Well I am neither the writer nor the mechanic that John is, but I thought it might be fun to document the work on the new project too.
For those who don't know, I, with major help from John, am taking on a big MGB project. A guy I know started this project and decided it wasn't for him. He gave me two cars, mostly disassembled. Sunday, Sept 21, we began gathering the pieces.
Much of the car(s) is in boxes as seen above. Amazing how much more space a car takes up disassembled. I piled up boxes in my garage. The Pilot is now an outdoor car.
Both MGs have the engines removed. The better of the two engines has already had some work done at a local shop. I picked it up Thursday, Sept 25. Pictures below are on the trailer in my garage.
Hopefully the motor and transmission are good to go, but it will be a while before I know that.
Saturday, Sept 27 was the big day of moving cars. The first (the primer car) was easy as it was in the driveway. We rolled it onto the trailer and got it to Grafton. It is going to be the parts car which gets stripped.
The second car (the white car) is the keeper. Both are rusty, but the white one is less rusty in some key areas, or so says John. It was also on flat tires, down a small hill, in a back yard. A bit of muscle, a bit of patience, and eventually a couple of tow ropes and the white car too made it to the driveway. We put it on the trailer, stopped at a car wash for some pressure washing, then took it to Broad Cove.
Saturday, Oct 4 the carnage began on the primer car. We pulled off everything John thought might be useful including doors, wiring, windshield, and all sorts of other bits John tried to explain to me. Much of that stuff is now piled in my garage. Some, along with the shell of the primer car, still sits at Grafton. I didn't have my camera that day. John - any pictures to share? From this point forward, all work will be on the white car.
During the week I have been pretty busy, but I do wander in the garage and organize and clean things. I am sure the quality isn't the finest, but putting a coat of black paint on parts is fun. Below is a freshly painted transmission mount. It will look really good for anyone who happens to hang out under the car.
The next weekend, Oct 11, Doke was in town, but we did some work anyway. We took the front suspension off the white car. It was remarkably easy since someone had already removed the bolts. We took it to a car wash and pressure washed some of the accumulated dirt, grease, and oil found under forty-year-old cars. Putting the suspension back on properly was a bit of a chore, but kind of important if you want the front wheels to stay on. It is just temporary as new parts are coming which will require removing it again. John removed the fuel pump and took it home for cleaning.
During the week I bought some shelves and organized the garage a bit.
Yesterday (Oct 18) John came over in the morning with the freshly cleaned fuel pump and a new battery. We started by removing the old gas tank. I now have three rusty, unusable gas tanks. Awesome. We then set to work on rust in the trunk. We cut out a piece which we will try to match from the primer car. John then went to work reinstalling the fuel pump. To assist in the fuel pump installation, we Googled "MGB fuel pump" on the iPad. One of the useful pictures that came up was from John's blog. I worked on rust. Did I mention there is a lot of rust? After the pump was installed, we hooked it up to some power and were able to pump from the back to the front. So far, so good.
So that is where things are now. Progress is being made and I am enjoying working on a car when it is OK that I make mistakes. John thinks we might have her on the road next summer. Jane is politely getting used to weirder than usual smells and extra laundry.
