The Webmaster Zone

The car is back as of Sept 22!!! Structural bodywork has got to be the hardest part of any restoration, not only because its the most expensive and labour intensive, but it doesn't look any better when you're done! The carpet was all torn out and isn't glued back in, since its going to be removed again for Phase II (painting and exterior panels) and replaced. The doors don't fit very well (going to be getting new skins anyway) and neither does the trunk lid or hood. Before the bodywork, everything was smashed up the same way so it sort of fit in a crazy way. Now that some parts are fixed and some aren't nothing lines up. I'm getting a straight but temporary (wrong year) boot lid on loan at the end of the month so that at least it will close properly until a proper one can be located. It's a whole new car under there - from the pictures below you can see how much of the floors and sills were left. It feels 10x stronger going around corners, no more body flex. It's a bit quieter, too, now that there aren't gaping holes right underneather me. Once I got it back, I had the windscreen and windscreen to body seals replaced at the local glass shop - what a job that was for them, if you're doing this do yourself a favour and get some 4" C-clamps to compress the seal while you line up the bolts. No more drips when it rains! Of course, the leak was on the passenger side so it wasn't that big of a priority but I wasn't winning any points with the ladies for that one. Put on some new wiper blades, although the right hand wheelbox is completely messed up and has been for a long time, I've got some new ones on the way. The right hand (passenger) wiper only sweeps an arc of about 45 degrees. The valves cover has been leaking since I got the car too, it looked crooked which would explain it. I decided to get an aluminum valve cover since they look so sharp - had to file down the cover studs, the DPO had hacksawed them to length and screwed up the threads at the ends which was OK with the old bolts but the new cover bolts wouldn't go on. Got it all lined up though (had to shave a bit off one of the rubber washers to get it to line up) and it looks great. Valves are quieter too - the rocker assy needs to be rebuilt at some point, though, I think. I've got some KN air filtesr coming from Europe, Euro PN 56-9095 which are recommended by British Automotive as giving great flow and also the bonus of being able to fit those TWM induction horns inside them. Might get a few extra HP out of that, although I wish I had got the ANSA exhaust system rather than the stock a couple years back. Anything would be better than the cheezy foam air cleaners I've got on there now - I cant imagine they flow very well. If I didn't have to work this weekend, I'd be rewiring the overdrive (getting rid of the ugly lighted rocker switch in front of the shifter and hooking up the proper crook switch on the fascia), shimming the fresh air vent hinges so the door closes all the way (new foam seal sticks out a bit too much at the top) and a few other misc things... waiting for some backplates to arrive for the new rear axle so once those are here and I can finally get the new bearings in (OMG is handling it) then I can finish the bolt-on swap that is taking forever... I'm waffling about my decision to go back to the original BRG when it gets painted, I've always been attracted to the black paint with an all red interior - retro yet very sharp and modern. If you have any pictures of MGB's in this colour scheme please send them to me. I've still got lots of time to decide. Oh and for all of you that are wondering, yes, I am completely insane for tackling a restoration on a car that is (was!) this rusty.. and I don't regret it for a second!