2 nd November 2016. There seems to be so much to do, odds and ends to order, not enough space to do stuff. This morning I think I better start writing down a list of things to do that are easier while the bodyshell is on the spit. It s just after lunchtime now and all I have managed to do this morning is order some more parts and start to fit some of the bits to do with the battery box. It s just one of those days where you can t get stuck into the job on hand! Painting metal parts of the rubber side bonnet buffers. It s a good job Jane doesn t want to use her Singer Le Mans at present, as it s being used as a work bench. This is what I have been up to over the last few days. The rubber buffers that fit where the wings bolt in are to stop the bonnet rattling about. I bought new ones. They have a very thin coat of paint on them so I rubbed the metal parts down and coated them with etching primer and satin matt black paint before fixing them to the bodyshell. I used 3/16 set screws rather than the original self tapping screws. The fresh air inlet on the scuttle panel, just behind the bonnet needed some black paint. Also I wanted to touch up the Teal Blue around the edge of this opening where the masking tape had been put on before the top coats were painted. I brushed the paint on in these areas as they will not be seen when the chrome air grille is fitted. Note that I have masked the area around just in case a drip of paint comes off the brush. V8 Register MG Car Club 161103-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Rebuild-Report-86 1
While I was finishing this painting the sound deadening material arrived from Car Insulation, well half of it did. There should have been two parcels of materials but the courier company managed to lose one of the parcels. Hopefully, the other parcel should turn up in the next couple of days. The engine mountings also only have only a thin coat of paint on the metal parts so they were treated to the Mike treatment of extra paint. The engine mounting in the foreground of the photo is the extra engine mounting that I am fitting between the engine and the bulkhead panel. This will be mounted just under the heater and will connect to the rear of the engine on the right hand side. The reason for this mounting is to resist the torque movement of the engine. Touching up the area where the air intake grille fits. There were three black engine mountings hanging on the wall, If one black engine mounting should accidently fall, there d be two black engine mountings hanging on the wall. V8 Register MG Car Club 161103-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Rebuild-Report-86 2
I could not resist having a play with sound deadening material. To start with I made a paper pattern of the rear floor pan with a sheet of newspaper and marked where holes should be for the seat mountings. The horns that I have for the car are a pair of Mixo horns that say Made in France. I do not have the female plugs that if into them which is a bit of a problem. After trying a couple of companies that supply terminal ends, with no joy, I decided to have a go at making some plugs, or connections, for the horns. This was the first section off the roll of the Peace Mat. The rest of the roll didn t seem so creased. It will be covered anyway. One side of this solder on terminal was a nice tight fit on the prong in the horn. I soldered the terminal onto a wire and then cut the other parts not required. V8 Register MG Car Club 161103-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Rebuild-Report-86 3
The horn fits nicely under the air filter in front of where the radiator will fit. I had to shorten the original MGB bracket on this side so the horn would sit below the air filter. I made another terminal for the other prong and used various diameters of heat shrink to make a plug that would help keep the moisture off the connections. This was repeated for the other horn. I wanted to glue the rubber seals to the plastic headlamp bowls. So that the seals would sit in the correct place I put 5mm set screws through the seal and the plastic bucket to hold the seal in the correct place while I brushed contact adhesive onto both parts. V8 Register MG Car Club 161103-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Rebuild-Report-86 4
Contact adhesive brushed on both the headlamp bucket and the wing to bucket seal. The adhesive was allowed to go tacky and pushed together. I asked Jane if she would give ne a hand with cutting out the leather cloth for the top of the scuttle. She said that it would be difficult to cut it and get it right. She came to inspect the old one and said she would have a go at cleaning it. The wires to the headlamps were encased in woven cable covering and then the ends covered with heat shrink. If I was going to do the job again I would just use heat shrink over the wires as I think it looks nicer. Anyway, nobody is going to look under my front wheel arches. At least it keeps the wires altogether. The grommet I used on the inner wing is of the type that you can cut down to the size of cable. Jane also cleaned the vinyl covered edgings for the dashboard top and the rear of the cockpit. All the bits cleaned up well using panel wipe and cockpit shine. V8 Register MG Car Club 161103-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Rebuild-Report-86 5
I have just come across photos of the woven sleeving for the headlamp wires. Heating the heat shrink with the hot air gun to shrink the heat shrink cable covering to hold the cables together and seal the end of the woven sleeving. Back to the Peace Mat. This is the first time I have ever fitted this sort of stuff, I have used the old type bitumen pads in the past, but not this type of material. It comes with adhesive already on the underside, with a removable paper cover. I thought I would punch the holes out for the seat mountings. To find the positions of the rear two seat mounting holes I poked a scriber up from the underside. The front ones I had to measure where they were because they go into the box section underneath. I wanted to punch at least 1 holes in the Peace Mat so that I could make some 1 diameter spacers out of aluminium to raise the seats above the carpet and the sound deadening material. It seems that I have lent out my box of large wad punches and I can t now remember who borrowed them. In the end I had to settle for the small set that I still had and punch ¾ holes. I have ordered another set of the large punches on line. I remember my Mother saying Nether a borrower or a lender be. At this present time they seem wise words! It seems with the space left on this page that I can t fit a photo in, so you will have to put up with my ramblings. The Peace Mat reminded me of the swinging 60s when there was Flower Power. Jane thought it would be a good idea to paint a flower on the bonnet of our Triumph TR3. Luckily she used poster paints that did eventually wash off. The stalk of the flower went up to the windscreen and then appeared at the boot, ending up in a flower pot painted on the boot. The TR3 was the first car I ever drove at over 100mph. Before the TR I had a 1936 Morgan 4 wheeler with an 1172 Ford engine in it. I sold it to buy a post war Morgan but could not find one to purchase although I looked every Thursday morning in the Exchange and Mart. I looked at a few Austin Healey 3000s but found the steering very heavy, so in the end I settled for the TR3, which probably cost me 30. V8 Register MG Car Club 161103-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Rebuild-Report-86 6
Anyway, enough of reminiscing, back to the present and the MGB V8 rebuild. It s a new day, after a night out at the local pub, with the rest of the Saga Louts I am determined to get this battery box sorted out. Hopefully also install the rear wiring loom and battery leads. The alloy plate that I had made previously to keep the heat from the right hand silencer away from the battery was fitted. For the time being I have purposely left the bolts long as I will need to support the right hand exhaust box somewhere in this area. I used the depth gauge on the vernier calliper to find the distance between the plastic battery box and the metal battery frame underneath. I really like this battery box that I picked up at an Autojumble. The problem is that it does not reach the bottom of the battery mounting frame and I need to fix the battery mounting strap to the frame or at least the 1/8 thick alloy plate. I found some scrap stainless steel, I hope, as I have not checked it with a magnet yet (good stainless steel is not magnetic). This I found in my jar of spacers. I painted the ends of the steel with blue engineers marking out blue paint. This is so I can scribe a line at the height needed for the spacers. V8 Register MG Car Club 161103-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Rebuild-Report-86 7
I then drilled out the two holes in the bottom of the plastic battery box to the size of the outside diameter of the spacer tube. The spacer was then poked through the hole and the spacer marked with a scriber where it was flush with the inside of the plastic box. The spacers were then pushed through the plastic bottom of the battery box. The spacer tube marked for the two spacers required. The tube was then put in the lathe and the two spacers cut off with the parting tool. The ends were then faced in the lathe to give smooth ends and the hole drilled out to give clearance for the ¼ UNF stainless steel set screw. Two aluminium 3mm plates were then made as washers to hold the battery strap in place. Got to go, UPS has just turned up with my Moss order. The missing parcel from Car Insulation also turned up this morning, it was found in the North Wales depot of UK-Mail! Thanks to all who emailed to say they liked the reports as they are. If you have any suggestions, or tips I can pass on through these reports you can email me at: mikemacartney@btconnect.com 3rd November 2016. V8 Register MG Car Club 161103-V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Rebuild-Report-86 8