We finally got the cockpit trim pieces back from the trim guy, we are very happy with his work.
Installed the trim, put on turnbuckles for top into trim pieces, and we think we are done! Car runs great, no leaks, looks great. Ran to auto parts place in it today, had a hard time getting away with people asking about the car.
Here's some beauty shots taken across the street from the shop:
After the photo shoot we put the car into our "annex", a storage unit next door, until Dick returns from a trip, then the car moves to his house.
New windshield installed. We believe the old top frame member had a bend in the last four inches of the driver's side that caused the crack. Here's a picture of the new glass sitting inside the old top frame without any rubber packing and you can see the difference in curvature of the last four inches of the top versus the glass. Look at the bottom of the picture and you can see the outer surface of the glass as it relates to the frame:
We had also applied JB Weld 3 times to the block, slowed down the leak but was still there. So we bought some of this stuff:
The leakage rates slowed down even more after we put this leak repair stuff in the cooling system. The video in a prior post showed a leakage rate of about one drop every 2 seconds. We are now down to one drop forming after about one minute or so. We are hopeful that this will drop even lower.
Update - the leakage rate has dropped to zero! We are very happy with that. We also drained the coolant and replaced with fresh just in case the stop leak stuff could cause an issue with clogging the radiator.
Ray drove the car while I was gone on a 3 week trip. Coolant and oil leaks, plus a crack in the new windshield glass! Otherwise it runs well. So got some work to do.
Crack in the windshield we are pretty sure is due to a top frame that has too much curvature. Pictures below show how we compared the curvature on this car to Ray's MGA with a piece of plywood indexed off the convertible top posts:
We got a used top frame rom our used MGA parts guy and it better matches this car's curvature than Ray's! We also got new glass, it appears it will break if we install it with the used top frame when we lay the frame on the glass. So, we bent the used top frame flatter by hand and it looks like that will work! Now need to remove the windshield assembly, remove broken glass, bend this car's top frame flatter, then re-assemble with new glass.
Oil leak appears to be a loose fitting on the rear side of block, the large oil line that feeds the oil filter assembly. Removed all parts and re-assembled with new washers and tight fit on this fitting, should work now.
Coolant leak turns out to be a small crack in the block just above the distributor, between the second and third core plugs. Got a small video that depicts the rate of leak, which is pretty small:
This leak was there before and had been covered with a sealant, which has now failed. We cleaned up the area with a drimel and installed new JB Weld, two applications. Hopefully this solves the problem!
Last we installed the new top. We think it turned out pretty good:
Finishing windshield and installation of cockpit trim are remaining steps. We have all the pieces for windshield, should be done this week. Then we are waiting on Josh for cockpit trim.
Oh one other item. Passenger door has a small defect in the body filler which Darrell the body man has agreed to repair. So a few days at the body shop are also in store.
Got the tonneau cover installed today, turned our real well:
It's always a little nerve racking putting new holes into fresh painted sheet metal, this car apparently has never had the studs installed for a tonneau. But thanks to a recent purchase of a right angle drill plus careful measurements and review of Ray's MGA, we think we've got it right!
We also got the new steering wheel and hub installed:
New top is next. Then we will be waiting on the cockpit trim pieces mentioned in an earlier post. We've also got to simply drive the car too to find any gremlins that remain. Fortunately the weather is cooperating now for this!
Started with the dreaded cockpit trim. Had ordered some replacement pieces, esp the compound angle pieces in the two rear corners. After some prep work, it's time to figure out how to get them covered.
Here's a picture of the pieces ready to cover:
Based on prior experience, esp by Ray, we decided we'd prefer to have an expert find a way to get the black vinyl to conform to these complicated shapes. Our usual auto trim guy, Scott, turns out is retiring in the next few months but he recommended Josh, who has accepted the challenge. Here's Josh with the parts:
His price is reasonable, but he's 12 weeks behind. We decided to live with this, may have to have Dick bring the car back to install these pieces after they are covered.
Been working on the carpet install too. There's like 29 pieces to the kit, it's a complex puzzle. Made even more challenging because the outline sheet has an error in it. But it did turn out real well:
We also bought and installed lap belts:
As you can see, we also tried to install the seats. The new seat tracks are not the right parts, but we can make them work. For example, the release lever to adjust the fore/aft on the seat is on the right for both seats where the original parts had the release lever towards the outside of the car on both sides. Put another way, the original tracks came in right hand and left hand configuration but what we have is the same for both sides of the car. And the non standard tracks do not use the original seat mounting holes. Made a best guess as to new seat hole locations, passenger side turns out is not centered enough in the car with the wide seat back hitting the center tunnel. So more fine tuning to come on seat track position.
The grille had to be installed three times to get it right. We bought a new exterior shell but re-used the inner portion with slats. The interior slats includes the brackets for mounting the assembly, it had the three upper brackets but was missing the lower three.
So we fabricated one bottom bracket and attached it with a screw. Turned out pretty well:
Then we tackled the rear bumper. We had received our used brackets, which we painted. The old non MGA rear bumper actually had an MGA license plate bracket on it, which we were able to retrieve and include on this assembly. And we bought a new license plate light, which looks cool. So here's the rear bumper in place:
Glad the door latch system went in place well, this can be a bear to get right. Both doors latch nicely with moderate pressure.
Front bumper is installed, rear bumper is awaiting some used interior brackets we found in Covington KY. This guy had a couple of other used parts we needed, saved a bunch of money going used on non cosmetic parts.
Rubber trunk seal installed, plus carpet in trunk and rear of cockpit. Fuel filler attached, installed replacement clip in gas cap and it works fine.
Then moved on to more part installation. Ray likes to install the shiny stuff, ie "bling". But he missed this part, plus the MGA oval pieces in the front fnders.
The door panel kit we ordered was the basic kit, that did not include the pockets in the doors. But it does include material to cover your original pockets. The only problem was we didn't have the original pockets!
After looking around we found a dilapidated set of pockets from an old set of door panels for Ray's MGA. And our friend Dave had the idea of making new ones using the old as a pattern and sheets of corrugated plastic that he had at home. Here's some pics:
I think it turned our pretty darn good.
We also got the lights all installed and working, including the complex turn signals. MGA's have only two filaments in the rear, yet you need three functions - parking lights, brake, and turn signal. MGA's accomplish this with a complex relay device that switches between brake and turn signal functions on one circuit. I was very pleased when this device worked first time, last MGA we had required some contact cleaning to get to this point. Btw, the grille is just sitting there for the pic.
