My 79

I have decided to make a journal of my adventures in restoring my 79 midget into a car that is at least presentable and some what reliable. So here is what I started with. A 1979 pageant blue 1500 with a black top and interior. I brought it and a 78 at a local car show swap meet. the emissions are gone and the carb is a Hatachi knock off of the Z-S but it works fine so not going to worry about it now. The engine seems to be in decent shape no rattles or knocks holds good oil pressure and does not overheat. After fixing a few minor things such has bad hoses and such I feel the running part is okay for now. Most of the electrical is there and functions but the tape round the wires has been pulled off so I will need to address that later. I had planned to use the 78 for parts and fix it fairly quickly but I just couldn't bring myself to destroy the 78 because short of what I thought was a bad engine the car itself was in really good shape. Not a single dent in it and the only rust was one spot in the drivers foot well and in the trunk at the filler neck. So I made the decision to fi the 79 without raiding the 78 for parts. Turned out to be a good decision since the 78's locked engine was actually a locked starter. Got on the forum about 3 days after getting the car home because I realized that while I have training in automotive repair and about 15 years experience in the field I had never dealt with an mg before. So here is my plan to get the car to look nice not going for concourse don't really care for exactly period correct but want to keep has much of the original stuff has I can. This will not be a technical thing just something more for me to keep track of where I started and how for the car has come

Given the amount of area the top covers I decided the first major purchase for the car would be a new top. I looked around for about 2 weeks and just did not see how they could cost so much. I did find one that was for sale on e-bay for 200 so I took a chance and brought it. Come to me in exactly the condition described and with all the necessary parts. After checking around I realized that replacing it was a pretty simple process. To be honest has long has you follow the directions it's not hard at all. I did mine on a warm day about 80 degrees outside and I left it snug not really tight although I will probably redo the drivers side since I think it's too loose. I did not want it super tight since this is my second convertible and I remember how much of a pain it was to put the top up when it cooled off especially if you had put it down when it was warm. Once that was done I felt like it was a good investment since this would at least allow me to work on some of the interior in the winter time. Honestly I recommend that if you need a top and you feel comfortable with doing it than by all means do it yourself and use the money you would have paid someone else for another thing. I have found since being on here that there are a lot of people who will encourage you to fix things on your car yourself. The common opinion being if you do it you will better understand your car and I agree experience is a great teacher.

So my last attempt at this wasn't so good. I am going to try to do better on the brown cars restoration. The goal for it is a little differen. I want to make it has good has I can so the work will be more involved. I have not set a date to finish it but I would like to be driving it by late spring or summer of 2019. There is alot less body work on it but a lot more things that need to be replaced.
I am going to try and keep everything seperated in case I need to look it up agian. So some of the things i got for this little project are a whole bunch of plastic containers and labels ziplock bags and sharpies. Hopefully this will cut down on some confusion and prevent lost parts and fastners. I also brought a small notebook and mechanical pencil(a nice drafting one) . So the first thing I did was to lay out a plan has to how I will go about this. I really suggest doing this it cuts down on wasted time and helps to insure you get everything. Even if you plan to do a complete take down and restore it's a good idea to have an order of things so you don't get lost on where you are at. I am not going to detail every little movement just the basic stuff and anything I think may help others i.e. unsticking a water choke.

I installed new clutch hydralics this weekend along with a brake master cylinder. I figured a few things out so I am going to share them.
#1- Getting that lower clutch master bolt out. Don't waste the time,pull the pedal box. It takes about 10 minutes that way. The nut is so close to the body of the clutch master that an open end wrench is the only way to get it off.
#2 On a 1500 or at least the 78-79 models you can't bleed the clutch system off the car then install it. Why? because the line runs thru a hole in the battery tray which means you have to leave at lreast one end loose to put thru the hole.
#3 Since a replaced both I found that one or the other is a little larger than the orginal so had to file just a small amount off the flange to get it all to sit nice and flat.
Other than having to remove the collar and slave cylinder together since they had crooded together so bad it was a fairly simple job. I haven't bleed it out yet but I'll relate how that goes later on.