MGF 75th Anniversary ....... the next project

Brithunter · February 18, 2015, 12:36:05 PM

This is how she looks right now:-

In the passenger seat is the engine access cover.

A bit of work especially on the interior to restore it. This one is one of the later ones in the series made nearer the end of production of the 75th.

The issues that I know about are:-

Radiator is pretty well knackered.
No coolant in expansion tank, yet none showing in the oil, but I am told it has over heated.
Bothe headlights dipped beams are misted up so need replacing.
Hydraulic fluid will need changing and flushing trough (Brakes and clutch).
Engine will need a service.
Alll rubber coolant pies will need inspecting and replacing as required.
Brakes need servicing and cleaning.
Alternator will need checking.
Replace rubber flexible brake hoses front and rear with braided Stainless.

One prepped submit to test Station/Garage for MOT test.

gitano · February 18, 2015, 03:11:09 PM

Uh oh... They put the steering wheel on the wrong side. Try to get the seller to give you a discount for that! :D

Have you "consummated" the deal?

Paul

Brithunter · February 18, 2015, 11:30:40 PM

I believe that we have a verbal agreement and have in fact offered a deposit. Due to it not being in running condition have to get a man with a trailer to collect her and am getting quotes for that at the moment. As always these come up at the "wrong" time as we have just forked out for a resupply of heating oil, a new carpet in Mothers bedroom to replace the very old worn out one which has become dangerous due to the backing failing and causing it to become rucked up and uneven. What with Mothers failing eyesight this is aserious trip hazard for her so we have no choice but to get a new one fitted.

Then the other week I agreed the purchase of a performance 4 branch exhaust manifold which I should be collecting next week so it will about three weeks before the finace is available to pay in full for the car and recovery.

Now if only those in the gun trade would pay up what they owe me things would be a bit easier so once more I'll have to try and chase them up over this debt which has been outsanding for over two years now. I sold the 280 AI and 280 Rem gauges to a dealer and smith whom has been using them to earn money but has repeatedly failed to pay me for them. This is one thing that contributed to my being banned from The SD as I tackled him over this non payment on the forums after failing repeatedly to get a response by phone. The monies owed would almost pay for the car.

As the car came up being offered out of the blue so to speak I was not prepared am usually a bit more organised. The problem is that some one else has now expressed interest in the car and asked to view it :cry: . I am hoping that as Phil whom is handling the sale for his brother has been impressed with my restoration of "Elsie" my BRG VVC that this will go in my favour but until monies exchange hands nothing is concrete.

j0e_bl0ggs (deceased) · February 18, 2015, 11:42:00 PM

Doncha mean SD?

Name n shame...

gitano · February 19, 2015, 07:50:00 AM

The cops that run The Stalking Directory are a 'testy' lot. No doubt the person that wasn't paying you for the use of your firearms was either a paying member of the SD or was one of their cop friends.

If I had given someone "earnest" money/deposit, I would expect them to not entertain any other buyers until I had failed to meet a payment deadline or decided not to buy. Otherwise, what's the point of earnest money?

Here's hoping you get this car, BH, BUT... It has been my experience with significant purchases that when I find myself 'forcing' things to make the purchase happen, it's a 'sign' that the deal is really not for me. If I have to start jumping through hoops, I start getting very 'twitchy' about a purchase in which the cost is significant.

Paul

Brithunter · February 20, 2015, 01:10:10 AM

Quote from: j0e_bl0ggs;137491Doncha mean SD?

Name n shame...

The smith was jaeger SA real name James but it seems that he also no longer on the SD either. Hmmmm as he never answer my calls wondr if it's worth trying once more??

For quite a while he was their "darling" on SD wonder what happened? did is alos stitch some one else up?

Brithunter · February 22, 2015, 02:07:48 AM

Well it's official that the 75th is mine. Just finance to deal with and arranging the transport now. This will take a couple of weeks at least sadly.

gitano · February 22, 2015, 10:16:38 AM

Congratulations!

You "will" be selling one of the others, or you "have" sold one of the others to finance this one?

Paul

Brithunter · February 23, 2015, 02:09:20 AM

Gitano,

I will be selling the Blue MGF. Have to get her prepared for sale to maximise the return. It seems that the RFD whom sold my Muscat Martini forgot to tell me it had sold and forgot to send me the money. That is in the post now and is almost enough to pay for the car. Just have to juggle the other commitments now like the recovery cost and the replacement speedo cable and the performance manifold I agreed to buy before this came up.

Due to the weather and the fact she stands out on the drive the soft top has some mould which needs to be killed and the top cleaned and treated to keep it good. I did it last year when I got her but it needs doing again. An annual thing is soft top cleaning. I got her a new MOT last month but did that early so she is tested until 23rd Feb 2015 but need the wheel alignment checking again so I can sell with a clear mind. The rest of the planned restoration and improvements will now be up to the next owner if they wish to continue of course if not it's still ready for use and she looks good now. I just wanted her better of course.

Brithunter · March 10, 2015, 11:04:09 AM

The 75th arrives on Friday.

Brithunter · March 19, 2015, 11:31:01 PM

Ahhh well it was evenually Monday late in the afternoon due to communications foul ups between the carrier and the garage

have now started the investigations as to what is needed and the list is far longer than anticipated

whilst she looks good on what you can see sadly there is evidence of lots of neglect and lack of maintenance.

In fact almost every suspension bush needs replacing and those Goodyear tyres that looked good are totally knackered:-

Caused by badly worn steering and suspension parts:-

That's the Passenger side track rod end attached the the steering rack and hub knuckle.

How the heck did the driver not notice the poor steering responce and handling issues????

The hubs top ball joints is squeezing all it's grease out and I have not tried for any play in the bottom ball joint but don't expect it to be much better. Due to the poor state of the front subframe have decided to pull it out and replace with the one that I refurbished last year. This of course means disconnecting all the cooling pipes but as we are fitting a new radiator and changing a lot of the cooling pipes this is no problem. It will just add to the amount of work and time taken to do it.

Although only surface rust at the moment it won't get any better if left and trying to clean and treat in position is a right nightmare and as we have one already to go in it's no brainer.

The bills are mounting up rather rapidily and my original guessimate of costing has about doubled as it looks like almost every coolant hose and pipe will need replacing and this alone will cost in the region of £300 the new Radiator was the cheap part at only £48. The new coolant rail for the engine:-

to replace this scabby one costs more than the radiator did on it's ownat aroun £60 then add the main outlet rubber hose from the engine and I know that costs over £40 on it's own having just had to replace the one on "Blue" in January. I do have these hoses off the Donor F but need to carefully inspect them before considering using them and many are a swine to access and change.

Now the story that I was told about this car is proven to be pretty much a lie

yes it had over heated and boiled up as coolant was clearley missing from the expansion tank. the pressure cap for this is well and truely knackered! However no mention of clutch problems and was told it was a non runner ........................... after connecting a charged battery I tried to spin her over and see if everything worked and she hardly spun over at all and fired right up. This is not a car that has not been run for over 18 months :frown . So there is a clutch release arm to free up and clutch slave cylinder to replace and rebuild and an engine to give a major service too on top of the suspected suspension rebuild.

This is not just a recommision, service, and coolant issue like was suggested.

Brithunter · March 23, 2015, 01:37:30 AM

Things on this MG just don't add up as there is evidence of some new parts and maintenance being done yet elsewhere chronic neglect

like the steel under floor coolant pipes look pretty new and are greased up against corrosion ................... old school thinking there. The head gasket looks to be fairly new as now the coolant hoses and pipes are stripped off the engine one can see the shiney gasket edge in the joint:-

This looks to be the "so called Uprated gasket" (MLS) however this version requires that the cylinder liners be at the correct specific height to seal and sadly many so called mechanics don't check this and just whack it in and bolt it down. So I don't know whether to trust this or not

.

But let's back up a bit ................. this is her running and remember we were told the head gasket was failed:-

No signs of that in her running in fact considering this engine was not supposed to have been run in over 18 months she runs sweet. Again I suspect we have not been told the truth as after 18months or so the fuel in the manifold would have evaportated and priming the system would have taken longer than it did. When a charged battery was connected and I tried to spin the engine over it turned over maybe twice before firing upv:eek: and then ran sweetly. At first she was a bit tappety as these have hydraulic tappets so the oil had drained down a bit but again it didn't take long for them to fill and not as long as ne would have expected.

One thing was noticed was that suddenly the coolant stopped flowing back into the expansion tank ....................... Hmmmm??? we now know why:-

That horrid rust/coppery coloured stuff is totally blocking the return gallery to the expansion tank and the manifolds "jiggle valve". Note the added Black Silicon sealent

we knew there were leaks and the Inlet manifold was one such suspect because of this:-

Coolant dripping of the rear of the sump which of course is below the inlet manifold. The manifold is a ploymer/plastic and if over heated they warp. This is needed replacing due to some ham fisted muppet:-

stripping the threaded insert to locate the oil filler neck. Have bought a later cast alloy inlet manifold and new gaskets to replace this plastic one. This is what was scraped out of that coolant gallery:-

Am going to have to flush the engine through and the heater pipes. This stuff may be oen ofthose leak fixes like K-Seal or Radweld ....................... either way none of those belong inside the Rover K series engine.

Most of the other coolant hoses are being replaced to they won't have this stuff in them. Am also converting this to run the PRT system this means removing the engine thermostat from it's position on the engine block. Just remove the thremostat from it's housing and reseal the housing a new thermostat is located in the main engine outlet hose and this system was used on the later version and the MG TF model which replaced the MGF. Have ordered a new PRT and hose assembly. This is supposed to reduce thermal shock on the engine caused by the long run of pipes under the car from the mid located engien to the front mounted radiator. Speak of radiators this is the one that was in the car:-

It's no wonder it had over heating problems especially when the front brake issues are added in:-

Not only do the caliper pistons look rank but the inner pads that the pistons bears on was not fitted properly and had jammed in the carrier. I needed to hit it hard with a 1lb hammer to get them out of either side. The pads had been rubbing so much they had seriously over heated and the friction material has delaminated and broken up. This of course made the engine work harder and with a leaking neglected cooling system we have over heat mode.

So new front brakes are required even though the disc rotors don't look very old or worn they are on the scrap pile not only due to the binding issue but whomever fitted them had never heard of copper slip (anti seize copper grease) and it required soem serious belting with a 1 1/2 lb ball pein hammer to get them off the hubs. the hubs are pretty scabby:-

so have ordered some Bilt Hamber deox-c rust remover cystals and a large lidded plastic bucket into which the complete hubs can be dropped into this solution to pickle and eat the rust ready for painting. New wheel/hub bearings will be fitted as I doubt the hammering did them any good. Once dried and painted the hubs will be rebuilt with new bearigns and ball joints ready for fitting. Although i ahve a pair of good hubs ready painted they are ABS hubs and these are non abs so makes sense to hold back the ABS ones for "Elsie" when we refurb her front end as she does have ABS fitted.

gitano · March 23, 2015, 08:15:41 AM

Interesting work, BH. While there is a great deal to do, it's nice that there are no 'fatal' problems. Great news on the quick and 'silent' running. All can be fixed/replaced. It should be quite the motorcar when you get finished with it!

Paul

Brithunter · March 23, 2015, 04:39:23 PM

Thanks Gitano,

Although even the Limited editions like this one don't seem to fetch much money I beleive it's worth saving you never know they could eventually take off like the MGB did but one never really knows what the future holds so I will just fix and improve a little for my driving pleasure hence I will uprate the brakes. Fronts first most likely with AP Lockheed 4 pot alloy racing calipers as fitted to the Trophy 160 and TF 135 which use 304mm discs instead of the standard 240mm disc with steel sliding caliper.

Have made enquiries as to the price of new AP's from the AP Lockheed distributer but not got a price back as yet. Might have to buy used and refurbish like the ones on "Elsie" whom has a set of MG badged AP's already fitted. They do really make a difference in braking control especially when coupled with S/S Braided brake hoses and a servo brace. The next level of brake upgrade after that is fitting larger 280mm disc rotors with caliper adaptors on the rear to balance the front-rear braking effort as unlike front engined cars the rear brakes actually do more work but uprating the rears first is a bad idea for safety as rear wheel skids are harder to control than front ones.

Depending on how the sell off goes we might even be able to get a flowed and ported head on this one to further improve her performance but that will have to wait until she is fixed and on the road once more. According to the forcast it's supposed to turn wet here, in fact it's trying to drizzle with rain now, so I will try to do some work on the interior like clean the leather seats and apply some feed to them if it is raining rather than laying on the mud and shingle trying to swap the sub frame over. Maybe fit the spare Blue outer door handle to the driver door that is until we can get one sprayed in the right colour.

In the morning have to take the hound to the vets as he has a wound on his head that is discharging muck. Don't know what he did but it's not nice.

Brithunter · April 03, 2015, 11:12:45 AM

It's been a while and things have been moving on with the work required at least at the front. The refurbished sub frame is in and both hubs have had new bearings pressed into place and the hubs finally assembled and the drivers side is even fitted.

The hubs were derusted in Bilt Hamber Deox-c then scrubbed pickled again and scrubbed then washed off, dried, primed and painted before being lacquered. New ball joint in the top to match the new ones on the lower wishbone and the steering (track) control arm. The hub bearings (Wheel bearing) were well rusted:-

No wonder they felt rough! Have been doing lots of derusting and painting like this Engine Coolant rail:-

that used to look like this:-

I believe the blistering is from the over heating and boiling up as the flywheel closure plate has also had the paint boiled off it:-

I had already cleaned and repainted a spare one ...................... yellow of course :grin:. Have also painted the top half, plenium, or the inlet manifold and the throttle Body.

It's only mocked up right now no gaskets used as am figuring out the wiring cnnections for the fuel rail and injectors as this alloy manifold is off a later model which has different engine loom and a different ECU and Map. It looks like I will have to swap the old fuel rail and wiring over onto the alloy manifold as even the multi plugs are different. All adds to the fun I suppose .............................. or that is what they tell me.

Brakes have been ordered but am very disppointed with the AP distributor as am still waiting to hear back from them. However have bought a new pair of AP Racing Alloy 2 piston (Pot) calipers with MG cast into their face, not from AP I might add, but an MG specialist. These it seems were intended to be used on some late production TF's but some how that never happened. They use the same 304mm Disc (rotor) that the 4 pots do so this will be interesting to see how they compare in braking performance. I did enquire about reconditioning for teh standard original calipers but the prices came out fairly similiar so plumped for the larger and we hope better brakes.