1975 MGB GT - How did I end up here?

[S2Mike]

The little rear "plinths"
The front indicator aperture
Turns This into

This

[Perd Hapley]

rumple said:

Has anybody ever colour coded these bumpers.

There's a thread about it with some pictures here: http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,1005...

It can look good, but only if the bumpers are a contrasting colour. Body coloured, they just look awful. Personally I would like to have a set of rubber bumpers chrome plated just to troll MG shows.

[soxboy]

therealpigdog said:

E36 M3. E36 M3. E36 M3. E36 M3.

E36 M3. E36 M3. E36 M3. E36 M3.

Just another suggestion. It fits, sounds lovely (admittedly not a V8 though), and goes rather well. As soon as I have the space on the drive, and the funds in the bank, this is the route I want to go down.

Stop giving me ideas! I thought 318is, you've clearly trumped that.

[MG CHRIS]

S2Mike said:

You could even go the no bumper sebring look, and save the weight and expense of the chrome, cos they require body work to be welded on to make up the front indicator holes bottom edge of front wing, that BL chose to chop off, as well as the little plinths at the back where the bottom of the lights finish and the bumper begins, that BL also for no apparent reason chopped off.
I will fire up my compurter when I get home and post photos for ease of explaination, if it helps.

This is exactly what i done with my 79 bgt took a while to get right but looked different up against other mgb.

This was mine

[therealpigdog]

soxboy said:

therealpigdog said:

E36 M3. E36 M3. E36 M3. E36 M3.

E36 M3. E36 M3. E36 M3. E36 M3.

Just another suggestion. It fits, sounds lovely (admittedly not a V8 though), and goes rather well. As soon as I have the space on the drive, and the funds in the bank, this is the route I want to go down.

Stop giving me ideas! I thought 318is, you've clearly trumped that.

Unfortunately not mine, but a conversion being done by a mechanic friend of mine for a customer. M3C GT? (Got to pretend it is a C, to keep the 6 cylinder theme).

[Parabola]

Perd Hapley said:

Personally I would like to have a set of rubber bumpers chrome plated just to troll MG shows.

Love this idea

[Merry]

Been a while since i've updates this, so here goes! No pictures i'm afraid! Here is the list I had to do;


- Electronic ignition from the donor MGB
- Spax telescopic rear dampers
- Fan Belt
- a 12" steering wheel of some description
- Pair of re-built carbs (when I get round to them!)
- Possibly a rear anti-roll bar, getting conflicting info about that one!

Out of that i've done the electronic ignition, fanbelt and carbs. Its had new front disks too. Its been a struggle to be honest. The battery on it died, so was replaced, then started getting a few mental carb issues, such as not running off choke and generally being a pain.

After a lot of swearing I decided I had a leak on the inlet manifold, so off it came and new gaskets went on. Also took the opportunity to replace the tappet cover gaskets, which were leaking oil.

Since then its been a case of fiddling until it ran right, and after 3 days on and off its back running! Still to do are the rear anti roll bar and chrome bumpers. The off-side front wing looks to be made mostly of filler too, so i'm preping a replacement to go on after winter. As its in daily usage over winter i'll be looking into rust protection too.

Cant say its been a stress free introduction to classic motoring, but I have learnt a great deal!

[marky911]

Loving the car Merry!

They're such a pretty little shape, especially the rear end.

My dad is halfway through a bare shell, nut and bolt rebuild of his primrose yellow, rubber midget but he stumbled across a Teal blue, chrome bumper BGT last month, so also has that sitting there now.

Stood for 31 years! I've got my eye on it when it's done (he doesn't know yet), but we'll see.

You're sure making some headway with yours. Well done.

+1 on the chromed rubber bumpers. Excellent!

[Merry]

So, I havent updated this in a while! Well since the last post I spent most of my time driving the B (and breaking down)

Here's how it stood for 12 months



Unfortunately the MOT man wasnt happy with this..





Which under the wing looked worse..







So, at this point I lost heart and stuck it in the garage. About 3 months later I decided to get stuck in, I got a mobile welder in to do the major work while I learnt to weld, then I could do the smaller bits - pics do the talking..







I had a new wing from my donor car, so fitted that..



Thought leaving it red was somewhat bandit so painted it, only roughly - I thought id save for the respray





Nearly ready..



Some further repairs..

[URL=http://s35.photobucket.com/user/theonlymerry/media/DSC_0118_zpspozpqpuu.jpg.html]
[/URL]

Done and Mot pass



So following this it became my main car for a few months again, following my MGFs pretty comprehensive eating of its head through cambelt failure (during an MOT).

I also did my first track day in it - Oulton Park. Id also fitted a new door, but hadnt painted it quite yet..



This pretty much gets me up to now, had just started the process of fitting Sebring Valances and loosing the bumpers..

Mocked up..



Front bumper off..



Some wing modification



And how shes sits as of today, also ran a can over the door so its all (sort of) one colour, that respray still very much financially out of reach! I've also fitted the smaller steering wheel.



I had intended to carry on with the debumpering process, however, following a curious phone call from someone after a harvest gold rubber bumper B (still with bumpers) I now have to decide whether or not to keep the B. As you can see we've been through a lot, its just a case of knowing when to move on, I just cant decide.

As ever comments etc welcome!

[Paul S4]

I had a Harvest Gold '73 chrome bumper BGT; had it five years and used it as my only car in all weathers. Mine had overdrive on 3rd/4th, with the switch on the dash ( not sure if the later ones all had O/D ) but it did make a difference to the mpg, and O/D 3rd was almost the same as 4th gear.

Your car looks so much better without those awful rubber bumpers ! The Sebring look is better, and obviously a lot lighter than the chrome bumpers. I removed the over-riders on mine at the front as it looked neater ( replaced with chrome headed bolts ), had an alloy rocker cover ( looks better and supposed to quieten down the tappets !), as well as chrome air filters and a stainless exhaust with a narrow centre box ( better ground clearance )

I seem to recall getting about 25-28 mpg but that was when you could get leaded fuel...!! They are quite heavy cars and of course those old 1.8 engines were not really all that powerful or economical. I have read that they can be made to give quite a bit more power but that may be expensive !

Good to see a nice BGT being well looked after !

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for the update, always good to see old RC threads come back to life

As to selling it my only advice is what was the first thing that came into your head about selling or keeping it when you heard about someone wanting to buy it - do whatever that was.

[Merry]

charltjr said:

Thanks for the update, always good to see old RC threads come back to life

As to selling it my only advice is what was the first thing that came into your head about selling or keeping it when you heard about someone wanting to buy it - do whatever that was.

Thanks, I know what you mean - I just cant remember what my first thought was, other than outright shock.

I'm having a look at a few options later in the week - if I see something else I really love it'll be time to move on, if not i'll be keeping the B. Trouble is I'm on a shoestring budget - I dont and probably wont have the money to go down the v8 route, or even for a decent respray in the near future.

In fact i've only spent £600 on the car over the last 3 and a bit years - and that includes maintenance items and some of the mods..