30th December 2016. Just in case somebody does the same as me and bolts the catch for the boot lock round the wrong way, I have included a photo that I found on the internet of the correct way to fit it. (The catch may be the same as the GT rear hatch). With the catch fitted the wrong way round I found the boot lid would not shut! Surprise, surprise. I found the bolt I was I was missing for the windscreen to body fixing. it had fallen out of the screen pillar and was under the Jane s Singer. I went to screw it back in the windscreen frame and found it was a bit tight. Taking the bolt out I found it had picked up a bit of aluminium from the screen and it was wedged in the thread. It was a devil to get out; blasting, or the bench mounted wire wheel didn t work. In the end I had to use a hammer and small chisel to remove the small piece of aluminium. That s not the only problem I ve had with the fit of the boot lid. Frustrated by the boot lid sitting too high I replaced the new boot rubber that I obtained from Moss with the old boot lid rubber. Guess what! The boot lid fitted fine. Searching on the internet I found that I was not the only person having problems with the replacement rubber boot seal. On one Australian site somebody had replied to a person also having boot lid fitting problem and said Too right Mate, you need to buy a boot lid rubber from MacGregor, his are the only ones that fit. I searched MacGregor and found his website. I have sent him an email asking the price and availability. As yet I have not had a reply, but it is Christmas. His email is: mail@macgregorukcarparts.com If I get a reply I ll let you know. I have been getting on with lots of small jobs, like cleaning, blasting, Kurusting and painting the heater valve, alternator adjusting bracket part, etc.. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 1
The parts painted with satin black aerosol and ready to fit. You need to leave about 1 (25mm) in the middle of the longest length of belt between the pulleys. I found it a lot easier than normal, with engine out of the car. RADIATOR & FANS After fitting the bits I adjusted the fan belt tension using a length of wood as a lever to hold the alternator in the right place whilst I tightened the fixing bolt. A new V8 radiator came with the original project car. It had suffered a little bit of knocking about. I straightened the damaged fins with a scriber. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 2
I had previously bought a Revotec mounting kit for the Rover fans that came with the car. I fitted these, early on, to check all the bits fitted the car. I wanted the view through the grille to be black, behind the chrome mesh grille, so I needed to paint the aluminium fan mounting parts. The parts were then hung up and sprayed with primer and then satin matt black. First job was to abrade the aluminium with a scotch bright. Next, wipe them with panel wipe then etch prime. While I waited for the paint to dry I had a go at cleaning up the second hand fans with some cleaner that said it was suitable for rubber and plastic. Here I have liberally sprayed the fans with the cleaner. The dirt seemed to run off. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 3
Cleaned fan on the left, unclean fan on the right. After straightening the fins were straightened, as best I could, the radiator was spray painted with just a thin coat of satin black as I did not want to clog up the air ways through the radiator. I have fitted the radiator into the front of the car before the engine goes in as I need to work out how I am going to block off the cooling air that could take the easy passage and go above the radiator and the inside of the MGC bonnet. Looking at the parts drawings for the MGC they have a panel and seal in this area, but both parts are no longer available. PROPSHAFT I thought this was a good place to rest them until the fan brackets were dry enough to fit to the fans. Not a good idea as when I walked past the car I knocked one off onto the floor, luckily no damage. Attention now turned to the propshaft. I gave it a clean to get rid of what was mainly dust with my petrol that I use for cleaning. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 4
There was surface rust at the ends where the metal had been exposed to the elements. Most of the parts on this car had rust on them as it had been stored in a damp garage before I bought it. The rust cleaned of easily with the mule skinner. The holes in the propshaft flange at the front could then be opened up to accept the RV8 propshaft coupling bolts. I checked the size of the drill that would fit in the gearbox output flange with a drill. The universal joints on the propshaft were in good condition with no slack. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 5
The grease nipples on the propshaft universal joints were pumped with grease until clean grease came out of the seals. The excess grease was then wiped off. I keep mentioning Panel Wipe in my reports. This is the 5 litre can that I decant into a smaller can that is easier to use. The propshaft was cleaned up with panel wipe before painting with etch primer. Etch primed and ready for primer and top coat. Overnight I had a horrible thought. I had drilled out the holes in the propshaft coupling to enable me to use the bolts from the RV8 propshaft. What if the pitch circle diameter (PCD) of the holes is different on the propshaft I was going to use? The next morning I cleared a space behind the gearbox so that I could try the propshaft onto the gearbox flange. It fitted, no problem at all, what a relief. I am not sure if I mentioned this in one of my earlier reports. On the MGBGTV8 I restored previously I decided to replace the propshaft universal joints. Normally, this is an easy job. The problem occurred when I ordered replacement UJs from the Moss V8 catalogue supplement. The UJs that arrived where too tall and there was no room for the circlips to fit. I then ordered one from the MG Owners Club. That was exactly the same box and same part number as the part from Moss. It seems to me that they only make the UJ s for the V8 prop that are for staking in. This, basically means, you do away with the circlips and burr over the ends of the coupling to hold the UJ bearing cap in place. I was not happy about that, so I ended up machining all the UJ bearing cups down to size to fit the circlips. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 6
This propshaft, or the diff flange had no markings, therefore I just hope it will be still be in balance. HANDBRAKE LINKAGE For fitting the propshaft to the differential flange needed some shorter bolts than the ones I had. I cut 9mm off the bolts that I had, by fitting an old nut onto the bolt and screwing it on so that 9mm was sticking out the end. Used the nut as my guide and cut the bolt with the Dremel cutting disc. Next job on the list was to fit the handbrake cable and the linkage between the two handbrake levers that exit the rear brake back plates. This needed overhauling and painting as the protective plating has worn or rusted through in many places. I cleaned it up with the mule skinner before etch priming. The propshaft was then bolted to the diff using new stainless steel Nyloc nuts. If removing a propshaft, mark the flanges so it can go back in the same place. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 7
After masking and painting, the inner cable was lubricated with oil to clear out any muck, The handbrake cable has a stop that stops the outer cable moving. This stop has a 5/16 UNF threaded piece attached. This fits through a hole in the side of the transmission tunnel about 6 back from the handbrake lever pivot point and is fixed with a 5/16 UNF nut and washer. The cable was left to drain out the excess oil from the other end of the flexible cable. The cable fits to handbrake lever as shown in this photo. The large round barrel with a hole through the middle fits into the bottom of the lever that sticks through the transmission tunnel and the threaded part of the cable fits through the hole. Don t forget to fit the spring and the washer before you fit the special brass nut on the end. The end of the nut is shaped to fit the round barrel that is in the bottom of the handbrake lever. You can see I went a bit over the top with the copper slip grease. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 8
I had great fun fitting the boot lid stay. Some time ago I cleaned and painted it. I had no problem bolting the boot stay in place, but when I came to close the boot lid, the boot lid would not close. I puzzled about this for some time until I realised I was trying to fit a bonnet stay to the boot lid! What a plonker. At the rear end of the transmission tunnel is a metal tag that helps hold the handbrake cable in place. I see I have forgotten to cover the tag with some heat shrink. I ll make a note of that and do it tomorrow. The handbrake cable shouldn t dangle like it does in the photo. I am not quite sure at the moments whether it has a clip to hold it to the bottom of the battery tray, or a clip to fix it to the differential casing, or both. I ll look at the parts book drawing. I eventually found the correct stay in with the, not needed MG parts that I boxed up and moved into another shed. It was soon cleaned up and painted. The tube in the photo is the petrol filler tube that also needed a cleanup and paint. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 9
I am not sure how these were originally fitted, but I did it the way I thought best, with a stainless steel washer between the boot lid flange and the boot lid stay, with plenty of copper slip between them. I also used a stainless steel Nyloc nut. A similar method was used on the bottom of the boot lid stay. Fitting the grommet for the petrol tank filler tube was no problem, but with the grommet in the rear panel the filler tube did not want to go through the grommet. A little bit of Vaseline around the inside of the grommet hole and the tube slipped in easily. The flexible filler connecting hose is the next bit to fit. Amazing, it works and the boot lid fits reasonable well. If you have any suggestions, comment, or tips I can pass on through these reports. You can email me at: mikemacartney@btconnect.com 27th December 2016. V8 Register MG Car Club 161230-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-105 10