Work undertaken within the last few weeks. Only just around to noting it down.

The air filters they were in great condition, but there was a fair bit of rust in places, especially around the intake tubes. I thought I’d give them a clean and scrub, to remove the rust and to clean up the paint job. There was even a fair bit of paint from when a previous spray job had been carried out.

Bring on the electric drill with rust/paint remover ‘attachment’. Ever one for the technical terminology, me.

Thoroughly cleaned and soaked in soapy water with grease remover, the areas of rust and dodgy paint were removed back to bare metal.

These aren’t the finished photos, but they came up to a great shine. Next to do on these is to prime them, then get the Hammerite black onto them to bring them up again. If I do a pants job, then I can always buy two new cases for £14.00, but why spend money if you don’t have to, right?

It’s been a while since the last post, and time, energy and money have all been in incredibly short supply.

I was able to at least start taking things apart on the B about three weeks ago. Partly to start the restoration, but also to feel like I was doing something on the car.

First things first, I removed the air cleaners and carburettors. Surprisingly easy to remove, although a few fiddly issues removing the throttle and choke cable from the carbs. Once that was resolved, the grubby little things came away easily.

In an attempt to make things a little easier, I labelled the cables I had removed from the carbs with permanent marker. I’m glad I did. In the three weeks since I have taken them off, I haven’t been back to the car yet, and I’m already starting to forget what goes where and what order I took them off in. Might also be old age as well, but nothing a Werther’s Original can’t cure, I’m sure.

The engine bay, although in a reasonable state, has a lot of “rust dust” from the bonnet, and slightly worryingly some random rusted washers loose within the trenches and bonnet spacers, although I’m sure they are not critical, and simply leftover from previous work.

A closer shot of the heat shield, and a little more room left to work in after the removal of the carbs.

I also wanted to remove the heater console to refurbish the fan and clean up the console box, but no joy. Three of three screws attaching the console to the bulkhead were so worn I couldn’t remove them, so I’ll have to use a grabbit tool to drill those out completely to remove the box. Not critical, but would have been a ‘nice to have’.

Time was limited on this day, so I stopped working/removing parts/destroying the engine, and had a look at the interior. Again, some of the retainer screws around the gear stick/centre console were so worn, they too will have to be drilled for removal. I decided to start a minor spring clean of the interior. Fret not, the kit kat wrapper is still in the glovebox. The door trim panels were removed for a minor scrub and clean, which meant I was also able to have a look at the state of the doors. Not too bad, although as this photo shows, there is some rust at the base, which will be scrubbed, cleaned and treated.

Sadly, that’s about it for the moment. Not much else has happened. Finances and time are the major players in keeping me apart from working on the car at the moment. The clutch is the first and only thing to really get working first. Although I have a gut feeling that the release bearing definitely needs to be replaced, I have been told that the slave cylinder is leaking, and may be a major cause of the problematic clutch. I don’t want to remove the engine yet, if I don’t have to, so the next plan is to change the clutch slave cylinder first. It will only involve raising the car onto axle stands to remove the replace the part. If it resolves the problem, great! If not, then at least it’s one part done, and then I’ll have to start looking into crane hire for engine removal.

So, first things first.. buy some axle stands, the replacement clutch cylinder and some new gaskets for the carbs to go back on to the manifold. They were rotten and useless.

A trip to visit the parents today gave me a chance to have a closer look at the ‘B’.

The engine bay - not in too bad a condition. As you can see in the picture (below) the heater console is in a pretty bad state, but a wire brush and a few hours to kill should scrub most of that off. Hammerite black and some new clips, a new heater matrix, fan, motor and seal should also improve performance and overall good looks.

A closer look at the heater:

Can you see the nice shiny new master clutch cylinder? (top left)

This is all that’s left of the sound proofing within the bonnet. This needs to be cleaned and replaced.

The interior of the car, the dash in particular, is in pretty good condition. I havent cleaned the car at all, so everything here is as it was when delivered. The top of the gearstick is taped on with electrical tape - badly, with what I assume is the overdrive switch on top. As you can see, the radio was stripped previously, leaving the loose wires within the console. I really love the seat position, and the feel of the armrest and the positioning of the lever though. Very comfortable. The console needs a damn good clean, and colour restoration. I already have a brand new black leather gaitor for the gearstick (optimistic), which will go on at some point as a minor crowning glory for the interior.

The driver footwell. One thing about this car… there are lots of loose wires.. everywhere. I’m not 100% sure what those two flick-switches are (top right corner of the photograph). Any ideas?

Just behind the drivers seat, an example of more loose wiring, supposedly hidden underneath the carpet.

One of the first jobs to do is to remove the battery, charge it up and put it back in for testing the car, and as we check the electrics. Here is the battery box, lid removed. There are no retainer clips over the battery, which I thought was slightly worrying.

Last, but not least, the glovebox. Here is the famous kit kat wrapper. Also featured is a small block of post-it-notes, a bulb, a few old tax discs and a used tissue.

Although only a very brief look around the car, it was still quite exciting to start delving a little deeper. I’m very excited, and cant wait to actually start work.

Bank Holiday Monday. A quiet evening, less traffic on the roads. An ideal time to move the ‘B’ the 9.5 miles to it’s future home to undertake repairs and mild restoration.

The original plan was to drive the car (slowly, as ever) as much of the way as possible, with a ’support’ car for assistance and towing if needed. The car wouldn’t start at all, suffering from a seriously flat battery, so towing was the only option. Hooking up to the lead car, the journey began.

Now, I’m not a master at being towing, or being the ‘tow-ee’. I can safely say this was one of the scariest journeys I have ever made. Despite the battery failing on ignition, the lights were working on the car, the hazards were on, and more importantly the windscreen wipers were working - particularly useful given the near-torrential downfall outside.

No more than 10 minutes into the journey, the battery started to die for real, the wipers being the first to go. Not helpful on a night like last night. The heater was also not working, so I had no visibility on the outside, and misted windows on the inside of the car. Then the hazards cut out, leaving just enough power to keep the headlights on in some degree until the end of the journey.

Being towed so close to a brand new car (someone else’s car) without clear visibility (or any visibility) and no electrics was ‘rather interesting’. To complete the journey, I had my head out of the driver’s side window, squinting through one eye to try not to blind myself from the constant rain, and keeping an eye on the car in front of me, following it’s path. My foot was on the brakes a fair portion of the journey, as due to the weather and the fact I didn’t want to slam into the back of the car in front, I was being overly cautious.

We had made it to our destination, and as soon as the cars were parked, the smell of brake pads came emanating from the poor MGB. Worked to ruin, but in all honesty, I’d rather buy and set new brakes/pads than have rear-ended a car on a night like last night.

A bit more work ahead of me now. The battery should be on charge fairly soon, and no doubt I’ll end up buying a new one at some point in the near future. The heating panel and matrix will need looking into, as well as the electrics. Good times.

One quick call to the garage. Yep, the master cylinder was sorted, but the clutch was still not working. They had noticed that the slave cylinder was leaking, and they also thought that the main problem was the clutch release bearing, which is either worn away, or has slipped. This extra ‘news’ has added a potential £500.00 extra on to the repair costs.

Fearing the worst, and my wallet dissolving, I have decided to do these repairs myself. I will collect the car tomorrow morning (Saturday), drive it back home very slowly, most likely in first gear the whole way, as I did when I dropped it off at the garage, and will work on it piece by piece to fix these issues.

Now, I’m not daft - although the previous post and the fact I bought this without seeing it may contradict that - and I’m sure that there will be plenty more issues that will need to be addressed. Slowly slowly catchy monkey. I’ll work on it one step at a time.

First things to do:

• Remove, clean and salvage the clutch slave cylinder, or purchase a new one
• new pipes for the slave cylinder
• remove the clutch itself, dismantle and check out the state of the release bearing.

I come armed with the help of the Haynes manual, and the desire and willingness to get my ‘B’ fixed and running. I’ll post more as soon as I have some progress to share.

A very good place to start.

The date was Wednesday 14th May 2008. A lot can be said about “impulse” buying. I was on a particular auction website, and was having a look around. 54 minutes later, I was the winner of an item, and the new owner of a 1978 MGB GT.

Now, I had never seen the car before. It was near Portsmouth. I wasn’t. Why did I do it? Good question.

I had almost purchased an 1979 ‘B’ a few years ago, narrowly missing out by mere minutes as I was too hesitant to commit. A few years later, and although the fear was still with me, I decided to go for it. The listing mentioned the clutch master cylinder needed a new seal, but apart from that it ran well. And all for a bargain price. MOT until February 2009. Tax was needed, but I could always SORN it until it was ready. I was excited. Scared, but excited.

The owner delivered the car to me on Sunday 18th May, as I had no way bringing it back safely from that far away. I was a little miffed. They told me it was going to be towed or on a trailer, but they ended up driving it up to me. I could have done that! Jeeez. Trying not to think about what extra damage that may have done, I was just happy to have the car.

I sat in it. Marvelled at how low the seating position was in comparison to every other car I’d been in. Turned it on, smiling at the gutsy sound of the engine. Pushed buttons. Tested the lights. Sorted. This was going to be a quick fix, and then I’d have a classic car at my disposal, just in time to enjoy driving it during the summer. There was a fair bit of body rust on show, but nothing that couldn’t be sorted out. Oh, and I thought the kit kat wrapper they’d left in the glovebox was a nice touch.

It was booked in to the local MG garage for the master cylinder replacement, and I await collection on Friday 23rd May.