Let's get started

• Replaced valve cover gasket
• Oil change
• Replaced accessory belt
  

Driving the MGB, Shelly (tbd), down from Frederick, Maryland, took about 45 minutes and wasn't too much of a problem. It gave me time to get used to the clutch and the general workings of the car. I took it easy the first day (as far as working on the car went), and only fixed up a mirror and showed it off to the neighbours.

Today was a different story. Excited, so excited in fact I once again didn't sleep, I got up at 7 and ran down to get busy. I started out by properly fixing the license plate (it was being held up by a paper-clip and a twisty-tie) and emptying out the junk in the trunk I wasn't going to need. I inserted the screwdriver into the ignition (the key is broken), turned, and waited for the engine to flare up.

It didn't. After panicking for a few minutes I calmed down and took out my multimeter. Indeed, the battery had plummeted to 2.5 V, something I should have seen coming. First thing on the shopping list: a new battery.

Jump-starting was anything but easy. The battery in an MGB is 'conveniently' located behind the passenger's seat, meaning that for a jump start the top must be down and the other car has to be pretty close by. Luckily I had extra-long jumper cables, and after moving my Altima several times and a few minutes of charging I was on my way.

I arrived at my friend's house where I was going to be doing the work. Today I was going to replace the valve cover gasket (followed by an oil change), and change the drive belt. I also had to replace the battery.

Replacing the valve cover gasket is one of the easiest car-related things I've ever done. It's generally done when the car starts leaking oil. I didn't observe any leaking oil, but the previous owner recommended I do the work. The new gasket was bought from Rockauto (see links on left). By the way, buy the more expensive one. It's a combination of cork and rubber, just like the original gaskets used to be like. These will last longer and work better. Below you'll see images of the nuts you need to remove to install the new valve cover gasket (red, left), as well as an image of the valve cover removed so you can see the new gasket in place (right).

Before any of this is done the oil needs to be drained. Never having actually done an oil change myself I was a bit puzzled as to where the oil drain plug was, but after googling the topic and going through several manuals I was reasonably sure the hexagonal nut under the right side of the vehicle was what I was looking for. Twisting it for a while a large amount of (hot) oil started gushing down on my hand. Bingo. Also I learned that in England they call the oil pan the 'sump'. 10W-30 was used as replacement oil.


At this point I was pretty tired, but went ahead with replacing the drive belt. I bought the belt at Advance, but they sold me the wrong part, so I'll be buying the replacement part on Rockauto again. Replacing the belt was quite easy, I simply loosened the nut holding the alternator taught, pushed it towards the engine to relieve pressure on the belt, removed and replaced the belt, and undid what I had previously done.

Going out for a test-drive the brake lights miraculously started working again. Shelly even felt so good after some fresh oil and a new belt, she started telling me a bit more about herself through her gauges. The speedometer, oil gauge, and clock were always working (apparently she's a cautious one, trying me out before she commits), but now I also knew I still had 3/4 tank of gas left, my rpm (after tapping several times), and the fact the engine was running ridiculously hot. In fact the gauge was off the scale.

On a different note, my grandfather has offered to buy me a new set of tyres!! More on that soon.

So that's where I am now. The car is still at my friend's place, patiently waiting and cooling off for me to diagnose the problem so I can drive her home tomorrow. It's going to be another sleepless night.

It's here!!!

I picked up the 'Historic' license plates on Thursday, and was able to drive it down from Frederick today (in the boiling sun). More tomorrow.

Oh, and you voted for 'Shelly'. While I'm not entirely sure the car is a 'Shelly', I'll stick with it for now.

Name

Just about a week left now. I'm getting the (historic) tags next week, and have already dealt with the insurance (a premium that is slowly encroaching on the total value of my two cars).

On that note, did you know insurance for these cars is really not that cheap? It's quite a bit cheaper than regular cars, but still not next to nothing. Furthermore State Farm and Nationwide seem to hate classic cars, charging me $300 extra for the additional car (Geico and Progressive were much cheaper; e-surance doesn't even offer insurance for cars before 1981). There are also some other companies that only insure classic cars, and offer free towing services (for quite a few miles). They're actually quite a bit better than regular insurance companies, and offer a lot more coverage over the bigger guys. Still in the end I stuck with my normal company (soon my insurance will drop significantly I'll have more of a bargaining point). I'll have to keep using AAA till then.

In anticipation for the car I've started preparing for its arrival. Getting the paper-work done was completed the day after I signed the cheque. Now I have to take care of all the little things: buy a new ignition switch (so it won't need a screwdriver to start anymore), buy all the required lamps (so people know when I'm braking, turning, or backing up), and warn my neighbours.

Another thing I need to do is come up with a name. After all, this is my first child (I sort of married my Altima a while ago so it couldn't be my child), and a spoilt first born deserves a good name. The car's gender is Female. What do you think? I've started a poll on the left side of the page I hope people will vote on, and help me make up my mind. If you have any suggestions for names email me or leave them in a comment and I'll try to add it.

UPDATE: Turns out I can't add names anymore, but suggestions are always welcome and certainly considered.

MGs run in the family

Apparently I'm not the first MG owner in our family (no real surprise there - I was just drawn to that car). In fact, my grandfather owned a 1949 MG TC, as is shown in the image below. He's the one on the left who seems a bit frustrated. His car was painted red, as mine will be too.

What is it?

Because I don't have the car yet (no tags, but I do hold the title), I thought I'd start explaining the reasoning behind this undertaking.

In short, I'm bored on the weekends. I like working on my car, but there's really not much to do on my regular car, a reliable '93 Nissan Altima. And so I decided to buy a project car, something that would require constant care and attention. An additional requirement was that the car would also be a fun car, meaning that after fixing it and taking it out for a test spin I'd actually have fun (much unlike going and testing out a fixed Chevy Nova - something I also briefly considered).

Several years ago I was seriously considering the mid-80s Mercedes SL class of cars. At around $5000 (in good condition) they seemed like a decent deal. Plus the seats were generally in-tact, rust as not a huge problem, and most of them were convertibles. However, working on these cars is difficult and annoying, as anyone familiar with German engineering will agree. So when I seriously started considering project cars I looked towards American cars, and came across an '85 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Nascar spec. Being quite naive about these things at the time I forgot to consider that whoever owned the car before probably drove the living hell out of it.

Then one day I'm having lunch with an old friend who's car fiendishness and knowledge easily eclipses mine. We were talking about the usual stuff -alternator and timing belt problems- and I mentioned I was looking for a project car. "You know, I have an old MG lying around I'm trying to get rid off" he said. About three months later I now own that MG.

Welcome to My MGB

PLEASE NOTE (added 2/2/2009): If you just landed on this page, this is not the last or most recent entry! Click on the 'My MGB' logo above to see the latest updates.

Last Friday I bought a 1977 MGB. This blog will discuss the various things I do to it over the course of the next few (probably) years. Stay tuned for pictures and a detailed description of the initial condition, plus how I'm going to get it home and other tales of interest.

In the meanwhile, enjoy this Wikipedia image of what the car used to look like:


I'm going to paint it red.