1973 MGB GT- A little rust 30/08

[adam73bgt]

Hi everyone

I'm pretty new on here but I figured its high time I stop lurking about looking at other peoples cars and put mine up

So here it is, a '73 BGT




was pretty cheap for a chrome bumper one but then there are a few things to be done on it (it is a BL product after all ) but thankfully there is minimal rust

first job was to change the locks, the old ones were so bad that they could be opened with the key put in upside down...



then after making it vaguely more secure, it managed a pretty decent trip to uni where some coursemates helped me fit a pretty simple radio since as much as I like the sound of the b-series, it can get a little tiring



ive got some plans for the car, thinking of taking the 'GT' part of the name literally and going for a luxury interior with some decent speed but yeah updates to come when I get money/time

also if anyone in the suffolk area can recommend a garage who can do good work at a decent price that'd be appreciated too

[technics1974]

I love that interior! Looks very cosy.

What plans have you got for your 'B?

[Ray Singh]

Have a look on the Moss website. Kits and parts for just about anything you can imagine for a MGB.
www.moss-europe.co.uk/

They do very swish interiors - but be ready to drum up some serious student loan....

Nice cars, especially the overdrive.

[adam73bgt]

The interior could well be one of the first things to go it appears to be a mix of the original (I'm guessing) ochre-ish shade and some grey carpet which looks like an offcut from some house carpeting...

I'm debating between black or red carpets atm with probably black vinyl interior panels..

but then theres some mechanical stuff for me to spend money on too.. the rear axle is clonking and the gearbox whines a bit so we'll see

and yeah i had a look on moss, nice stuff but shame about the prices and overdrive is a great toy to play with

[ChasR]

Whilst I have found Moss pricey, I have yet to really have an issue with the quality or supply of many of their bits. MGOC can be just as good (bar maybe the poly bushes, but then Superflex is what I would on most BL cars which is cheaper than Moss's SuperPro IIRC), as are David Manners (they are like a cheaper Moss in Oldbury (they are also number as Abingdon4MGB). A couple of other specialists near me have sold me stuff that is pretty appalling in the quality stakes.

One good place I have found for trim is Aldridge trimming. They are a little cheaper than quite a few supplier but you do seem to get good quality gear .

It seems like you are having fun anyway .

Quite a few 'Bs clonk on the axle. Are you sure the gearbox is whining and not the axle? If the gearbox an oil change may help (it does help to change the 'box oil often (I believe it may actually be in the service schedule) since they use engine oil on the 'Bs when they are equipped with an overdrive). A half decent 20W50 will be fine.

Regarding specialists, I cannot help you there, although a couple of Norfolk chaps try these guys out :

www.mgmecca.co.uk

[adam73bgt]

Yeah i got a pretty decent lock set from them plus a couple other bits, cheers for the other suggestions too, i may have to check them out when i need stuff

the axle only clonks when you go on or come off the power :/ and I'm pretty sure its the gearbox whining, particularly when going down into 2nd or 1st while moving, i had a look at where the filler is for the gearbox and its a bit of a pain to get to so ill change that when i get a nice day for it

[ChasR]

That will most likely be down to knackered thrust washers. Try changing the oil in the diff (it made mine quieter) chances are the clonk will still be there.

That whine is present in quite a number. They will whine even when in good condition to a degree in 1st and second, as long as they are not as loud as a banshee you should be fine. The filler plug for the gearbox is halfway up the driver's side of the gearbox with the drainplug being at the bottom of the gearbox. They are a little awkward to refill, but nothing a bit of sawn off hosepipe connected to a fan can't do . As long as you get it up to the filler plug level you should be fine (I believe the gearbox takes around 2 litres of oil).

[adam73bgt]

ah right, i shall have to get it looked at, hopefully won't be too pricey..

ah cool, yeah its not too loud at the moment but ill change the oil, especially as i don't know when it was last done!

[adam73bgt]

A somewhat productive couple of days work on the B have resulted in me having to buy a new seatbelt as I may have put the old one beyond repair....

But on the bright side, a nice parcel arrived in the post yesterday


Got on with fitting them today, I'm glad to be rid of the old filter cans for the moment as they're not the most aesthetically pleasing things in the world...



With them off I took the opportunity to give everything a bit of a quick clean..


Also tried to shine up the carb dashpots a little, had a little success with this one (before on the right side, after metal polish on the left) I had considered painting them, but I think when polished up they'll match nicely with the alloy rocker cover which the previous owner bought


I'll polish those properly later, but for now the new filters are onn, they look good, make the car sound good and a bit louder plus since the car has been running rich they help lean out the mix a bit which is giving a bit of a better power delivery across the rev range

Now the engine just needs a good tune up and it should be running sweet plans are also in the pipeline for removing the centre silencer and putting a pretty hefty twin pipe exhaust at the rear so it could well be even louder soon

[adam73bgt]

a small update, nothing particularly exciting though..

the locking mechanism had never worked on my drivers seatbelt (despite the car having only recently passed its mot..) so i thought id fix it

cue the side of the seatbelt unit coming off and a very angry metal spring flinging itself at my face.. not good

so new seatbelt time was tempted by harnesses but the car is nowhere near hardcore enough for that yet

spot the difference...


while i was behind the front seats, i noticed these shapes on the panels on both sides of the car.. anyone have any idea what might have been here?


another issue had been the total lack of instrument lights, this has been sorted by bypassing the rheostat, this was an absolute curse word of a job to do with the rheostat in the dash so no photos of that I'm afraid

next jobs to do: find a way of mounting my new radio speakers as this position isnt particularly ideal...


and find some lowering springs for the front as its got a bit of a mini gasser stance going on atm..


also been tempted by a thicker front anti roll bar to help cornering

plus the front overriders should be coming off soon if i can persuade the rust to let me undo the bolts, the rears may come off later when i find a new way of lighting the rear plate (probably light bolts)

thats all for now

adam

[Rich]

The rheostat was faulty on ours, its a pretty much serviceable part, just take it out, clean the tracks and put it back in the car, was gonna bypass ours but thought I may as well take it out while my hands were wedged up behind the dash

[adam73bgt]

Yeah i thought about taking it out, but i couldnt get the 'nut' with the two slots in it (don't really know the real name for it..) that holds it to dash, to move at all. also on the one occasion i did have panel lights before, i didnt find them so bright that i needed to turn them down

saying that, the rev counter has been playing up so if i take that out, the rheostat might get investigated too

[Rich]

Long nose pliers for the rheostat, just take the knob off first so you don't damage it
its worth it because even though its insignificant, its something YOU fixed and put back to stock. I took great satisfaction in undoing all the electrical bodges on ours that had been done with speaker wire, lamp flex, scothloks and screw chokky blocks and making up new loom sections

[adam73bgt]

hmm i hadnt thought of using pliers before, i was trying something with flat head screwdrivers.. was more likely to put one through one of the dials

aye thats a point, though at the moment i am partly guilty of creating an electrical bodge in my radio system, which turns off if you use the hi beam flasher and will only work with the engine on.... another thing on the list to fix

[Dez]

i do a fair bit of work for classic owners around ipswich, as my workshop is only in manningtree. can probably help if you need anything doing.

[Rich]

haha! Sounds interesting!
As per lowering springs, they are cheap at £35-ish a pair! I wouldn't worry to much about an ARB, leave that stock, get it low and maybe poly-bushed, and definitely uprate the damper valves to sport ones and you shouldn't need to uprate the ARB

[adam73bgt]

ah awesome, ive been looking for a place to do some mechanical work on the car the engine could probably do with a bit of a tune up and the rear axle is clonking when going on or off the power, could be thrust washers?


yeah it is a bit interesting! though when my coursemate helped me wire it in, he spliced the constant live source for the radio into the constant live for the interior light, but he accidentally put it to the wire that was for the door switch.. so when i opened the door, the radio turned off! haha

ah thanks for the advice on the suspension, i was planning to look at polybushes and uprated dampers, would like to go telescopic but cant afford that, so ill have to see how uprated lever arms work

[Dez]

yeah, clonking coming on and off power is usually pinion backlash, whats worn to make it do it can be a number of things mind.

engine tune-up is no problem, carbs and points are much more my thing over EFI!

[adam73bgt]

aye it could be a few things i suppose, it would be great if you could have a look at it sometime

ha yeah i do love how simple the engine is, well how simple the whole car is really, probably why i ended up buying one over a typical modern small hatchback as a first car

[adam73bgt]

Right its been quite a while since I last updated this so time for bringing things up to the present a bit

shortly after where this left off I took the B to Dez who very kindly had a good look round the car and assured me that it wasn't a pile of rust also got the valve clearances sorted so it sounded less like a diesel.

we tried to set the points gap also but there was an issue, one of the points appeared to be hanging loosely on, to the point where there wasn't really a points gap to speak of... we both werent entirely sure how the car was still running so i bought an electric ignition kit, but as i had an interview in coventry the day after the kit arrived, i decided to just leave the points, chuck the electric igniton kit in the boot and drive there anyway but more on this later...

Since i bought the car ive been wanting to change the interior a bit as it was a bit mismatched.. so i made a start on the door and rear 3/4 cappings




the initial plan was to re-cover these in black vinyl but as i noticed they were made from wood, i thought id have a crack at having a bit of a wood interior
much hacking with various tools revealed this..


and then with a good dose of woodwork and sanding i arrived at this


then with a dab or two of this


i had a finished product like this


i reckon they look pretty decent when fitted




time will tell how long they last in the damp interior of the MG

after that i went on holiday to france where i saw plenty of nice retro french cars (didnt manage to get any photos unfortunately..)

then i ended up driving up to coventry and back again on the dodgy points... but still didnt bother to fit the electric ignition..

now the badge on the front of the car had always been quite wobbly and in the end i took it off for fear of losing it lol so for a while the car has looked like this


then i found that the badge is simply clear plastic and painted from the back so i sanded off the red and kinda colour coded it to the body colour (or as close as i could get with the old airfix paints i had knocking about)



then stuck it back on with some double sided adhesive pads



Now heres something that amused/annoyed me when the weather got a bit hot, i had a bottle of window anti mist stuff in the car which i had been meaning to put on the windows for ages, long story short, the sun had heated the bottle so much that it had expanded and leaked on the rear seat.. not great. but amusingly the bottle has stuck in its expanded shape


getting fairly up to date now..


this light has not worked since i got the car, ive cleaned the contacts up, and took care of some rust that had appeared underneath..


still doesnt work though.. so if anyone has any clues before i go hunting through the wiring loom that'd be great

so finally the dodgy points, after driving around for ages with these i finally got round to putting the electric ignition system in
heres the points i took out..



kinda hard to see but one side of the points was just wobbling around so the gap was hardly being made, this may explain why the car had always been stuttering under hard acceleration
heres a picture of a rather empty looking distributor..


i would have got a shot of the accuspark stuff in there but i didnt for two reasons, 1. my hands were covered in silicone heat sink stuff and 2. i was too busy swearing at trying to get the rotor cap on

but now that the kit is in there and the timing has been set up the car drives better than ever! theres no hesitation under acceleration which makes the car feel a lot faster the rev counter has also stopped randomly bouncing from about 200 to 2000rpm at idle the idle itself is a lot smoother which is nice, though i did kinda like the rough idle (made it sound a bit like it was cammed haha)

but now it feels faster, its highlighted the rather wallowy suspension.. so that needs to be the next thing on the list i think, there is more to update but ill do it later as this is big enough as it is

adam