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Post by johnno on Dec 9, 2016 2:04:44 GMT
I've been giving it a good going over it with a fine hair comb, up to now I've spent just over £400 on parts [ just bits and pieces } to bring it up scratch mechanically and I've not finished yet. Can't believe how poor it's been maintained. At the moment it's up on axle stands doing the brakes, noticed they were terrible trying to stop the car on my way home when I bought it and parking brake was next to useless, anyway started with the rear and went to unwind the adjusters to remove the drum and it wouldn't move thought it was seized only to find that they were already fully wound off ? removed drums to find everything is new in there including the drums and back plate adjusters and brake cylinders except for the shoes,so new shoes have gone on and adjusted and parking brake cable so now the parking brake lever dont hit you under the chin when applying it. When't to the front's, caliper piston's sticking which is down to lack of use which is understandable as the car as only done 244 miles since 2007 according to the Government MOT history check but the disc were blue and worn to about half the thickness and weight of the new one's I've bought. The wheel bearings are bone dry, think I've caught them in time so I've cleaned and repacked them and just waiting for the new hub seals to arrive. while the disc and wheels are off I'm going to underseal under the arches Looks like when they undersealed it they must of run out of it because inside the N/S front wing is only half done so I've ended up buying a underbody coating gun with a cavity extention tube and 2x1 litre of Tetra Schutz underseal. So I've brushed off and washed under all four the wheel arches ready to apply the underseal, I'm just waiting for 5 litres of cleaning thinners to arrive so I can clean the gun when finished straight afterwards. Bought a new air operated grease gun and it took ages to get the grease thru the top and bottom trunions. Also fitted a new sports coil and electronic ignition module from Accuspark. I'm going to replace the seat covers black with red piping, already bought new drivers seat foam pack, just waiting for the company to get some more covers in stock
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Post by johnno on Dec 9, 2016 2:08:22 GMT
Yip look great and can be fun,,,but me dragging myself in and out them isn't a pretty sight,lol Davy I'm going onto 62 and it wont be long before I need a hoist to get me in and out of the thing, I have to grab hold of the steering wheel and back wing to drag myself out
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Post by davy on Dec 9, 2016 7:27:24 GMT
You have the same technique as me lol.
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Post by Dragon Man on Dec 9, 2016 10:58:32 GMT
I wouldn't fit in an MG any more John, I totally understand what you mean about finding hidden problems like the front discs etc. There's a show on TV (I forget it's name) and they get cars in to restore and the owners say "It's in great condition, just needs a clean up and some new paint". When they strip the car they are usually full of rust in the sills, the Boot (the 'trunk' for the Americans reading this), around every window seal. behind the bumpers, etc etc. Ends up being complete body rebuilds (which is why they make the show). John it sounds like you've got it all under control. You'll notice a massive difference in road noise reduction after you do the wheel arches. If you can, also coat under the floorpan and it will be almost silent inside
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Post by johnno on Dec 9, 2016 17:16:42 GMT
The good thing about the chariot is that every single panel as been replaced and underneath there's so sign of rot, its a very solid car even the bulkhead [firewall] as new sections in the foot wells. Its the finishing touches that lets it down, But there again if I wanted a nut and bolt restored car i would have to pay about 5 or 6 times more than what i paid for this.
Its already been undersealed underneath which is like new it's just were they have missed places like inside the wheel arches corners and inside the rear wings innner panels in the boot, thankfully the grey undercoat is intact.
When I remove the seats to recover them I'm going to paint the floorpans inside the car with a red Hammerite spray can.
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Post by fondofchips on Dec 10, 2016 15:21:32 GMT
I wouldn't fit in an MG any more John, I totally understand what you mean about finding hidden problems like the front discs etc. There's a show on TV (I forget it's name) and they get cars in to restore and the owners say "It's in great condition, just needs a clean up and some new paint". When they strip the car they are usually full of rust in the sills, the Boot (the 'trunk' for the Americans reading this), around every window seal. behind the bumpers, etc etc. Ends up being complete body rebuilds (which is why they make the show). John it sounds like you've got it all under control. You'll notice a massive difference in road noise reduction after you do the wheel arches. If you can, also coat under the floorpan and it will be almost silent inside I wouldn't fit in one either, I tried when I was in my early 20's and still didn't fit! You know you are getting old when the height of the drivers seat becomes an issue....
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Post by davy on Dec 10, 2016 17:10:32 GMT
I had to rewire one recently,,not a pretty sight,, imagine trying to get an elephant into a mini😂
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Post by johnno on Dec 10, 2016 23:13:04 GMT
When i first got it I was going to fit a lowering kit on it to bring it down to the height of the chrome bumper models as these rubber bumper models where mainly made to comply for the US market where the biggest majority of them went, they still have a big following in the US
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Post by johnno on Dec 30, 2016 23:46:58 GMT
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Post by davy on Dec 31, 2016 1:17:06 GMT
Coming along nicely John,, will be a wee thing of beauty in the summer cruising around.
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Post by Dragon Man on Dec 31, 2016 13:54:17 GMT
Turning into a 100% restoration job Going to be a pearler.
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Post by johnno on Jan 7, 2017 23:12:40 GMT
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Post by johnno on Feb 2, 2017 14:43:20 GMT
Davy, a question about MOT. Securing the battery, I know it as to be secure under the bonnet but what about mine with it being in its own little compartment? I've tried to fit one them securing kits but I can't make it fit due to the size of the battery so I wedged a block of wood down the side of it. It can't fall out or move.
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Post by davy on Feb 2, 2017 15:21:25 GMT
Visa brought in condition of wiring as well now,, no bare wires ect,, fouling..
Battery wise if you can't see it,, without removing anything,, yo can't test it,, ie if it has a lid screwed down or a carpet not easily to move to check,, we are not allowed to unscrew anything...
If a car came in with a wheel bolt missing,, it's a failure,, car could go round the corner and guy could put a wheel trim on wheel covering the wheel bolts, I would need to pass it,, even though I know it's missing... can't remove even a wheel trim
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Post by davy on Feb 2, 2017 15:23:32 GMT
Did you not get the battery box lid..I would advise on it,,the way it is showing just now,, it not exactly going to fall out.
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Post by johnno on Feb 2, 2017 21:33:59 GMT
Cheers Davy, yes I have a screw down lid, I've just finished working in the compartment, have fitted a battery isolator cut off switch and put a 2.5 amp auto reset polyfuse across the terminal. that as bare wires but I've wired it to negative [earth] side of the battery but you cant see it without removing battery. Wiring isn't all that bad under the dash there is a couple of wires that have had the ends cut off and I have somewhere in the garage them wire end caps lying around some where so I'll see if a can find them and fit them on the ends. There is a white paper done last November about classic and vintage car MOT's, they are looking into reducing the criteria for passing a MOT
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Post by johnno on Feb 17, 2017 22:17:30 GMT
Carpet set finally arrived, had to wait 4 weeks for them to be made from a local firm and I've put down jute felt underlay everywhere, new red seat belts and a bit of chrome in the here and there, all there is left to do is fit passenger seat refit the soft top and change all the oils and it should be on the road. I might lay some underlay in the boot with what I've got left over. Did a few jobs while I was waiting for the carpets, fit new speedo drive pinion and seals coz the speedo was bouncing all over the place 0-30. Wax oiled inner pannels, was having problems starting it when it's not been fired up for a while, turned out to be the fuel pump, so what it would cost for a rebuild kit hopped for a new SU electronic one that does away with the points. I thought while I had the heater control out loose for the carpets I would have a crack at the heater, I did say earlier that I was not going to do it because I couldn't get the heater box out which according to MG technical advice hot line for members say you had to remove it to free off the flap and replace cable, well i got news for them numpties, I managed to free off the flap and fit a new solid [ piano wire accually a inner choke cable ] inner cable as the original is multi stranded and is not up to the job for push and pull type control, took me 2 hours and a load of swearing, the hardest part was trying to get the inner cable to go through the nipple as you had to guess where the hole was working in a 2 by 2 inch opening. Also I did say I was going to fit some chrome bezels for the instrument dials because the black paint was blistering around the clocks so I got a rag with a drop of thinners and gently rubbed the bezels and the paint came off, looks quite nice like brush alloy effect.
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Post by davy on Feb 17, 2017 22:37:15 GMT
Looking fantastic John, yeah deafening out the rear end may be good when driving,, keeping down the noise from the back end, The interior is looking very very nice,,, Know what you mean about working under the dash of these when your a big guy.
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Post by johnno on Feb 21, 2017 0:18:12 GMT
Cheers Davy, I'm happy how it's turned out, its finally getting there all the interior is now finished, soft top on which was a pain to refit, oil's changed except for diff, need to give it a run and see if it clonks if it does then I'll change the trust washers and spacers I've got them on order the anti clonk kit coming just in case. Underlayed the boot and in the corners over the chassis legs, looks like new ones and relayed the carpet loose over the top then noticed I forgot to order a vent pipe for the SU pump as there is a smell of fuel in the boot hopefully that will come tomorrow. Not seen metal oil cans for ages. Castrol Classic oil got to fit these when I get it out of the garage
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Post by johnno on Mar 20, 2017 15:34:45 GMT
Finally got the old girl finished, just sorted out the last few things to do this morning took it for a spin and all seems ok and its booked in for its MOT tomorrow morning. The last 3 weeks as been a pain, took it for its first run out and it broke down, just died on me, then about 10 minutes later it fired up and drove home, rechecked everything and couldn't find anything wrong so waited for another dry day got 3 miles down the road again and the same thing happened waited about 5 - 10 minutes and it fired back up and off home again, checked the new SU fuel pump make sure that was pumping out fuel which is about a pint a minute, did it in less 30 seconds so no problems there, blew out the fuel lines from pump to carbs and there was a bit of crap that came through, removed the bottom plate of the float chamber { HIF4 carbs} and that was fairly clean, so the only thing left was the electronic side of things. So I rang the people who I got the electronic ignition from and they said return it to them so they can test it and that came back as no fault found, so I decided to do a modification to the coil side, ordered another sports coil but this time a 3 ohms coil not the 1.5 ohms which it should have, and bypass the resistor wire which is in the wiring loom and take a live from the fuse box direct to the coil and took it for another run and guess what it bloody conked out again, this time I had a boot full of tools with me and a couple of spare parts so changed the rotor first, still the same, changed the dizzy cap still the same so I'm scratching my head and got the multi meter out and checked the voltage at the coil and that was ok at 12 volts then I got it running again and checked the voltage again and wow this time with the engine running it's showing 18 volts. I thought '' what the %^$£ '' its over charging, checked the Alternator and battery both showing 18 volts so drove home and ordered a new Alternator, that came and threw it on and that was the problem went for a 30 mile run and it ran OK. The only thing I can think of was happening was the electronic ignition was getting hot and shutting down due to the 18 volts. Got to give it another run to make sure when the sun comes out.
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