Long Time Gone, this TF's been off the road since '66

We’ve had an awful run of MG’s this winter, virtually all these posts have featured them.  We have a few Jaguars up our sleeve, too, or perhaps more accurately, waiting in the barn, but we like MG’s and they are perhaps the “sine qua non” for understanding the zen aspects of british sports cars.  

  This particular MG, a TF 1500, last turned a wheel in 1965 or 1966 when a connecting rod started knocking, again, most likely as the result of a bodged  earlier repair.  In any event we were able to salvage the connecting rod, and Gary at Manchester Engine Rebuilders, working closely with his master crank-man Tony, was able to save the crank by welding the #3 con-rod journal with the end result being a .010″, .010″ crankshaft.  Other than that, it’s the same old, same old careful fit up & assembly, running a +.040″ overbore and a slightly juiced cam.

David installs a reground camshaf

The owner of this car has been keeping faith with it since the ’50’s became the ’60’s.  

Timing the TF camshaft, it's installed about 4 degrees advanced

Here’s a picture of the process of installing the camshaft in the optimum position for good running, which according to the cam grinder is 4 degrees advanced from a split overlap.  Split overlap being the condition where the intake & exhaust opening & closing events are evenly distributed around top and bottom dead center.  As a rough rule of thumb (sorry I know that’s not a P.C. expression), a camshaft installed advanced, i.e. with the intake open farther at TDC, will start to produce its power lower down the rpm range, just what you want on the street, really, whereas a cam installed retarded (with the exhaust open farther at TDC) shifts the peak power band farther up the rpm range, sometimes useful for racing.  

TF 1500 engine with final coat of paint & TC valve cover

We always paint all the major parts before we start assembly, and apply the final paint once the engine is completely assembled.  In this picture you can see our MG TC paint mask valve cover and the thermostat housing turned backwards to get paint where it usually aint’.  Not so obvious is the lockwire on the external  camshaft staking bolts and the center hold down bolts on the oil pump.  

  Perhaps later we’ll be able to post up video shot with John’s iPhone of this car running around the yard under its own power for the first time in 45 years.

  The automotive journalist and former race driver Denise McCluggage has written about taking her MG TC to Vermont in the winter to go skiing.  Cor’ Blimey, what a feat in a car which pre-dated the in-dash heater !   By contrast, this writer simply keeps an MGB GT with four studded snow tires at the ready during the winter months.

First Blue GT at Abingdon Spares

What you can do with $50.00 and a set of used winter tires from a Saab 99.  This photo was taken in front of Abingdon Spares the “T” series MG parts house in Walpole, N.H. just across the river from Westminster, Vt.  A frequent winter destination. 

  Forget the old wive’s tales about parking them for the winter.  This GT was a reliable starter right down to -20 F. It was featured in the “Drivable Dream” section of the June ’07 issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotics, although it was retired shortly thereafter when then associate editor Dave LaChance put both his feet thru the passenger floor.  

Hemmings Journalist Dave LaChance plies his trade

These cars are massively strong and are safe even when extensively rusted. The point of “no return” is easily measured on the tourers by inserting a quarter in the bottom of the door gap at the back and seeing if you can run it straight thru to the top.  If it stops around the side molding it means the car is starting to fold, not a problem with GT’s but when the floors go south,  you can end up with frost bitten feet on a really cold day.  

Last Roundup

By the time this picture was taken, the much lamented $50.00 GT had become an organ donor (engine) for the much spiffier , but unfortunately pre-molested, blue GT #2.  It even has a Webasto sunroof, never opened except on the roughest of roads.

blue GT #2 after heart transplant

In this picture the Webasto sunroofed follow-on blue GT has just received the engine from the original blue GT.  

  These cars are true work-aholics.  The old  advertising slogan “You Can Do It In An MG” was never more true, Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones did.

Tire Transporter

There is simply no end to the usefulness of the rear hatchback on these cars.  It’s easy to move a complete set of Jaguar wheels & tires to the tire shop with a little ingenuity.

  While maybe it’s not as toasty warm as your Volvo, and on some days it’s not warm at all (wear wool), an MGB GT with four studded tires is still a panic to drive even on snow covered roads.

The View From Here

For more information about the suitablilty of MG’s for winter driving, contact us.

   This MGC GT wears the rather unusual, but authentic “Black Tulip” livery, although we just call it “purple”.  It’s a factory color. The MGC certainly among the rarest and most unique of the post-war MG’s.  We like ’em quite a lot, and although they were a horrible sales flop on which the British Motor Corporation almost certainly took a pretty good bath, there are a number of redeeming features if you have the patience to tease them out.

  Envisioned as a replacement for the Austin Healey 3000 by BMC, they lacked both the straight line performance and the charisma of the Big Healeys.  Well there’s probably not much to be done in the charisma department, but the lack of get up and go is certainly an irony because both engines have identical bore & stroke, even though the MGC carries seven main bearings as compared to the Healey’s four.  As a result, not much interchanges between these two engines apart from the thrust washers.  

uprated MGC engine installed

  By virtue of the seven main bearing design where every connecting rod throw has a main bearing on each side, this engine has a massively rigid lower end, even though the MGC is actually about 3/4 of an inch shorter in overall length.  As an example of bottom line outcomes, we put one of these engines together a few years back which dyno’d at 172 bhp and 205 ft. lbs. of torque at 5,000 rpm.  In practice, it’ll run away from a series 2 E-type.  

  The other big “tune-able” is the torsion bar front suspension.  Simply replacing the standard suspension bushings with urethane and adding wider tires has an equally startling effect on the handling.  At speeds over 100 mph it’s comfortingly sure footed in a way that a Big Healey, Triumph or an MGB never was.

Warner installs trim

We’re putting this car together from a bare shell.  It’s a stunningly rust free California car, although there is evidence of some blunt trauma injuries that could have been repaired better.  In this picture Warner is installing the buttons which hold the side molding on.  This operation was somewhat complicated by the careless prior removal of the old buttons by a “technician” who couldn’t be bothered to use the right size drill.  Warner had to open out the new buttons, not easy, and then anchor the hold down rivets with stainless steel washer on the back.

drilling the button

  What isn’t quite as obvious is the small dab of WAXOYL rust proofing on both sides of the panel to protect against possibility of rust creeping out from any paint cracks which can occur from the compression of the rivet as it expands to fill the hole.  This is an example of working to Sports Car Services standards.  Good Enough might be good enough elsewhere, but it isn’t always good enough here.

  A brief digression, if you will about bolts & nuts and rivets.  A nut and bolt work in a state of tension, the stretching of the threads of the fastener, which is why sometimes we use a torque wrench, in order to precisely measure that stretch.  A rivet, on the other hand, works in compression, and because of this property, a rivet can actually be used to fasten two objects together where the holes don’t exactly line up.  

  We’re hoping to be able to get this car out onthe road and put it thru its paces when the weather breaks again.  If you’re thinking about what you’d like to do with your car, now would be a very good time to get in touch with us.