'72 BGT - Getting better

[edvaldez]

Hi guys, I have been a lurker for a while but decided to sign up and start posting my own story.

This is my '72 BGT which I bought in October this year and came to me looking relatively clean.





whilst on the drive back from the chap who sold it to me I stopped for petrol and heard a nice boiling/bubbling sound which was followed by a gushing of water onto my feet, this turned out to be a hole in the heater matrix so out that came and I replaced the heater tap which had stuck closed while I was at it and replaced all the heater cables. I also took up the drivers side carpet to try to dry out the floor and had a scrape/poke which turned up a couple of holes in the floor, these shall be dealt with.

I also painted up the heater box, unfortunately no pictures of any of these. whilst driving the thirty odd miles home from the PO's house I also noticed that the instrument illumination, fuel gauge, and speedo didn't work. these were put right by bypassing the rheostat, fitting a new speedo cable and reconnecting the cables to the sender. 

After this I had to faff around with the DVLA to change its taxable status to Historic and to get it registered in my name due to having a v5 from the early nineties. With this done I took to driving about in it for a while, the bonnet release wouldn't work without using my full strength which was annoying so I replaced that and added electronic ignition, the throttle cable got stuck open so this in turn was replaced and the car was driven again.

A while later I found the car to be struggling to start and misfiring heinously, this was down to a bent jet on the front carb sticking on choke and not returning at all, so a carb rebuild kit was bought and I set about rebuilding the SU's and fixed the bodged choke cable. 

The next job was to tackle the chugging noise coming from the O/S rear of the car, I deduced that this could be one of two things either knackered wheel bearing or sloppy pinion gears. I decided to do it the easy way and sourced a known good axle which i painted up and fitted a rear polybush set with new shackles, U bolts, drop links, plinths and new front spring bushes just to make sure the rear was nice and sorted.

So out with the old


And in with the new




And this is where it stands at the moment, as you can see I took the decision to cut the exhaust as it resembled swiss cheese and I have a shiny stainless hobby on the way.

[adam73bgt]

Welcome to the forum, looks to be a nice sorted BGT you have there Which brand stainless system have you gone for?

Got any plans for it for the future?

[edvaldez]

I bought a Bell system for it, It was cheap so can't complain too much. It looks that way but the more I do to it the more bodges I find and the more bits I find to make right.

plans for future are get the mechanicals sorted then start on the body work, it's currently a 30 yd paint job and the front inner wings need looking at. I also am toying with the ideas of some wheels but can't think of what to put on yet and will need a new set of seats soon enough as the originals are shagged.

P.S. your B looks rater nice sir and your thread has been a big help with mine so far.

[adam73bgt]

Ah cool stuff, I've got a Bell system on mine except for the rear box and I can't complain, it makes a nice noise

Sounds like you should have a nicely sorted B with those plans, theres a fair bit of choice out there for wheels so should be something out there to suit

Edit: Ah thanks, its looking a bit sorry for itself these days unfortunately and really needs somewhere undercover for me to work on it as theres a few things that need doing!

[edvaldez]

Aah cool did you go for the bomb box system or just regular?

Thats what I am hoping for as it is going to be my daily.

yeah I really want some wellers or maybe some dunlop style steels but we shall see what happens.

[adam73bgt]

Yeah mines got the bomb system then I've got a different straight through twin exit box on the back (can't remember what brand)

Ah cool, B as a daily is good fun, especially if we get this snow thats predicted

Wellers could be a cool look, I can't remember if I've seen a B on wellers before so I say go for it!

[edvaldez]

So a fun filled evening was had today getting the new exhaust fitted and having my first attempt at balancing the carbs.

The exhaust fits well and seems well made but the down pipe to manifold flanges are a pain in the backside, especially when on the laying on the floor. It also has a rather alright sound.

The carbs however are another story, did the old pipe in the ear trick and got the sounds the same. Just can't quite get the mixture right with the colourtune, it does seem to go a bit better with a tiddle of choke added so I'm guessing just a little more richness is needed.

Pictures to follow tomorrow when I pop it on the ramps at the local friendly garage to adjust the handbrake correctly.

[Rich]

Dec 10, 2014 23:05:20 GMT edvaldez said:

So a fun filled evening was had today getting the new exhaust fitted and having my first attempt at balancing the carbs.

The exhaust fits well and seems well made but the down pipe to manifold flanges are a pain in the backside, especially when on the laying on the floor. It also has a rather alright sound.

The carbs however are another story, did the old pipe in the ear trick and got the sounds the same. Just can't quite get the mixture right with the colourtune, it does seem to go a bit better with a tiddle of choke added so I'm guessing just a little more richness is needed.

Pictures to follow tomorrow when I pop it on the ramps at the local friendly garage to adjust the handbrake correctly.

You won't set them with a colourtune. I tried. I failed. You need to know what you are listening for in terms of setting, do you have a manual that describes the tuning procedure? It'll involve the lifting pins on the bottom of the carbs. I confess I've never managed it myself properly yet.
The rear brake shoes are set with a share peg adjuster on the outside of the backplate, then the cable adjustment is on handbrake end of the cable. You want to make sure the shoes are set right before you fiddle with the cable.

[adam73bgt]

I tried to set mine with a colourtune too and ended up with them being too rich Though having HIF's will help as I think you can adjust the mixture with the air filters in place so that takes a bit of the guesswork out of things?

I'm tempted to get a synchrometer to help with balancing the carbs as trying to do it by ear or by lifting the piston with the pins (or a flat headed screwdriver) doesn't seem to work very well for me

[grifterkid]

That looks very nice indeed...

I really do like the 'recessed grille' B's even though it seems like everyone wants to bung the chrome grille on them...!!!

As for wheels, there is a tidy B GT near me that wears a set of slotmags very well indeed!

I look forward to seeing how this develops as it looks like it is in very good hands...

[Nathan]

GT's always look nice in white, the shape seems to lend itself.

Very nice motor Sir.

[edvaldez]

Thank you for all the kind words, I gave up trying to set the carbs myself and took the car to the only place locally that I know of with the right skills for carbs, resulting in it running perfectly now.

While it was there I thought I would get them to make my life easier and sort the handbrake and flush the brake fluid. Its like a totally different car now.

I'm in milan for the next week so work on the car is stopping, on the plane I did manage to make a to do list.



that should keep me broke and busy for a while. 

[edvaldez]

Dec 11, 2014 10:28:49 GMT grifterkid said:

That looks very nice indeed...

I really do like the 'recessed grille' B's even though it seems like everyone wants to bung the chrome grille on them...!!!

As for wheels, there is a tidy B GT near me that wears a set of slotmags very well indeed!

I prefer the recessed grille also, to me it looks more purposeful. 

I keep seeing for slotmags on ebay going for not much but I'm not sure whether that is the look that I want to go for.

        BGTMIDGET7476 said:

GT's always look nice in white, the shape seems to lend itself.

I agree thats why I jumped on it especially with the lack of webasto.

[edvaldez]

So I came back from Milan last week and had lost a little motivation, until today when the sun was shining and I was bored of looking at it.

Out to the garage I have been to find out why the headlights stopped working the morning before my departure, I had it pegged down to either the flasher switch or the earths. First off a look at the flasher bypassing the switch made no difference but i have found out that PO has cut the proper connectors off the loom and replaced with a glut of bullet connectors YAY.

On to the earthing then and the connector at the headlight end looked clean and nice but the one screwed to the inner wing looked grotty got the dremel with a wire brush and attacked the screw/connector and wing et voila let there be light.

Since buying the car I have noticed that the OSR tyre kept deflating so I popped down to my friends garage to use his tyre machine and lo and behold the air from the bead and valve is making the great escape look mediocre. All sorted now and its running beautifully thanks to all the bits and bobs done so far.

Next up is the rear demister which seems to only be working in patches, I fear this may mean the copper trace has lifted a tad. Any one know any nice fixes for this?

A coffee and warm up then i may go and attack the headlight relay or maybe fit a new temporary stereo.

[lamsdale]

I bought some conductive paint a while ago and repaired the elements on a heated rear screen in a '72 Alfa. It worked for a while but it seems once they start going you could be chasing breaks for the rest of eternity. I gave up in the end and just open a quarter light which works ok on demisting. Not very useful for defrosting though, obviously.

[edvaldez]

Last week saw me winning a few items for the mg, first was a set of inertia reel seat belts as although I love the 1970's hook belt affair that it has going on at the moment the passenger belt doesn't adjust so is always super baggy on everyone. After tat I managed to win a nice cheap set of mk1 tail lights which I much prefer the look of, and lastly I though I would stick a set of relays in for the headlights I managed to procure a fully wired universal kit which I thought with a few adjustments may just fit the bill.

So this arrived and all looked good.





Until I cut into it and saw that it seems to be made from 18awg I prefer my headlight looms to be at least 14awg just to make sure it holds up to future upgrades.



So I set about making a new relay loom, just need some flag terminals so I can repurpose some H4 connectors I have on the cinq shell then it can go on the car.



Still waiting for the tail lights to arrive and no pictures of the seatbelts as I haven't got them in yet due to painting rusty chrome and giving them a clean.

Have been driving it a lot now and it seems to get better with every mile that I put onto it.

[adam73bgt]

Sounds like good purchases all round there, the Mk1 tail lights are a much nicer design than the boxier later ones

[GoJo372]

Jan 14, 2015 20:11:27 GMT adam73bgt said:

Sounds like good purchases all round there, the Mk1 tail lights are a much nicer design than the boxier later ones

I agree! Binned the 70s boxes on ours and opted for mk1s.....so much sleeker!
Good work mate

[edvaldez]

Jan 14, 2015 20:11:27 GMT adam73bgt said:

Sounds like good purchases all round there, the Mk1 tail lights are a much nicer design than the boxier later ones

I know I haven't a clue why they redesigned for the later monstrosities

[edvaldez]

So the lights arrived in a shabby state and this morning I decided to set about them.


The lenses were in pretty sorry state thus i attacked them with some good old 1000 grit wet and dry  and attacked all the metal with autosol.

Before





during



after







Pre and Post polishing on the light unit



this bezel is passable

 

This one however I think needs to be replaced



I have given them a trial fit but pictures weren't possible at that point