OK I'm Back...

First off, as usual, I have to apologize for not posting in forever. I've had a lot of things happen in the past year or so. Getting married, searching for, and finally getting a new job. Life changing events aside, I've had some great car related activities; many fantastic car shows, tons of cool people I've met, and lots of little and big projects underway. But this post is to bring you all up to speed.

As I said before I started a new job and it's close by where I live, a 9 mile commute to be exact, with an average commuting time of 15 minutes. As well as a regular parking lot. Which means that I get to drive my MGB to work on most days. The only downside is that it takes about 8 minutes to really warm up the MGB, even on a summer morning, So the ride is a little rough for about half of the way. But the weather was so nice this year, I was able to drive the ragtop to work 80% of the time. Even better was the fact that we were able to get the blue 1977 MGB on the road, and drive that one to work too! Having both MGB's out here was pretty wild...

Here's how we got there!

Well, remember that parts car we had? We used the front fenders and hood for my Dad’s 1970 MGB GT. And the rest of the car we pretty much butchered for parts. One thing that was also good was the engine.

My cousin and Dad ran the engine, and realized that it sounded quite good overall. So they threw the blue car’s engine in the scrap heap, and placed the parts car’s engine in the Blue 1977 MGB convertible. The blue car had a Weber 45dcoe Carb on it. Back in the day, my cousin had a mechanic that told him that the SU carbs he was having a hard time tuning were junk, and told him to go with a weber. Apparently he was also a Weber re-seller, go figure. So this 1969 MGB GT engine with it’s lack of smog pumps and higher compression now has a Weber carb on it, which gives it a pretty strong performance.

There was some damage during storage though. During one of the winters, snow banks were pushed up against it, more specifically under it, denting the gas tank. So a new one was procured from Victoria British. The rear deck lid was damaged, so I replaced it with one from a 1970 MGB, It didn’’t quite fit right, but It’ll get sorted. In the meantime it looked badass in flat black primer.

After all that work The car was sorted out wiring wise, and during the one day off between jobs, I went and registered and insured it, Driving it to work at the new place, and around town. The only Issue the car had was a throttle cable breaking. A quick trip to a bike shop and I was all set, as it’s the same as a brake cable. Go figure, what stops a Schwinn, makes an MGB go.

A soda blaster was purchased, and the fenders were blasted, revealing pinholes in the lower sections. My Dad had purchased all the replacement sheet metal, rocker panels, doglegs, and lower fender sections. The guys at AB Fab in Woburn, did the metal work for a great price, and the work went well. re fitting the fenders went well, although they still need a bit of fitting.

The next step is paint. and this is where things are going to get complicated. but that's for another blog post, that will not be 13+ months in the making.

Happy Motoring.

CD