The GT left today on its journey to the Finger Lakes region of New York state, where it will live with its new caretaker. (The car was actually sold a month or so ago, but I had a few things to take care of and transport had to be arranged, but it’s gone now.)

This is a very nice machine; I’m sorry to see it go. I hope the new owner is happy with the car–long distance sales are tough. I have high standards and try to describe things accurately, but it’s difficult to tell what other folks may be happy with and what they might find disappointing. Hopefully lots of the former and not much of the latter, in this case!

I have the GT on eBay at the moment, moving it would be very helpful to seriously get the E-Type restoration moving again, sadly. I’m not sure eBay is the right venue, but it’s worth a shot, eh? You can see the auction here.

The BSA took first place…out of two bikes. Can’t say I’m proud of that one. The GT, which took third last year when entered in the wrong category (MGB roadsters), this year was entered in the right category–and failed to place, out of eight GTs entered. It’s the curse of “shiny primer” and red wheels, by gum.

In addition, several tappets and the rocker shaft were pretty well worn, as was the timing chain tensioner. The block had never been bored, so it’s now .020 over, and the camshaft is new. The crank had to be straightened as well. (The only “performance” modification we did was to lighten the flywheel.)

Engine runs really well, but I’m now convinced I’ve never rebuilt the carbs that are on the car, so I’ll be doing those. I need to dial in the timing as well, as I think it could use a bit more advance. I desperately need to align the front wheels after the suspension rebuild, I’m going to make a jig to do that this weekend.

The gearbox rear mount is an amusing monkey-puzzle on GTs. There are half dozen pieces, all with several fasteners, and I found it wouldn’t all go together unless you left some half-tightened and others off until the Magical Combination was achieved.

Nearly everything (exhaust aside) is buttoned-up below the car, with the exception of the wire from the firewall to the overdrive cut-out switch. Had I been smart, I would have put this on before raising the transmission into place…but I think I can juuuust reach it. We’ll see.

Update: I ordered a Tourist Trophy system from Moss for $270, which isn’t peanuts, but much better than I was expecting. Won’t be here until next week, I’d imagine.

The front suspension is done, awaiting lowering to the ground to tighten the A-arm nuts and pin them. I also need to bleed the brakes–Mrs. Rusty Heaps has agreed to help. (Don’t be surprised to read about a divorce in this space shortly thereafter!)

I went with MGB V8 bushings in the A-arms, and while you can see the weathered heads of the original fasteners here and there, all the wearing bits are new. The kingpins were perfectly fine. I still need to refill the steering rack (it didn’t have a drop of oil in it due to two split boots), come to think of it.

The engine is back from the machine shop…it was pricey (for me, anyway!), but it definitely needed a rebuild. I’ll show you the worn pieces in another post later this week. It’s unpainted as I saved a bit of money that way, and I have the right paint on hand.

I had hoped to accomplish more this weekend but I had a diverticulitis flare-up today, and that knocked me cold. But hopefully sometime later this week the car will be back on its feet and running again.

I think this is an improvement, though it’s best not to look too closely at some of the details. (I have no budget or time for having the fasteners plated, etc, so opted for some copy-cad paint where appropriate and called it a day.) You can see the exterior base/clear grey is slightly different than the single-stage grey I used to touch up the inner fenders and such…but it’s not as apparent in person, and once the engine, carbs and radiator are in it will be pretty hard to tell. Not to mention a summer’s driving will have made it dusty and oily enough to make all subtle differences moot!

The original harness was perfectly fine mechanically, but the cotton cover had dissolved. I re-wrapped it in cloth-based taped and while it’s not original it looks a lot better than it did. I had an original square-bodied brake master cylinder (which I rebuilt) to substitute for the plastic-reservoir version which is all you can buy these days, so that’s a bit more proper.

Removing the heater box to clean it up a bit required disassembling some of the interior. This prompted me to paint the vinyl panel behind the speaker console to match the rest of the interior, and I replaced the control cable to the heater valve. Is there anything more fun than working under a dashboard?

The “optional” engine rebuild turns out to have been a good thing–one of the bearings was spun and there was other wear-related damage inside. The mill got a complete rebuild, including a lightened flywheel, as a cost of roughly twice what I had budgeted, which couldn’t have been timed worse. Le sigh. I’ve also rebuilt the rear brakes, put new flex hoses all the way around, and am almost done rebuilding the front suspension with V8 bushings.

I am not impressed with the work done on the car by the shop the previous owner last took the car to; I hope he wasn’t charged much because a lot of it is pretty feeble. One item I still need to correct is the cable that runs between the two batteries; it should run in a conduit to prevent it from wearing through its insulation as the car rattles down the road, and for reasons unknown the conduit is missing. A short in that cable would be massive and definitely not on a list of “good things.”

Final item in this go-round will be to get a new speedometer. Mine was packed-in and while I peeked inside to see if there was anything I could tackle I think I’m stymied.

In any case, this will, indeed, be a fully restored MGB GT when it’s back on the road yet again. Hopefully before July, but if not, very shortly thereafter. The engine is done and waiting for me at the machine shop.

I’m still waiting for my friends at the machine shop to get to my engine, so I’ve been slowly working on the myriad other MGB GT tasks underway. I’ve been concentrating on detailing the engine bay, though “detailing” in this case is code for “make it look a bit less shabby.” Wrenches have also been twirling on a front suspension rebuild, new rear brakes, and various other small fixes. I’ll post a more detailed post (or posts) once I’ve made some real progress–in the meantime, I give you this photo. Click for a larger view on Flickr.