The Finished Car. When?

So, when is this car going to be finished? That is something I ask myself every day. I guess the answer is it is finished when it is finished. So, these pictures show where I am as of Oct. 18, 2008. However, what is not shown here is a basement full of finished parts ready to go on. The next major project is to rebuild the gear box. When that is finished, most of the mechanical aspects of the car will come together. Then there is the body work to do.

Fuel System

I tried to use the original gas tank but it was badly dented and rusted, New gas tanks aren't too expensive so I opted for a new tank. Only one of the straps that support the gas tank was whole, though, like everything else, badly rusted. As shown below, the other strap had the lower half missing. I cut a new strip from 18 gage sheet metal and welded it in.

The car came with a rubber hose connected from the gas tank to the fuel pump, which was missing. Because of this, I had no idea how the gas line was routed from the tank to the fuel pump. I thought it ran inside the frame. Wrong! At the Minter Gardens Car Show I crawled under every MGA there to see how to fit the gas line. It runs outside the frame as shown here. The fuel pump is a new solid state model of the original SU electric pump. No sticking points to worry about now.

The Engine

The engine is the most expensive part of the car to rebuild. Fortunately, I was able to buy a rebuilt 1600 cc short block from Geoff Pickard. This saved me a lot of money and work. I chased down a rebuilt cylinder head on ebay for a song. The rockers were rebuilt with a new shaft, rebushing and reaming the rocker arms (Fortin's again), and replacing the aluminium support brackets with MGB cast iron ones. Other parts were purchased to rebuild the generator and distributor. The generator was tested for shorts and then all new bushings and bearings installed. The commutator was turned, and new brushes installed. The distributor had new points, rotor, cap, spark plug wires, and spark plugs installed. The timing was set to ten degrees advance BTDC.

Front Suspension

There is a lot to do when rebuilding the MG front suspension. All of the rubber bushings were replaced with modern polyurethane bushings. All rubber seals were replaced. All of the trunion (link) bushings were replaced and reamed to fit (done by Fortin's machine shop). All other points of wear were replaced. The wheel hub bearings were cleaned, checked for wear, and repacked with grease. Everything was cleaned, sandblasted, and painted.

Steering Rack

MG uses a rack and pinion type of steering. There are very few parts that wear in the steering rack. Unfortunately, the factory used a grease fitting (a zerk) for filling the steering rack with 90W gear oil. I say unfortunately because service garages who do not know MG cars and see the zerk will fill the rack with grease. This a no-no as the rack does not receive proper lubrication filled with grease. Mine was, of course, packed with grease. Because of this, I had to tear it down to wash out the grease. After installing new rubber gaiters, I filled the rack with the proper gear oil.

Heater Rebuild

I like rebuilding parts like the heater shown here. This is because I can do the rebuilding in the workshop in dead of winter. I was stripping body parts off in January and had to heat my tools in the propane heater before I could hold them.

Seat Frames

The car sat in an open field for several years in all kinds of weather. The seat padding soaked up and stored water, hence the rusted state of the seat frames. This required much cutting out of rusted sections and shaping and welding in new tubing.

FRAME REPAIR

The frame looked good until I tapped the bottom of the rails with a hammer. Ping, it knocked holes in the rusted out, paper thin frame rails. So, out comes the cut-off wheel grinder, welder, and finishing grinder. The dented cross member looks difficult to repair but it was actually dead simple. My frame rotator was made from two inexpensive engine stands. I could not have done the repairs without it.