We started the process of removing paint. As suspected, we definitely have some challenges on the rear wheel arches. We did not expect though to find significant body damage to the passenger rear fender by the tail light:
We also found the car had been side swiped on the drivers's side, impacting the front fender, door, and rear fender:
The driver's door looks like we can hammer it out and use a very thin layer of filler. We have a patch panel for the front fender. But the damage to both rear fenders, including the arches, is troubling and could be expensive for patch panels and/or take a lot of time to fabricate patches. We are looking into options to address these concerns.
Friday, October 20, 2017
Monday, October 9, 2017
Got it running!
I think we found the reason for no spark - pulled down on the little carbon brush inside the distributor cap to make better contact with the rotor and then had spark. Not completely sure, because as usual we were changing several things at once. The car now has a good used set of points and condenser in it, plus we replaced the dainty wire inside the distributor (prior owner had used a thick wire which limits the movement of the timing advance mechanism). Later we will likely put in all new parts for ignition to complete a full tuneup.
Here's a video of the car on it's initial run after being dormant for a long time. Never did get the time period completely straight from the prior owner, could have been 20 years or maybe even 40.
The engine ran amazingly well. Idled nicely, no smoke, valve clatter normal. Good oil pressure, almost 40 psi at hot idle, and temp gauge read normal levels. Clutch and transmission both seemed to work just fine. The one glaring need is the steering has a huge amount of drag, I suspect the kingpins are almost frozen. Looks like we will get to do some front suspension work.
Here's a video of the car on it's initial run after being dormant for a long time. Never did get the time period completely straight from the prior owner, could have been 20 years or maybe even 40.
The engine ran amazingly well. Idled nicely, no smoke, valve clatter normal. Good oil pressure, almost 40 psi at hot idle, and temp gauge read normal levels. Clutch and transmission both seemed to work just fine. The one glaring need is the steering has a huge amount of drag, I suspect the kingpins are almost frozen. Looks like we will get to do some front suspension work.
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Refining our Plan of Attack
Ray and I were both out of town a lot again, so slow progress. We made a run to Jonesboro, Arkansas to visit Don Bridger to purchase a good used gas tank. Ended up coming home with a whole lot more - sheet metal panels, windshield assembly, carpet kit, oil cooler, light lenses, brake box cover, straps for gas tank, fuel sending unit, etc. Very productive trip.
Took fuel tank to Dave at Brown's Radiator and had it cleaned and treated.
We now have the hydraulic systems bled and they work fine. Also the clutch disc is not frozen to the flywheel, good news. We did find the rear brake shoes were delaminated, so put on new shoes. Vince fixed the hand brake lever by installing some springs inside the handle to make it work right. We were given a used SU fuel pump, which turns out to work just fine. During installation of the fuel pump though we removed the fuel line between the tank and pump and found the following:
The fuel line was rusted completely through where it touched the bottom of the trunk floor, seen in the middle of the above picture. Good thing we took it out, we would have struggled to find this reason for not getting fuel. Bought generic metal line from Autozone and formed is as a replacement, worked just fine. We now have fuel to the carbs and no leaks (well, one more VERY small leak at the fuel pump, we'll fix that later).
Checked compression again, got about 150 for the first three cylinders but the fourth drops down to about 100. This is good enough to run the engine, and we are hopeful that it's crud on the valve seat that will clear after running.
Our main issue right now is we have no spark. Even swapped the cap, wires, and coil from another car with no success. Have 12 volts to the coil and distributor. So we get to work inside the distributor now. Once we get spark, we should have a running and driveable car.
We've also done more checking into the rocker panel and structural issues. At some point in the past a beefy piece of angle iron (2 inch legs, 1/4 inch thick) was installed in the area of the inner sills that passes from front wheel well to rear wheel well. This replaces the structural integrity you get from the box section of the rocker panels. We have measured the deflection of the car with doors open and find it has the same stiffness of our two other MGB's. So we are very comfortable in replacing the rocker panels on the outside without completely recreating the inner box section from the car's original design. Put another way, once we are done with the rocker panel and lower fender repairs we think the car will look completely stock and probably be stronger that stock. We also have found a friend that has a welder and expertise who will weld in our new panels for us this winter.
After driving the car and fixing whatever that turns up, we will start removing paint. We are very curious what lurks under that crappy paint job!
Took fuel tank to Dave at Brown's Radiator and had it cleaned and treated.
We now have the hydraulic systems bled and they work fine. Also the clutch disc is not frozen to the flywheel, good news. We did find the rear brake shoes were delaminated, so put on new shoes. Vince fixed the hand brake lever by installing some springs inside the handle to make it work right. We were given a used SU fuel pump, which turns out to work just fine. During installation of the fuel pump though we removed the fuel line between the tank and pump and found the following:
The fuel line was rusted completely through where it touched the bottom of the trunk floor, seen in the middle of the above picture. Good thing we took it out, we would have struggled to find this reason for not getting fuel. Bought generic metal line from Autozone and formed is as a replacement, worked just fine. We now have fuel to the carbs and no leaks (well, one more VERY small leak at the fuel pump, we'll fix that later).
Checked compression again, got about 150 for the first three cylinders but the fourth drops down to about 100. This is good enough to run the engine, and we are hopeful that it's crud on the valve seat that will clear after running.
Our main issue right now is we have no spark. Even swapped the cap, wires, and coil from another car with no success. Have 12 volts to the coil and distributor. So we get to work inside the distributor now. Once we get spark, we should have a running and driveable car.
We've also done more checking into the rocker panel and structural issues. At some point in the past a beefy piece of angle iron (2 inch legs, 1/4 inch thick) was installed in the area of the inner sills that passes from front wheel well to rear wheel well. This replaces the structural integrity you get from the box section of the rocker panels. We have measured the deflection of the car with doors open and find it has the same stiffness of our two other MGB's. So we are very comfortable in replacing the rocker panels on the outside without completely recreating the inner box section from the car's original design. Put another way, once we are done with the rocker panel and lower fender repairs we think the car will look completely stock and probably be stronger that stock. We also have found a friend that has a welder and expertise who will weld in our new panels for us this winter.
After driving the car and fixing whatever that turns up, we will start removing paint. We are very curious what lurks under that crappy paint job!
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