John S's Journal

It's About Time!

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:58:16 -0500

John S's Journal --

The GT has been sitting idle all Winter and I finally got around to doing something about that. After the vacuum advance can (broken spring) debacle last Fall, It only went out once to test it once I got the repaired distributor back from Jeff Schlemmer. Today's efforts were valve lash adjustments, cleaning and gapping the plugs, adjusting the timing, and a short shakedown cruise to make sure all was good. It ran great but rain was on imminent and the wipers need some TLC so I kept it short. I still need to change the oil and filter and have another look at the valve lash as the tappet noise seemed a bit excessive. Still a list of to-do's that I want to get done but aren't going to keep the car off the road.

Posted 2026-03-25 18:58:16 by John S

Back In Business

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 09:52:59 -0500

John S's Journal --

After sitting idle in the garage for a few weeks due to a distributor malfunction, hot weather, trips away, and general laziness, I decided to tackle the swap back from the temporary 25D to the original rebuilt one. I put the newly rebuilt vacuum can back on after sending it to Jeff S. to fix the broken spring and replace the diaphragm, gapped the points, and then went about bumping the engine over to TDC before removing the temp and dropping in the original. I had to adjust the timing a bit probably due to the vernier wheel not being positioned quite the same after reassembly. Got the dial back out and made some adjustments with the idle and distributor, locked things down and went out for a test drive around the block which then turned into a 30ish mile test out into the countryside. All good again. Some projects still on the back burner. The Cooper’s cans were pulled during the breakdown and now that they are off, it might be a good time to acquire some hardware that didn’t come with the cold air induction piece that I bought off the BST forum quite awhile ago. Need some bolts and a filter still. I also need to get some more rattle can paint and spray the new-in-box heritage valence and replace the original, battle-scarred one that currently adorns the car. I did my best to hammer and dolly the thing and if you cross your eyes it isn’t totally offensive but with no front bumper to hide the sins… The new one was another BST find. As long as I’m on the BST-find project items, there are a pair of fog lights that I picked up that would look good once the new valence is painted and installed. Trying to come up with a way to mount them without a bumper and not attaching them to the fishmouth. Lastly for now anyways, but certainly not least. The original seats have lost the ability to keep my backside from sagging onto the floor so it’s time to pull those out and see about doing some foam work. Need to repair the passenger side as there is a seam that has started to pull loose. The vinyl is in great shape on both seats but (butt?) they need a lift.

Posted 2025-09-03 09:52:59 by John S

The GT Left Me Stranded…

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 00:24:45 -0500

John S's Journal --

…for awhile. But I prevailed without the ride of shame on a flat deck tow truck. What started out as a morning of errand runs on a perfect day with the car running great to a car that failed to start after stopping for a fill up with some clear gas. With a little help from the gas station attendant and a customer, we got the car pushed away from the pumps and up in the shade of the convenience market where I could work on it without scalding on the asphalt in the sun. I do carry a few tools, meter, ratchet, plug socket, screwdrivers, a couple of box end wrenches, etc. and I had a set of NGK’s on board. Car would crank but not fire. Fuel filter was full, nothing obvious like loose wires, so I pulled the #1 plug and with another set of eyeballs, I cranked and he saw spark. Hmmm. Pulled the cap and it looked fine as did the rotor. Another customer in a service truck of sorts parked next to me and offered up the use of a spark tester which confirmed we had spark. Hmmm. Yanked the Coopers cans off because at this point, frustration was setting in and why not? Everything looked fine everywhere. After every step, the car cranked but didn’t fire. Ran some Emory cloth over the points thanks to the dude in the service truck who generously offered up some and left me with a small roll. Points didn’t show any issue but why not? Not sure when in all of this spitballing the engine actually caught but it finally did so I made a beeline for home which was about 5-6 miles away. I made it about 4.5 miles when the car stumbled, the tach started bouncing and the car died as I was pulling over to the curb. My wife was on her way home from an errand and swung by to take me home to get some things and change into some clothes that were more appropriate for car work. Grabbed a spare coil because, why not? A few more tools, a cold drink and back to the car to swap coils. That was a fail. Pulled the cap again because, why not? That’s when I found the smoking gun. Not really smoking or it would have been more obvious but the vacuum advance can spring was no longer attached to the breaker plate post. In fact, it was no anywhere to be seen. Hmmm. The breaker plate was able to rotate freely and was moving enough to keep the car from starting. Back to the house to search for the spare 25D with the Pertronix that I had acquired a few years ago for a spare. Ripped that junk out and put it back to a points dizzy and then back to the GT to swap it in. Fired right up and safely made it home the last half mile or so. Back to get the truck and celebrate with a cold beer. Performed an autopsy on the 25D the next day and could not find the broken half of the spring and surmised that it must have dropped out when I pulled the distributor out and was making sure the spare was lined up the same before inserting it into the car. The vacuum unit is in the mail winging its way to Jeff Schlemmer and he says he can fix the vacuum can in minutes. I’m busy with a few weekend trips so the car will have to wait and by then the return trip from Jeff’s will hopefully happen and more adventures will ensue. Without the drama…

<Look Ma, no spring!>

<You can see the remains of the spring inside the vacuum can.>

Posted 2025-08-08 00:24:45 by John S

Haven’t Done Much Lately

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 22:51:38 -0500

John S's Journal --

Not that it’s a bad thing as it means it’s easy to get in and take a worry free drive somewhere. Unfortunately in my case, it also means I haven’t even driven it a whole lot lately due to an ambitious project around the house which has taken most of my summer it seems. Today though, I saw the poor GT with a layer of dust just sitting in the garage and decided to fire it up and give it a bath. That usually leads to taking it out for a rip out in the countryside to dry it off which is exactly what I did. It’s such a great time of year in the PNW as the days are warm and clear and the air is clean. Trees are on the beginning stages of turning to the vibrant Fall colors. The car ran great and always puts a smile on my face. I’ve got a few things that I want to tackle in the off season but that’s still a ways off. I hope. The original seats need some new foam and possibly some webbing but I won’t know that until I strip them down. Probably start with the passenger side so I can still drive it. I also have a cold air intake that I bought from a forum member and an unused front valence that came from another forum member. That will need to be primed and painted first. Once that’s fitted, I have a pair of fog lights that I need to mount somehow. I’ve been driving without the front bumper and I kind of like the look so it may stay that way. For now, though, it’s going to see more road time as long as the rain stays away.

<IMG 3736>

Posted 2024-09-21 22:51:38 by John S

Springtime Tuneup

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 16:44:16 -0500

John S's Journal --

The new condensers arrived the other day so I decided to take care of some needed maintenance. I had filed the points a week ago and did so with the distributor out of the car. Re-gapped them and then reinstalled the distributor. The weather was nice then so I didn’t bother getting the timing light out. After a couple outings, it started to show signs of not being quite optimal so yesterday, I decided to take advantage of some non-driving weather and do it right. Checked valve lash, fresh oil and filter, installed the new condenser, reinstalled the distributor, cleaned the plugs, and got the timing light out and hooked up. Unfortunately, the weather has been crummy so I haven’t road tested it yet but it fired right up and idled nicely. Looking forward to the next dry day to see how it responds.

Posted 2024-04-27 16:44:16 by John S

It’s Been Awhile…

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 21:33:44 -0500

John S's Journal --

…since I did anything with the GT. The last time I drove it, it stumbled badly a few miles from home and I wondered if it was going to make it. I promised myself that it wasn’t leaving the garage until I spent some time on it. Today was the day to do so. Yesterday I made a push button remote switch to be able to bump the engine over and I used it to get to TDC on the compression stroke. Pulled #1 plug and bumped it until I felt the compression. The plug was a decent color but I cleaned it and the rest of them up and reinstalled. I pulled the distributor so that I could file the points and re-gap them. I thought about pulling the rocker cover and checking valve lash but the weather was so good, I decided to save that for another day. It fired right up and idled well in the garage so outside it went and got a bath before I went on a shakedown cruise. I was only going to go for a short spin but 30 miles later I rolled back into the garage. I have a couple small things to do but it ran great so I can start enjoying it again now that the weather is coming around. Oil and filter change is next up and a couple little cosmetic jobs as well. Looking forward to several months of MGBGT driving.

Posted 2024-04-17 21:33:44 by John S

Fuel Pump Rebuilds

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 00:18:03 -0500

John S's Journal --

I’ve acquired a couple of S.U. fuel pumps from forum members that switched over to different brands plus I had the one from my wrecked ‘70 roadster that I parted out so it was time to rebuild a couple of them. One of the pumps came with some new bits installed and the rest of the rebuild kit but it wasn’t working. I also had recently ordered a rebuild kit from Burlen and it had arrived so the plan was to make two good ones with the best of the pump parts. First up was the one that wasn’t working but had some new parts installed. While stripping it down, I could see that one of the posts wasn’t assembled properly and the coil wire wasn’t secured properly which no doubt was the problem. Opened up both the inlet and delivery chambers and removed all of the valves, screen, gaskets, etc and put the pump body into the ultrasonic cleaner along with the covers, screws and other metal bits. Installed all of the valve parts once out of the cleaner and and moved on to the rocker assembly, coil housing, and diaphragm assembly. I cleaned up the coil housing and hit it with a coat of satin black and after that dried, it was time to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. It’s a fiddly job getting the diaphragm and armature in and properly adjusted and the plastic armature spacers in between the diaphragm and the armature plate. The rebuild kit has 11 brass spacers/guides but the thought of trying to maneuver 11 of those in without them falling out seemed daunting so I reused the 5 figure-eight plastic guides. Better but still a PITA. Definitely fiddly. After rotating the diaphragm so that the rocker throw over was set properly, I got the pesky guides in place, mated the pump body with the coil housing and mounted the pedestal/rocker assembly, points, and varistor. Made all of the wire connections and then powered it up with a battery charger. Success! Rinse and repeat on the second pump and had to open it up a second time and make a diaphragm adjustment to get it to work. All that’s left is to wait for the blue S.U. sealing tape to arrive so I can get the pedestal cap sealed up and then rig up a test rig to run some mineral spirits through both pumps. One of the two will get swapped into the GT and I’ll see if someone on the forum wants a rebuilt pump. The one that I remove from the GT will get a refresh for a spare but I probably won’t buy the whole kit. $100+ for the kit is crazy when you can buy a Hardi for not much more.

Posted 2023-10-07 00:18:03 by John S

Just A Couple Little Things

Sun, 23 Jul 2023 21:57:31 -0500

John S's Journal --

I’ve been putting up with a fuel pump inlet banjo bolt weeping lately and the new fiber washers arrived along with a new electronic voltage stabilizer so yesterday I took a few minutes to attend to both. The fuel pump is easy to get to with the back raised up so the washer replacement was relatively quick. From what I’ve read, you really have to torque those down tight to get them to seal. Time will tell if the problem is solved. The voltage stabilizer is mounted so high up that I just left the original one in place and mounted the new electronic version down lower on the bulkhead and just moved the wires down. Easy peasy. The last job was to actually wire up the speakers to the little Bluetooth amp that I mounted in behind the radio console quite awhile ago. I thought it might be nice to have some tunes on my 160 mile round trip for today. The speakers came with the ‘70 roadster and never got used before it got wrecked. They are pretty decent JBL speaker wedge shaped box speakers and sit nicely on the back seat. I just need to put a charge port for my phone now. Between the streaming music and the Google map, the phone juice goes down quickly. The trip to Amity and back was great. Met up with some familiar faces, car ran great albeit with an occasional alternator light flicker on the way home so that needs to be sorted. Loose belt, loose connection, old diode pack? I’ve got a 105 amp replacement that I fixed up if nothing else so we’ll see how that all shakes out.

Posted 2023-07-23 21:57:31 by John S

Speedhut Gauge Install

Sun, 25 Jun 2023 10:12:30 -0500

John S's Journal --

Had some time to get back to the gauge installation. With the old one out of the way, I started looking for the best place to find the various wires needed. Dash light wire and ground wires were right there at the opening but the power wire was going to take some sleuthing. I thought about attaching it to the double spade terminal on the 12v feed to the voltage stabilizer but was convinced that it probably wasn’t the best choice. In the end, I had everything I needed to run a dedicated wire from the fuse block green circuit. Almost everything. A quick trip to buy an inline fuse holder and a few fuses and then I had everything. Pulled the green wire off, slipped a double spade connector on and reattached the green wire with an open male spade for my inline fuse and power wire. Ran the new wire through the heater cable entrance in to the area behind the dash and then over to the speedometer hole in the dash. Temporarily connected the wiring to determine if the gauge was going to work and once that was done, proceeded to run a rotary stone around the inside of the opening to make room for the slightly larger than factory gauge diameter. This was probably the most time consuming part of the install but still not bad. The next thing to figure out was a place to position the antenna. Speedhut suggests placing it with an unobstructed “view” of the sky such as on top of the dash. I didn’t want to put it up on the dash as that would probably require drilling a hole or having the antenna wire exposed, neither of which appealed to me. I ended up sticking it to the top of the steering column cowl which worked great and I was able to gather all of the extra wire and tuck it out of the way. Got it out for a test drive and it works flawlessly. I went with the basic features for my gauge and it has all I need but you can spend more and get more features. I went with a red needle as opposed to the white as it stands out better. The old speedometer bounced around so much when it did work but this one is perfect. Happy boy!

<Speedhut for the win!>

Posted 2023-06-25 10:12:30 by John S

Speedhut Speedometer Has Arrived

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 00:02:15 -0500

John S's Journal --

Took advantage of the recent sale and ordered one after dealing with a non-functioning speedometer. The phone app has worked in a pinch but having to look down to the console isn’t ideal. Took the heater control switch out to make it a bit easier to reach up behind the gauge cluster and managed to disconnect the speedometer cable and remove the knurled nuts on the back of the gauge. Retained all of the skin on my hand in the process. That’s a win in my book. The original gauge light wire is accessible as are the black ground wires. Just need to source a power wire and locate the antenna. My thought is to mount the antenna on top of the steering cowl. Not sure if the old gauge light wire will do the trick since it needed a case ground. Don’t know if the new gauge ground will complete the circuit. Will find out when I can get back to it.

Posted 2023-06-23 00:02:15 by John S

The Truth Is…

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 23:10:33 -0500

John S's Journal --

…that there isn’t much that I need to do which is kinda nice. Out in the garage for a spell this evening finishing up a non-car project when I remembered that I had purchased some window crank extensions from Jim Miller (Modern Touring) quite awhile ago but hadn’t gotten around to installing them. Well, I can cross that off the list now. What a great idea he had to produce those and keep the door cards from getting any more wear. As I closed the passenger door, I looked at the wing mirror that’s been loose since I acquired the car and decided that today was the day I was finally going to do something about it. A couple of back and forth trips from the driver’s seat and a little snugging up on the nut underneath and at the back of the mirror and job done. About 15 leisurely minutes and a couple of little jobs off the list. Another one awaits but that’s for the next time I’m motivated. The footwell carpet pieces move around a little now and then and I got the snaps along with the carpet kit from Prestige but once again, I just haven’t taken the time to install them. I remember a time that my list comprised of more serious matters that needed to be done to make the car roadworthy and look presentable. Now it’s mostly these little things that don’t have to be done. Drive more and work less is a good switch.

Posted 2023-06-19 23:10:33 by John S

Out For A Drive. Literally.

Fri, 19 May 2023 17:22:08 -0500

John S's Journal --

Hopped in the GT yesterday with my clubs riding shotgun since it’s that time of year to play some golf. Decided to take the freeway as opposed to the back roads and it almost turned in to a disaster. Running great until about a mile-ish to go to the course and it started struggling to maintain speed. I limped to the golf course and decided to let it sit for awhile while I hit some balls on the range. It seemed like it was starved for fuel during the last bit of the trip into the parking lot so that’s what I focused on when I opened the bonnet. The clear glass filter showed some particles but overall, nothing that would cause too much of a flow issue. After sitting for about an hour, it started but was still running rough and really struggled to build and maintain any rpm’s especially on the uphill sections of the back roads. I was very thankful when I crested the last hill and had a downhill stretch back into Eugene where after cruising slowly through a stop sign it died as soon as I turned onto a side street and rolled to s stop. I didn’t have much in the way of tools but enough to pull the Cooper’s cans and check the float bowls for debris or other issues. Nothing wrong there so I pulled the cap off the distributor and didn’t see anything amiss. Plug wires were snug but couldn’t pull the plugs without a few tools. A call to my wife for her to bring a few things and then started chatting with a guy about the car. I was in the process of discussing what I had done to the car when I noticed a coil wire had come off. It was probably barely on when the trouble started and I might have finished it off when I reached in to take the cap off. Plugged it back in and told the guy that it’s going to fire right up and that’s exactly what it did. Called the wife back and told her to look for me and the car ran perfectly once again. Today, it got a bath and I dried it off on a nice spirited drive out in the country. Still no speedometer but I’ve been looking at the Speedhut website and have one all picked out. About ready to pull the trigger…

<IMG 2992>

Posted 2023-05-19 17:22:08 by John S

Speedometer Woes

Thu, 11 May 2023 14:12:13 -0500

John S's Journal --

Upon driving the car late last Fall, I noticed that the speedometer had ceased to work and thought I might have caused it when I was messing around in behind the dash. I thought perhaps that I had inadvertently pushed the LED bulb in too far and that it had fouled the needle as some LEDs are a bit too long and have been known to do that. I was able to confirm that it wasn’t and after a few frustrating drives this Spring sans speedometer/odometer readings, I finally got the car jacked up enough to investigate. I ran a drill in reverse and confirmed that the cable through the speedometer could be ruled out because it operated just fine which leaves the gearbox end of the equation. I was able to confirm that the end of the driven gear was turning when I rotated the prop shaft but noticed that I had to push it inwards a bit before it engaged. This led me to think that I just needed to ensure the cable was inserted fully and snugged up and that I could run the car a bit on the stands and all would be well. Nope. Fail. Advised to pull the driven gear to inspect which revealed no damage so then was advised to inspect the drive gear and also the flange nut torque. If memory serves, it was torqued to spec for OD gearboxes so I moved on to checking the drive gear with my borescope. Again, no damage to the drive gear which leaves the flange nut. No problem, I’ll drop the prop shaft and check the torque. Not a 10 minute job for me like it might be for some but not too bad for an old fart laying on his back and stopping now and again to get some feeling back in his arms. 20 minutes later the prop shaft is disconnected and up and out of the way. Located a suitable socket for the flange nut, grabbed my torque wrench and crawled back under the car to discover that the overall length of the torque wrench doesn’t work so well when the car is only elevated on jackstands. Why did a buy such a large torque wrench? The new torque wrench showed up last evening. Wasn’t motivated to crawl under the car until this morning. Wedged a screwdriver in between two flange bolts and checked the torque. No smoking gun so I’m out of things to try. I got the car back down on the ground, put the tools away, cleaned up and went for a drive. Speedometer? I don’t need no stinking speedometer. I’ll keep using my iPhone GPS app I guess. It’s a good thing I’m retired and this is just a hobby.

Posted 2023-05-11 14:12:13 by John S

Just A Short List Remains

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 19:02:11 -0500

John S's Journal --

I’ve done a lot since acquiring the GT in September of 2020 and got to enjoy the fruits of my labor for about a year now. There seems to always be something that I can do but it’s a short list so putting small jobs off while the cold weather remains is par for the course. I bought a bargain 105 amp alternator off the BST forum and decided to see about fixing it. It was a 123Ignition conversion that just needed a battery post repair and came with a repair kit. Since I’ve never pulled one apart, I did a little internet and YouTube research before I tore into it. Watching someone step through disassembly on a video was a bonus and made the job a snap. I didn’t do a total disassembling since I had access to the battery post without unsoldering the rectifier pack. I just needed to get the front half of the alternator including the rotor off so I could make the repair. The post that came with the kit was too short so I re-used the old post and scrounged up a nut to replace the old stripped out nut that secures the post from the inside of the case. I dug out the old post insulator and used the new one from the kit so the kit wasn’t a total bust. Today I took the alternator down to the local O’Reilly’s and they tested it for free once they could find a cross reference that they could use as there are no visible part numbers on the alternator. Fortunately, it passed with flying colors and although the original 16ACR alternator is still working, I now have an upgraded 105 amp alternator ready to go. Other things on my short list are to go through the rear Armstrongs like I did when I rebuilt the front suspension. Remove and clean them up, drain all the old fluid and add some new fluid. The rebound straps are trashed and I’ve got some new ones from The Strapping Lad to go on. The front valance is still waiting for me to finish up. It’s been hammered and dollied and rattle can primered but has been awaiting some warmer weather for me to skim it with some filler and hit it with some paint. The front bumper had some love taps applied with a wood block and a rubber mallet so a quick clean up of the brackets and it will be good enough for me. Not perfect but the paint is past the born on date so the bumper will fit right in with the decades old paint work. Another item on the list is to figure out why the speedometer quit working late in last years driving season. The good news about my list is that I can drive the car without doing any of these jobs.

Posted 2023-03-25 19:02:11 by John S

Simple Things

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 12:54:46 -0600

John S's Journal --

Now that the GT has been resuscitated and reliably back on the road, the project list has diminished but seemingly there are always little things that I want to do but lack the motivation sometimes to get done during the colder weather. The unheated garage is a motivation killer. I took advantage of a warm dry to tackle one such item the other day and started on another related project. The first was a simple one. I misplaced the ring-terminal leads to my Battery Tender and had to get a replacement so when that showed up after the holidays, I worked myself into the back of the GT to permanently attach the terminals to the battery posts and snake the end out under the rear seat where I can easily plug in the maintainer/charger when needed. Simple job but nice to have done . No more removing everything just to hook up the charger, especially when the car cover is on. Related to this project is the modification of the battery compartment cover. I have a spare left over from my parted out wreck and have had plans to slice it up to allow easier access to the driver side battery box bin that I purchased from the BST forum. I got started on that the other day as well and it needs a little more work. The plan was to make it hinged like the ones that are commercially available and so far, I think it’s going to work. I got out my Dremel clone and sliced it across the back of the cover, allowing for room to mount a piano hinge. Ideally, it would be welded but since I don’t weld, I drilled and riveted the hinge in several places which I think will work just fine once I trim the ends. All that is left to do is that and then a test fit to see if all the fasteners still line up and if they do, then I need to determine where to slice it so that I can open either side individually. A lick of paint after that assuming it all goes well and Bob’s your uncle as they say.

Posted 2023-01-09 12:54:46 by John S

Time For A New Fuel Level Sender

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 19:43:11 -0600

John S's Journal --

I finally decided to crawl under the car today and drain the tank in preparation for a new sender. One of those jobs that I should have done in the warmer months but just never got around to it. I’ve been playing a bit of a game of chicken in recent weeks by driving the car with an inaccurate gauge. Staying close to home on my drives just in case… I figure I got about 2 gallons out of the tank so it’s all ready for the new sender and some non-ethanol fuel when I get the chance to go get some. The new sender seemed like it was all over the map when I measured it with my meter so I had to tweak the stops to get it to read right. I haven’t pulled the other one yet but it wasn’t that old so it will be interesting to see why it wasn’t reading right but that will have to wait for another day as I ran out of time. I haven’t done much with the car recently as the weather has turned. I don’t anticipate much driving as there is too much else going on this time of the year and dry days are a rarity here during the Winter. Once the tank sender is in and the fresh gas, I’ll take it out on short hops when I can but the car cover will be going on soon to keep the garage dust off of it.

Posted 2022-12-02 19:43:11 by John S

Winding Down

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 10:08:50 -0600

John S's Journal --

I haven’t done much in recent days as the daylight hours have receded and the temperatures along with it. My focus has been on getting things done around the house and yard while it is still relatively dry outside. Yesterday seemed like a good time to take the old girl out for a spin as the chores were done and I needed a dose of MGB fun. I wasn’t sure my battery was up for the task as it’s been below freezing for a few days but it fired up after a bit of coaxing. My fuel gauge hasn’t been accurate since I got the car on the road and I have a new one to install but I need to get the level down before I take out the old one. Ideally, I’d like to get it down low enough to pull the plug and catch the contents into a drain pan for a couple of reasons. I know I can change the sender with some gas still in the tank by raising up the passenger side but I want to make sure I drain any residual impurities from the tank that may be lurking before I put the car to bed for the rain/cold season as I won’t be driving the car regularly for awhile. My plan is to put about 5 gallons of clear gas in the car once the new sender is in. I discovered that my speedometer/odometer weren’t working on my drive yesterday which is probably due to my messing around with my gauge lights the last time I did anything with the car. How so? Well, the LED’s that I installed in the Spring quit working due to a ground issue and when I fixed that, I must have pushed the speedometer light in too far which has fouled the speedo needle. Good news/bad news kinda thing. The lights work but the speedo doesn’t. It’s a bit of a Catch-22 when you are trying to discern how much fuel you are using based on your mileage when your odometer isn’t functioning… So now I have a couple things to attend to when the weather and the mood strikes me. I’ll start by slowly draining the fuel into a catch pan until I know it’s empty. I can only hope it’s just a few gallons…

Posted 2022-11-16 10:08:50 by John S

The Fruits Of My Labor

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 10:40:37 -0500

John S's Journal --

Driving the GT has been an absolute joy since I got the HS4’s dialed in and I’m finding every possible reason to take it out. I had the front end alignment checked and adjusted recently which I had put off until it was running reliably. The young guy at the shop looked a bit anxious when he got behind the wheel so I wandered out to check on him. I think we were both equally apprehensive. Me because no one else has driven it since I resurrected it and him, because the car was so narrow and the flat deck alignment area had little room for error with the pit looming large beneath the deck. He was relieved to have me drive it as he guided me forward. I was relieved that he wasn’t doing it. When I came back from my walk to grab a coffee, the car was parked in the shade all ready to go and when I went in to settle the bill, he had a big smile on his face and said the test drive was a real pleasure and he was hoping to find a sports car of a similar era. It was weird having someone else drive it and was glad I wasn’t around to see it but maybe it was inspiration to convert a young person to join the LBC family.

Posted 2022-08-09 10:40:37 by John S

My First Real Road Trip

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 16:28:04 -0500

John S's Journal --

I finally crossed off a few misc. tasks on my list with a day to spare before the Amity Pancake Breakfast & Car Show. 80 mile trip up from Eugene to a city park for a get together with some fellow Oregon members and a nice variety of classic cars, trucks, and a decent showing of British cars. I’d met a couple of the guys briefly over the course of the last few years before Covid but there were some other guys that I just “knew” from the forum so it was good to put faces to names. I took highway 99W which is a nice 2 lane road through some small towns in the Willamette Valley. Beautiful day and light traffic so it was a treat to get the GT out beyond the comforts of the local roads that I have been driving as I dialed in the tuning of the car after receiving the original 25D back from Jeff and the rebuilt HS4’s from Joe. Having a chance to experience the OD on a long trip was something that I was looking forward to and it made a huge difference in comfort being able to cruise at lower rpm’s. A 160 mile round trip with zero issues really boosted my confidence in the reliability of my car so I’m looking forward to just being able to jump in it and go now. Took it to have the front end alignment checked and adjusted this morning and my guesswork after the front suspension rebuild was fairly close. Nice to have it dialed in although it tracked and handled pretty well on the trip. The list of things to do has narrowed down to finishing the front valance which stalled out after the carbs showed up. It’s in epoxy primer just awaiting some time and motivation to skim with some filler, sand and paint. Then the bumper can go back on. A couple guys at the show said to leave it off to show off the nice, powder coated suspension but it looks unfinished to me so I’ll get to it eventually.

<Mine, Chucks, and Waynes>

<Rods>

<Dans>

Posted 2022-07-26 16:28:04 by John S

OD Success

Sat, 23 Jul 2022 19:23:40 -0500

John S's Journal --

I finally got around to getting the GT up on jack stands so that I could look into whether the solenoid was my problem. I suspected it was the issue since the engine and gearbox went back in and it hasn’t worked since the reinstall. Ohm checked the wire after confirming power wasn’t the problem. After seeing an open condition, I pulled the solenoid and discovered the wire was severed inside the insulation. A little solder and some heat shrink tubing and a re-check with the ohm meter and with 16.5 ohms showing, I put it back in and took care of some other items on my list. Drained and refilled the rear diff, topped up the gearbox oil, tightened all exhaust clamps and then went for a nice long drive. Flicked the stalk in 4th and I got my other gear! Although it worked when I bench tested it months ago, I always wondered if I did a good job servicing the Craigslist gearbox that I purchased on the cheap. I hadn’t intended on doing anything other than replacing the easy to get to o-rings, seals, gaskets, etc. but that changed when the pump assembly dropped down into the abyss. As long as I had to take the OD unit off, I replaced the o-rings on the pistons as well. Today’s drive reassured me that I didn’t bungle anything up when I reassembled it.

Posted 2022-07-23 19:23:40 by John S

Moving On To Other Things Finally

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:04:55 -0500

John S's Journal --

Took my wife out for a ride in the GT yesterday morning to visit a local farm and pick up a flat of raspberries and the car started right up and ran reasonably well other than a slight stumble under light acceleration. Spent a little time afterwards making a couple minor adjustments and then went for a test drive through the city streets to see if I cleared up the stumble and the answer is a resounding “YES!”. My wife is probably sick of hearing about all of my trials and tribulations since the rebuilt carbs went on but once the discovery of the missing restrictor was made, things went smoothly. Now I can concentrate on some other minor issues while still being able to just get in it and turning the key. Finally.

Posted 2022-07-12 11:04:55 by John S

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 22:24:56 -0500

John S's Journal --

Thanks to a fellow member, the mystery of excessive jet depth on my newly rebuilt HS4’s is now solved. I have been trying to get my GT lined out since I swapped the fresh carbs over and it’s been a hair pulling trial. I could get the car to run well enough for some drives in the country but knew all was not well. Little did I know that the PO had cut off the end of the air inlet pipe on the valve cover, thereby eliminating the restrictor and consequently over-diluting the mixture. Clay Johnston was kind enough to mention a couple things and it dawned on me that I hadn’t checked that piece of the equation. I wound up making a restrictor out of a tapered plastic cap from a small bottle of Loctite by drilling a 5/64” hole in the end and trimming the other end so that it would slip into the part of the way and then slipping the canister hose back onto the pipe with the restrictor inside. Set the jets 2 full turns down and the car started right up and ran smoothly. Raised the jets up 2 flats to see if I could lean it out some and took it for a long drive out in the countryside. Pulled the plugs and they look pretty good. There is a bit of a slight surge/hesitation at a light/moderate throttle so there is more to do but the car ran as good as it ever has in the short time that I’ve had it back on the road. I always attributed the earlier issues that I had when I was using my old carbs as being due to worn throttle shafts and that the fresh carbs would solve that. Now I know why the excessive jet depth was also present in my old carbs.

<9D8AD6BF-EEB9-43AE-844D-22F23C67045B>

Posted 2022-07-07 22:24:56 by John S

Maybe, Just Maybe…

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:14:17 -0500

John S's Journal --

I can move on to something other than fiddling with my HS4’s. It’s been a frustrating experience since receiving my freshly rebuilt carbs. All my efforts to follow the manual to the letter resulted in having to turn the jets way down from the bridge and the front carb wanting more fuel vs. the rear carb. Countless jet depth checks, adjusting, driving, pulling plugs, etc. I decided to check where my old HS4’s were when I swapped in the fresh rebuilds. They too were way down which made me think about the common denominator which was the intake manifold. I cleaned the original one that came with my GT but didn’t check for flatness of the flanges so the plan today was to get the spare from my ‘70 parts and check it with the thought that I could resurface it and have it ready to swap over. I’ve got some heavy granite tiles leftover from a project so I glued a sheet of 320 grit wet/dry paper to it and got every flange surface smooth and flat after removing the studs.Maybe a half hours worth of sanding. Removed all of the HS4 hardware from the GT, put some #2 Permatex on all of the gasket surfaces and buttoned everything back up. Went through the whole procedure, synched the carbs, mixture, idle, etc. , rechecked the timing and backed it off a bit, quick test drive and was pleasantly surprised at how it performed. I still feel as though I really had to lower the jets quite a bit but didn’t pull the dash pots. Didn’t have much gas in the tank and not much time either so there is more testing to do and analyzing plugs, and probably pull the dash pots to see where I wind up. Maybe the old girl just needs the jets lower than most of the other cars Inread about. Time will tell.

<ED515885-1B54-411D-A508-6B9497196123>

<4E0D607C-B80D-43F3-BDEE-6235BCB3D040>

Posted 2022-07-04 00:14:17 by John S

Back At It

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 22:35:09 -0500

John S's Journal --

After a much needed camping trip on the Oregon coast, it was time to continue trying to get the newly rebuilt carbs dialed in. The new fuel filter that I ordered was waiting for me. Lots of particles in the old one so it was a good thing to change out. I’ve been fighting with the tuning as it seems like I’m having to run the jets down further than most from what I read which made me think something was amiss. Tore the carbs off and the intake manifold to check for anything that might be the cause of a leak. Ran the flanges over some sandpaper just to make sure the surface was dead flat. Did the same for the phenolic spacers, heat shield surfaces and then reassembled. Replaced one of the spacers as there was one edge that looked a little rough but other than that, no smoking gun was found. Pulled the plugs and cleaned, set the throttle disks 2 turns down from fully closed, 2 complete turns of the jets down from the bridge. Pulled the choke out and started, and warmed up the car. Only thing left to do was take it for a drive. As long as I had the choke out, it ran very nice which tells me I’m close but it’s still lean. A bit low on the gas gauge so back into the garage for the day. Dropped the jets another 2 flats and I’ll try again tomorrow.

Posted 2022-07-01 22:35:09 by John S

A Little More Progress

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 22:29:05 -0500

John S's Journal --

It’s been a frustrating couple of days. After getting the rebuilt HS4’s installed, I’ve struggled to get them dialed in. I figured that putting them on a car that was running well would be a breeze but that was not the case. I went with the standard, two full turns below the bridge as a starting point but I wasn’t as sure about where to set the throttle adjustment screws which led me to multiple attempts and tweaking things to see if I could get it to start. I did manage to get it driving reasonably well on a couple of occasions prior to the weekend. Took Father’s Day off and then resumed on Monday. After endless disappointments, I went back to square one. Checked valve lash and made some minor adjustments. Checked and confirmed spark at the coil. Checked and confirmed spark at number one plug. Static-timed by grounding #1 plug at the block, rotating to 10 degrees BTDC. Still no joy. I had those suction chambers off so many times checking jet depth with a gauge, adjusting at different depths. Followed the S.U. recommendations for tuning and eventually I noticed the blurb about setting the throttle disk screws 3/4 turn from fully closed. Also advanced the timing by a couple of degrees. By that time, I had cleaned the plugs a few times and the last time could see they were wet so they got changed. Fresh outlook today with fresh plugs, two turns down, and throttle disks adjusted a bit further open after reading old forum posts about 1 1/2 turns from fully closed. First crank of the key, it tried to run so that told me I was close but perhaps too rich so I leaned out the jets a little at a time and also had to open up the throttle a tad. Finally got it running again but unable to test drive because I had gotten my son-in-law to help me remove the hatch so that I could install the new body seal from Martin. I talked my wife into helping me lift it and position it while I could get the screws and lift springs back in. Hoping to get some test drives in tomorrow to see how it runs. If it starts up that is… Wednesday Pulled the choke out fully with a little assist from the engine bay as the choke cable needs some work, and it fired right up! I have more work to do at idle as it isn’t as smooth as it should be so I’m getting close. Haven’t driven it yet so that should be forthcoming soon when I can find the time.

Posted 2022-06-21 22:29:05 by John S

Rebuilt HS4’s Install

Sun, 12 Jun 2022 19:52:47 -0500

John S's Journal --

Came home from a camping trip and was happy to see that my Joe Curto rebuilt carbs made it safely and we’re waiting for me in the garage. Felt a bit like Christmas opening up the big box and then the separately boxed carburetors. Extremely well-packed in sturdy boxes with lots of packing material . So today, I removed my stand-in HS4’s that were from my ‘70 roadster in preparation to install the freshly rebuilt ones original to the GT. The fact that everything was very clean made the process an easy deal since they’ve only been in use on the GT for a a couple months and hasn’t accumulated many miles due to an extremely wet weather pattern this Spring. The new ones are on now and plumbed up but a family birthday celebration this evening means the finishing touches will have to wait until tomorrow.

<Rebuilt and ready to install>

<Just about ready to fire up>

Posted 2022-06-12 19:52:47 by John S

Happy Day

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 21:02:57 -0500

John S's Journal --

Got a call from Joe Curto today to tell me that my HS4’s are done and will be headed my way next week. What started out as an estimated 16 week timeframe turned into 6 months due to his popularity and a backlog of work. I’m glad that I had the spares from my wrecked ‘70 roadster to get me by. Good things come to those that wait they say. Love talking to Joe and can’t wait to finally get the original carbs back on my GT.

Posted 2022-06-03 21:02:57 by John S

My “To Do” List Is Shrinking.

Wed, 18 May 2022 21:32:44 -0500

John S's Journal --

And that means more driving as I get more comfortable with it’s performance out on the road. It’s been running a bit lean as it has been a little hard to start and popping on deceleration. Finally got around to removing the Cooper cans and tweaked the HS4’s. Now it fires right up on the choke and seems to idle down pretty well. Still waiting on the original carbs to come back from Joe Curto. Six months and still not here. Glad I have my spare carbs to use… Got the LED flashers installed last week and then the LED bulbs came in yesterday so I got those installed. Didn’t do a side by side comparison but they are definitely brighter than the old incandescent bulbs. Just a couple more things remain on my immediate list. The front valance that was so badly mangled is getting closer. The large boo boos have been massaged out with the hammer and dolly, all the paint stripped and I used a 2K rattle can epoxy primer on the bare metal. I need to put a skim coat of mud next to smooth things out a bit more before painting it. Still need to investigate the OD solenoid. It’s getting power as the indicator light comes on in my radio console. I need to jack it back up and do a little probing with the multimeter to see what’s going on. In the meantime though, I’m enjoying the driving experience in my GT.

Posted 2022-05-18 21:32:44 by John S

Interior Is Done.

Fri, 06 May 2022 22:18:57 -0500

John S's Journal --

Finished up with the carpet installation and got the seats back in place. I ran a tap through all of the bolt holes for the seat tracks and then layer the carpets down and used a small screwdriver to punch through the carpet and insulation. Followed up with a hot soldering iron to make nice neat circular holes for the bolts. After that, I ran the bolts through the spacers on top of the carpet and snugged them up to located them over the bolt holes and then heated a piece of copper pipe that fit perfectly over the metal spacers. This made 8 perfect holes so that the spacers would sit flat on the floorboards. I haven’t put snaps on the footwell carpet pieces yet but that may happen yet. I still need to finish the speaker wire routing in the rear of the car and I want to see about cutting a spare battery box cover so that I can open up the individual sides separately but other than that, the interior work is complete. The OD screen has been leaking since the install so after draining the gearbox a couple days ago, it had finally stopped dripping so after some a thorough wipe down with some brake cleaner, I re-sealed with some Permatex black sealant and hopefully that will fix the leak. Drying overnight before refilling. Fingers crossed.

Posted 2022-05-06 22:18:57 by John S

A Couple More Things Off The List

Wed, 04 May 2022 12:49:11 -0500

John S's Journal --

Continued on with the interior refresh.while the seats, floor coverings, and radio console were out, I took the opportunity to coat the 4 areas of the floor where the seat tracks mount. Very light surface rust so after buzzing that off, I coated it with some Zero Rust and while that was drying, I gathered up the stuff I needed to wire up my little Bluetooth amplifier. The old AM radio was partially gutted so that I could wire the power through the radio on/off dial. Soldered in a fuse and the power lead from the amp to the back of the dial as well as a light and tied it to a green wire that was unused behind the console. Velcro’d the amp in behind the console where it can be reached and routed the wires down along the tunnel. Tested it with a couple of 6x9 speakers and it pairs easily with my phone and sounds pretty good. Don’t know how much I’ll be listening to music because I enjoy the sound of the Bell exhaust but the hands free phone capability will be nice to have. While the console was out, I added another indicator light for the OD and also added another switch for a future driving light project. Changed the indicator bulbs to LED and also changed the flashers to CECEF32RL LED flashers. Got the rubber shift lever boot installed and taped down to align the holes. I gave up on my attempt to incorporate a small light in the top of the gear lever so that was replaced with the late model OD switch even though I’m using the wiper stalk to actuate the OD solenoid. The tunnel carpet was next and even though there were 4 holes in the carpet for the chrome shift boot retainer, the holes weren’t all the way through the thick insulating pad so it was a bit of a struggle to get the 4 bolts located properly. I’ve been using the 3M 90 spray adhesive on the carpet install and it’s been working well but I didn’t want to spray the whole tunnel so I’ve been judicious about applying it. I don’t foresee having to remove it but only spraying it where it needs to be to look good seems like a good thing just in case. I ran the speaker wires down and back along the floor where it meets the tunnel and left plenty of wire because I’m not sure about speaker type and placement yet. All that remains to be done at this point is to locate the seat belt and seat track mounting holes and burn some nice neat holes through the carpet and mount the seats. Hopefully I’ll get that finished up this weekend. While the seats are out and I can stretch out, I’ll see if I can swap out some dash bulbs to LED while I have better access. Also need to attach the heater cable that I didn’t do after the heater box rebuild. Last but not least, I drained the gearbox oil the other day and left a drain pan underneath so hopefully it’s done dripping and I can seal up the annoying leak. I spent too much time cleaning the gearbox and surrounding area to have that get coated again. Probably do the same with the solenoid cover too while I’m at it.

<Front carpet all done>	<Rear deck all done now>	<Console with a new OD indicator and spot/fog light switch>
<Bluetooth amp tucked away>

Posted 2022-05-04 12:49:11 by John S

Time For Some Interior Work

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 14:22:50 -0500

John S's Journal --

While I wait for the HS4’s to come back from Joe Curto and the weather isn’t all that great for driving, I decided to see about the carpet kit install. The old stuff was so faded and nasty looking so although I’m not excited about squeezing into the GT, it’s time to rip out the old and install the new. I figured that I would start at the back and work my way forward. The Prestige carpet kit was not their most luxurious but also not the least expensive either so it will freshen up the interior without breaking the bank. The floors in the GT are so clean and rust-free and still have the original rubber mats and I hesitate to glue or stick anything down to the floors over the original paint that exists under the mats so I’m just going to lay the front carpet over the rubber mats and not install the carpet under the seats. Yesterday, I got the carpet sections glued down over the wheel arches and also the rear bulkhead piece installed. It has a vinyl strip that gets glued to the rear seat shelf leading edge and then it’s supposed to be glued to the vertical bulkhead going down to the floor. I decided to hold off on gluing it to the vertical surface and just glued the vinyl strip. I just had to locate the two pins for the seat strap snaps and then burn a hole where the stem for the battery disconnect protrudes. The wheel arches were tricky trying to get them smooth but a little heat from a hairdryer helped some. A steamer would have been ideal but not something that I have. A few small wrinkles down low that get covered by the rear seat so I’m pleased how it came out. There are a few pieces that need to be glued down in the footwells and the main tunnel piece needs to be installed yet and there are some other pieces that I don’t plan on putting in such as the carpet under the seats and the sill carpet. The original rubber sill pieces are in reasonably good shape so I don’t want to cover those up. The seats and pillow dash are in excellent shape so getting that tunnel piece in will transform the interior. Pictures to come when it’s done.

<6EC5B102-C063-4ED3-838B-ACA243B31368>

<8A10E0F1-574F-48C7-9186-53984C83E5AA>

Posted 2022-04-28 14:22:50 by John S

Got The Horns Working Again

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 18:07:53 -0500

John S's Journal --

I dug into the issue a little yesterday but ran out of time so I spent a little time going over my wiring. The bank of relays was built for my ‘70 roadster and the transferred over to the GT when I finished up the engine bay electrics. The horns weren’t working at all and initially I thought the problem was due to a broken horn brush. That was one problem but a new brush didn’t solve the problem so it was time to check the horns first which led to one of them needing an adjustment. Once verified that the horns were still working as I had also transferred these over from the roadster and they worked before the wreck I couldn’t assume they escaped unscathed. Verified the wire from the horn and all good there. Verified power wires. Lastly, I removed the relay and checked the wires to see if I had screwed something up when reconnecting all the wires awhile back. Yep, I certainly did. Reconnected the wires to the proper terminals and scared the crap out of my wife who happened to be standing at the front of the car! One more item off the list…

Posted 2022-04-25 18:07:53 by John S

Flash-to-Pass Wiring Fix

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 19:13:38 -0500

John S's Journal --

I decided to look into why my flash-to-pass wasn’t working and hasn’t since I got the car. My original thought was the stalk switch might be funky but after poking my head under the dash, I saw a severed purple wire in the main harness. The bad news was that it was cut at the very back of the rubber connector with no way to solder it. At this point I had nothing to lose so I figured that I could find a drill bit that would go through the center of the female bullet connection on the main harness connector and ream out the old severed bit of wire. My plan was to find a purple wire with a bullet end in my stash and see if I could run that through the reamed out channel whereby the bullet end would make contact within the metal tube. I had to run the drill around a bit to allow the wire to poke through the back and also needed to grind down the bullet end so that I could pull it back far enough into the metal tube and still allow the male end from the stalk harness plug to mate up. A little trial an error and all that was left to do was trim the other end, nip a bit of insulation off both purple wires, slip some heat shrink on and solder it up. Works a treat! I was hoping to use the horn center push cap from my ‘70 roadster and convert over to a stalk for that year to have the horn on the end of the stalk but decided to use the original horn push for the ‘71. Replaced the horn brush but wasn’t activating the horns so today was the day to look into that. I have reused the relay setup from my ‘70 and the headlight relays are fine but the horn relay has been untested. I don’t know whether the relay isn’t working but after messing around with it for awhile I finally just bypassed it and got one horn working. Not sure what the issue is yet but something is amiss. Tested both horns individually and had to adjust the passenger side horn until it came on. Wiring seems amiss so there is more to do. Before putting the car back in the garage, I decided to take it out for a short spin and enjoy the weather before it turns later today. Getting some waves, thumbs up and comments the last couple times out. Makes all the work getting it to this stage all the more worthwhile.

Posted 2022-04-24 19:13:38 by John S

Winter Won’t Go Away

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 10:32:35 -0500

John S's Journal --

Haven’t done much recently. The weather hasn’t been conducive for me to get the car out. Snow in mid-April in the PNW is crazy. Didn’t amount to much in the valley here but further up North it accumulated a bit of the wet stuff. More cold rain than anything here. Needless to say, not motivating for me to get the car out. Just a few minor accomplishments of late. The overriders that I found on BST arrived so I set about removing the old ones. What a PITA that turned out to be. My GT has the style with the small rubber pad on the front and are held onto the numbers by a carriage bolt which is hidden by the rubber pad. Long story short, the nuts were rusted and the carriage bolts were just spinning with no good way to hold them. It took way longer than I thought it was going to to remove 2 bolts as access was so poor but perseverance eventually won out. The ones that I bought were solid chrome and have a bracket with a captive threaded nut on the backside. New bulbs and all better now. Not perfect but better. When there was a warm and dry day, I got the car out and started on replacing the carpet with the Prestige kit that I purchased awhile ago. Started in the hatch area as it would require ripping out too much and making the car undriveable. It’s a bit of a Catch 22. Don’t want to work in a cold garage when I can’t drive the car so I’m waiting for warm and dry weather so that I can work outside but that’s when I want to drive it. The wheel arches and the center console need to be done but those are more involved so they wait until I’m truly ready to rip and tear…

Posted 2022-04-13 10:32:35 by John S

Finally Insured And On The Road Again

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 20:17:44 -0500

John S's Journal --

It’s been a bit of a journey. From the wreck that totaled my ‘70 roadster to the acquisition of the ‘71 GT that had been dormant for 34 years and all that transpired over the last 18 months. Got it running and driving for an assessment of what the car needed, parked it and concentrated on stripping the wrecked roadster down to the bare shell. Sold a lot of parts and kept a lot of the useful bits and in the process, managed to exceed the value that was placed on the car as salvage value and learned a lot about how the car was put together. Once that was done and the shell was out of the garage, cut up and scrapped, I could finally begin the slow process of pulling the engine and gearbox to fix the clutch and install the OD gearbox. And all of the engine bay cleaning and painting, heater box rebuild, front end cleaning and powder coating, new springs, dampers cleaned and refilled, poly suspension, stainless steel Bell exhaust, powder coated wheels with new tires and probably some other things that I can’t recall. Everything that came off the car in the process got cleaned. Countless hours running a rotary wire brush over nuts, bolts, etc. Progress was slowed by a serious medical issue with my better half that came to light during that time and as her condition improved, I was able to spend a bit more time in the garage. All of the above resulted in a timeline that stretched far beyond my expectation but today none of that seemed to matter as it was insured yesterday and this afternoon, I was able to take it for a 20 mile cruise out in the countryside just beyond the city limits. A nice blend of twists and turns and little to no traffic. The car ran great and should run even better when my Curto rebuilds show up soon. I’m chuffed to be back in an MGB again.

Posted 2022-03-19 20:17:44 by John S

Just About Ready To Roll

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 22:56:21 -0600

John S's Journal --

I’ve had it out for a short rip around the neighborhood but without it being insured so it was a very cautious shakedown drive. The weather was forecast to be nice until the evening when heavy rains were due. With that in mind, I got it out of the garage and went over it with the polisher and snapped some photos that I’ll need to submit to Hagerty. Still haven’t got the front valance painted. I got the majority of the damage out with the hammer and dolly but need to prime it, fill it and get some paint on it. The bumper was wonky mainly in the areas where the overriders bolt on but I used a rubber mallet and some wood blocks to straighten things back out. Not perfect but a definite improvement. It’s supposed to be rainy for several days so I’m glad I got it out and cleaned up when I did.

<D1C07953-4BCA-4DE8-86CE-C5A7233D8FA9>	<2B31A2CC-D215-408F-929D-D016B9406683>	<D4675EA4-47C3-4899-B61E-2E2ECB3196EC>
<ACCCC672-3DF0-4710-838D-6DF7BE0DCF93>

Posted 2022-03-12 22:56:21 by John S

Time For A Short Drive

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 16:25:31 -0600

John S's Journal --

Got the car off the jackstands yesterday and back on all 4 tires. Aired up the tires and torqued all of the lug nuts and after starting and warming it up, it was too tempting not to take it for a brief spin. The last test drive was cut short by a lack of fuel in the tank and a balky water pump so I was anxious to actually get it out of 2nd gear and see how it responded to all of the suspension upgrades. I think that I had probably only put a mile on this car from the initial drive back in November of 2020 after getting it starting, running, and stopping to the recent drive after all of the work was finally completed. Didn’t have a lot of time and the rain was on the way so it wasn’t a long drive by any means, plus the fact that it isn’t insured so it was a cautious trip in the hills above our house where traffic was non-existent, but it ran great, handled well, and put a big freakin’ smile on my face. And I think I probably quadrupled the amount of miles that it had traveled under its own power since it was parked in a garage in 1986. Still have a list of things that I want/need to do yet, most importantly is to get a Hagerty policy for it. That will probably be next week. Hoping for some sunshine soon as it needs a bath and a polish and I need to get the front valance finished up and back on the car. Trying to see about locating a better front bumper unless I can massage the one that was on the car back to a better state of appearance. I figured that I had nothing to lose by trying to straighten the front bumper after posting the above earlier today so I got the rubber mallet and various bits of wood and went to work. Most of the damage was confined to the areas where the overriders meet the bumper blade. Also a couple of dings where the license plate brackets attach to the bumper. I was surprised how well the rubber mallet and wood block method worked. I think once I clean the chrome, it will be ok. Not concours but neither is the body and paint.

Posted 2022-03-02 16:25:31 by John S

A Little More Progress

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:26:33 -0600

John S's Journal --

It’s been awhile since I spent any time on the GT. I had to replace a fence on the South side of the house and that triggered a bunch of yard work to spiff things up around the house. Cleared a bunch of brush out and hauled in and spread 10+ yards of bark mulch so far. More to go however. The work on the GT was a welcome change of pace. A couple easy jobs today. I installed the LED headlights that I ordered from LBCarCo which arrived yesterday. Super easy install as they just plugged right in to the factory plugs. Plenty of room for the finned LED’s in the headlight bucket. I s-ent more time buffing the bezels than I did installing the lights. Decided to deal with the front end. The new tie rod ends that I installed as part of the front end rebuild weren’t an exact match so that spinning the new ones on the exact same number of turns the old ones were, left the wheels visibly splayed out. Rather than spending a bunch of time fooling with a string, I wound them in enough to get them closer so that the alignment shop can take over and do a proper job. Starting to get pumped about really driving it beyond the church parking lot across the street.

Posted 2022-03-01 00:26:33 by John S

New Water Pump Installed

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 21:30:59 -0600

John S's Journal --

Finally got a chance to install the new water pump that I got from BPNW and it’s nice to not see coolant dripping underneath the car. I’ve been chasing 3 different leaks for a bit. The first at the flange, then a small slit in the smallest hose and finally from the weep hole. Tired of draining, removing stuff, and then putting it all back together. I decided after talking to a rep from BPNW, that because the seal is carbon, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to spin it dry for 30 seconds and would probably help seat the seal. I figured out that the old, small hose fit perfectly over the front snout of the water pump so I added a hose clamp and tightened it up. I was able to use a hole saw to cut a circular plug to fit the other end, thread a carriage bolt through the center, add another hose clamp to secure it to the plug, and then chuck it up in my drill. Worked a treat but will I ever know if it made a difference? It doesn’t leak which is all that matters to me. Time to move on to other projects

Posted 2022-02-16 21:30:59 by John S

Water Pump Woes

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 10:20:59 -0600

John S's Journal --

It’s so annoying. First it was a small leak around the gasket. Drained the radiator and waited for Amazon to ship some Toyota FIPG 103. Cleaned everything up and reinstalled with the new sealant and waited a day before adding coolant. Success, or so I thought. Found a small tear in the short hose. Waited for BPNW to send me a new silicone hose. Didn’t have to drain much coolant to reinstall with the new hose. Fired it up and let it come up to temperature. Damn, now I can see coolant again. This time it’s coming out of the weep hole and this pump is almost brand new. It’s one that I had Basil source when I picked up the car in the Fall of 2020 and started to get the car back on the road. It didn’t leak initially when I first got it running back then. Since then it’s been sitting idle until I reinstalled the engine and gearbox just recently. I spent some time going through the archived posts only to read that some pumps need to spin dry for a short period to seat the seal. Never heard of that in my lifetime of working on cars so now I’m wondering what the next step might be. I still have to do a couple things before I insure the car and start driving but I’m tempted to let it go for now to see if it will seal on its own. Re-bled the front brakes and discover the right hard line to flex hose connection was not as tight as it needed to be. Just a hint of moisture at the connection clued me in to that. I’m going to re-bleed the rears next and make sure they are all good to go as the brakes are better but not as good as I think they should be. The front ones are good now though. Took the opportunity to grease up the front end while I was at it and bent the caliper lock tabs over too. Even though I had used LockTite on the caliper bolts, I figured it couldn’t hurt to bend the tabs over. Last but not least, I tightened up the rear muffler clamp that I found loose. The exhaust note sounded different and a couple of heat cycles showed it to be leaking a bit around the rear muffler inlet. Waiting for some warmer weather to finish the front valance work that I started too long ago. Winter sucks a lot of motivation to do some of these small jobs that need to be done. And big jobs as well, like the new carpet install that is waiting in the wings. Thursday Decided to order a new water pump so I can end the leaks once and for all. Should be here on Monday. Not looking forward to pulling everything back off and scraping all of that Toyota FIPG sealant off. Got the back brakes bled again. I was lazy when I put the front suspension back together and just bled the front calipers since I hadn’t disturbed the rear brakes. Got the rest of the air out of the system and the pedal is firmer now. Might have to give the rear adjusters a turn in but we’ll see after I get the water pump swapped out and get the car insured so that I can road test it.

Posted 2022-01-31 10:20:59 by John S

Got Rid Of The Leak

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 23:46:34 -0600

John S's Journal --

The Toyota FIPG 103 sealant showed up the other day and yesterday I put a thin smear all around the water pump and also around the block and then installed the water pump. Today I had some time so I re-installed the radiator, snugged up all of the hose clamps and added some coolant to see if I finally got rid of that annoying leak. Started it up and brought it up to temp and it appears that the sealant works as advertised. Wishing I had done that the first time around. If all goes as planned tomorrow, I’ll pick up a grease cartridge and pump some into the front suspension while it’s still up on jackstands. I also need to do some more brake bleeding as well as they aren’t as responsive as they should be. I pulled the old Clarion AM radio out of the console yesterday and bench tested it to confirm that it is dead so I ripped some of the guts out of it and ordered a small Bluetooth amplifier that I’ll mount inside hopefully. It will look period and let me use my iPhone for tunes and hands-free calls if I can pull it off. I picked up a pair of ABS map pockets for the footwells so I’m thinking I might see if I can put some speakers in those. And then there is the carpet kit that I need to install. And the front valance to paint, and the front bumper to straighten out. The list doesn’t seem to shrink much.

Posted 2022-01-18 23:46:34 by John S

One Step Backwards

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 23:53:28 -0600

John S's Journal --

You always hate to go backwards when you’re restoring something but it couldn’t be helped and isn’t a huge deal. I didn’t do a good job when I reinstalled the water pump as I didn’t seal it well enough and as such, it has had a slow, annoying leak that I finally decided to tackle today. Nice warm day for a change so it was nice to have the garage door open to work on the GT. Got it warmed up enough to back it out yesterday and get it turned around to dig into it this afternoon with the front end facing the garage door. Lots of light and room to work makes a big difference. Kind of regretting the fact that I didn’t braze in a drain petcock before I put everything back together before the holidays as I now had to remove the lower hose to catch the antifreeze but I managed to collect most of it. Wishing I had kept my old rad to practice on as I don’t want to attempt it on this one as it’s almost brand new. Hopefully there will be no need to drain it again for awhile so I’ll leave it alone. All the mating surfaces of the block and water pump are all cleaned up now and hopefully the Toyota FIPG 103 liquid gasket will show up soon and I can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I’ve got a few things to do while I’m waiting and the front is up on jackstands. I need to get a grease cartridge for my gun and hit all of the zerks with some grease and the metal lock tabs on the calipers need to be peened over. I used threadlocker but a belt and braces approach can’t hurt. Also, I need to go around the new exhaust flanges and recheck them as well now that it’s had a few heat cycles. I noticed the rear clamp was loose when I backed it out as it sounded a little louder. I’m more motivated when the weather is more Spring like. I need more of the warm weather before I tackle the finish work on the front valance. It won’t be perfect but it’s missing all of the obvious dents and I’m pleased that it’s relatively smooth. Some sanding, filler, more sanding, more filler, more sanding and then hopefully primer with a little finish sanding and then paint. I also need to see if I can get some kinks out of the front bumper and I’m working out a plan in my head to accomplish that without making the chrome any worse. The problem is that in a couple places, the metal has been pushed in and I need to spread them back out. My idea is to use some bar clamps that use iron pipe and the ends of the clamps are threaded on. I’m hoping to reverse the ends so that it acts as a spreader so that I can apply a slow, steady pressure and maybe even use a little heat to massage the bumper back into a reasonable shape. We’ll see how that goes… Hopefully no more steps backwards.

Posted 2022-01-12 23:53:28 by John S

Finally!

Sat, 08 Jan 2022 18:05:35 -0600

John S's Journal --

40 days to receive a pair of brackets from the UK. In fairness, the order said that delivery could take between 16 to 50 days but damn, I really didn’t think that it would take very long to ship 2 small brackets. I’d heard great things about shipping from Rimmer’s Bros. so it was a surprise. Fortunately, it didn’t cause any delays in driving as the GT is pretty much put away for the Winter although today would have been a good day to take it out. The brackets were for mounting a pair of Kangol retractable belts that I purchased from a forum member. The belts are from a later GT and are replacing the original Kangol 3 point static belts. I got those installed and now just need to get a pair of the guides that attach to the headrests. As long as I was in the car, I decided to start it and run it for a few minutes but it has a leak from the water pump gasket so just a quick run. When the Toyota FIPG 103 sealant shows up, I’ll take care of that. The leak and the brake bleeding are all that’s left that is keeping me from driving it. I still need to get a Hagerty policy lined out for it but holding off until I finish up the valance and front bumper projects done.

Posted 2022-01-08 18:05:35 by John S

Valance Work

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 18:35:14 -0600

John S's Journal --

It’s been awhile since I’ve even thought of doing any work in the garage. Holidays, cold weather, snow storm, and general malaise. Today however, the weather cooperated and it was a balmy 64 degrees in the garage this afternoon. High 50’s outside compared to a lot of low to high 30’s in recent days so it was time to get out there and get something done. Rearranged my working space after returning a pressure washer to a friend who made me keep it until his new house was finished and he had room for it in his garage. After that, I picked up where I left off a few weeks ago and that was to jump pack in on cleaning up and straightening out my deformed valance. The back side had lots of undercoating and grime so today I managed to strip the rest of all that off and continue on with the hammer and dolly work on the various dents and dings. Not much accomplished but it was the little bit of dirty work that needed to be done before I can get the sander out and get it ready for primer.

Posted 2022-01-06 18:35:14 by John S

Carpet Kit Has Arrived

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 22:53:36 -0600

John S's Journal --

I took advantage of a Black Friday sale that Prestige Autotrim was running and ordered a set for the GT. I still have a few things to do yet to make the car ready for the road like pulling the water pump to fix a leaky gasket and doing a little more work on the brakes. They are just a little soft yet so further bleeding is necessary. Back to the carpet though. It’s been on my list since I acquired the car and when I saw that I could get 30% off, I figured I would pull the trigger and then get to the installation when I had the time. I’d say that it’s a good Winter project but an un-heated garage isn’t the most motivating environment so we’ll see. Right now, between the upcoming holidays and also several weeks of daily treatments scheduled for my better half, my priorities don’t include working on the car much for awhile yet. The carpet kit took a couple weeks to arrive from the UK and the boxes looked a little worse for the wear but fortunately, everything inside looked fine. It will definitely lift the interior up because the original carpet although not torn up, was so faded. Looks a little daunting with so many individual pieces but I’m sure once I get going, it won’t be too bad.

Posted 2021-12-14 22:53:36 by John S

Hammer Time

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 16:28:09 -0600

John S's Journal --

Decided to try a little panel beating because the front valence needed some work. It looked like it had some close encounters with some curbs so I took the larger dents out just bending it over my knee as a first step. Borrowed a hammer and dolly kit from a friend and started tinkering a couple of days ago. I ran a random orbit sander with some 80 grit to smooth out some of the old paint imperfections and knock down some surface rust where the metal was exposed. I should have taken a picture before I started but too late for that. It’s starting to look more like it is supposed to as far as overall shape. Anything would be an improvement and I’m not looking for perfect so we’ll see how it comes out. Hopefully I will only need a minimum of filler Saturday Decided to use a heat gun to strip the paint as I didn’t want the fumes or the mess of a chemical stripper. It’s a little tedious but by concentrating on small sections it peels off pretty well with a chisel held at a low angle. Tried the razor blade but that wasn’t getting it done. It’s going to take longer this way but I’m ok with that. The less I have to sand, the better.

<Blown up photo to show the valence condition before>

<Starting to take shape but more to do>

Posted 2021-12-03 16:28:09 by John S

Happy Day

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 19:25:44 -0600

John S's Journal --

Beautiful day today so I backed the GT out of the garage into the sunlight for the first time since I pulled the engine and transmission to fix the clutch and swap in the OD as well as all of the front end work, engine bay cleaning and painting and endless amounts of wire brushing and cleaning. It’s been 13 months since it moved under its own power and that was a short lived trip around the parking lot across the street so that I could get a sense of the overall condition of the drivetrain, suspension, etc. Well, today, after giving it a bath, I took it to the same location across the street for another short-lived trip to see if my work paid off and what might need attention. It ran great until the fuel ran out in the midst of my parking lot shakedown. The gauge was on empty but I wasn’t sure how much fuel was in the tank until it died. Hearing the fuel pump tick constantly was my first clue and once I got the bonnet open, my second clue was the empty filter. A quick trip to the gas station and back got me enough to drive it back up and across the street and back in the garage. The bonnet release was giving me problems so I grabbed the spare one from my wrecked ‘70 and made a emergency release through the driver side wheel well. I might have to take the water pump back off and reseal it as I have a small coolant leak. Also need to do a little more brake bleeding as there is more play than I like. I sanded down the front valence and I plan on doing a little hammer and dolly work to smooth out some dings and dents. I’ve still got some of the rattle can paint that was left over from the engine bay work but not sure if it’s enough to cover. Not sure if I can straighten out the bumper but I’m going to try. I’m thinking I might try clamping the bent parts between hardwood cauls and seeing if I can make them better. It won’t be perfect but I’m not looking for that. Just want it to look presentable.

<1st bath in 13 months. And the first drive as well!>

<Just needs a front valence and a bumper>

<Made a backup bonnet release with a spare from the 70>

Posted 2021-11-30 19:25:44 by John S

I’m Ready For A Test Drive Finally

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 19:06:36 -0600

John S's Journal --

I’ve been getting a few things done as time has allowed. I got it running 10 days ago but it was just a quick and dirty initial startup. I got the timing light out yesterday and did a proper job with it and spent some time on the HS4’s today. These were the ones that I pulled off my wrecked ‘70 so they were reasonably close. With that done, I could install the Cooper air filters and now it looks like a proper engine bay. I plugged the light switch harness back in and tested all of the lights and made sure my relays were hooked up properly. Found the brake switch wire came loose so I got that soldered back on and then adjusted the switch so that I have brake lights now. The pedal was way soft which was no surprise since the calipers were off during the front end rebuild. Managed to get those bled by myself thanks to the Speed-Bleeders that I had installed last October when I first got the car going. The weather is supposed to be good again tomorrow so I hope to actually take it across the street and test it out in the church parking lot. Maybe give it a bath since it’s been sitting in the garage for a year. Can’t wait!

<Cooper filters are on and the engine bay work is done.>

Posted 2021-11-29 19:06:36 by John S

The Moment I’ve Been Working Towards…

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 18:42:33 -0600

John S's Journal --

…for the last year. After the grandkids went home I decided it was about to flip the battery disconnect switch and see if there was any issues with the electrics after having hooked everything back up since the engine went back in. Quick check for smoke. All good. Key on to see if there were any fuel leaks. Yep. Float bowl lid. New gasket on and another check. Another leak and a bigger one. This time it was at the main line junction in front of the heater box and it appeared to be a pin hole in the line itself. Fortunately, I had saved everything off of my ‘70 donor when I dismantled it. Got that on so it was time to turn the engine over without the plugs to see if the oil pressure was good. I had replaced the pump and had coated it all in assembly lube but it seemed like it took awhile and the electric gauges aren’t always reliable. It started to climb however after a couple minutes of cranking the engine. All good. Time to put the plugs in and hook up the coil and plug wires. A couple CCW adjustments on the distributor and after a little coughing and spitting, she ran again after all the work that I’ve done! Then I looked under the car and saw oil. Fortunately it was the oil cooler hose connection at the oil filter that wasn’t quite snugged up. All good. I got it to run well enough to run through the gears while it was still up on jackstands but there is some fine tuning to do yet and a tiny coolant leak to find and remedy but it’s a happy day! Some pictures of the work to get to this point seem reasonable as a reminder of the journey.

<Bad clutch, greasy mess>	<Engine bay prep work>	<Sad looking bonnet>
<How it arrived>	<New clutch, new paint, OD swapped in>	<All cleaned up and ready for a transplant>
<Ready to go back on>	<Wont mind leaving the bonnet open now>

Posted 2021-11-19 18:42:33 by John S

A Long And Winding Road

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 19:24:14 -0600

John S's Journal --

It’s been a little over a year since the day that someone ran a red light while I was happily motoring through the intersection in my split bumper ‘70 roadster. After toiling away on that car to get it roadworthy and respectable looking, I only had the use of it for some 3 months before it’s inglorious end. Happily though, I found a gem about 60 miles up the road within days of the accident. With money in hand from the settlement, I purchased and towed home through a very thick layer of wildfire smoke, a soot covered ‘71 GT that had been sitting unused in a garage for 34 years and had only seen the light of day briefly just prior to the fires. Not running for all those years was a bit of a gamble but I had a complete parts car with lots of new bits as I chose to part my ‘70 out rather than take the whole amount offered and turn over the car. First order of business after getting it up the driveway and under the carport was to clean it up, go through the fuel system, brakes, and carefully rotate the engine with liberal doses of Marvel Mystery Oil. Then transfer the carbs and various other bits from the donor to see what kind of shape the motor was in and to my pleasant surprise, it was healthy enough to drive it around the parking lot across the street albeit with a bad clutch. Knowing that the original engine was good and that I had an OD that I was going to resurrect, the plan was made to shelve the car until I was able to part out and get the wrecked ‘70 gone as room is limited. Pulled the motor and transmission out of the ‘70 and set it aside and then moved it under the carport and the GT in the garage to wait while I stripped everything off the wreck. Managed to get it down to the bare shell and find homes for a lot of the parts that I didn’t need and proceeded to exceed the amount that I surrendered to the insurance company. With Winter of 2020 upon us, the motivation to spend time on the GT was not great and was put on hold until the New Year. A very serious health issue developed with my wife that put the project on the back burner until this Summer when she was recovered sufficiently for me to spend some time in the garage now and again. Which brings me to today and the following picture. It is ready to go I hope. But that won’t be known for at least another day or two as it’s the end of the day and tomorrow’s schedule is filled with appointments. A long and winding road.

<394A5026-412B-4358-B340-1E998436D090>

Posted 2021-11-17 19:24:14 by John S

The GT Gets Its Fishmouth Back

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 17:12:29 -0600

John S's Journal --

Out with the old and in with the “like new”. I must be getting closer to the end when the grille goes back in. Picked this one up from forum member Pete Shannon and it looks really good out of the box and on the car where it belongs.

<9D8F88F6-55CB-46CA-B8FE-71BED7AE8BC4>

Posted 2021-11-12 17:12:29 by John S

Slow Going

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 19:46:46 -0600

John S's Journal --

Too much going on lately to spend much time on the GT but I am inching forward. Made the decision to send the original HS4’s to Joe Curto for a rebuild. I had a couple of his kits and was planning on doing them myself until I noticed more wear in the throttle shaft bushes so back to New York they go. Sounds like they’ll be there for quite awhile so I decided to mount the HS4’s from my wrecked ‘70 in the meantime. In doing so, I figured out that the float bowl lids were not quite right. The front one is correct but the rear one is wrong. It’s exactly the same as the front one so the hose routing is wonky. I always wondered why the ‘70 fuel and vent lines seemed awkward. Found some courtesy of the BST forum and should have them soon. Picked up a fluid transfer pump and got the gearbox all filled up. Ditto for the engine and oil cooler. Got the battery on the charger and tomorrow’s mission is to finish plumbing up the heater and fill the cooling system. Hoping to see the float bowl lids in a couple days so I can button it up and light it off soon. Thursday Just a couple things today. Got the heater hoses routed and finished topping off the oil after a trip to O’Reilly’s for some more Castrol GTX. Getting to the point where I’m looking around trying to find things to do while I wait on my flat bowl lids to arrive. Looks like Monday but lots of grandkid time over the next couple of days so not much time for car stuff. I might try fit the fishmouth grille if I get a few minutes tomorrow.

Posted 2021-11-10 19:46:46 by John S

Just A Few Things

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 23:20:24 -0500

John S's Journal --

Grandkids here today so just did a few small things today. Swapped out the steering wheel for one that I’ve had in storage. Same wheel but in better shape. The horn brush fell apart so I’ll have to find another one. Ran a pair of wires from an indicator that I mounted in the top of the shift knob. I put a late model OD in but decided to use the wiper stalk switch to switch the OD on/off but wanted an indication when the OD is on. Originally planned on using the button as a switch and indicator but opted just for the indication. I’ve seen lots of complaints about the original knob switch being problematic so this should be more trouble free. Spent a little time underneath the car inserting all of the cotter pins on the castle nuts from the suspension rebuild. I found where my stash was after spending a couple hours organizing my workbench and sorting through all of the miscellaneous nuts, bolts, washers, and such that were piled into various containers. All sorted by size and separated into individual containers now. That led me to discovering where all the new cotter pins were hiding. Lastly, I decided to see about installing the late model retractable Kangol belts that I acquired from a forum member. I discovered that the brackets that came with the belts were meant for a roadster and that the GT’s used a different bracket so that job will have to wait. Inching forward and crossing off things slowly but surely. Waiting on some stuff that is supposed to arrive soon.

Posted 2021-11-03 23:20:24 by John S

It’s Exhausting

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 21:44:47 -0500

John S's Journal --

Getting closer to being done laying on my back on the garage floor. I got the prop shaft bolted up to the back of the gearbox and then proceeded to start in on the exhaust system. The whole system was garbage when I acquired the car last year so I did a lot of research and purchased the Bell SS 2 muffler system several months ago. I finally got around to installing it today and can’t wait to hear it. It looks great and the kit was a breeze to install. Other than the laying on the back on concrete business… I still have to snug everything up but I’m super pleased with it.

<9F7EEDC4-E5A6-49EF-8651-26AAA0405621>

<8E236208-CCF0-4F63-AF9D-B40D38D4494E>

Posted 2021-10-30 21:44:47 by John S

Arghhh! Close But No Cigar…

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 00:43:44 -0500

John S's Journal --

Tuesday The one job that I had hoped to accomplish after dinner was to get the gearbox crossmember installed. Everything was laid out and ready to go. This job is fiddly enough on a non-OD box but the OD unit seems to make the job a bit trickier. I don’t remember having this much fun in the past with the 4 synch non-OD gearbox. Anyways, after loosely bolting the mounts up with one bolt on each side (the ones closest to the OD unit), I offered up the crossmember so that the mount studs went through the front holes and was able to loosely thread a nut on both sides. This allowed me to then thread the remaining two mount bolts into the gearbox and snug them up a bit. All this was done with the gearbox resting on the fixed crossmember. Lastly, I jacked the gearbox up to line up the holes in the crossmember to the frame rails. Perfect. Until I noticed that the lower butterfly mount is 180 degrees out and the holes don’t line up to the crossmember. Damn. Now I have to undo things just to spin that lower butterfly mount around and have another go at it. Tomorrow. One of those jobs that make you wonder what the hell they were thinking when they engineered it… Wednesday Well, after a good nights rest, I once again crawled under the car fully prepared to take the whole crossmember off just so that I could rotate the lower butterfly 180 degrees so the holes would align with the crossmember. Pleasantly surprised that I could loosen up one side of the mount and then drop the rear bolt out of the other side and rotate the lower butterfly. This allowed me to easily bolt the mounts back up and snug everything up. Once jacked up into position, the crossmember lined up on the frame rails and the two bolts holding the butterfly mount went in. Done with that business.

Posted 2021-10-27 00:43:44 by John S

Back At It

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 00:38:17 -0500

John S's Journal --

After a a short break for family events it was time to get a few things done now that the car is up on the newly raised dollies. I had to pull the distributor to provide access for the starter reinstall. That went well and the added clearance down below is going to make things so much better. I had to repair a couple of brown wires that were in bad shape and then got all the starter wires hooked up and ready to go. While I was down there, I hooked up the wire to the OD solenoid and noticed some oil around the filter screen cover. Made a mess taking it off as there was some residual oil that poured out when I removed the cover. John Twist says to just use grease on the gasket and that’s what I had used so time for plan B. I’ll let it drain overnight and then clean it up and use a thin smear of sealant. I was going to try my hand at soldering a brass nut on the bottom of the radiator for a drain petcock but decided to forego that for fear of screwing up a good radiator. Called a radiator shop and got a ballpark figure to braze a bung on. $100-150 was his guesstimate and I politely declined. Half the cost of the radiator itself for a drain? I think not. Wishing I had kept the old radiator to practice on… Mounted the radiator and plumbed it up with new silicone hoses and new clamps. The clamps are a solid stainless t-bolt band clamp that I got off Amazon and they seem so much better than the gear type and the spring type that look good but don’t seal worth a damn. We’ll see how these work but first impressions are good. Lastly, I got the headlights and horn relays wired up. I had kept the one that I made when I had the ‘70 roadster and It just needed to be wired up. It’s attached to the passenger side radiator stay rod support so once the radiator was in, I could fit the relays. It took me a few minutes to sort out the wires but after I pulled the connector under the dash, I used a length of wire with a bullet connector and hooked a battery charger to feed some juice through the harness to sort which wires feed the relay inputs. Ran out of time this evening but I’ll feed some juice all the way through to the lights and horns before the fishmouth grille goes back in. Hoping to get the gearbox crossmember and prop shaft bolted up tomorrow if I have time.

Posted 2021-10-26 00:38:17 by John S

Getting Ready For The Exhaust Install

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 10:49:13 -0500

John S's Journal --

Back from a camping trip and thinking about the upcoming exhaust project, I thought I’d do something to increase the ground clearance and retain the mobility that the HF dollies afford me. I’ve seen lots of TV shows where the cars are supported by crisscross wood sections but they have all been fixed. I wanted to be able to move the car around so that as needed, I can roll the car over to make room for the MINI now that the weather has turned. Decided to modify the dollies by securing 2x4’s to both ends by drilling 4 holes through the metal and inserting carriage bolts down through the wood to anchor the first layer. I also used a Forstner bit to bore holes for the 4 wheel nuts that protrude on the top side so the 2x4’s fit over them. After that, I just alternated the orientation of the 2x4’s and screwed down into the previous layer. Pre-drilled the screw holes to keep from splitting. I had initially thought I would build them up with 5 layers but I think 3 will work just fine. I got two of the dollies done and need to build two more for the rear. The good thing is that once they are built, I can always remove them by undoing the nuts and lifting them off or I can add another layer or two if needed. Finished up the other two today and I’m pleased with how they came out. All of the remaining work underneath the car should be easily accomplished now. The rear of the transmission is still sitting on the fixed crossmember so that will be the next task, followed by the prop shaft, and then hopefully the SS Bell exhaust.

<Modifying the HF skates>	<Got the front done>	<Clearance to work under>
<All four done>

Posted 2021-10-18 10:49:13 by John S

Chipping Away At The List

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 18:15:30 -0500

John S's Journal --

Got a little garage time in today. Cleaned up the intake manifold with a rotary brush and drill and then got it and the exhaust manifold installed. Installed the fan and belt, cinched up the alternator bolts, and plugged in the two connectors. Also got the motor mount bolts all tightened up after cleaning all the nuts and washers. Next, I got the new oil cooler hoses connected at the block and oil filter and then fed them through the radiator diaphragm which also got bolted up. Lastly, I got the heat shield all cleaned up and gave it a coat of high temp VHT primer. Trying to pick off some of the simple things under the bonnet when I get a few minutes. I need to source a radiator petcock and get that soldered/brazed on the bottom of the radiator so I can get the cooling system all plumbed. Little by little…

<All cleaned up and ready for the heat shield>

<Ready for the radiator>

Posted 2021-10-10 18:15:30 by John S

Front End Is Done

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 00:12:42 -0500

John S's Journal --

Now that the engine and gearbox are back in and there’s some weight up front, it was time to go over every nut and bolt and torque everything up. Started the process with the tires on the skates and that was proving to be a pain. Switched to jacking one side at a time under the spring pan, removing the wheel and placing a jack stand under the frame rail for safety and torquing everything down. I was cruising along until I got to the lower trunnion. The kits that I purchased had the bolt, distance tube, castle nut, thrust washer, seal support, seal and cotter pin. After torquing to 45#, the cotter pin hole was nowhere close to the slot in the nut. I compared everything that I had removed and bagged with the new parts and could see no difference. I thought maybe I had either screwed something up or perhaps the distance tube was too short so I took everything off and did some measuring. Couldn’t find any issues so a quick post to the forum and a few helpful members thought the castle nut was too short which would make sense. What didn’t make sense is that all of the old pieces were in a ziplock bag and matched the new. I saved just about every nut and bolt that I removed from my wrecked and parted ‘70 roadster so a quick look through the jar of extras revealed 2 of the taller castle nuts. The shorter ones are used on the inner wishbone pivots so one of the PO’s used the incorrect nuts and the new kits were supplied with the incorrect ones as well. Confused the hell out of me. This was discovered on Wednesday and after an email to the supplier, I got a reply and a promise of two of the correct castle nuts which are arriving Saturday. In the meantime the used ones are on so that I could put the car back down on the skates and move the car over to the other side of the garage and get the MINI back in the garage. Still need to put all of the cotter pins in on all of the castle nuts but for all intents and purposes, the front end rebuild is complete. A long way to go yet before it’s ready for the road. Next up is to get it up in the air high enough to get the new Bell exhaust in, fit the crossmember to the OD gearbox, bolt up the prop shaft and the rest of the stuff underneath the car. HS4’s need a rebuild and I’ve got a couple of Curto’s kits for that. No lack of things to do but a camping trip is coming up so all of that is going to wait.

<New castle nut that came in the lower trunnion kit>

<New vs. old one from my parts jar.>

Posted 2021-10-09 00:12:42 by John S

Got The Engine In Today

Sat, 02 Oct 2021 22:08:37 -0500

John S's Journal --

I decided today would be a good day to latch onto the engine and gearbox that has been sitting on a HF dolly since I finished replacing all gaskets, rear main seal, clutch, and getting a nice fresh paint job. Now that all of the engine bay work is done and several might as well jobs in addition to a front suspension rebuild, it was time to drop it in and get this GT on the home stretch. I dropped in the beautifully rebuilt distributor while access was good and then managed to wrangle it all in and set it down on the motor mounts and the fixed crossmember. Got the motor mount bolts in but not cinched down. But it is finally back in and now all of the other stuff seems minor. Still plenty to do but seeing the engine back where it belongs gives me some impetus to finish the process.

<Engine back in place>

Posted 2021-10-02 22:08:37 by John S

A Couple More Steps Forward

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 20:31:48 -0500

John S's Journal --

It’s been awhile since I’ve done anything on the GT. Pheasant hunting, camping trip to the coast and driving my wife to various appointments kept me away from my project. I had the afternoon to myself today and put it to good use. I had put the steering rack in before we went camping and it was off a spline or two because the pinch bolt wasn’t lined up so the first order of business was to drop that out and get it all lined up. I was initially concerned that I had messed something up because the steering wheel looked like it wasn’t centered but once I slid the rack back in in the proper place, it all lined up. While the engine is still out, I had a couple things to tidy up such as the rear harness. The Tesa tape that I had ordered arrived so I rewrapped the last couple of feet with that and then got the P-clips in place to secure the rear harness and the starter branch harness. I then got the brake calipers bolted on and brake lines plumbed back up so that I could put the front wheels back on and get the car off the jack stands. Seems like it’s been up in the air for an eternity. Back down on the skates now so that I can move it into position for the engine hoist to finally get the engine and gearbox back in the car. Salmon fishing tomorrow however so that will have to wait for another day.

<6FDE4CEE-D6B4-4D3F-AE63-E23C63E4D975>

<41034E60-B2D0-4A5C-B0FD-B465386EE907>

Posted 2021-09-28 20:31:48 by John S

Nearly There

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:54:55 -0500

John S's Journal --

Just about done with the front end. With the exception of the sway bar and the brake calipers, it’s pretty much done. I thought I could find someone to press out the sway bar bushings in short order but no such luck. I miss those days when you had more options in town and could take something simple like a sway bar to a machine shop and they could pop the old out and the new in while you wait or within a couple hours at least. Nope. Not going to happen today. Shortage of skilled help these days and everyone is scrambling. I tried doing it in my vise but couldn’t budge them even with a little heat. Kinda how my day went. Had an appointment to get the EGR recall done on my RAM truck. Been waiting months. Got it there first thing this morning, caught a ride home and got a call 4 hours later to tell me that they didn’t have the parts that they needed to do the job. WTF?! Supposed to have had it ready by days end. Camping trip upcoming and no truck. Highly pissed Time for a drink. Took a break and came back to the sway bar. I decided that I didn’t want to wait for a machine shop so I got out the hacksaw and inserted the blade and cut three slots around the inner bushing being careful to not cut to deep. Squeezed the end between two sockets and managed to force the old bush out at both ends. New bushes are chillin’ in the freezer overnight. Hopefully they will go in better than the old ones came out. Saturday Tackled the sway bar bushing installation today. Pulled them out of the freezer one at a time and proceeded to squeeze them in the vice with a socket. Applied a little heat to the bar and had to hammer on the vise handle repeatedly to get the bushings in all the way. Got a good work out. I thought that the bolt up process would go quick but the SuperPro mount bushings proved to be a bit of a challenge getting the second bolt to line up with the hole in the frame. I had to go to a longer bolt on the second bolt on both sides in order to get the bolt started. Brake calipers are all that’s left before I put the wheels on and get it back on the skates so that I can move it over and back further into the garage so I can maneuver the engine hoist around. I want to clean up the rear wiring harness before I drop the engine and gearbox in. The cloth is pretty ratty in places so I ordered some Tesa tape to wrap it up from the engine bay connections down to the frame rail.

<679754BD-5F53-41A2-A15E-F078071A3BC1>

Posted 2021-09-17 16:54:55 by John S

Front Suspension Continued

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 23:02:17 -0500

John S's Journal --

A little more progress today when time allowed. Got the wishbone pivots, steering rack, new tie rod ends, upper trunnion poly bushes, and both swivel axles/hubs installed loosely. New poly bushes installed on the wishbone arms. Waiting on a couple of lower trunnion seal and bolt kits to arrive so I can bolt up the spring pans, pop the springs in and get ready to drop the engine and gearbox back in.

Posted 2021-09-13 23:02:17 by John S

Back At It

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 00:01:27 -0500

John S's Journal --

After a camping trip in the mountains for several days, I eased back into the front suspension rebuild. But only after watching my Ducks defeat the Buckeyes. Not a ton of progress but I did manage to mount the new bump stops and get the front dampers installed. I couldn’t find the old bump stops and spacers from my wrecked ‘70 crossmember. I can’t imagine that I tossed them when I stripped it down for media blasting and powder coating but they were nowhere to be found so I had to remove them off the crossmember that I dropped out of the GT. I had new bump stops but needed the spacers. I wish I would have marked them when I removed them as I didn’t realize that they had to be oriented a certain way. Hopefully I’ll make more headway tomorrow.

<Cleaned, flushed, refilled, painted and ready to install.>

Posted 2021-09-12 00:01:27 by John S

Armstrongs

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:30:02 -0500

John S's Journal --

I got the front dampers all cleaned up and decided to flush all the old nasty fluid out and refill with some 20 wt. fork oil. All in all, not a particularly hard job but certainly a messy one. I watched David Russell Wilkes YouTube video on his method and then went at it. I had some cheap 30 wt. oil laying around so I used it to flush all of the old stuff out. It took awhile to purge all of the air bubbles out but a slow steady up and down cycle of the lever arm and keeping the fluid topped off eventually got rid of them all. Pleased with the feel of both dampers after the flush and fill. Masked off the body of both dampers and hit the arms first with etch primer and then gloss black enamel. I’ll finish them off with some clear over the bare metal and then it’s time to start reassembling the whole front suspension. Didn’t get much done this weekend as we had two grandkids for the whole weekend while their parents celebrated an anniversary. Taking a camping trip for a handful of days so the GT work will have to wait until we return.

Posted 2021-09-06 00:30:02 by John S

It Felt Like Christmas Today

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 21:44:11 -0500

John S's Journal --

I got my suspension parts back from the powder coater today and they came out great! I had the day to myself today because my wife went to the coast with our daughter and two grandkids. Uninterrupted work time which hasn’t happened much since her surgery and recovery. I got the steering rack boots on so it’s pretty much ready to bolt back on after I fill it with oil. I just painted it with some gloss black enamel and some clear enamel over the bare metal parts and I like the way it came out. I also got the other hub put back together with new races, bearings and seal so both hub assemblies are ready to go back on. I decided to mount the crossmember as my time was running out and it actually went pretty well. I cleaned up all four bolts, washers, and nuts, installed the new SuperPro poly pads and decided I would line up the two front bolts and get them loosely tightened up first and then slip the back pads in and snug them up loosely. I ran two long rods through the holes in the crossmember to hold the studs into position and then with the floor jack sufficiently padded raised it up and guided the studs up through the crossmember enough to put a washer and nut on the top. Followed that up with the rear pads and studs and it is in place but still not tightened down. I’ve still got some touch up painting to do around the frame particularly where the steering assembly was when I initially painted in the engine bay. After that, then I can continue mounting the various suspensions bits with all new SuperPro poly bushes. Feels like I made some real progress today. Hopefully more tomorrow…

<After>	<Before>	<After>
<After>	<Before>	<After- Back plates just left alone. Previously painted.>
<After>

Posted 2021-09-01 21:44:11 by John S

Good News, Bad News

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 23:11:29 -0500

John S's Journal --

The good news is that my Napa online order for steering rack silicone boots came in yesterday. The bad news is that my steering rack boots came in yesterday. Same part number on 2 different boxes but two very different boots and no idea when they were going to have any replacements in. So, back they go and I’m going to use the standard rubber ones that I got months ago and heard tales of woe about. I hope it doesn’t bite me in the ass down the road but I want to get the suspension done so I can get the engine and gearbox back in so I’ll roll the dice and hope the boots aren’t the inferior rubber ones that I read about. The better news is that today’s mail brought the wheel bearing shims that I needed to finish the front hubs. I had hoped to finish both sides today but too many other things got in my way and only got one completely done. I have the whole day to myself tomorrow so fingers crossed I can make some headway. The parts are supposed to be back from the powder coater which would be awesome. So there is no lack of things to do.

Posted 2021-08-31 23:11:29 by John S

Steering Rack And Front Wheel Bearings

Sat, 28 Aug 2021 23:53:17 -0500

John S's Journal --

While the crossmember and assorted front suspension parts are getting media blasted and powder coated, I’ve slowed a bit but decided to get some other front end bits cleaned up. Wrapped up the painting on the steering rack and the sway bar today and while those are curing, I spent some time researching the process of installing new bearings and races on the front hubs. Last year about this time when I acquired the GT, the rotors were garbage and I did a quick and dirty job on replacing them to get the car running, driving and stopping to assess what all needed to be done. Now that I’m going through the front suspension, I want to go through the hubs and replace everything. The parts order from BPNW came in yesterday and had the bearing kits but unfortunately they were out of shim kits so I wound up ordering them from Import Parts Northwest which is another vendor up North in the Portland area. Put a small order in with them and it will be here early next week. I got as far as knocking out the old races and cleaning up the hub and stub axle and experimenting with the old shims and new bearings just to see how it all works. I haven’t done this before with the other MG’s so it’s a learning experience. YouTube and the forum to the rescue again. I have a good handle on it now so I’ll prep the other hub tomorrow and then I’m sure I can find some bits and pieces to clean and paint so they’ll be ready to go when the parts arrive. Same goes for the steering rack. Doesn’t appear that there is a lack of things to do.

Posted 2021-08-28 23:53:17 by John S

Strip Show

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 22:27:31 -0500

John S's Journal --

Wednesday As in, stripping the front suspension that I dropped out of the GT. While the other crossmember and assorted front suspension pieces are off to be blasted and powder coated, I spent some time today completely disassembling the one on the garage floor. Both front swivel assemblies complete with hubs, rotors, and calipers will be reused as most of it was recently refurbished so they are now in the save pile. The only other bits I plan on using are the wishbone pivots and I dropped them off to join the other stuff that I deposited yesterday. Looking forward to seeing them all cleaned up and powder coated. I pressure washed the crossmember and that will join the few remaining larger items leftover from the wrecked ‘70 that I hope to find a home for otherwise it’s off to the scrap yard along with some other metal bits like the old exhaust, old rotors, pressure plate, etc. Maybe even the old 4 sync gearbox. I’m hoping to clean up the steering rack and sway bar tomorrow if time allows. I put in an order to BPNW and as they are close by, I should see that stuff arriving soon. I’ve also got to crawl under the GT now that the crossmember and steering rack aren’t in the way and do some clean up/touch up and figure out if I want to spray any undercoating anywhere. Not much accomplished but still inching forward. Thursday Not enough done today to warrant a separate journal entry but I did make some progress. The steering rack was needing some attention as both boots were torn. It sat in a garage for three decades so it’s no wonder. I ordered some silicone boots from Napa as I read good things about them and they had a 20% off code so I saved some coin. A pair for a shade under $32 bucks with free delivery next week. I stripped off th3 old ones and after masking off the internals, I got the drill and rotary wire brush out and stripped it down to the bare metal. Why? OCD kicked in again. I decided to mask off the cast parts as I think they’ll add a nice contrast against the gloss black of the other suspension parts. I might give them a coat or two of clear to keep them looking hood. I like the look of the bare metal especially when the patent and manufacturers information is visible. That kind of stuff tends to disappear when it’s covered in black paint and grime. I hit the main body and the steering arms with some Rustoleum Rust Stop and did the same thing to the sway bar after pressing out the bushes and wire brushing the whole thing. I might get a small can of POR-15 and topcoat the rack and sway bar surfaces that I primed. Once that’s done then it’s a matter of waiting for the boots to arrive next week, filling it up with some 90 weight and threaded on the new tie rod ends. Got a notice that the parts I ordered from BPNW yesterday are arriving tomorrow so that will be nice. A few front suspensions bits and pieces and some needed misc. parts. And some candy that they always throw in the box! Good prices, quick delivery and candy is a good combination. They’re just up the road so it always ships fast.

Posted 2021-08-25 22:27:31 by John S

Out With The Old

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 18:57:25 -0500

John S's Journal --

I decided to tackle the front suspension today. I’ve had the front suspension from the parted out ‘70 waiting in the wings while I dealt with the engine bay cleaning and painting. The plan was to get that sandblasted and powdered coated or painted with POR-15 so today I took the crossmember, spring pans, wishbone arms and a couple of misc. pieces down to the guy that did my wheels to see what he would charge to do the job. All in and done for $130 so I left them there and we’ll see how they look next week. I figured by the time I had them sandblasted and then bought the POR-15 I would be spending about the same and a whole bunch of time brushing that stuff on. Money well spent in my book. With that done, it was time to drop the whole front end on the GT as a unit. Off came the sway bar followed by the steering rack, separated the tie rod ends, moved the brake lines from the back of the crossmember, disconnected the flex hoses from the hard lines, put the jack up under the crossmember, rattle gunned the 4 nuts topside and dropped it to the ground. Didn’t put up a fight. The tie rods ends complied with the pickle fork treatment and it really didn’t take long to have it all laying on the ground. I’ll strip this one down but don’t plan on using much of it. The Armstrong levers from my ’70 are all cleaned up so I’ll use those. I’ll assess the swivel axles from both cars and use the best ones and likewise the wishbone pivots. I’ve got a SuperPro suspension kit that I’ll install when everything is back from the powder coater. In the meantime, there are some things to take care of so I’m ready to go next week. I think I’ll put the crossmember in first and then build it all up from there.

<Ready to strip the useable parts off>

<Looks a little naked>

Posted 2021-08-24 18:57:25 by John S

Well That.was Fun. Part Two.

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 23:51:09 -0500

John S's Journal --

Yesterday the heater box, today the speedometer removal from a pillow dash. With the installation of a late blue label OD comes the need for a different speedometer so today’s mission was to remove the existing one without leaving too much skin behind. Got the old cable out without too much trouble. Got one knurled nut off with a little more trouble but the last knurled nut was a PITA. Pain in the arm. Several attempts were necessary from every conceivable angle. Persevered and finally got it off and retained most of my skin. That led me to looking into changing the odometer reading to match the original. The newer one from a 74.5 GT had several thousand more miles and the bezel was slightly thicker in appearance. Not deal breakers but I wanted to make it look original. Read through the Smith’s and Jaeger repair pdf and also the library article, I was a little apprehensive about disassembling the one with the correct gears so ai reached out to the forum to see how doable it was. From the responses I received, it seemed like it shouldn’t be a problem and after a couple of minutes and no disassembling, I managed to separate the wheels enough to rotate the individual wheels to get a matching odometer reading. Just need to find some o-ring material to replace the fossilized material that fell out of the groove in the back of the bezel and then put hump to dumpty back together and somehow reinstall in the dash. The only other thing accomplished was to install the original style bonnet liners on the freshly painted underside of the bonnet. Tomorrow I go in search of the o-ring material and some charcoal for the vapor canister that I disassembled.

<D2EB593C-6DF4-4EA9-8211-C71A8E1E0D42>

Posted 2021-08-22 23:51:09 by John S

Well, That Was Fun.

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 17:02:13 -0500

John S's Journal --

I finally got around to tackling the dreaded heater box installation today and I have to say that everything I read about it was true. The rubber sealing block has been cursed for being a real pig to coax into place and others have resorted to shaving some of the rubber off. I know the original seal was a foam of some sorts but mine was petrified so no choice but to use the new style. I decided to use it as is and glued it on the box with the black Super Weatherstrip Adhesive from 3M. Once that was done I coated the rubber liberally with Armor-All and applied brute force,cursing, more Armor-All, more brute force, and a whole lot more cursing. And it's in! Job done. Still loads to do. I've been stripping, sanding, priming and painting more bits and pieces. Radiator core support is done along with the braces. Horns are mounted and wired up. Charcoal canister brackets are done. Little things but they added up to lots of time when you take them down to bare metal. Getting ready to put the bonnet liners on. They were in the unopened bag for quite awhile so there are a couple of slight creases in them so I put them out in the sun to soften them up and then it's time to get the silicone adhesive out and get them installed. A few more things to button up around the heater box while access is good and then the finished bonnet can go back on. I may wait until the engine is back in though.

<The dreaded heater box is in. Happy day.>

Posted 2021-08-21 17:02:13 by John S

The Devil’s In The Details

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 23:11:09 -0500

John S's Journal --

So they say. Continued on with putting things back into the engine bay. Got the forward part of the loom routed back where it needs to be and secured along the passenger side inner wing and under the slam panel. Cleaned up the harness tape and the individual wires as I went along. Also cleaned up all of the various clips and fasteners until the rust and oxidation was gone and gleaming like new again. Spent a considerable amount of time cleaning the garage and organizing as it was looking like a bomb went off. I can actually see my bench top and work table for now. Picked up a couple of sturdy storage bins for parts. One for stuff that are meant to go back on the GT and one for parts that came off the parted out ‘70 RD. The underside of the bonnet looked good in the daylight today so next up will be gluing on the liners. Probably in the next day or two. In the meantime, there were some misc. brackets that needed a lick of paint after cleaning and sanding. Horn mounting brackets are finished and mounted now. My horn repair job worked as it sounded when I clipped the battery charger up to the replacement terminal. The mounting plate and assorted brackets for the charcoal canister are done now as well. I need to refresh the innards of the canister while it’s out but that’s for another day and probably not tomorrow. 5 busy grandkids from 3 to 8 years old are coming over and going swimming at our friends house across the street. I’m inching slowly along.

Posted 2021-08-18 23:11:09 by John S

More Progress

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:38:40 -0500

John S's Journal --

Today wasn’t as productive as I had other things going on but I did manage to get the underside of the bonnet all painted. Much cooler this morning so I actually had to wait for it to warm up a bit. It rained a bit over night which was a welcome sight. Not enough to squelch the wildfires but I’m sure it was helpful to some degree. I’ll look at the bonnet again in the morning to see if the coverage is good before I unmask it and set about gluing the liners in place. I started putting some things back in the engine bay but my OCD kicked in again and I found myself cleaning everything that bolts to the inner wings with 400 or 800 grit Emory cloth. Coil bracket, coil, screw and bolt heads, starter relay, P-clips, etc. so things slowed to a crawl. In for a penny, in for a pound they say. I’ve gone to so much trouble to paint the engine bay that I can’t attach something all grungy looking, hence the slow progress. I’ll get to the finish line someday but for now I just try to get something done every day no matter how trivial it seems at the time. I’m cleaning up the wires as I reattach the loom throughout the engine bay. I had to move the fuse box down to accommodate the strut kit that I installed. The wiring is in remarkable, unmolested condition so it’s just a matter of wiping the individual wires clean and running a small wire bore brush through the bullet tubes and applying a little dielectric grease as I go. Tomorrow’s goal is to continue to string all of the various branches of the loom back where they belong and to clean and paint some brackets. Horn brackets, charcoal canister bracket, radiator core support brackets and probably some others that need to be cleaned, sanded and painted. Like I said, someday I’ll get to the finish line…

Posted 2021-08-17 23:38:40 by John S

A Good Day Today

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 22:09:14 -0500

John S's Journal --

No commitments today so other than a good walk in the hills first thing this morning so plenty of time to get some stuff done. First up was removing the bonnet and I got my better half to help me with that. It was looking pretty funky with faded paint, missing liners and just needed a good cleaning to prep it for paint. Cooler weather today and a nice little breeze under the carport. Set up some fence boards on top of the utility trailer and laid down some spare carpet padding that was rolled up in the garage attic. I bounced back and forth between working on it and prepping and painting the gutters/channels on the wings and in front of the scuttle. Brushed on some of the Zero Rust primer that I’ve been using in the engine bay and while that was drying, I went at the bonnet. Wire brushing, sanding away the majority of the old adhesive until it was smooth enough for the Rustoleum etch primer. The rest of the underside got more attention since it is going to show so a good wipe down with acetone got rid of all the grime and actually lifted the color quite a bit. 400 grit over the whole underside to smooth it all out and then blew it down and wiped it off. I masked off around the perimeter where I wanted to blend in the new paint with the existing paint that wraps around from the topside. Got a good coat of the primer on and it should be ready for some color tomorrow. Weather is supposed to be nice and moderate and no commitments so all looks good. Pulled all of the masking tape and paper off the front of the car this evening and all of the shrink wrap from the loom to see how it all looks. Felt like Christmas morning. I’ve got a small section under the brake line distribution block that I wasn’t happy with so I need to touch it up. I must not have cleaned well enough and the paint was wrinkled so I scraped that away this morning and brushed on some of the Zero Rust. I’ve got some of the single stage left in the can from the first batch that I had mixed and put into aerosol cans so I’m going to brush that on tomorrow. It’s too tricky to spray under all of the brake lines so I think I can get it with the brush. All in all, a good day and closer to putting things back on.

<Before>	<After a wipe down with some acetone>	<Unwrapped and about 99% done with the painting in the engine bay>
<Etch primed and ready for some color>

Posted 2021-08-16 22:09:14 by John S