Tuesday Night Shenanigans

Busy night... research shows our radiator cap should be 10 psi, not 7... i will order one from Moss tonight.

(The Panic List has been updated)

Welded bolts onto the cut off rear bumper mount beams. Nice and grody job too. Nasty piece of work that is:



...a few bolts and washers later and Bob's Your Uncle, we have a rear bumper. Pre-dented, rusty, off kilter, and falling apart. Perfect. I'm thinking that under-valence could use some blackout spray paint though...



Front bumper installed (it's mounting brackets are bent too); tow hook dangling lazily underneath :


Petrol Lid finally painted and riveted on; no latch yet. Think the color is too subtle?



"Feed Me!":


Seat harness bolts attached. The right side goes into the normal seat belt attach point, however the left side seat belt attach point was covered over by the rollbar down-tube spreader plates (oops!) so I filtched some grade-8 seat attach spreader plates from the captains lounge chairs from the HattenBus and ta da! finally bolted back in. There is one of those thick gold plates on top and underneath the floorboards. Belts not tightened up yet.


Seat back support brace; spent a good 30 minutes creating a good pin to lock it in place, then accidentally found a perfect one at Tractor Supply when my daughter & I stopped there after gymnastics to check out the baby chickens. The proper pin is the gold half circle in the right half of the pic; ain't it cool:

The Panic List

The alternator looks to be fixed (for now), and the nice steady voltage has also fixed the jumping fuel pressure problem.

And now for something completely gormless, The List:

1. Mount transponder holder from race bike
2. Run through the Charging System Checkout list in back of the Moss Catalog
3. Fabricate "dashboard" to hold voltmeter, gauges; mount to dash; wire gauges
4. Wire up radio, fix base station to car (10 to 20 minutes)
5. Install brake light switch, position adjustment
   
6. Need to attach rear view mirror (have), and buy/steal drivers side mirror (30 to 60 minutes)
7. Wire up HattenBus 7-pin towing connector
8. Battery Box lid strap needs replacing
9. Plexiglas Windshield could use some sanding/polishing/rain-xing
10. Steering wheel adjustment
11. Cram some radiator repair epoxy into overflow seal.
12. Zip tie in roll bar padding (10 minutes)
13. Attach doors with better plates/rivets; remove all drywall screws! (30 minutes)
14. Paint "7" on the doors, roof, hood
15. (very optional) Weld or attach back tow hook (2 to 20 minutes)
16. Lift: Install new front rotors, pads, hoses (2 hours)
17. Lift: Install rear drum pads, hoses (2 hours)
18. Lift: Install new rear stop straps when brake drums are off car (30 minutes)
19. Lift: Bleed brakes (30 minutes)
20. Lift: Oil, oil filter change (20 minutes)
21. Lift: Change differential fluid (20 minutes)
22. Lift: Change transmission fluid (20 minutes)
23. Lift: Weld / patch hole in muffler (30 to 60 minutes)
24. Paint fuel door lid (10 minutes)
25. Rivet fuel door lid to trunk
26. Install fuel door lid handle, latch (or safety pins) (3 to 30 minutes)
27. Drill new holes for seat belt attach (spreader plates covered old holes) , install belts (50 minutes)
28. Drill hole for seat back support, install safety pin (35 minutes)
29. Install brake lights, run wires
30. Weld or just attach front bumper tow hook (2 or 20 minutes)
31. Reinstall front bumper (10 minutes)
32. Weld bolts to back bumper beams (60 minutes)
33. Attach back bumper (10 minutes)
34. Procure and attach fire extinguisher METAL bracket
35. Need crankcase breather (no open tubes allowed in race)
    
    

...and it's red headed stepchild, The Shopping List:

1. Drivers side mirror; maybe passenger side too?
   
2. Fuel door latch (for 90 degree door edge), if safety pins deemed too non-english
3. Four 2+ inch grade 8 washers for seat belt attach points
4. Metal fire extinguisher bracket
5. Maybe a 12 volt cigarette lighter socket for radio (I think I have one of these somewhere)
   

...and it's abused hedgehog pet, The Cabbage¹ List:

1. Alternator
2. Radiator?
3. Brake parts?
4. Coil / distributor?
   

¹ Cabbage: to nick, flog, pilfer, pinch, half-inch, or otherwise steal from your unsuspecting 1979 MGB LE in order to bring to the race as insurance.

Gormless indeed

This weekends adventures... 1.5 weeks till the race and we are indeed GORMLESS!!!!!!!!!!

The alternator was not charging the battery at all, thereby causing sadness where the joy of ignition should reside.

Took apart the alternator (the only way to see which of the four alts used that year is on the inside cover. Cheeky Brits.) and found a disconnected connection between the first circuit board and the second. Lucas Was Here!

I will do some gymnastic-surgery and repair it, however the question is now: should I scrounge a junkyard alt, order the circut board part, or just buy a new alt for it?? If this connection failed, the others will not be far behind. You can't tell from the pic, but there are several charred and/or melted looking wires, insulation, connections, or terminals.


As for the radiator leak, turns out is was the overflow nipple that was loose. It was a press fit.
Larry & Bob tried to solder it and clean it and solder it and weld it and clean it and solder it and melt it and braze it, all for naught. Condenses on the MGB list is that it should only leak when the radiator cap opens, and that should only be under overheating conditions, so it's not do or die. Choices for this particular mini-disaster are:

1. Use some good epoxy and try to Gerry-rig it
2. Swap the radiator with the '79 (not exact same though)
3. Take out rad, take to radiator repair shop.
4. Leave as is; Keep Calm and Carry On
   

Firewall less holey, more Englishy

Worked on the firewall more this evening, with the help of Ian (cutting and riveting), Maggie (cutting) and Kira (harassment). The brake pedal box cover had been removed by Previous Owner it was quite vexing trying to fit a replacement, but Stiff Upper Lip pip pip keep looking and Bob's Your Uncle the Earl Gray Tea tin box fit perfectly and looks very proper. Only need one 1.70 or 1.75 inch grommet and a few minor patches here and there and we are done with that task.


Also picked up a '73 B's grill from that most awesome place known as Crazy Ray's - it's not quite year-proper, but the grill pattern is tighter than the metal vertical slats of the earlier models, and will therefore stop more race track debris from impaling our poor radiator. Ian was happy to have the honor of zip-tying the beastie on; should look quite smashing with the metal bumper in place... after all: what good is James Bond's Oxford cut suit without the matching tie?

Fuel Cell Quarantine

Since the Fuel Cell doesn't have a FAI stickier on it (even though the company makes the same cells for another company which is FAI listed), I decided to play it safe and quarantine the tank as per LeMons rules. So, all holes between tank and driver compartment must be sealed.

I had a blast making this; heaven knows why - it was a real pain.

This took the better part of 2 days, and I don't have to door done yet - but you get the idea:

That's the fuel cell at the bottom that the scissors are sitting on


Underside of 2nd half of trunk lid, made with a galvanized steel shelf and parts from a sliding door track:



The not-quite finished trunk lid assembly. All rivets making it one piece, sheet metal screws holding it to the frame members. The screws are LONG so if they ever come loose, we'll see them long before they escape. Kira helped on the painting.

2013 UPDATE!

MGB GT gets an FIA rated ATL Fuel Cell

Roll Cage modifications

The LeMons and ChumpCar rules have very particular descriptions on safety items, Roll Cage being primary. Danged if we're going to show up at a race and be refused because our back bars are at 50 degrees instead of 45... so mods were in order. Xtreame Welding in Mt. Airy Maryland did a fantastic job, with very little notice and even less space to work with. I laid out the mods using Christmas Wrapping Paper tubes and cardboard before hand:

Racing the MGB GT

We are getting a 1968 to 1972 (it has parts from a few B's) MGB GT ready to race for the April 9th 24 Hours of LeMons race at New Jersey Motorsports Park... The Real Hoopties of New Jersey 2011


The white GT in this messy pic: