1976 MGB GT on SSR MK3s

Absolutely living the dream. Car looks great and so do the adventures you're having in it. Top work.

what tyre size did you end up going for in the end?

Lovly car :-) Nice wheels! Do stop and have a beer next time you are in Denmark!

So I was sitting in a bus stop along the side of the road. The lorries thundered past. I turned the key again. Two lazy chugs from the starter motor, then just clicks. I opened the bonnet. I felt the smug looks of the electric car drivers whizzing by. Ugh. Plug wires, distributor, fuses, nothing amiss.

Back seat out to check the battery. I had recharged it two days past and run without driving lights, surely it could not run out that fast? A plug-in hybrid MGB, I mused.

Turn key. Chug chug, click click click.

So I called my father who was visiting me. After taking some gentle abuse for buying a silly British car, he agreed to buy some jump leads and a tow rope to rescue the stricken MGB.

I browsed my phone idly, but quickly got bored. I turned the key again. The noisy beast fired up like nothing had ever happened. I pushed the throttle and the horrible misfire was gone? Somewhat giddy, I got back on the road. I turned off the main road at the first opportunity. I went to turn the car around. I twisted around in my seat. Something was missing. Huh. The rear seat bench...? Where the...?

So I had to jog back to the bus stop to retrieve it while the car idled. It ran fine all the way home.

That was the first trip of 2016.




Then it was time for the biannual "MOT"-equivalent. I did not dare to hope for a pass on the first go, but the news were rather worse than I had hoped.
"Wheel bearing," the man said.
"OK," I replied.
"Steering rack gaiter."
"Yeah."
"Rust in the rear spring hangers."
"What?"

That last point was unexpected. As I cannot weld, I needed a man. My preferred man is a man who restores big Healeys. His latest project was a 100/4 which had been sitting in a forest for 30-odd years. He is rather busy. I put the car back in storage until he had time, after which it was time to put the car back in winter storage again. Not a great season.



This year, I have been very busy with work and with trying to finish renovations in my house. But as I was nearing my holidays, I decided that I really needed to get the car back on the road if I was to keep the thing.

So the night before my last day at work, I brought all my tools with me and set about fixing the gaiter and the wheel bearing. This was my first time doing both of these jobs, but I felt it went fine, aside from some rusted bolts and jubilee clips.

The next morning I brought it to the workshop again.
"The wheel bearing is noisy," he said.
"Yes, I did notice, but it's brand new. Take a look at the old one, it didn't seem worn."
"Did you change these?" He pointed to the races.
"No," I said, sheepishly.
"Well, I cannot approve it."
"Can you fix it?"
"Not today."
"I understand."

I ended up driving back to the city to give my license plates (and money) away in exchange for temporary registration stickers, after which I drove 6hrs to my holiday destination. It was still a pretty good trip.







After I replaced the wheel bearing again and got the car approved, I decided to clean the car properly. While vacuuming the floors, more bits came out than I would have liked. So it looks like my man will get some more business come winter. Or I will have to learn to weld for myself. Stupid, beautiful car.

Just seen this thread and had to congratulate you on a stunning car - and for using it properly!

Bit of motivation to sort my own BGT out in a similar colour which has lost its way of late - this is what it used to look like



On a positive note, my plan is to drop a 3.9 V8 in and build the car I've always wanted... just a small matter of finding the time

I was at the airport. The security lady seemed confused as to why I was not more upset with her for wanting to confiscate my security breaching tin of hair wax. "No, no. It's my own fault," I reassured her. She looked at me and said again, "I have to take it away and dispose of it." "Yes," I said, "I understand. It's OK." It was OK, but I would have to buy more. I was buying a hairdressers car, after all.

Two weeks earlier, I was browsing classifieds. And as always, I found a few candidates. But this time, one of them stood out. I showed it to my dad, who was visiting at the time. Ever the voice of reason, he said I should probably wait. I love the man, but he is sensible almost to a fault. I sent a message to the seller.

---

It's a truly beautiful August day and I'm smiling gleefully, the summer air moving through my (unwaxed) hair. Not even the tortured CRONCH from the undercarriage as I traverse the world's largest speed bump manages to dampen my mood. The car keeps going, so I keep smiling. It's my first time driving a roadster, and it's my first time driving a car on coilovers. It's loud and it's hot and it's bumpy and it's wonderful.



I stop to buy some car parts. "Can we just check that all of this fits in my car before I pay for it?" I ask. It does. Just. If I had a codriver, they would have to spend the trip with their legs on the dash or a radiator in their lap. I buy some sunglasses and sunscreen and put them on. It's top-down weather.

I drive south until I see the sea. This was actually one of the big surprises of my trip six years ago, and I've never forgotten the way the sea was suddenly there, and the way the sunrise shone off the water. It was very good. It's still very good, even with the late afternoon sun. I take an hour to walk on the cliffs of Dover. They are also very good.

The ferry people are lovely. First the man in the booth (putting his head out the window to look down at me) tells me he'll put me on an earlier ferry. Then I'm the last car allowed to get on an even earlier ferry. Then as I drive on board another man (while grinning) waves his arms wildly to show how to get my stupidly low car as diagonal as possible across the end of the ramp.


The sun is getting low when we disembark, but I put the roof down again anyway. By complete chance, I stop to put the roof up at the exact same station where I paid to fill air in my tyres six years ago.



It's 2am by the time I stop again. I'm somewhere in Belgium and I'm very tired. Why do the Belgians build such bumpy roads? I check Google Maps for hotels in the area. There are none. So I drive 30 minutes in the wrong direction until I get to Gent. Google Maps says there's a hotel with available rooms here. I ring the doorbell. Nothing. I call the number. "No, no rooms available." I call another hotel. The sleepy Belgian on the other end mumbles some words I interpret to be positive and I say "OK, see you, 10 minutes." Seemingly he manages to fall asleep again in the meantime, but opens the door after a few tense minutes. Five years of French in school almost completely fail to make good our exchange but in the end I get a small room with a hot shower and a nice soft bed. I've had the best day in a very long time.

---

It's morning again. I get up early. The Google Maps lady tries her best to guide me out of Gent. I choose the wrong lane out of a junction and give another Belgian man a proper wakeup. The tyre squeal from his shocked stab at the brake pedal rends the calm morning air. I put my hand up apologetically but smile at the idea of giving British drivers an unfair reputation abroad.

It's Aircooled VW day at Spa Francorchamps.


My first car was a '67 1500 so I like the things, but I since I can't drive on the track I don't stick around too long. I still manage to spot perhaps my favorite aircooled VW ever while heading back to my car. Der Steiner Rad wheels are the stuff of dreams. And that patina?

Oof.

The sky is blue and the roof is down as I head east. I cross the German border and suddenly I'm winding the out the gears on lovely winding two-lane roads. As I drive through a sleepy German village I spot a Porsche. Then a caged BMW. A stickered VW. I'm almost there. It's exciting. I'm excited.

The Nurburgring. It's a special place.

I buy a ticket. I figure I should try to calm myself down a bit by walking around the car parks, but this plan fails. So I get a burger at the diner because I'd forgotten about breakfast. The track closes for a spell, so I walk around the car parks some more. It's so exciting! I'm so excited!

Is it open again? It's open again! I jump in the car, get out of the car park and suddenly I'm through the booth and on the track. The Porsches behind me howl past instantly but there's not much traffic after that. The little MX5 is tremendous. It inspires so much confidence and I get completely absorbed in the experience. Looking back on it, it's a very exciting blur.


I drive to the spectator point at Brunnchen and sit there for a bit before walking along the track, down the Steilstrecke, sit down and book a hotel in Hamburg, then to Karussell and back to Brunnchen. It's exciting. I'm exhilarated.



So, Hamburg then. The first few miles are lovely. I up my personal speed record to a neat 200km/h on a derestricted bit of the Autobahn. After that it turns into a bit of a slog. It's tiring. I'm tired. By the time I get to Hamburg I'm completely beat.

---



I have a ferry to catch. It leaves at 19:00. Should be plenty of time, so I have some breakfast and take it fairly easy. Stopping to buy some cheap beer at the Danish border, I check my schedule again. I have a ferry to catch. I check that I have my ticket. It actually leaves at 17:00. curse word.



Halfway through Denmark the rain starts, so I stop to put the roof up, then blast through the rest of Denmark. I make it with 30 minutes to spare.



The toll booth attendant in Kristiansand is an unsmiling man of near retirement age. "I have to pay for the car" I tell him. "Please park over there, then walk back here so I can deal with other people first." So I park, then walk back to him. And I am so honest. He gets his calculator. "I have 24 beers, it's more than the 15 in the quota." I pay for them. "I have xx kroner worth of parts and clothes in the car, it's more than the quota." I pay for those. "I bought the car for xx pounds and I spent xx kroner on the trip." "Do you have a sales contract?" he asks. I shake my head sheepishly. He is very bemused. He lets me know that he cannot believe how irresponsible I am. "You have insurance?" "Yes, I have the document in the car if you want to..." "No, no, that's for your own benefit." In the end I send him some screenshots of emails with the seller showing the agreed price. "Please get to your local toll office within 3 days to pay the tolls on the car. They will expect to see a sales contract." Just as I'm leaving I manage to make him smile about something. I can't remember what it was but I remember feeling vindicated, despite everything.



Another five hours on the road, then suddenly I'm home again. 2000km in three days. Goodness. What a trip! What a car! What a thing to do to break up the monotony of adult life.

Coolest garage location ever - on the quay of a harbor?
Just read you thread from start till here: well done and thank you.
John, Connecticut/USA

Cheers! It's a boathouse that my family owns. It's the winter storage location of the MGB. Well, it was the winter storage. Then it was summer storage, then winter again, then summer and now another winter.

Here are some photos from the last trip I had with the car, in July 2019.







At that time it was running like a complete pig, getting hot and backfiring. I've decided that it's because the carbs are maladjusted or not rebuilt enough, making it run Jeff Bezos-rich and fouling the plugs. And the rust repair wasn't quite finished. So I parked it for a bit, with only half the new carpets installed, the front wings mounted temporarily, and the very exciting new wheels collecting dust.





While the car has been sitting idle, I have not. I went and built this.





It's a 5m wide, 7m long "style before substance" playspace with sliding glass doors so I can look at my cars from inside my house. I also collected the big red Bavarian thing in the second photo. It's also a 1976, with a glorious 2800ccm straight six fuelled by Bosch. Does it run? No, of course not. I may start a thread on it if I make any progress.



Anyway, what precipitates my return to this thread? Well, I was on eBay, you see. And I won an auction on some very exciting parts. I've never really been happy with the antiquated rear suspension on the MGB. So I bought a Frontline 5-link kit. It's still a live axle, but from what I've read, it's a big improvement. So I'm very excited to fit that to the car, and hope it gives me some motivation to get it back on the road.

Thanks! Unfortunately the Frontline parts are still languishing in their box, they need a strip down. The paint is flaking off in big chunks and lots of surface rust.

I did finally get the car out of its slumber last fall and drove it to my garage, just before they started salting the roads. All was seemingly well despite having stood unused for...an unreasonable number of years.


The only issue was that some of the lights were not working, and the wipers which had previously been "charmingly lethargic" now needed physical coaxing to get going. I took it all apart and re-greased it, then it was working good as new (except the stalk switch, which is a bit unfriendly).

And the window wash doesn't work. Who needs it?

Since there were no other immediate issues to deal with I finally fitted some other parts I've been accumulating. This fetching front spoiler. It's great because I can no longer fit my floor jack under the front.

Of course I have persian rugs in my garage, why wouldn't I? They soak up the oil drips much better than the concrete.

I fitted a Nardi steering wheel and test-fitted seats from the MX5 (but have not bought/made adapter brackets for them yet).


I got Toyo TR1s in 205/50/16 mounted on the Work Ewing wheels.


Even tried them on the front axle.

After that I had to maintain my awful daily driver, a 2005 Volvo V50 1.6 diesel. The MGB was parked outside for a week, and though initially thrilled that the car had not turned into a pile of dust, I discovered the floors were full of water. Some googling later revealed that the drain tube for the cabin air intake, the so-called "Tom's knob" was likely clogged. I promptly hacked the end off, and got it unclogged.



It was time for the dreaded Norwegian equivalent of an MOT. First attempt was a fail, of course. The man called me and said "your battery is loose." I knew that, but it's under the rear seat bench, and it was never pointed out before. "OK," I said resignedly. After five minutes I called him back and said "I have a tie-down strap, can I just drop by and fasten the battery?" "Uh, sure?"

The car was APPROVED! After I got the paper the inspector said "also your horn doesn't work." I knew that. "Sure it does, at certain steering angles." And that was that! Giddy, I brimmed the tank with the cheapest petrol money can buy (now with 10% ethanol, for the glory of EU). Woke up bright and early next morning and did the commute to work in my wonderful little sports car.

Cue maintenance manager Bjørn casually dropping by my office to inform me "I think your car is leaking a bit."

Fortunately it was not the newfangled friendly fuel, it was just coolant from the well-worn radiator. I topped it off and drove home.

Helped a buddy change the brakes on his Corolla too. Actually drove the MGB with the new wheels mounted on the rear. For about 2 minutes. They rub really bad on the rear fenders. I guess I won't have to change the thread title yet, until I get the 5-link rear installed and maybe some fender rolling.


I took it on a mini-roadtrip. With the SSRs.


I was going to take it on another mini-roadtrip to make sure everything (except the radiator) was ship shape. It was not.

The car smelled funny. And ran funny. I got about 50 meters down the road from my house before I stopped, put the handbrake on and found fuel spurting out of the carb overflow, and the hose had conveniently fallen off so it was going straight onto the manifold. No good. I was forced to park the car on the street for the weekend, but hoped I would get the car going again on Sunday for my longer roadtrip.

Nope. I couldn't cobble it together.

The fuel pump was acting a bit weird so I checked the fuel pressure and got 5PSI, which is more than the 3-4 it's supposed to push, and would blow past the carb floats. So I bought a new fuel pump and fitted it, which took about a month with shipping.

Still no change with new fuel pump. So I did what everyone on the MGExperience board said I should do and checked the carbs themselves. The float on the front carb was full of fuel, and subsequently not floating. So I bought a new one. And new needles. Fitted the new "uprated, much improved" needle on the front carb and the fuel still came out, but a bit more slowly. Fitted the old needle. Still no good. Tried adjusting the float tab. Broke it off the float. Epoxied the old float. Fitted the needle upside down, somehow? Lucky for me, because when I opened the carb again I found that the epoxy did not endure the fuel. New, fit-for-purpose epoxy and needle right way up and lo! The car worked! I celebrated by changing the oil and the filter.

Then I jumped in the car and drove. About four minutes later the car started smelling funny again. Fuel? No, not that. Coolant temperature gauge? Oh. Oh dear.

I filled the radiator and limped it home.

After a few days I drove it to work again (after topping off the coolant). Got to work with no issues. No leaks from the radiator. Drove it home after work. Oil pressure was at 50, vs. the usual 60. After a brief blat down a tunnel the gauge read 45. Then after a small hill it was 40. Oof. Got home. Radiator leaking. Took a plier to bend the leaky tube back on itself (neat trick I found on Youtube). All the water poured out of it. Big oof.

Anyway, that's more or less up to date. Oil pressure issue is likely due to the oil filter being slightly too small? I don't know. I'm fixing the radiator with epoxy, of course. It would just be too easy to learn from all the mistakes I make.


Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that another project has joined the (now too-small) stable. It's also a 1976, a BMW 520 with a full 528i swap. It's been off the road since 1994. It's had 4-5 owners since then, and at least two of them have been even more dumber than me. So I've been buying and fitting missing parts, removing and refitting parts the right way, and put an Alpina front spoiler and wheels and lowering springs on it. Currently fighting the fancy Bosch transistorized ignition system. And ordering even more missing parts.