1973 MGB GT- A little rust 30/08

I replaced the two six volts with one 12 volt from a Grande Punto 1.2 or Toyota Yaris. The battery is basically the same size in plan but not as tall, so fits in the battery carrier fine and uses the original clamp.

I think it's an 002 or 202 code. From memory the mAh capacity came out just a bit less than the two six's (46mAh vs 56mAh again from memory) but the CCA was actually better (305 vs 295 I think) !!

As with all these things the better quality battery will last you longer.

Phil.

Time for a little bit of an update, haha since my.. optimistic.. last comment just above, I have in fact ditched the two 6 volt batteries in favour of a nice beefy Exide 202 12 volt battery it now starts anywhere, anytime, any weather ;D

There are some running issues, but ive got a decent thread going in the technical bit about those....

In other developments.. since the car hasn't had a wash since I went to uni in september, I thought id treat the old girl



I didnt actually use the t-cut in the end, its a waste of time on paint as bad as mine

little end result photo

should have got a before photo really, but its a big improvement, use of rainx and some halfords anti mist stuff has really helped as well (it was getting misted up to the point where it really wasnt safe )


As well as cleaning, i've been working on housing the gauges that I bought a couple of months back

Take one standard MGB centre console


Got hacking with a hacksaw


Realised this was stupid and bought a dremel-a-like


A couple of cut off wheels (and nearly a couple of spare eyeballs) later and ive got two vaguely DIN shaped holes


Then trial fit DIN gauge panel


Fit gauges, Interior light and radio et voila!


Just got to stick it back in the car and wire/plumb everything up

Also this month, the slow transformation of the interior colour from beige/cream to black continued as the door seals were replaced, also cured a very annoying whistle caused by travelling at anything over 50 odd mph



The brake lights also decided to stick on all the time, problem was tracked down to a dodgy hydraulic brake switch, got a new one for £8, swapped them and problem solved!

Overall I think ive got the B to be a pretty decent little runabout and I'm pretty happy with it at the moment which is good since I had almost got to the point of considering selling it for something a bit more modern, but I'm glad I havent

Next up is wiring of gauges and ive bought a shedload of LED replacement bulbs for sidelights and whatnot

Stay tuned

Just looked through all of this - nice car! I wanted a BGT for my first car too, but couldn't find a decent one in my budget, but one day I'll have one 8)

Nice work you've done to it anyway, door cards really improved the interior, and I'm loving the extra gauges

Another update, been busy buying things for the B which i probably don't need to be

First off, managed to bag this Leyland Special Tuning style front spoiler of a certain internet auction site for a mere £1.70! its not perfect and has been cut about/ glassed up here and there, but it looks good enough for me, and has been well painted in primer





should look good and very 70's when i fit it to the car, bit undecided on colour choice at the moment though, not sure whether to go black or body colour green i think either could work

In addition to that, a mate of mine has been breaking a mk1 mx5 for a kit car project hes building, as a result he no longer had a need for the seats so ive had 'em ;D



excuse the rubbish iphone photo quality but they're in really good condition, in the right colour, only a couple of little holes in the backing of the seats, the front faces look as new, even the side bolsters look good

and as an added (unexpected) bonus, at some point the rather tinny (so i hear) oem speakers have been replaced with some decent looking JVC coaxials



i had been looking out for mx5 seats with the headrest speakers because i have longish term plans to improve the sound system in the B but id like to keep it as stealthy an install as possible, the headrest speakers will really help this, might even change the door speakers for components.. we shall see

for the moment, its time to order some aluminium plate and make some adapter plates to get these seats fitted as i don't fancy drilling into the car much lol

It definitely does! the whistling noise from the doors used to be very annoying on dual carriageways :/ theres still a fair bit of wind noise due to the fact there's a half inch gap at the trailing edge of the window :/

and thanks for the comment about the centre console, just need to get on with wiring it all in properly so i can see the dials at night

Just a teeny tiny update here, just been fitting my new front end lighting stuff, I'd bought clear indicator lenses, LED sidelights and indicators.

The job wasn't without its issues as it became apparent that the LED's wouldnt work as indicators due to needing a resistor?.. Also the drivers side sidelight bulb was rusted in place along with the back panel so I'm going to have to get a new one of those

but anyway, heres a before and after shot

before


after


To me it looks good, and once the 'fried egg' effect is gone it should make the front look cleaner

And now I'm thinking of making the rear indicators red... I'm sure my mate with his euro style seat ibiza is having some influence on me

Nice looking BGT ( I had a "slightly" modified one and I still miss it!)

"Super B" Pro Rover BGT V8.

Thanks the bolts for the seats go upwards through the plates and are glued in position, so removing the seat just requires undoing the nuts on top of the bolts. slide the seat forward to get the two at the back and slide back to get the ones at the front

Thanks, yeah i wasn't sure myself at first, but its grown on me, i think having the badge green/black has helped too

Just gotta decide what colour to paint the front spoiler ive got for it now, black or green?... hmmm