Reilly helps Patrick with his hard top
The cold weather hasn’t loosened its grip just yet. For better than a week the temperature has been hovering in a range of ten below zero to ten above. In the shop it’s been a comfortable 48 degrees (F.) most of the time. If you dress appropriately, and keep your tools near the heat sources, it’s a zen-like situation.
News came back from B&R’s Garage about the TR3 radiator. Once Rodney had flushed a river of silt out of it, there wasn’t much to keep water in it, so he installed a new radiator core without a central hand crank hole. A hand crank is great for setting valve clearances, but what you give up in convenience you more than gain back by the additional tubes which run all the way from the top to the bottom of the core.
A blue Koni with a bad bushing
The owner of the ’63 E-type on which we recently overhauled the IRS had asked us to look for a persistent clunk from the right front. In the course of replacing the torn tie rod end and ball joint boots (as well as the lower ball joints as it turned out), Patrick found his clunk. It was only upon much closer examination that we discovered the these blue shocks are actually Koni’s.
Not an E-type
Nothing wrong with that, I suppose. New bushings are on order and we’ll do both front shocks, as the back of the car got a set of Koni’s when the IRS was apart.
While Butch was waiting on the TR3 radiator, we decided to push this forelorn-looking MGB into the shop and put an engine in it and get it running. Because the clutch was beyond toasted (it took the flywheel with it. too), an exchange flywheel and a new Borg & Beck clutch is where we decided to start.
Meanwhile, if you’re around Key West, Florida this week, keep an eye out for a green MGB with Vermont tags, because Patrick put the hard top on Saturday afternoon and made good on his escape.
