getting there...

Now that the holidays are nearly over I have had some time to blog about some of the work I have completed. I have the carbs nearly done. Somewhere in the process I lost the connecting rod that goes between the two carbs. Bruce is buying that for me along with some other bits and do-dads. Yeah! Thanks Dad. I have the gas tank re-installed. Here is a pic of the tank in the living room next to the Christmas tree. Yeah, I have a great wife.

I started some other work as well, draining the oil and finding upon refill that the valve cover gasket leaks like crazy; repairs the cooling system are going to involve a new branch pipe as well as hoses.

In leu of the leaking valve cover gasket, I have decided to change out as many gaskets as I can without tearing down the entire engine. So the tappet cover, water pump and everything around it, valve cover, and head cover plate,  are all getting new gaskets. As you might expect parts are on order. That seems to be a recurring theme.

I also checked compression and found all the cylinders have great compression!

The next step is getting the carbs on and the fuel pump mounted, getting the linkage to the carbs working well, and then tearing into the cooling system. I'm feeling really good about the kind of progress I'm making and unless I have a wicked setback we should be turning this baby over by spring as planned. Fingers crossed.

Wahooooo!

I've been waiting what seems like forever for my latest parts order to come in. So in the meantime I have been looking for stuff to do on the car without getting too far ahead of myself. I decided to see if the vacuum pots for the carbs would polish up. I took some metal polish and some 000 steel wool and went to town. They came out nice and still look original.


I also pulled the spark plugs, shot a little PB Blaster in each cylinder, removed the big steel tow bumper and gently cranked the engine with the manual crank. It turned freely! I am super excited that the engine is not seized, that means that there may not be a need to rebuild the engine. I am still planning to check the compression in each cylinder later.

Some other good news; I found a treasure trove of info on the internet this past week.
This link is to a very thorough restoration with tons of pictures
 http://www.dbraun99.com/mgtd15470/MG%20TD%2015470%20Restoration.html

And this link is to a bunch of videos on youtube dealing with MG stuff
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Universitymotorsltd#p/u/57/7GRAcqDySog

Very cool. Also, my parts will be arriving on Monday so I should be able to get the fuel system back together.

Making a little progress

Today I finally got to work on the MG. Over Thanksgiving break I decided to play outdoors climbing and mountain biking and give the MG a rest. This week I have been missing it; so today I wanted to get some stuff done.

I took a wire wheel to the rusty bits on the back of the gas tank and where the tank meets the body then treated it with some Eastwood rust converter and rust encapsulator. I didn't take pictures because it's an ugly fix and really temporary just to stop any active rust. Remember, this is just a revival of the MG not a restoration. Restoration will come much later.

I also took the carbs off, cleaned up the outside, then took one carb apart completely and it is now soaking in carb cleaner. The book I bought on SU carbs and pumps was a great help. I'm leaving one carb intact just in case I have a really hard time putting the other back together. I must confess that carburetors were one part of an engine that I just didn't "get." I know the principle of how they work but the tuning and rebuilding were beyond me. The SU seems like a carb I can really get into and learn. It's actually pretty simple. We'll see how well I do at putting everything back together and actually getting them to work. Could be famous last words. I also figured out how to put a fuel filter before the fuel pump. It will look quite out of place under the bonnet but after all this work on the carbs I really want to keep any crap from the tank I missed out of there.

I'm still waiting on my last big parts order to arrive but when it does I'll be able to really hammer this car back together. I still feel like I'm very much on track to having this beast running by spring. I can't wait to hear the engine run.

Just Bought A Bunch-O-Parts

Hopefully I have just purchased my last big parts order for the MG. These are the obvious things, carb rebuild kit, fuel pump rebuild kit, fan belt, water pump hoses, fuel sending unit, and lots of little do-dads. Holy Crap it adds up fast! With this last order I will be busy for months.

On a side note: Thanks Ross for offering to help rebuild some carbs. I'll bring a bribe of some sort.

Cheers
K

The Fuel System

The fuel tank is as clean as I can get it. I let it soak with a solution of muratic acid and water for about 24 hours then rinsed several times with water. A lot of crud came out and it looks really clean on the insides that I can see so I think it is in good shape. I blew out the line going from the pump to the tank and it was full of old bad gas. I  sprayed a lot of carb cleaner in there and it is sitting at the moment waiting to be blown out. I think I will put some kind of temporary inline disposable filter before the fuel pump to catch any initial crud that may be lingering.

I have also started on the fuel pump. It is disassembled and cleaned. Now I have a good idea what I will need to get for my next parts buy. I can't decide what color to paint the pump case, either black or red. I'll surf around and see what it was stock. Here is the pump before I took it apart for cleaning. I'm worried that I may get kinda bogged down with the carbs. I must confess that carburetors baffle me so I may enlist some help from others on that one. The SU carbs really intrigue me so I really want to learn how they work and how to tune them. 

The Tank is out.

I am totally on a roll. The gas tank virtually popped out tonight.

I am really quite amazed at what little resistance it put up. So far, very un-MG of it. I am pleased to report that the inside of the tank is not as bad as I feared. I removed about a quart of very old gas that really stank up the place. But upon removal of the sending unit I only saw some very mild surface rust and the expected glumps of varnish. Overall not bad. The tank is in great shape but I fear that the sending unit is pooched. The float doesn't move and the base is covered in some kind of  grey glop. I'll hit it with a little carb cleaner and if it frees up I can then get Bruce to help me test the circuitry to see if it can be salvaged.

The next step is cleaning the inside of the tank. I was thinking of using a tank sealer but after reading some other guys experience with it and seeing that the tank is baffled at least three times, I'm just going to clean it up and let it roll. I also have to somehow clean the fuel hardlines before tackling the SU carbs and fuel pump. I hope to get the tank cleaned this weekend. We'll see.

The Brakes are DONE!

Well, it took twice as long as I thought it would and about twice as much money, but the brakes on the MG are finally done! I think the thing that took so long was all the cleaning that needed to take place. The entire front axle was covered in a thick layer of grease and grime that was very stubborn. One interesting thing about that layer of goop, it protected the rubber on the suspension and kept it nice and soft. That's one less thing to replace right now. When I eventually dive into a full on restoration I'll replace all the bushings and rubber bits then.

So, here's what I did to the brakes:
rebuilt the master cylinder - cleaning it inside and out, then rust-proofing the outside
new wheel cylinders on the front, new shoes on the front
cleaned the brake backing plates front and back really well
rebuilt the rear wheel cylinders
replaced the emergency brake cables
I had to replace one of the front brake hard lines as it twisted and kinked in removal.
cleaned the brake drums really well
re-greased the bearings

So, what have I learned?
1. The MG will teach me patience. Frustration leads to stripped bolts and since all the bolts are whitworth I have to be very careful in removal of things. There's no running up to the hardware store for replacements.
2. PB Blaster is my friend. I soak everything the night before I am going to work on it and so far I have been able to remove everything with minimal fuss.
3. Whitworth tools are really expensive! So I went up to Harbor Freight and bought a cheap set of box wrenches and took my disc grinder to 'em. It's working pretty well for the open end stuff.


Next step, the fuel delivery system!

A labor of love...

So, how did I get here?

Well, this story begins with my father-in-law and a 1953 MG TD he bought around his first year of college in 1959. This car was and is his pride and joy. He drove the MG for years, got married and started having babies. Life happens and the car got parked in the garage. It was moved to a couple different states as the family moved around and driven occasionally until he took a job overseas. It was then that the car sat in the garage for years on end. I believe it sat untouched for about 16 years. About 6 years ago my wife and I got married. We have a wonderful blended family with 5 kids (but that's a story for another time.) Shortly after we were married, my in-laws moved to our area to be close to us and the kids. It's been great. The kids get to see their grandparents all the time and for me I have really gotten to know my in-laws very well and to love them a great deal. And when they moved, the MG moved too. So, this past year Bruce, my father-in-law, decided that the MG had sat long enough and he was going to get it running again. He knew that the brakes were shot so that's where he started and he purchased some parts. It was too hard. You see, working on a car in your garage with no lift can be grueling and painful. It hurt his back so that one afternoon turning wrenches left him with days of back pain. He got very frustrated and was ready to get rid of the car. I always thought his car was cool, but I was a Volkswagen guy and never had any interest in MGs. I had just "restored" a 1974 bug for my wife and I had a 1979 Westy camper bus that was wanting my attention but I could not let this car leave the family. My wife and her brother have many great memories of their family and this car. Dave, my wife's brother, lives overseas and has no where to put the car much less get it there. So, after a brief discussion we offered to "buy" the car. I use the quotation marks on buy because our offer was stupidly low but it was all we could do. Bruce sold/gave us the car. I could tell it was a painful time for him to finally part with his baby and the pictures of him as the car was leaving his garage tell the story of what he was feeling.

I believe that all the other cars I have ever worked on have in some way led me to this car. My sole purpose of buying this car and getting it running again is so that Bruce can drive it again. That's it. I love him like he is my father and just the thought of him driving his beloved MG again makes me well up.

I'm doing this blog for a few reasons:
1. I want to journal this experience for my kids.
2. It is a great way for me to share the experience with Dave so he can follow my progress.
3. It is a way for me to honor a man who means the world to me and how through his example has taught me so much.