Day 11-12

Well- much has hapened in the last week plus.

First off, I fifnished the Miata on Friday night (Feb 10), threw it in Craigslist, and sold it on Saturday!  That worked out well.  The first person to look at the car bought it.



Paint going on to match original stone guard- it's a rubber stonechip spray from NAPA with epoxy black satin over it




Finished!!

 Now with the new black rockers, the British racing green looks pretty cruddy- but that's not my problem anymore.

With that, my old Miata leaves this blog forever- down I95 to New Hampshire......

So- on to the MGB:

I started be finishing up the carb install, hooking up the battaery, connecting my hose to the exhaust pipe, so the garage wouldn't fill with exhaust and starting her up!  I bet this is the first time she has run on her own in at least ten years- pretty cool! At first, she stumbled ,coughed, and missed.  If I tried to turn off the choke, she would die.  So, off came the distributor cap to see if anything looked hinky.  The points were pretty dirty, so I cleaned them up with some emery paper and tried again.  Much better, but still missing.  I pulled the vac advance line off of the intake manifold to see if that made any difference to the idle- it did not. At this point, I had made up my mind to remove the distributor and send it in for rebuild.  Considering how much rust was inside, it makes sense.




Distributor- rusty water valve above, old oil filter on the right




very rich spark plug




inside the rusty distributor- Lucas 25D version

 So, with that decision made, I desided to tackle the seats and pedal box, since it was getting cold and they could both be looed into while in the basement.

No real difficulties with the pedal box.  I want to rebuild the old clutch master instead of using the new one that came mounted to the car- much better quality.  So, off came the clutch and brake masters.  While I had them off, I wanted to tap threads in the mounting holes of each cylinder so when I inevitably need to remove one again, it will be a simple task of removing two bolts and one hydralic line.  At the same time, I cleaned and painted the empty pedal box, box cover, and pedals ?(including new pedal pads)

pedal box

pedal box empty



pedal box refinished with old (yet to be rebuilt) clutch slave (smaller cap)


Next, I tackled the seats to try and get them to work.  Mainly, I wanted them to be able to lean forward as designed.  The handle down at the hinge of the seat that releases the seat to lean forward worked fine with a little use, PB Blaster, and grease.  But, the chrome handle on the sides of the seat that control the seat back angle did not.  It is just too rusty to deal with for now.  So, I cleaned up one of the seats and moisturized the vinyl to see if I can get some months out of them before they just fall apart.

these rubber straps will need replacing, and the frame cleaned up a little and painted with POR-15.

looks o.k. after cleanig, but the photo lies- the vinyl is a little brittle and I assume it will crack once someone sits in them for a few miles= I guess we will see.  A problem I will deal with with cheap seat covers if required

  Next up- clutch hydralic lines installed, carpet removal, and other stuff.