The Webmaster Zone

Did some more work on the car today while the weather lasts. There was a "clonk" coming from the rear right-hand (passenger) side which I assumed was due to the new leaf spring pads "settling in" and consequently the nuts on the U-bolts simply needing to be tightened. However, on inspection the pads appeared to already be cracking, and I had heard good things about the additional positive location of the rear axle by the Prothane (urethane) bushings, so I installed them instead. Getting the old nuts off was easy because I had giving the exposed threads of the U-bolt a good wiping of grease when I had assembled it to prevent rusting. Test drive results: It might be my imagination but it seems like the car feels like it is sticking to the road better when going over rough spots, and also on high rpm take-offs the wheels don't hop as much. But, I think most of the clunking was my tire irons in the trunk. I'm clearing out the boot to dry it off and wire brush some of the rust out so I'll take it for a test drive tomorrow and find out if it's really gone for good. I also took a look at two other things, first why the new handbrake wasn't braking very well. Turns out I strung one of the wires around the wrong way, but that wasn't the reason. I reset the brake adjusters and that did the trick - it seems the new brake shoes wear down fairly quickly when you first put them in. Then I took a look at the mounting flange on my rims - apparently there is a local shop that will machine a small amount of material off to increase the offset (place the rim into the wheel well further). It is very thick so I think it will be OK but of course I'll consult a professional before proceeding.

As promised, pictures with the new orange boot lid. For the first time since I bought the car the boot actually closes and locks normally - I will never get sick of that beautiful "click" sound when it closes. Check out the homebrew hardtop hardware as well - works very well. It's made out of a turnbuckle and some generic metal tie straps, total cost about $5. You can see some of the scratches on the plastic windows of the hardtop, I used Meguire's Clear Plastic Polish #10 and Cleaner #17 which helped quite a bit but some of the gouges are quite deep. It looks like some previous owner liked to use a metal ice scraper on it.

Did a lot of spring maintenance on the car last weekend, changed the oil and filter, topped up the coolant, replaced the plug wires, replaced the fan belt, fixed a ground problem with one of the turn lights, replaced the brake light switch to fix the brake lights, greased the suspension, propshaft and handbrake cable, replaced the valve cover studs and replaced a bumper overrider which my roommate backed into. The previous week my ignition warning light had been coming on higher in the rpms, but it would turn off when I revved the engine. I was hoping the fan belt was just slipping, but shortly the light came on and stayed on - another dead generator. Replaced that in the Octagon Motors parking lot, it was only just over a year old. When I put the new gen in and started the car a horrible squealing noise erupted from the engine bay. As it turns out the fan on my old genny had little notches cut out of the blades to clear the adjuster bolt at the bottom of the generator yoke, which the new blades didn't have. A quick swap solved that. I also had Octagon install my new roll bar and new 3-point static seat belts, I wanted to make sure it was done right the first time. I feel very secure in the car now, althought I still need to get some foam for the rollbar behind my head so I dont crush my skull if my head was ever whipped back. In other news, I just got the estimate done for Phase II of the bodywork, replacing the fenders, door skins, sandblasting the entire car, finishing work, and a nice eurethane paint job. Saving now, that will be coming in July/August. Lots of new pictures to develop & scan, I'll get those up in May sometime. The current paint scheme is really... interesting. Still trying to sort out my rear wheel rubbing problem, I came up with the following (see picture). The bad news is it looks like the 6" rims I've got now are no good, I need something with somewhere around a 1-1.25" (25-30mm) positive offset (moving the tire into the wheel well more). Too bad, because I really like the look of these rims, maybe even more than real minilites. On the plus side I'm sure I can sell them for what I paid for them. The "deep dish" look is awfully nice, though. Update: I just called Moss Motors, the minilite replica they sell (14x5.5 PN 455-386) has 23 mm positive offset. Main Street Motorsport reports that their minilites (the real ones, not replicas) are available in offset ranges from 15-30mm (backset 105-120mm) and they have a very nice but spendy 14x6 alloy rim. I'll add more results as my research continues, and probably build a new comparison page.

Finally had a weekend to do some more work on the car, drove down to see my bodyman on Saturday with a new trunk lid I picked up last week. We fitted and aligned the new lid, and now I have a trunk that closes properly for the first time ever! It just "clicks" so nicely when you put it down, no slamming, no jiggling the edges to get it open. Actually it hasn't closed at all since the bodywork was done, so it would squeak and bang around when going over bumps, which was extremely annoying not to mention I had my emergency spares stolen out of the trunk last month. He had a new parts car in the driveway which had a few more items that I needed, namely a very nice straight bonnet (hood), so I bought that and we put that on too! Basically every external panel on the entire car is being replaced, as it has either been hit or has rusted out on every side. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that he also had a Smoothline hardtop in quite good condition for sale!! I like the Smoothline better than the factory hardtop, and since I travel on the highway a lot the extra heat retention and noise dampening that a hardtop affords was looking pretty attractive. The headliner inside is in great shape, the seals are in good condition, and the windows only have some minor fogging and swirl marks that can be easily removed. Next weekend we're going to fabricate some mounting hardware for it, right now I am just using baling wire to keep the back down (the snaps to the windscreen work fine). The wheel rubbing problem may be due to faulty new leaf springs or an error I made installing them, because the car is sitting much lower on one side. On Sunday, I worked on a bunch of little things - replaced a broken rear tail lens (upgraded to Euro style amber on top), fixed the interior light, rewired the rear lights (brake light was wired to turn light on one side), tried to fix the brake light, still not sure why it's not going on sometimes, fixed the fuel filler so the rubber grommet was sealing to the body (no more trunk leaks?) and tried to fit my battery bin liner, but my battery doesn't fit in it. I also picked up a blue paint pen at a local art supply store and coloured the instrument bulbs - way back, I repainted the instrument cans with high-gloss white to enhance the brightness, but by doing so I painted over the original blue quarter which gave a bit of a tint to the gauges. The coloured lights look great at night! Gave it a good wash and interior cleaning too, just because its tatty doesn't mean it can't be clean. That's probably my Dutch heritage speaking. Next weekend I'm doing more work on the car, look for another update soon. The car is quite the spectacle now, its 5 different colours!! The body is red & green primer, the bonnet is green, the trunk lid is orange, and the hardtop is burgandy. If you squint your eyes though, it looks great, and you can see the lines are really coming together! More pics coming soon.

Took the car down to National Tire Warehouse for some new rubber.. after much research I decided on the Dunlop D60 A2 JLB's for their combination of price and performance. It's quite hard to find high performance tires in the correct size for the MGB's stock 14" rims. I calculated the original tire diameter of 155/78-14 to be 23.519" and so I got the Dunlops in 195/60-14 or 23.212" which is only 1.305% smaller than original. My new 14 inch "Dan Gurney Victory Mags" are 6" wide which is the mininum for these tires - I think they look quite aggressive without being ridiculous. Unfortunately on the "new" side (green quarterpanel), the tire is rubbing on hard cornering when the car is loaded, so that will have to be sorted out. Driving impressions: WOW!! The new tires are extremely sticky. Road noise is also down tremendously, and even the steering feels lighter even though these tires are wider. Since I got them mounted with a proper balance job, all traces of wheel shake are gone right up to ~ 90 mph. Combined with the new sills and freshly rebuilt suspension, the car feels like its on rails. I also took the chance to put on my spanking new K&N air filters. They were hard to locate, as they are Euro P/N 56-9095 and I had to order them from the UK. Moss used to carry them, but now they carry a different K&N setup. These particular models are large enough to fit the TWM induction horns *inside* of them - the other models are not. The combination of free-flow filters and horns, assuming you have a good manifold and free-flow exhaust setup on the other end, will give a boost of several horsepower. Even though my exhaust is stock, I could tell a difference immediately in throttle response. I had to enrichen the mixture on the carbs by 4 flats - the old foam filters must have been extremely restrictive. The car feels like its pulling stronger as well, and the gas mileage seems slightly better. The engine compartment is starting to look pretty trick, when its cleaner I'll take a photo. Some pics of the (now dirty) final result - dig the nice two tone paint scheme! It's going to get even more interesting when I put the new boot lid and bonnet on.. but the main thing is that the car is now ready (minus fitting the rollbar) for the autocross season starting in March!!

This weekend I spent a good chunk of time tackling one of the last major things on my "MGB To Do" list, rebuilding/replacing the rear end. I have been driving around with bolt-ons on the front and center-lock wires on the back since shortly before I took the car in for body work - sourced a good used bolt-on rear axle and had the local shop replace the bearings and give it a good going-over. Since the axle's going to be out, I'm taking the opportunity to replace the leaf springs, U-bolts, spring pads, rebound straps, brake shoes and cylinders, etc etc as well. The tear-down went a lot smoother than I was expecting - I must be getting good at persuading rusty parts to part ways. Tomorrow I'm going back to get a few parts I wasn't expecting to have to replace and get the thrust washers replaced in the differential (might as well, while its out) Day 2 - Picked up the extra parts (if there's one thing I've learned, its that you will always require more parts than you have on hand - which is a big p.i.t.a. for me since the B is my only means of transport) and began reassembly. Moved the differential over to the new axle, and mounted the new leaf springs with the axle on top. Fitted spring shackles and U-bolts with more than a little effort and moved the axle stands to the axle. Day 3 - Tightened all spring and axle bolts, reattached propshaft and brake lines. Assembled rear brakes, after cleaning all parts in petrol and greasing all the moving parts (adjuster and handbrake lever). Bled brake lines and filled the axle with the proper oil.