1969 MGB GT V8 project

[SPT28]

After owning this car for just over 4.5 years (I won't lie - most of which time it's been off the road) and promising in several threads that I would start a thread on my antics with it, I thought it was about time I put digits to keyboard and regaled the tale of how I got myself into the right mess I now find myself in , perhaps naively hoping in some vague way that it might be a cathartic process of some kind. . Rather than a readers rides thread though I thought it may be of more interest in here, the intention is to update this in stages to bring us back to the present day.

Now admittedly a lot has happened since I got the car, including but not limited to renovating a house, moving job, getting married, trained for and ran a marathon and acquiring several other projects (see other threads), plus a whole host besides... basically life. However excuses aside, the car has been ever-present with the hope that one day it will be completed.

I should also point out at this stage that although I wasn't necessarily looking for a project at the time, the journey I've been on and the skills I have learnt (and am still learning), plus the people I have met along the way, I could never have imagined, it's been on the whole great fun. Yes I could have bought a heritage shell (£10,798.38 plus VAT at time of writing - no thanks!) or simply paid someone to do it for me (where's the fun it that?!).

Before we go right back to the beginning, it's probably best to go grab that mug of tea or coffee... we may be a while


So why an MG... well I've essentially grown up hearing about them, my aunt had a B GT, uncles on both sides of the family had MGs of varying guises and they are one of the quintessentially English sports cars from an era of car manufacture I love. Throw in the need for it to be a relatively cheap 1st classic (I look back fondly on this notion), with spares a plenty and loads of information about how to do things - and it was a bit of a no-brainer for me.

Now as I said, budget for purchase wasn't huge, however what played in my favour was that I wasn't particularly bothered about a roadster and preferred the look of a GT which tended to be cheaper. However wanting best of both it had to have a webasto and preferably was in Old English White - it turns out there are many, many shades of this!

While idly browsing the classifieds one day in early 2012 I spot something that pricks my interest - a '69 chrome bumper car - tick, GT with webasto - tick, old english white - tick, local and at a half sensible price - tick... this is it - time for a closer look. Cue a couple of calls and after a viewing the next day the car was mine - result!.. or so I thought...

So I present to you as bought for the grand sum of 800 english pounds - the white elephant!


and yes... there are so many things I see in this picture that I didn't at the time... rose tinted specs, blind ambition or simply fate... either way the journey had started.

[Flying Phil]

Looking forward to your journey!

[mgtony]

Are the 1980 seats staying?

[SPT28]

I'm afraid not... those seats were dispensed with in favour of the period correct leather versions as soon as I could afford to change them!

So without going into the finer detail, the car was trailered back to my garage, where over a few summer eves and weekends it was worked on to try and get it to a state where it could pass an MOT. Most of the work involved getting the engine started and subsequently running reliably, as well as dealing with a few cosmetic tasks... replacing front grill, yes those seats - they were rebuilt on the dining room table with the aid of a few tips from watching 'An MG is born'! During which time the car looked like this:


Look close enough and you may even spot some of the 'tweaks' .

After far, far too many late nights, a date for the test was booked. The day arrived and With a mixture of excitement and trepidation I got up early, checked fluids, warmed the car up and satisfied myself that the car was ready for an MOT...



alas the MOT tester wasn't... b*gger! There's that naivety again. In fairness I did ask him to be hyper critical in order to give me a job list for fettling . What I wasn't expecting was the level of education and length of job list I ended up with!

Reason(s) for failure:
Offside rear parking brake recording little or no effort (3.7.B.6a)
Nearside Headlamp not working on main beam (1.7.5a)
Offside Headlamp aim too low (1.8)
Nearside Headlamp aim too high (1.8)
Brake master cylinder/servo mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (3.6.C.3)
Front Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened (2.4.G.1)
Fuel pipe union leaking (7.2.3)
Nearside Front Anti-roll bar has excessive play in a pin/bush (2.4.G.2)
Offside Front Anti-roll bar has excessive play in a pin/bush (2.4.G.2)
Nearside Rear Suspension component mounting prescribed area is inadequately repaired (2.4.A.3)
Offside Rear Suspension component mounting prescribed area is inadequately repaired (2.4.A.3)
Offside rear brake binding (3.7.B.1)
Offside Track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged so that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.2.C.1c)
Nearside Steering rack gaiter split (2.2.D.2d)
Offside Steering rack gaiter split (2.2.D.2d)
Nearside Front Upper Suspension arm has excessive play in a pin/bush (2.4.G.2)
Parking brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7)
Nearside Rear Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Advisory notice item(s):
corrosion to bulkhead,inner sills,floor pans,chassis legs,inner wheel arches.
engine oil leak
gearbox oil leak
rear diff slight leak
brake pedal travel low

[mgtony]

Blimey, some testers fail cars for the most minor of issues!

What's the plan for it, still dropping the V8 in?

[SPT28]

I know, tell me about it he was a mate of a mate too which probably didn't help matters

That is indeed the plan, as you'll see as I 'catch up' things have chopped and changed a little as I've discovered and learnt a few things... please don't be under too many illusions though, as I type I'm still a long way off but thought it would be good to jot down the journey so far.

[v8250]

SPT28 said:

So I present to you as bought for the grand sum of 800 english pounds - the white elephant!

That's a classic...!

[SPT28]

So as mentioned, it was not the best start to MG ownership but an important lesson nevertheless. Looking back it is easy to say I was completely out of my depth with what I had taken on and so little knowledge. To some extent I guess that would be true, but the rationale of having an MG as a first classic is that there is loads of info out there, you will never be the first to suffer from such an issue so you learn from these things and move on.

A new sub frame was soon sourced along with all components for a front end rebuild, books were read, web forums surfed and YouTube viewed aplenty. This resulted in braking issues being fixed, welding carried out on the areas that needed it and a nice shiny painted front subframe with rebuilt brakes and suspension.

The car went in for a retest in November 2012 and passed! We were on the road at last...

As it turned out this was only for about 3 months... after which my need to tinker took over once more. Little did I know what I would find...

[omgus]

SPT28 said:

As it turned out this was only for about 3 months... after which my need to tinker took over once more. Little did I know what I would find...

Come on then. What did you find?

I've invested emotionally into the story and need an update.

[SPT28]

here you go then:

So despite it being winter, the car was on the road, actually performing quite well and I was using it whenever practically possible, trying to adapt driving an older car and think of where improvements might be made. One such area was the rear suspension, which in my view was a little soft, notwithstanding I was used to driving around in a BMW 328 sport at the time - bit chalk and cheese!

The decision was made to get the car up on axle stands one weekend and to drop the rear axle and differential for some remedial work - replacing the tired leaf springs (one had a slight crack anyway), any worn bushings and giving it all a lick of rust treatment and paint. While the axle was out of the way I thought I may as well drop the petrol tank and give it a good clean, reading up around this showed that issues tended to appear between the top of the tank and the boot floor causing the latter to rot through.

Here's where the fun began, on dropping the tank the true horror (there is no other word for what I felt at the time) sunk in as to what I was dealing with.



Both sides were equally as bad - there wasn't a whole lot holding the rear spring shackles in place then! No wonder it felt a bit 'soft'! I don't mind admitting a fair bit of panic set in at that point and if it wasn't for a good mate who was restoring a mini helping me out I may well have thrown the towel in there and then. (looking back I probably should have done!)

It became very quickly clear I was now in for the long haul... those three months of enjoying the car would soon become a very distant memory as the car was not going to leave the shed for a while (...it still hasn't nearly 4 years later!). So the parts were stripped off and the metalwork began...



So as you can imagine this all caused a bit of pondering - just what was I taking on? Having only restored a Lambretta previously this was a bit unexpected and to be frank, completely out of my league at the time. On the positive side, it did provide some consideration of what I could turn the car into - it was in pieces anyway, I had some room to work in, it had been 'restored' in places before and the engine it turned out wasn't the original lump so originality wasn't a factor - I could now effectively try and build my ideal MGB.