On the road again - at speed

• Installed new tyres (P185/70 14)
  

Finally! I can drive at speed again! More than 40 mph, here I come!

I finally got the new tyres I've desperately needed for ages (with many thanks to my grandfather who gave me the money to buy them). To keep with the spirit of the 70s I bought white-wall tyres. Some may say that this is an American tradition, not appropriate on a British car. Well they can go to hell. It looks damn good. And furthermore this is an American-spec MGB, not British (otherwise I'd have about 20 more horse-power).

Note that the 'white walls' are blue in these images. The blue is a protection layer that will wear off over time and reveal to be white. I'd wash it but I have a major exam tomorrow that I should be studying for. Also note that the guy at Sears was nice enough to use the chrome valve stems (without me asking), rather than the generic black ones most cars have. I feel like I should have tipped him.

Emergency radiator flush

• Flushed coolant with 50/50 solution
  

Remember when I flushed the radiator a while back? Well at the time I filled it up with pretty much all water and a minimum of anti-freeze - fine in the summer, murder in the winter. Once the water in the radiator freezes it expands and the radiator cracks. This could possibly even happen in the engine (resulting in one nice paper weight). Last night temperatures were freezing.

Though I'm looking for an excuse to swap out the engine (with a V8; I'm thinking HEMI), the timing is not right and a dead engine would be the end of this project for a long time.

Luckily Bonnie started up as normal. To flush the radiator fluid I removed the bottom hose again (no drain plug on 77s and up), reconnected it and refilled it using the top hose. Running the engine for a while the reserve bucket burped and I filled up till it stopped burping. All in all I used about a gallon of 50/50 coolant.

The engine now runs hotter than normal at idle, slightly to the right of centre, but actually cools down to left of centre while driving, which I assume is due to the crisp October air. Anyway, luckily my engine is safe, and Bonnie still runs like a dream.

Taking Bonnie out for a spin

• Refitted passenger seat
  

If there's anything research has taught me, it's that even the simplest task will on average take 5-8 times as long as it should, generally due to technical difficulties and unforeseen complications. And this is despite extensive background research on the theory behind a novel procedure, working out the maths, the physics, and preparing for every possible complication that could arise, in the hope that the operation could be performed in a reasonable amount of time, and then move on to the next one. Working on an old car is just like that. Reading various manuals, studying diagrams, scouring MG websites and reading millions of posts, can take hours. Of course, that's nothing compared to performing the actual operation.

I still need to change the fuel filter, replace the coolant, fix the hole on the passenger side, replace the air filter, ..., and that's even before I start working on making the car look good again. But I felt lazy this weekend and thought I'd do something simple like reattach the passenger seat so I could start taking people for rides (rather than make them sit on the battery). Replacing the seat seemed to be more complicated than I anticipated. If you can avoid it never remove the seats.

DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID! Do not attach the rails before installing the seat. There is not enough room to slide the seats in place. Instead place the wooden absorbers in place with the metal spacers, and attach the rail that fits onto the side that has the mechanism that blocks the seat from sliding. Place the seat on the wooden absorbers and push the seat all the way back so the front hole becomes visible on the rail. Screw in a bolt but don't tighten all the way. Next push the seat all the way forward and do the same with the back screw. Push the remaining slide into position by sliding it under the seat, push the seat back, and screw in the front bolt. Repeat the same for the back. While doing this you may have to lift the seat up from one side occasionally, push it around a bit, force things into place. Then tighten all bolts, and you're done. This took me about an hour. If your MG is in better shape you'll get it done sooner. Make sure the bolts are in good shape so the seat can't come loose.

Anyway, so it all worked out in the end, and I was able to go for a ride with Jeremy. Below you'll see the first ever (cell-phone) video of Bonnie-Delilah in motion.

Gas cap and roofing

• Patched roof
• Drilled out gas-cap lock
  

A car is a lot like a woman. Pay daily attention to her, treat her to the finest accessories, jewellery, food and drink, tell her she means the world to you, and you'll have many happy years together. I haven't done any of that for a while, so it was no surprise when ole' Bonnie wouldn't start up Saturday morning. At this point I also realise I've probably alienated my entire female audience - all two of you.

The battery was fine and I had reattached the ignition switch properly, so the problem was elsewhere. I remember the previous owner forcing fuel into the carburettor by pushing a lever that manually injects fuel. Doing that for a while, then pushing the accelerator while turning the key, and with a lot of patience, the car finally started. I was relieved, and rubbed my sore head (from banging it against the wheel every time it didn't start). Photos will follow as soon as I remember to take along my camera.

One of the parts I received was a new gas cap. The old gas cap needed a key to be opened, which I didn't get with the car. So up till recently I was refilling the car by opening the hose leading right into the gas tank and pumping fuel there, manually estimating when I had to stop (very safe, of course). To remove the old gas cap I first needed to drill out the old lock. The theory is to drill through all the pins and springs, thus letting the tumbler move freely in the housing (using a screwdriver or something flat). Use a small drill bit to do this. I didn't, and used the largest one I had, which didn't do more than jam the mechanism. I ended up using a screwdriver and more drill bits to just break the whole thing and force it out using pliers. Not very elegant, but it worked. The new gas cap doesn't have a lock, so anyone could destroy my car very easily now. Lets hope none of my enemies are reading this.



The other thing I did was repair the holes in the roof. It seems that over time the vinyl/plastic/mysterious material roof has shrunk on one side. Because of this several stitchings have come loose and there are some tears around the back window. Amazingly the top is still very black, and hasn't discoloured.

Nobody on the internet seems to have any real solutions to fixing torn tops, other than to buy a new one. I currently don't have $500 for a new top, and the few convertible top patch kits aren't meant for the large surface areas I needed to cover. So instead I bought a water-proof dark green tarp cover (they didn't have black) from the local hardware store (~$10) and some Goop glue (~$8), supposedly the strongest automotive glue on earth. I cut rectangular pieces out of the tarp approximately the size of the tear and placed a spread a rather thick layer of glue over it. The Goop 'manual' recommended letting it cure for 2-10 minutes, but I found that it stopped sticking when I did that, so instead I immediately applied it to the tear. I stuck the patches on the inside of the roof and pushed the edges of the tear together, with the patch as support. Later I cut out the excess tarp. (Again, photos will follow.)

At this point the glue smell had given me a terrible headache, which along with the millions of mosquito bites I had acquired pushed me to leave the site and go home.


Lock image: http://www.amazing-planet.net/slike/pick-lock/lock_schematic.jpg

Update and ignition

It's been a while since I had a chance to do anything to Bonnie-Delilah, thank Ike and mechanical set-backs for that one. This weekend I'm out of town. Next weekend I plan on having a whole day's worth of work on the car, especially considering I've just received a bunch of parts for it.

One thing I haven't been able to do for a while is replace the ignition tumbler, the part of the ignition switch that the key goes in. The original key broke off in the lock and so I've been starting the car with a screw driver. I simply could not figure out a way of replacing the tumbler without removing the steering column, something I don't want to do because I have to shave off some bolts to do that.

So instead I'm hotwiring the car and adding a push-button start mechanism to the car; see diagram below.

Schematics and parts list will follow soon.