1965 MG 1100 Sports Sedan Restoration: The pedal box assembly project

The pedal box assembly was placed up on my bench to sort out the parts, and to remind myself what needed to be done to complete it. When I pulled the assembly out of the old car four years ago it was a rusty hulk. For instance, the brake pedal was rusted and frozen to the pivot shaft and did not even move! Since then, I spent many hours cleaning up the parts to get it to this point. To reassemble it now, four tasks had to be done. Both the clutch and brake master cylinders needed to be refurbished, the brake pedal needed new bronze sleeves put in and then it had to be painted, and the pivot bolt needed to be rethreaded.

In order to get the frozen pivot shaft out I had to tap (err, I mean “beat”) on the threaded end, which then buggered it up. It was placed in my vice and a 5/16” x 24 die was twisted on.

For the first time in my life I got it right and did not cross thread it on the first try!!

Next up was to refurbish the master cylinder. Here is the before shot with the new (Lockheed SSB 703) kit.

And…the after picture with the old worn out kit and all polished with “0000” steel wool and Nevr Dull.

Then it was on to the clutch master cylinder with new (Lockheed SSB 716) kit. Before.

During…better known as the “guts shot”.

And the after. I am not going for a perfect Concours look to the car. I actually like a little patina on the bare metal parts.

This past Thursday evening we had our monthly Litchfield County group gathering of the Connecticut MG Club. I brought the brake pedal to the pizza restaurant to ask for advice on how to change out the bushings. My friend and neighbor Silas Kinsey offered to take it home to swap out the little bronze tubes because he had a press. “It’ll take me five minutes to do”, he said. I did not hear from him after that. Then, on my doorstep Saturday morning I found the re-bushed brake pedal that Si dropped off. Thank you, Si!!