1971 MGB GT - Been shopping, budget smashed - see page 13

9,566 · October 16

15 minutes ago, chadders said:

Is that a non standard variable pitch fan?

Don’t know.

Any MGB experts in da house?

3,671 · October 16

4,220 · October 16

You can tell if the blades bend backwards a bit.

They were meant to change pitch, the faster you went the pitch was less.

I've got one in the garage but replaced it with a Kenlowe as my daily commute of about 25 miles return was pretty much urban.

9,566 · October 16

Mine:

4,220 · October 16

Looking at that pic the blades seem firmly fixed.

Maybe it was and the hinges failed so it was then solidly riveted, the blades certainly look like the ones on my VP fan.

1,823 · October 16

Is that an optical illusion or is there a hole in your thermostat housing?

I would love to say that you definitely have the correct fan for the year of car but my B knowledge has failed me on this point!

8,901 · October 16

7 minutes ago, Marina door handles said:

Is that an optical illusion or is there a hole in your thermostat housing?

I would love to say that you definitely have the correct fan for the year of car but my B knowledge has failed me on this point!

The fans correct, I've the seen the same on one of my MGB's (cannot remember which of the three, currently two) I've owned.

That does look like an Oh Fuck on the thermostat housing.

9,566 · October 16

Well spotted gents. I broke the thermostat housing whilst trying to remove it. Not to worry, a new one is £15.

1,823 · October 16

41 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Well spotted gents. I broke the thermostat housing whilst trying to remove it. Not to worry, a new one is £15.

Oooft that much? Nearly as costly as a bucket seat!

9,566 · October 17

Logbook arrived today, which is great news.

Yep, I’m owner number 10. Could be worse, considering that the MG is almost 54 years old.

9,566 · October 17

As I haven't insured the MG yet, I can't tax it, therefore, whilst I am tinkering with it, it will remain SORNed.

Good news is that the MG is already registered as historic under taxation class, therefore no need to make further applications and logbooks.

9,566 · October 18

Something occurred to me.

When I checked the MG's tax status a couple of days ago, I got this:

Does this mean the MG was taxed until the 18th September 2024? If it was taxed, it must have been insured at the time the tax was applied for. When I got the MG, it certainly didn't look like a car that has been driven in the past 12 months. Hmm.

Now that I've SORNed the MG, this comes up.

I note the SORN is permanent, with no expiry date. This backs up my theory that the MG was taxed until very recently.

In other news, I realised that I made a mistake spraying the radiator and the surround and the air filter covers. Once re-fitted, the shiny gloss bits would have looked odd within a tatty engine bay.

Luckily, I have another pair of tatty air filter covers, which I will re-fit.

I wire brushed the paint off the top of the radiator and surround. Much better, lovely patina.

Apologies for the cock up, won't happen again.

One thing that did need painting was the tailgate B and GT badges. The enamel has eroded away from inside both badges.

I applied black enamel paint into the grooves and wiped the excess and achieved a nice finish.

The windscreen washer plastic bottle has been wrapped with insulation tape. I thought it might have been bodged because it was cracked and leaking, however I filled the bottle with water, left it to stand and after over an hour I can't see any drips.

More in a couple of weeks.

36,369 · October 18

They go to untaxed state when "in the trade". I.e. the trader section has been filled in and submitted to the DVLA.

9,566 · October 19

11 hours ago, SiC said:

They go to untaxed state when "in the trade". I.e. the trader section has been filled in and submitted to the DVLA.

The V5 was misplaced so this couldn’t have happened.

2,907 · October 19

SORN ends when a car changes hands, in the same way as if it were taxed. The date showing when it was untaxed just reflects the date it changed hands/was processed by DVLA iirc.

9,566 · October 19

34 minutes ago, mrbenn said:

SORN ends when a car changes hands, in the same way as if it were taxed. The date showing when it was untaxed just reflects the date it changed hands/was processed by DVLA iirc.

The V5 was lost, so the DVLA couldn’t have been notified of the change of ownership.

2,907 · October 19

3 minutes ago, Peter C said:

The V5 was lost, so the DVLA couldn’t have been notified of the change of ownership.

But you would have given them the date that you acquired the vehicle on the V62?

9,566 · October 19

6 minutes ago, mrbenn said:

But you would have given them the date that you acquired the vehicle on the V62?

You are absolutely right, I didn’t think of that.

Thank you.

9,566 · November 2

I’m back from my holiday and will crack on with the MGB’s recommissioning as soon as possible.

To make room for the MGB in the workshop, I had to move my W123 into the garage, which meant that the Sierra had to be moved back out under the carport. Musical cars!

I bought a tarp from Lidl for a tenner, which I cut into two 5m x 2m pieces. I secured the side curtains to the carport frame with cable ties to create a more sheltered space for the Sierra to reside in over the next few months.

The sides and front gable are part open, as necessary to provide ventilation, to prevent condensation from occurring along the underside of the roof sheet.

I have moved the MGB’s bits into the spare garage.

There is a lot more space around the MGB in the workshop compared with what I had when I was tinkering with the Sierra.

More soon.

18,423 · November 2

On 17/10/2024 at 13:55, Peter C said:

Logbook arrived today, which is great news.

Yep, I’m owner number 10. Could be worse, considering that the MG is almost 54 years old.

it is worth noting that the keeper number only goes back to the date the vehicle was computerised with the DVLA (the buff logbook to V5 scheme stated on the 1st of October 1974 and ended on the 30th November 1983) the amount of keepers a vehicle had when on its buff logbook was not carried over, so older V5's up until sometime in the 2000's or 2010's used to explicitly mention the date of computerisation in the keeper change section for example in this picture note it says "number of keepers 4 since April 1977" that is to say to whoever was purchasing the vehicle etc that before this date it could of had a 100 other keepers

sadly for some reason the DVLA dropped this bit of info on more recent V5's I have always been meaning to try and find out if this info was dropped from more recent V5's because someone coding at the DVLA did not realise sugnifcance of it and dropped it on later forms/tables, or if the data itself (the date the vehicle record was itself setup) has actually sadly been dropped from all vehicle records at this point?

I do know that the DVLA do still to this day occasionally have old-old photocopies of vehicle buff logbooks, when helping a fellow Invacar owner get some extra details of said Invacar, we managed to get the DVLA to spit out a GDPR Censored copy of its old buff logbook which was quite neat

(and from that even tho censored you could use it to count how many keepers it had on the buff logbook)

your MGB being Devon registered means you could also likely see who its first keeper/owner was

9,566 · November 6

Right, I'm making a start on the MGB's recommissioning (not restoration).

As of this afternoon, I've got the MGB up in the air, safely located on axle stands.

The rust situation is as previously reported. Nothing major around the chassis rails, jacking points or suspension mounts, just a few localised holes within the front and rear arches.

Whilst on holiday, I did a lot of research about welding equipment, techniques, etc and I have decided that I am not in a position to learn this dark art just yet.

The cost of buying decent welding equipment is more than I am willing to pay for a one off repair to the MGB. My other cars don't need welding and I will have no use welding equipment once the MGB is back on the road - famous last words!

Based on what I paid to have my W124 welded about five years ago, I am not willing to spend what may well be a four figure sum to have the welding done by someone else.

I am reverting back to Plan A, which involves cutting out and tidying up the underside and covering up the rust holes with metal patches fixed with rivets.

I know all about how a monocoque works, I understand what I am doing is wrong in the eyes of ~~some~~ most people but I don't care. It's my car, my plan and I am sticking to it.

If you don't like what I am going to do, switch off, go and read someone else's post or if you feel that strongly, call me rude names and tell me that I will go to hell if I don't get the welding done. I really don't care.

I will be taking plenty of photographs of my work but I will not share them on this post as I don't want to cause any more controversy. I will share the photos when I come to sell the car, which might be in a few months, in a few years or never, who knows.

As matters stand, I have never driven an MGB and I don't know whether I will enjoy the experience, I don't know what else is wrong with my MGB and I don't want to spend thousands on fixing up this car if I can buy something else, another MGB, in better condition, for a sum of money that I can easily afford and save myself ~~days~~ months of inconvenience and pain.

If I spend £1k+ on the welding, add the purchase cost plus the cost of other repairs, I will be in too deep with this MGB and will make a loss if I decide to sell it. I would rather keep costs down to minimum, get the MGB back on the road, take matters further and spend more or cut my losses and buy something else. My plan is to keep the total project cost down to £2,500. If the MGB is back on the road, driving, stopping and steering, I will easily find a buyer for that money, even if I disclose the condition of the underside.

If you are still reading, I have acquired (free of charge) three large sections of 1mm steel sheets, which I will use to repair the rust holes. I will buy a metal hand cutting tool and a rivet gun and crack on with the repairs. The total cost of repairs will be less than £50.

Within the engine bay, to the front of the engine, a panel was dented and the paint was chipped. Perhaps a sign of previous engine removal?

I got a jack and a piece of wood underneath the panel and straightened it out.

I have professional masking off equipment.

The three brackets that extend to the front grille stick out like razor blades. I'm amazed that I haven't cut myself on them yet.

H&S first - I covered the brackets with gaffer tape.

Finally, I will spraying underseal on the underside of the MG and to prevent oily deposits from contaminating my garage floor (like they did when I was working on the Sierra), I will be covering the garage floor with plenty of cardboard.

More soon.

Tune in if you want to.

Don't. if I am making you uncomfortable.

10,239 · November 6

Most of the work on welding up holes is prepping the holes and the patches to go into them. Wouldn't it be worth doing the prep yourself and getting a mobile welder to do the seams around the edge?

11,281 · November 6

Safety First.....

Hammering along a leafy lane, enjoying the late summer evening >>> SUDDENLY 'Nuns & Kittens' moment 😲

I Vote = good brakes + good tyres + good suspension condition ✔️

Twopence worth of tin, attached robustly and efficiently keeping feet dry.... I'd roll in it 👍

🚙💨

9,566 · November 6

11 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Most of the work on welding up holes is prepping the holes and the patches to go into them. Wouldn't it be worth doing the prep yourself and getting a mobile welder to do the seams around the edge?

I don’t think so.

23,980 · November 6

Your choice and all that, in which case good luck…

But, just as a thought, have you considered those automotive grade adhesives they make now?
Some metal bodied cars are actually assembled with it and by all accounts it’s bloody strong stuff. I’ve never used it myself but I’m sure someone on here probably knows more about it than I do and could recommend a brand/type?

22,050 · November 6

20 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

But, just as a thought, have you considered those automotive grade adhesives they make now?
Some metal bodied cars are actually assembled with it and by all accounts it’s bloody strong stuff. I’ve never used it myself but I’m sure someone on here probably knows more about it than I do and could recommend a brand/type?

When not welding, I think this is a better idea than pop rivets and easier. Cut out the rust, paint the area and protect it properly and do the same with the plate that will cover and seal it properly so that moisture does not get in between. And this should work fine.

9,566 · November 6

@danthecapriman

@Dyslexic Viking

Sounds reasonable, thank you.

Could you please point me in the direction of a suitable adhesive?

2,819 · November 6

👏 Brilliant purchase

These are well on the WANT list.

Looking forward to reading any updates.

Just a quick question, instead of buying a welder etc, could one of us not loan you the use of one ?

22,050 · November 6

19 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Could you please point me in the direction of a suitable adhesive?

I don't know about any products but if you do some research you will probably find something.

Maybe this?

https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/b40066467/

Edited November 6 by Dyslexic Viking

9,566 · November 6

20 minutes ago, Minimad5 said:

Just a quick question, instead of buying a welder etc, could one of us not loan you the use of one ?

I wouldn’t know which button to press.

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