Almost ready for assembly
Lots going on this week, not all of which will get covered here right now.
Jay from Windham Coach & Carriage called up this morning for an on-site consultation about the series 1 OTS which is pictured here. Luckily I had the camera in my pocket, even if the lighting was less than ideal. The color, in Spies Hecker, is enough to take your breath away. This is a car which we’ll have delivered to the shop via enclosed transport, and the next-up item on the Agenda was a telephone consultation with our man Mike Savage about how to tie down a car with no suspension in it.
Derek from Rods Towing ties down an MGB
Here’s an atypical scene: Rod’s Towing & Repair of Putney making ready to take a car out of here. Usually they’re busy bringing them in. Derek Winchester has just gotten done loading the car, and if you enlarge the picture you can see that he’s used his nylon tie downs around the wheels, which is why we love them so much. Every time a towing service shows up her with the “J” hooks over the rear axle we cringe because we know we’re gonna have to replace the rear brake pipes as well as fix whatever went wrong with the car. A little extra attention, as seen here, goes a long way.
Two MGB clutch hoses
Rod’s brought this MGB in on Tuesday after the clutch hydraulics stopped working, which was attributable to clutch master cylinder failure. At first Butch and I tried to just bleed it off, unsuccessfully, and the large amount of black debris coming thru the bleed hose was quite remarkable.
So I changed out the clutch master & hose, and also re-kitted the slave cylinder. Access to the clamping nut on the clutch hose on later MGB’s is gained by removing the starter,
Starter In
Starter out
and access to get the starter out of the car is gained by removing the distributor. It’s somewhat time consuming, which is why 40 years later it was still the original clutch hose. Enlarge these pictures for a better view.
Back to the picture of the clutch hoses, those small black chunks in the foreground are the inner lining of the clutch hose in the lower part of the picture. The other hose came out of another MGB a couple of weeks ago because pushing in the clutch pedal caused it to blow up like a balloon !
Using the sun to stretch a top
The top on this red series 2 E-type hadn’t been up in years and it was a little reluctant to unfurl itself, which is why it’s parked outside on a sunny day. Because Butch spent part of the afternoon putting a gear reduction starter in a series 1 3.8 car we can safely say we’ve had more contact this week with the mighty E-type than the immortal MGB.
Still sitting on the trailer, and lined up for next week, is something really interesting that those of you who were at the British Invasion of Stowe last weekend probably spent some time admiring. Stay tuned !
