Restoration Journal Up to Now
Picked up the car in Frostburg, MD. About 600 miles round-trip. Used trailer from Gary Zastocki and Brian Evans’ Expedition. Costs: Gas - $111, tolls - $31. MPG on return trip about 11!
Documents received from Brad Barkley –
- State of
- Inspection receipt from
- Excise Tax receipt,
History to be documented separately.
Odometer currently reads 63,935, which appears to be accurate from above documents. Condition is as expected. Body overall very decent. Floorboards have some surface rust but no holes. Looks like passenger’s side was replaced at some point, perhaps rocker too as it’s better than the driver’s side. Latter one has one small hole and some surface bubbling. Aluminum hood in excellent condition – no dents. Bumpers in very good shape – one dent each (rear is on an overrider) although the chrome is somewhat pitted. Looks like someone mounted driving lights on the front bumper – two holes drilled through between the overriders.
Interesting to note that car was built in October 1964 but apparently not titled until 1966 model year. But I will consider it a 1965.
Engine is apparently not original, according to the BMIHT certificate. However, it appears to still be a Mk I engine, just about 5600 engines later….
Discovered this afternoon that the car has apparently been converted to negative earth and one battery. Hooked up the car to the van and the horn worked, taillights and one headlight worked, radio light came on and the starter clicked when I turned the key.
Wow, guess it’s been a while….! I located some more parts – 4 hubcaps and the air cleaner assemblies. Paid $15 for the hubcaps (a couple are apparently kind of dinged up) and $30 for the air cleaner assemblies. Hope to get them soon.
I had also located a 5-main engine from a ’66 B in the Philly area, guy wanted $450 for it and the transmission. I’ve been hemming and hawing about it and I think I’ve decided to just rebuild what I currently have in the car, regardless of the fact that it’s an earlier engine. So, after the holidays, I need to really get cracking and get an engine stand and pull everything out. Hopefully, I’ll get some gift certificates that I can use!
Spent an hour last night stripping the seats of their old coverings. It wasn’t too bad, except that the cushions were really badly deteriorated – pretty dusty! It was neat to discover a bit of the black carpet that was on the rear seatback along with some of the original upholstery – black with red piping, as I thought! There is a bit of rust on the lower frame rails but looks like I can simply sand it and repaint. Ed Kaler at JustBrits says he can get the Moss kits cheaper than Moss, so I’ll wait until the spring sale and see what their prices are. I may go ahead and order the webbing and foams, since they’re on sale now from Moss.
Spent a couple of hours between Saturday and Sunday using a wire wheel on the seat frames. Stripped off the surface rust from the bottom frames and cleaned them up generally. Had some difficulty with some of the bolts holding the tracks on (in fact still have one I have to get off). After doing this I took the entire frame apart for painting – used Rustoleum Satin Black. What a difference! They look almost brand new! Next step will be to order the diaphragm and cushions. I’d like to have them ready to go when the Moss interior kits go on sale (although I will probably buy them from Ed Kaler at JustBrits, since he said his price would be much cheaper). Problem is, I don’t think I can really afford the leather, so will probably go with vinyl (which is basically half the cost).
Also visited MGT’s in
Hard to believe that I haven’t recorded anything since February!! I finished the seats in September – they came out pretty nice! Wasn’t too difficult a job. I also purchased a used GB-series engine from Kai Radicke (short block) and am planning on suing that engine in the car. I bought that in August and am currently trying to get the flywheel removed so I can mount it on the engine stand I bought at Harbor Freight. I have also cleaned and restored the fan, fan pulley and air cleaners.
Still struggling with the flywheel bolts! Got 2 loosened with heat and banging on my socket wrench! The MG list recommended an impact driver, so I’ll pick one up at Sears. Some of the remaining bolts are starting to round a bit; hopefully, I can get them loosened without having to resort to drilling them out….
Yes, it’s been a while…..! In honor of British Car Week, rededicated myself to The Project! I decided to start stripping the body down, so I tackled the dashboard this week-end, between Saturday and Sunday. Spent about 5 hours working it off. It wasn’t too difficult a job, although the 2 bolts directly in front of the driver were tough, especially the left-hand one. Not much clearance under the scuttle panel on top, not enough to get a ratchet in until the bolt was backed out a bit… Can’t wait to try putting it back! I have a lot of baggies now, all labeled, and I also labeled all of the wires. Not sure why since I will end up putting a new wiring harness in it….. Oh well, it looks good for the pictures. The speaker box is in excellent shape, although I have to figure out how to clean the plastic a bit, as it’s faded. The grille itself is in incredible shape – wonder if it’s original?? It was nice to see that bright red paint under the dash… More confirmation of the origonal condition of this car.
I recently bought another set of hub caps that I think will look good. I have 4 good ones now, between the previous set I bought and these.
I rearranged the garage this past week-end. I now have the car in the center so I can easily access it. Put it up on jackstands tongith, and did a quick survey of the underneath. Looks like both floor pans have been replaced at some point, relatively recently. The rockers and castle rails are not too good, and a couple of the fenders need replacing. The front valence is pretty well trashed, looks like it was smashed into a couple of rocks. And the rear valence has a cut-out that looks like it was for a Monza-type muffler and dual exhaust tips….
I had repainted the dashboard after stripping it but am not too happy with the end result. The wrinkle finish is a little uneven, so I tried putting some additional coats on. Unfortunately, it looks like the more coats you put on, the less wrinkle effect you get. So I will probably strip it again and take it someplace to have it powdercoated. I found a place that’s not too far away. Have to check back with Ed at Platt’s Performance too.
Stripped out the interior panels, removed the door hardware (window winders, grab handles, etc). Looks like these are the original panels and the doors had the original vinyl panels under the interior panels that sealed the inner dooor and protected the window mechanisms from water and condensation…. They are thin vinyl sheets that were lightly adhered to the metal door skin. I’ll clean them up and re-install them when ready. The interior panels, hoowever, aren’t reusable, unfortunately. I thought maybe I could just clean them up but the bottoms are kinds of rotted…..
Finally was able to get out in the garage! Beautiful day, nice and warm…. I removed a bunch of small switches and parts from the wiring harness in the interior. I also went back and properly bagged and categorized some parts I had removed last fall and tossed into a box…. I’m finding it’s going to be really important to keep all of this stuff labelled and bagged properly, especially if I plan to restore some of these parts. Between October and now I located and purchased a couple of things I needed – turn signal switch (used but works great and looks decent), the door trim rails (proper style, with the rear points). I need to go back through my ‘missing parts’ list and update it.
Finally got some quality time with the car today. I took off the side moldings, the taillights and finally worked the front bumper free! The
Took the rear bumper off last night, the boolts were REALLY rusted. Had been treating them with PB Blaster for about a week, but ended up using the torch to remove them. Once they were heated up, they came undone but had to keep reheating them to undo them. But the good news is that the bumper bar itself is very straight, so it can be rechromed. The front one might need a little work. The overriders probably will have to be replaced. But the repor bumpers are supposedly crappy, so I’ll see what can be done with it.
Yes, the date is correct – 2005!! Haven’t done anything on the car (other than fill it with storage items) for over 2 years – mostly as a result of 1) lack of time and 2) the ’76 B having blown the head gsaket – I just didn’t feel like working on the ’65 with the ’76 laid up… But the ’76 is really close to being back on the road….
Last weekend I had to rearrange the garage to accommodate working on the ’76 while it was on jackstands, so I emptied all of the crap out of the ’65, pumped up the tires and put ‘er back on the floor (maily to shift it over a few feet).
Spent some time today going through the boxes of parts I have previously packed (and a lot I didn’t!). I put together a spreadsheet to track the parts that I removed and their condition etc.
Pretty much finished logging in all the old parts, and have removed some new stuff as well. Have been trying to figure out the engine. I’m pretty sure it’s a 3-main since it has the mechanical tach drive, but have been trying to uncover the ‘clock’ on the engine block that shows the casting date… There are a series of numbers at the same level as, and immediately in front of, the oil filter – 56 on top, with upside-down immediately below it ’14 A3D’ – I haven’t been able to decode this. I finally got the filter removed today but there doesn’t apppear to be a clock – just a number that appears to be ‘2’ where the clock should be. I looked at one of my spare GB-series engines, and it has the clock. I thought I saw somewhere that the early G-series engines may not have had this little clock….
Posted the ‘missing clock’ info on The MGB Experience forum but no definitive answer on the issue of whether or not the early G-series engines had a clock or not. I’ve actually been trying to get the engine to turn, I put some Marvel Mystery Oil into the cylinders and have tried to turn it by hand – no luck. I put some Liquid Wrench in there, and probably need to get a breaker bar to slip over the end of my socket wrench for some leverage….
I sent a letter off to Richard McDaniel, who was an owner of the car from the late ‘70’s to the early ‘80’s, asking him for any information he might have. Hopefully he’ll send me a reply!
I received an e-mail from Rick McDaniel – see the History document for the details.
Removed the steering wheel this past week-end. I think it’s repairable – it has separation at the side spokes, but the spokes are still attached to the metal rim, so it should simply be a question of filling the cracks with eposy and then sanding and painting it. The spokes themselves are in great shape, no rust at all. I will put a thin leather cover on it, and try to source a new hub for it.
Ok, I used some special putty to repair the cracks in the steering wheel last night. Once it hardens fully, I will sand it and use some black paint on the rim. I am still going to get a thin leather cover for it, like the MGC had. Still need to try and source a better horn unit for it.
Ooo, long time no work….! Actually, I’ve been working on the steering wheel for a while, and finally finished it off with a leather cover yesterday! I had sanded down all of the putty, which came out pretty good. Then I painted the rim and center piece – initially, I used a gloss black but thought that was too shiny, so I tried a satin finish. That took me a couple of steps because I had to remove the gloss paint as the satin would not stick to it! But the satin was too dull, so I ended up back with gloss. In the meantime, I looked at the wheels in cars of this age at a couple of shows, and they all seemed to be more shiny than satin so….. The rim came out a little bumpy, even though I sanded it between coats. No biggie, as I was always going to use the leather cover anyways, as I liked the look and feel of it. I also sourced a new, uncracked horn centerpiece, with a nicely patina-ed badge in it. So, that’s done!
Yesterday I also started back to work on the doors, gutting them. Finally got the window glass out of the driver’s side, then started working on the vent window assembly. A bit stuck with that, so I’m waiting for some assistance from the MGBE folks.
MG2008 is supposed to be held in the Valley Forge PA area, so I am going to shoot for that as a target date to have the car done and road-worthy.
Did some more work on the vent window tonight, still one thing holding it back.
Turns out there were 2 rivets holding everything up, so once I drilled those out the vent window unit came right out! I also removed the window regulator and latch mechanism, and finally, the door handle. So, the driver’s door is empty! I imagine the other side will go much easier.
Longer-range, I think I will shoot for MG2008, which is supposed to be held in the
posted by Dan DiBiase at 12:09 PM
3 Comments:
Just read your post, I thought I was bad about getting to the end of a project! LOL... Just kidding, your way ahead of me and my '76 Midget. I haven't turned wrench one on it since I got it in 2001. I did start it up when I first got it.. purchased a new battery and the little fuzzy carrosion preventors... Funny thing.. back in May of this year, I got the battery back out for a quick swap to another project.. it was dead..can you imagine that?
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