Revival of an Old Friend Part 10 – the last chapter or is it?
Roger Parker concludes the story behind the build of his fuel injection V8 MGB
Part 10 – the last chapter or is it?
Painting
Originally the MGB came out of Abingdon in dark British Racing Green (GN29, I can sometimes agree with the expression that BRG means Boring Ruddy Green) and over the years I have repainted this car several times in dreadful conditions. Witness a green driveway and even cellulose green grass! As the main reason for starting what had become an epic task was to improve the cosmetic aspects of the car, it seemed wholly logical to have the car professionally prepared and painted. Great plan, and did things go according to plan? Err no.
Firstly all of the bodywork changes were completed, they included the dry fit of the engine and gearbox, steering and front crossmember. The car was left stripped but as a rolling shell with the ‘patented’ Reliant Robin three wheel configuration to aid mobility before it was collected to go to a particular body shop.
Everything started just right with the car in the hands of a bodyshop whose owner I knew well, and whom I had assisted by fitting a car of his with a V8 and appropriate gearbox. My paint job was a ‘barter’ and ‘wheels within wheels’ arrangement, which sometimes works very well and sometimes doesn’t. On this occasion the body preparation was fine all the way up to primer coats, but during this period the owner of the bodyshop contracted a serious paint related illness that could have proved fatal if he remained exposed to the materials in a bodyshop. Being isolated from something that you have been intimately involved with for so long and then being kept at arm’s length is a recipe for disaster, and that is just what happened.
In the mid 1980s grey herringbone trim was the in vogue MG trim colour. It does also offer the properties of Velcro, ideal for controlling driver movement in a performance car
Leather has of course been an MG material from time immemorial and in these reshaped seat frames and a typically neutral colour, they should be pleasing for at least another couple of decades
Imagine my concern when receiving a phone call from a friend on a Saturday afternoon saying that the bodyshop company had gone to the wall and that bailiffs were due in first thing Monday to secure the premises and everything inside. The prospect of having to negotiate with bailiffs and administrators to obtain the return of my car and then trying to come to some form of agreement as to the work done and what debts would be owed to me and the company didn’t fill me with enthusiasm. However, it did fire me with energy, so first thing on Monday the phone was red hot to hire a trailer and borrow a car to tow it. Gordon Love Trailers in Birmingham and a pal’s 240 Volvo came to the rescue very quickly.
Making a phone call to one of the soon to be unemployed lads at the bodyshop saved some time as he was able to extract the car from behind several others and position it ready for simple loading. Arriving at the bodyshop just after 9am and the car was quickly hauled onto the trailer and tied down. Being parked on the public road when the bailiffs arrived within ten minutes of securing the car, allowed the first cup of tea of the day to be enjoyed but also meant it was downhill all the way home.
The premature return of the car in just a couple of thin topcoats presented another problem of how best to finish the job. Someone I knew recently had a respray done with a local outfit at a good price and with a very acceptable finish so I decided to entrust the job to them. The finished article was certainly very striking, now in my latest choice of green, Skoda green, this being the dark metallic green that is quite popular on many recent Skoda and other VAG group cars. Telling people it was Skoda Green was intended as a ‘wind up’, but Skoda is a strong brand today and no longer the subject for cheap jokes.
In the several years since the paintwork was finished it has not stood up well, with several areas flaking while others show paint reactions, which when it started was really depressing, then you look in the mirror and say to yourself ‘you know there isn’t a short cut to a good finish other than to choose an established and excellent paint shop and start again’.
The problems are relatively small and probably can’t be seen on the photos but they are large sores to me and in time I will look to go the whole hog and try again. At least the extensive preparatory work, getting the panel and door alignments right last time around, will pay dividends next time.
Interior
This is the one area that still has some finishing touches required, the idea was to have a sharp contrast of black and a very light colour. The dash demonstrated this with the magnolia faces and black plastic facia and if I do add a wood dash covering it will be the very dark one.
Skoda Green paint works well and also why change from a perfectly good condition original hood, even if it dates from 1973?
Top down is how this car spends its life except when parked in the open
This view of the MGB certainly does not date it as a 45 year old design
When the MGR V8 first came out I was always impressed by the quality and feel of its steering wheel, so at the first opportunity I bought one, knowing that its spline was compatible with my late MGB column. It was certainly on a different level to the cheesy cheap leather rimmed thing I had for some reason fitted and lived with for so long.
This and the late type indicator and wiper controls on the column stalks, plus light switch on the cowl, provide one of the marked advantages in the later control layout being much better placed and easier to use. Although indicator on the right rather then the common left still means the occasional right indication with the wipers.
Originally my car came with the standard thick heavy duty MG black leather non recliner seats, tunnel carpets and rubber floor and sill mats, standard on any 1968 MGB. By the time I bought the car in 1973 with 45,000 miles the driver’s side floor and sill mats were wearing through, but the rest of the interior was fine. I didn’t change to a full carpet set until 1981 after the major body rebuild, but one change that I did in 1974 which had a big impact on the interior was to renew the hood for a white one. Not my choice for today, but it was striking and different in the 1970s and gave a quite surprising degree of extra light inside the car. Incidentally I reverted to a black hood in 1991.
Driving pleasure and acceptable cosmetics was the best way of describing my view to trim during the early1980s and reflected the need to aim what little money was available at more effective aspects. Whilst the full body rebuild had forced the need for a new carpet set there was little other change, at least not until the arrival of the V8, other than using 1969 leather recliners from a GT I broke for spares.
How long can your rebuild take? This is my son, Matt before I started on the rebuild…
…and here he is after it had been finished when he had already become an MOT tester and fully qualified motor engineer
The massive increase in performance the V8 delivered highlighted an often overlooked problem. This was with the seats and specifically in the fact that a standard MGB leather seat is fairly flat in profile, even with the static seat belts, which hold you much better than inertia belts, you find your backside sliding far too easily, not good for fine vehicle control.
The direct consequence of this shortcoming was to change to cloth covered seats, not any standard MGB seat materials, but an opportunity arose to have the seats re-trimmed in the velour and course cloth herringbone patterned material as used on the first couple of years’ production of the MG Metro and MG Maestro 1600. This early material had been dropped by late 1984 and so excess materials had started to filter out. The coarse herringbone material was fitted in the seat centres and was fantastic at acting as a Velcro pad on your clothes and helping to compensate for the flat MGB seat profile. With the static belts it made for a perfectly acceptable method of driver and passenger security, even though the seat remains quite flat in profile and offered little additional support. The rest of the interior trim was also trimmed out in the grey theme, which was of course the 1980s MG colour scheme.
By the time the current rebuild was nearing completion two considerations arose. One was that the 1980s grey trim was, well 1980s, and looked tired for that reason alone. So time for another change, this led to the idea of taking advantage of some of the many new products that had arrived in the long period since the grey trim was fitted, including new seat frames with a more supportive shape and the return to leather. The seats and interior liners being covered in a cream coloured leather, which contrasted with the new black carpet and black dash and provides something of a contemporary look.
In addition the original seat belts, still with the BMC rosette stickers on the lap belt clasps, were showing slight fraying and at well over 30 years of age was deemed to old to reuse. Static belts were again chosen for the benefits of being able to be pulled tight and holding you in the seat more securely than any standard inertia belt. This being far more important than the cosmetic problems of keeping the belts tidy.
Summary
I have prepared my car for just one person, that’s me, with no real consideration to whether others will like it. After all I bought this car back on 24th August 1973, so I rather doubt it would be up for sale in the foreseeable future, plus it is earmarked for my son. It is very far from perfect and there are thousands of other cars, professionally and personally built that are better finished, and many of their owners would say better altogether. This is of no consequence of course since my car is for my individual pleasure and it is a real bonus when others also say they like it and ask how I have done various modifications. I am delighted to tell them but also stress that there is always more than a single route to achieve any given goal, and that the route I have followed is not always the best one, as I have mentioned several times in the forgoing chapters.
There is considerable pleasure in such a project and the very fact that over 35 years after buying the car it not only remains with me, but also still gives great pleasure and remains practical to use in today’s traffic conditions is something that reflects the individual attraction of MG. I wonder if in another 30 years time I can report on the fitting of a flight module and a description on how the flux capacitor works?