OUR CLASSICS
Having failed to get his Beta-engined ’B to anniversary celebrations last year, John is pleased to be making progress with its revival
1971 MGB ROADSTER (LANCIA 2.0-LITRE TWIN CAM)
I had got the MGB-eta running and moving a few feet up and down my drive, which was a good start after three years or more in storage but with MGB 60 looming I did what I always do with project cars and began writing a list of the jobs that needed doing.
I prioritised things that were needed for the MoT (I won’t use a classic without an MoT – it’s just plain daft) and ended up with three A4 pages! Some were minor and easily sorted, such as getting all of the lights to work (a matter of bulbs and fuses), changing the oil plus inspecting the seatbelts that were damaged and frayed.
I went through the entire electrical system and found only one weird anomaly – a wire that appears to bypass the heater wiring for another wire on a Scotchlock (a wiring component that always makes me shudder) and is cable tied to the wire that it follows into the heater motor.
At this point I went through the rest of the electrical system, fitted a few new connectors and some bits of heat shrink insulation and unplugged this confusing wire as it just seemed a puzzle too far. I’ll come back to that if I need to.
The next thing I was keen to do was to check that the period Compomotive aftermarket MGB cross-spoke wheels that I’d found online fitted and looked right – happily it was a ‘yes’ on both counts. They are rather shabby though refurbishment can wait until time and money allow; it can run on wheels borrowed from my other MGB in the short term.
Another small puzzle was getting the rear-view mirror that a bodyshop had removed to go back onto its ball mount. I removed the stalk from the screen bracket and then dismantled the whole thing.
After some struggling and swearing my old mate (and Triumph Herald owner) Steve suggested putting the mirror clip into very hot water to try and expand it. That worked a treat and it just popped together while Steve was simultaneously trying to push it hard without burning his fingers. We then re-assembled it and fitted it to the car. Two down, 46 to go.
I then needed to mount the passenger seat and realised that there was rust in the nearside floorpan. Steve helped me to scrub it down with a wire brush and paint it with black Hammerite.
I fitted some Dynamat sound deadening material a few days later having resolved to do this car properly or not at all. Brakes next. The car had been filled with silicon fluid many years ago and this had shown its value because there was no loss of fluid a
