	£25.00
2x Oil Cooler Rubber Gromits	£1.80
Thermostat Housing	£10.52
Driver's Door	£40.00
Brake Flexible Hoses	£9.41
Unipart labels for Airfilters	£2.00
Brake Calipers, discs, pads, fixing kit, hoses	£140.75
Top Heater Pipe, Thermostat studs & Exhaust rings	£17.00
SU Carb rebuild kit	£8.49
Misc Spares on eBay	£15.29
Thermostat	£8.65
2x Rear Wheel Cylinder	£17.03
Plug leads	£11.04
Head Gasket Set	£13.02
Bottom Engine Gasket Set	£12.02
Rear Crank shaft Seal	£4.95
Locktabs for Flywheel, Rear Oil Seal & Pulley	£8.00
Gold Paint for Engine	£12.90
Clutch Alignment Tool	£7.49
Oversize Pistons	£37.00
Temperature Gauge	£41.01
Cylinderhead Diagnostic Work	£31.01
Ring Gear Replacement	£71.74
Replacement Cylinderhead	£330.00
Block Rebore	£72.00
Cylinder Block Reface	£48.00
Strip / clean / parts	£60.00
Piston Rings	£88.80
Timing Gear	£42.90
Clutch Pivot Bolt + Bush	£5.65
Nitromors	£23.40
Red Oxide Primer	£41.52
Heater Parts & Teal Blue Paint (MGOC)	£42.35
Carb Heatshield	£39.25
Misc Engine Bay Fittings (MGOC)	£16.53
Total	£1,868.35

Things still to source:

Possibly fuel tank

Non-Essential Items to buy:

• Seat cover / refurbishment
• Door Cards repair / refurbish
  

Good news - she turns over!

There's not a great deal to report this weekend but there are a few bits of good news. Firstly, I've been able to get on with the Maestro restoratoin that I'm in the middle of - I removed the front panels and Waxoyled pretty much everywhere. I also finished re-building the front suspension which is the culmination of quite a lot of work. Not long until it's finished and the MG work begins in ernest.

On the MG front, I've been reading quite a lot of the documentation and manuals that came with the car. Rather usefully there are instructions for engine removal, dash removal, clutch hydraulic system servicing and fuel tank fault finding. They've also given me a few more jobs to add to the list below - service the gearbox and overdrive while they're out of the car. I'm also going to replace all the core plugs in the engine - the accepted wisdom seems to be that if one's gone then the others are on their way and you might as well replace them while the engine's out.

I only actually did three things to the MG this weekend - 1) gave it a wash and polish, 2) while the plugs were out I gave the front drivebelt a bit of a tweak and the engine turned nice and freely and finally 3) investigated the clutch master cylinder.

The documents I was reading warned of a nearly-impossible-to-remove screw holding the brake/clutch master cylinder cover on. Luckily someone has been there before me and when they refitted the cover they left the screw off. Lucky. Anyway I can see how it all comes apart so servicing the master / slave cylinder might be the first proper job that I do.

While the engine / box are out I'll also replace the clutch.

Oiling the bores and making the inside acceptable

I came home from work yesterday evening and wanted to take a look at the MG -just to inspect my investment you understand!!

I decided that it couldn't hurt to get the spark plugs out and squirt a little 10w40 into the cylinders - I've not tried to turn the engine over yet so a bit of lubrication in the bores is a good thing before I do.

Having done that I turned my attention to the interior. It's had a set of seat covers on it since the '90s and these had started to decompose. There was also quite a variety of over-mats in the car, as well as two rubber MG mats in the front and also quite an assembled mass of dust, rubbish, debris, decomposed foam etc all over the floor. After removing all of this, a thorough Dysoning brought the floors and seats back to an acceptable standard.

The seats will need further attention - the original covers are a little tatty, faded, stained and loose-fitting but they're fine for now. I'm actually in favour of replacing the lot with a black leather interior but my girlfriend likes the ochre colour so we may compromise on oatmeal leather instead.

I've just got to finish rebuilding my Maestro and work on the MG can start in earnest.

List of known faults and work required.

Here's a list of the stuff that I know needs to be achieved before the car will pass an MoT - I've categorised these as far as possible and added a list of non-essential items below it as well.

Repair Known Engine Fault:

• Take engine out
• Replace all Engine Core Plugs
  
• Replace clutch
• Put engine back in

Recommissioning Work:

• Remove spark plugs, pour oil into the bores and allow to soak
• Change oil
• Replace Waer Pump
• Replace All Coolant Hoses
  
• Fill Coolant
• Replace gearbox oil
• Service overdrive unit
• Replace Clutch slave/master seals & flexible pipe
• Replace brake fluid
• Overhaul brake calipers & replace seals
• Inspect brake pads / discs
• Inspect rear brakes
• Inspect brake lines / flexihoses
  
• Inspect / replace drivebelt
  
• Grease suspension grease points
• Check lighting/ switchgear works
• Find key for locking petrol filler cap
• Check operation of seatbelts
• Replace Tyres
• Re-grease wheel bearings
  

Miscellaneous Repairs:

• Trace source of fuel smell (possibly tank but fuel pipe under car also looks suspect)
• Investigate wiring behind dash and in left side of engine bay to check for rat damage
  

Cosmetic/ Non-Essential work:

• Clean inside / outside
• Remove '80s cassette player and broken loudspeakers
• Replace driver's door.
• While engine's out, strip / paint engine bay
• While engine's out, strip / paint engine
  

Think that's it for now but I'll add more as it comes to light.

Getting the MG Home.

The date of Saturday 19th was agreed for transfer of the MG from Huntingdon to Cambridge. We enlisted the help of family members who had a trailer and Landrover and rendezvoused at Simon's house.

The V5 was duly signed and a huge boxfile of paperwork handed over which included quite a lot of service history, previous MoTs and a genuine BL workshop manual. The car also came with a spare SS exhaust, four wire wheels and a box of misc parts.

Loading it onto the trailer passed without hitch (haha) and we were soon on our way back to Cambridge.


More pictures are Here.

Intro and First Pictures...

This all came about when a friend (also called Simon) offered me the car that had been in his garage since some time in 1998. He'd heard that I was on the lookout for a restoration project and this could be just the ticket.

The story goes that a lot of work had been done to the car, including new sills, a suspension rebuild and stage-one engine, but on its first trip out after all the work it blew a core plug at the back of the engine. It was driven a short distance home and pushed into the garage but the enthusiasm to remove the engine and repair the fault was never found.

When we met up to strike a deal, Simon had removed most of the things that had been stored around it in his garage and although it was dusty, it looked to be in relatively good order - certainly better than I had expected.



More pictures here.

The handbrake had been left off and it moved freely enough to get out of the garage. The bodywork is in pretty tidy shape with signs of previous repairs, particularly in the bottom half of the car but favourite MGB rot points are generally fairly solid, this is probably thanks to the thorough waxoyling it had received sometime in the past. The only exception seems to be the tops of the rear wings (which appear to have been bodged and will need investigation in the future) and the bottom of the driver's door frame is also pretty shot with rust. The paint job is a bit variable but will serve for now.

Other than the known engine fault with the cooling system, the mechanicals appeared to be very tidy indeed. The suspension components are a little crusty from storage but evidently work has been done and these will probably only need attention for cosmetic reasons; it was also nice to see that the front has Polybushes fitted too.

Other known faults included a fuel leak, due to a suspected rusty fuel tank and also the fact that a rat had made itself at home in the engine bay necessitating a thorough check of the wiring both under the bonnet and behind the dash.

With all this information at hand, a deal was stuck and preparations made to collect the car as soon as possible.