1973 MGB GT- It's back..again 16/6

The other tip for POR 15 is to store the can upside down in the fridge. This way, if it does go hard, the hardened layer on "Top" will be at the bottom of the can

Never trusted the lid to keep the paint in myself!

I don't know cause I have not tried, but it might be possible to use the "Air in a can" electronic duster products to push moisture laden air out of the POR container?

Pete

but your breath is full of moisture

In a harsh way it seems selling your RX-7 has allowed you to re-evaluate your priorities.

From seeming stagnant for months there seems to be tons getting down to the MGB! Fair play to you.

You're absolutely right to be honest. For me to have done all I wanted to the RX-7, it would have cost too much and taken too long

The Corolla was meant to be less involved, I'm planning on doing a couple of track days with mates so its getting some mods for that, but its mostly mechanical work that I can do easily, not the bodywork costs I was having to shell out for on the 7. (Though the Corolla's exhaust rusting off lately wasn't in the script!)

The other part of it was that I felt like I was becoming one of those "one day..." MGB owners I'd spent long enough doing nothing on it! I've even got plans to do some work on the BMW this weekend also so I'm hoping to keep this wave of enthusiasm going

It's amazing how time flies, over a year since I posted anything on the B and not much has happened.

Last year was a bit of a write off really, had a break up, got involved in making a Corolla T Sport track car (good fun but not good on the wallet), my BMW 520i touring project started to spiral a bit out of control culminating in me breaking/selling it and I briefly tried to do super cheap motoring by dailying a Toyota Aygo..





Things are a bit more settled now, got my Honda Legend as a nice mix of interesting/practical daily that I won't get too carried away with, and my Suzuki GSX600F for when I need a bit of a speed fix (plus its pretty cheap to commute on also!)

This means I can actually do something about this little MG cluttering my garage

The upshot of selling off the BMW stuff is that I was able to keep the M50b25 2.5 straight 6 I'd planned to swap into my 520i Touring. I'd stripped the engine down completely as I was going to give it a light rebuild and also install the crank, rods and pistons from an M54b30 engine which creates a 3.0 stroked straight 6.



I also have the 5 speed gearbox from the 525i donor car I'd bought, so I think you can probably see where this is going... I've not worked out the details yet but I think power and character wise, it should be a good match for the B. I've sold off the intake manifold for the engine and itb kits are available, I don't think I'll need any forced induction for the weight of the B.

I've still got the old B series in bits and the O/D gearbox which I'll sell off soon as they're not really needed.

So on the powertrain I've got the beginnings of a vague plan. On the chassis, what I'd like to do is get it rolling again so I can get it outside and do some work on it. One point that is currently stopping me from doing this is this polybush crush tube which has apparently welded itself to the wishbone pivot..



I'll be buying new pivots so might be able to do something with cutting the pivot away and pressing the remains out? Or if I can just buy a new crush tube that would be handy..

I dug out my front crossmember, removed the stub of old brake hose from it and gave it a wire brush, rust converter and some black paint











I've got the negative camber wishbone arms that need painting also where the original paint has started to flake, need to buy new spring pans as well as the aforementioned pivots.

I've also dug out these front knuckles/king pins



I'll clean them up a bit but they don't look too great.. I know when I last had my B on the road, the handling was pretty poor due to how much I'd lowered it and the geo setup I had read about dropped spindles being available for MG's previously, which might be a way for me to get the low's I want, while retaining good handling.

Anyway, theres my annual update. Having seen a couple other B projects on here being more active recently, I'm hoping it'll be a bit of a spur for me to crack on with mine, I do miss having this car on the road!

Practical Performance Car has done a series of articles on a MGB, they've supercharged it, they've put a four-link coil over conversion in.

I guess you're going to end up with a modern(ish) MGC.

My approach (which may not be the right one!) is going to be to get the powertrain, body etc. all sorted first and worry about suspension later down the line (albeit asides a few tweaks such as a panhard rod etc.).

As you know, the great thing about these is that you can change the axles/suspension as and when you want to so gives you lots of time to save for frontline's rather serious set up

Nice to see progress again Adam.

I've no doubt you're absolutely right, or I could go with a Zetec or MX5 engine etc. which would be an easier swap also. The problem for me is that they've all been done, I've always wanted to do something different with my car and I don't plan on selling it so any future value concerns don't really bother me too much.

The M52 engine which succeeded the M50 was basically the same block but in aluminium, so in theory I could go down this route if I wanted to reduce the weight further, either way I'm pretty sure either engine is lighter than the B series boat anchor!