Happy 2012 from all of us (well, OK, me) at Rusty Heaps! I had to run to the store and as it wasn’t raining, I got out Reg the MGB today. The MG hadn’t been out in a few months and it was a blast to drive it again. It feels faster than the XJ6 (it’s almost certainly not) and is a lot more involving to drive.
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Here’s the inside of the shop, as you can see I haven’t done a whole lot with the organization of the space. (You can click for a larger image.)

I hope to build in some cabinets and what-not this winter, mainly on the wall where I have a couple of ancient Ferrari posters tacked up (I found a stash from ages ago…anyone for a 1980′s Testarossa poster? I managed to put that one back in the tube). I did get casters onto the metal work tables, they’re now handy for moving close to the action or allowing access to all sides of an unwieldy project.
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I took “Reg” the 1963 MGB across the pond to a business meeting on Saturday, and the car ran great, as usual. The only real issue recently has been the carburetor dashpot plungers unscrewing themselves every 20 miles or so…once they’ve come undone, the car doesn’t accelerate very well at all. The front carb is worse than the back, but they both do it. Very odd. I’m used some blue locktite to see if that helps, so far it seems to have done the trick, but it’s only been about 60 miles.

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The work on the shop is coming to a close, though it’s nowhere near “done”. However, I have too many other projects backed up, such as getting Reg the 1963 MGB back on the road after the fuel pump packed in last fall. Here I have the MGB on stands, ready to dive underneath and remove the offending component.
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It’s fairly surprising that there isn’t a contiguous pool of oil covering the floor entirely on this side of the new shop building, especially from the prodigiously leaking pair comprising the SD1 and Reg the MGB roadster. (The BSA leaks, but that doesn’t count; the GT doesn’t leak at all.)
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Sigh…still no shop (or even a garage) and many, many things with wheels (not all pictured). I’m thinking of selling the Ferguson–it seems pretty unlikely at this point that I’ll have a use for it…and it’s overkill for even an acre of lawn. Especially one you don’t want field-tire tracks in.

Time for another meeting, being the first Saturday of the month. Glorious weather brought out a bunch of cars–”European” in the “club” name is a suggestion only!
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Seeing as tomorrow is the monthly Whidbey get-together, and it’s going to be a nice day, I went and got the MGB out of storage and stuck the Miata in for a day or so. The fuel pump on the MGB is sticky, so it took awhile to get it going. I’ll put a new pump on later this year. (Famous last words!)

In one of those fortunate coincidences, a gentleman up in Anacortes was offering a set of good wire wheels with nearly new tires to fit an MGB on craigslist for $200, and since I desperately needed tires, I emailed as soon as I saw the ad. Fortunately, I was the first to be able to get to his house–the GT now has new boots.
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Time to put the stuff that corrodes easily away for the winter. A shot of the 1963 MGB last month, before I finally got around to mowing the field!