MGB Roadster

Well Ive decided to delve into the world of restoring cars, Ive chosen the MGB as my first project for a couple reasons one bieng that parts are abundant as well as peoples knowledge of them and there simple.

Plenty of rust and it needs a new boot floor so plenty of welding and spraying to be done.

Heres a few pics of its current state after a couple days work on it.

Nice to see it from day 1 so to speak, hope you keep a running post going.

I once owned a MGB GT, the chrome bumper and wire wheels model, it was a great car to drive, not actually fast but just good basic fun, was a right sod for raining in though, think it was something to do with the drains or lack of drains below the grill just in front of the windscreen

I would love to restore one over the Winter months but it would mean tying my workshop space up too much..good luck and maybe next summer you will be blasting the A roads with that nice MG sound from the exhaust.

I'd stick a Rover V8 in it.

Howard

I found Mark Evans' DVD An MG is Born to be very informative and watchable. He restores a roadster but the repairs to the sills etc would be common and a great help. If it's your first restoration, I'd track down a copy (Amazon sell it as does his website markevans.co.uk.

Good luck with the project - it'll keep you busy for a while!

Thanks guys will check out the dvd, would love to put a v8 in there but this job is about making money not for my own pleasure, at the moment its a hard task but ill keep at it.

howardm said:

I'd stick a Rover V8 in it.

Howard

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Boring. The Costello and factory V8s aren't that good in reality.

Put a NASP T-Series in. Lineal descendant of the B-Series via O-Series and M-Series (and Perkins Prima) and a direct bolt in replacement.
No monocoque modifications required at all, so entirely legal wrt IVA. For the MG purists it is entirely reversible if required.
Bolts straight up to engine mounts, gearbox, etc. A few Sherpa bits make it easy, but you can fabricate your way around that. Needs a remote oil filter conversion too.
If you can find the Sherpa bits can upgrade to LT77 or R380 gearbox as the V8 boys usually do..
Virtually all spanner work except TIGing up the inlet plenum to move the throttle body from rear to front of the engine - or source a Discovery MPi plenum.
140bhp out of the box is more than enough for MGB underpinnings and as much as the V8s of the era - and it's considerably lighter.
If you want to go mad later upgrade to a turbo version - 180-200 bhp depending on version.
Been done a few times, also there was at least one MGA and one Marina kicking around - and of course THAT Land Rover.
Lots of tales around that upgrading the MGB to O-Series was an aborted BL development.

http://www.aronline.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=10450&start=0

http://www.kewengineering.co.uk/upgrades4mgs/Engines/fitting_the_t_series.htm This one shows Ollie's somewhat ratty turbo version

Looks like an interesting project. A couple of pals are working on these at the moment too, how are the sills?

RTspray said:

Thanks guys will check out the dvd, would love to put a v8 in there but this job is about making money not for my own pleasure, at the moment its a hard task but ill keep at it.

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Is that really possible? considering time, parts, paint and the fact the present economy has dropped the price of the common range of classics, there seems to be a lot of MG's around at not a lot of money.

Mark evans is a bit of a Div in my opinon, One minute hes deadly serious setting up the door gap, next thing hes got a bucket over his head? Also he likes cleaning things in the "heres one I did earlier" fashion,constantly pops up from behind the car with a funny (to him) face and it all seems to be filmed on a camera phone,Although what was I expecting from a TV Vet.

Although To be fair theres a lot of handy tips to be had from it

Bit of an update, as previously mentioned plenty of welding to do. Getting my rotating spit tomorrow so will post the pics when its on.

To be fair, that doesn't look too bad at all as B's go. Maybe the pictures flatter it some? Or perhaps it really is that solid?
Have to agree with cumbriasteve though, I would have thought the potential for profit would be very limited.

Oh yer its solid enough, the bootlid, bonnet, doors and wings are all in damn good condition as well as the roof. The sills dont need too much work either. Profit is going to be diffacult I agree I would at least expect what I pay back, determination is the key

david500 said:

Mark evans is a bit of a Div in my opinon, One minute hes deadly serious setting up the door gap, next thing hes got a bucket over his head? Also he likes cleaning things in the "heres one I did earlier" fashion,constantly pops up from behind the car with a funny (to him) face and it all seems to be filmed on a camera phone,Although what was I expecting from a TV Vet.

Although To be fair theres a lot of handy tips to be had from it

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agreed!

All the handy tips are from his mechanic Les, who does know what he is on about. Evans himself is a bodger.

Some of the body repairs Evans did on that MG were appalling! The rear wheel arches were a mess of spot and lap welded patches from cut up heritage panels by the time they had finished. OK to use parts of a repair panel, but if you buy quality body panels- why not do it properly accurately cut out the rust and butt weld them in?? I expect that area in the finished MG is a lovely rust sandwich by now if subsequent owners have driven the car in the rain. Well done Mark Evans!

And why did he glue the rear 1/4 on????? I'm sure MG never did that in the factory, more bodges....

The rest of the repairs were glossed over in between the inane "humor", perhaps to distract again from the poor quality of the body repairs.

However, Les and his tools to do seemingly impossible jobs were brilliant. An MG is born should have sacked Evans and the stupid director and just featured Les working.

Chickenjohn said:

An MG is born should have sacked Evans

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I believe it's his production company. Anyway, you can't please everyone; I find him very watchable, enthusiastic and quite knowledgable - I take most advice with a grain of salt anyway. You'll never get three sheddies to agree on anything so it's no wonder there's dissent about Mark Evans.

I believe he glued the wing on because he couldn't get his spot welder in and also because it showed another technique. When MG are building the shells, they obviously have better access depending on how the shell is built up. But I agree on the repairs to the inner wheel arch. Overall I think his programmes have merit.

Update*** Just started grinding away at some of the dodgy welding and paint and almost got the rollover spit on as had a few problems with it due to it bieng made for the gt which apparently is slightly different in size. will post some pics up when i get the chance.

Angusdog said:

I believe it's his production company. Anyway, you can't please everyone; I find him very watchable, enthusiastic and quite knowledgable - I take most advice with a grain of salt anyway. You'll never get three sheddies to agree on anything so it's no wonder there's dissent about Mark Evans.

I believe he glued the wing on because he couldn't get his spot welder in and also because it showed another technique. When MG are building the shells, they obviously have better access depending on how the shell is built up. But I agree on the repairs to the inner wheel arch. Overall I think his programmes have merit.

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I know evans was caught out on the triumph bonneville dvd he "did" , he did none of the work ,apparently the work is done by others and he merely stands in for the actual camera shots, why bother ,rubbish.

As well as putting it on the spit I would brace the door openings as well.
This can be done by tack welding a length of angle iron across the inner face of the door opening. If you put it there you can still have the doors on if you wish.

Updates
On the spit








Be kind as this is my first propper go at welding, also the pics dont really do it any justice (thats my excuse anyway)
The borrowed welder.

First go


Second time round


Another piece to be added




Getting used to using it now I know the general welding is to brilliant as I was struggling to get the power right, seems to be a fine line between blowing holes through it and having to much on top.




A couple of bits ready for sandblasting and painting

Not giving it an acid bath? What would the pros and cons be of having this done? Apart from cost obviously.

We all love pics keep them coming.

As for the 'evans debate' i find it humourous to watch. Not much good as an instructional DVD tho'. Better off watching Ed China off wheeler dealers for that i reckon.

Keep up the good work!

Nice Project it looks in reasonable shape to begin.
I'm on my second time round with my MGB GT which I have owned for about 9 years,
You can soon eat up £4,000 to £6000 on these projects so to have a car worth £6,000 people will be looking for more new panels and less patches. Worth bearing it in mind if its about profit.

My mistake was to get side tracked with minor jobs rather than getting on with the structural stuff. Learn't that lesson and cracking on now

Im half way through my first sill change which is going well so far but have decided to change out the splash guard fixing panel at the same time. Should arrive tommorow to get things rolling again

I agree the spares support for MGB's is fantastic. Theres also plenty of of second hand bits on the auction sites.

There are some good blogs out there as well.

Best of luck Keep posting