The Show...er, I mean, The Gathering

Every once in a while, there comes a time when no matter how much you try to humbly contain yourself, your pride shows. It happened a couple years ago when “Old Biddy” received her official Connecticut state license plate making her a legal registered vehicle on the road. (See the blog post in July 2016). Another time was yesterday June 3^rd, 2018.

Careful readers know that I have been wanting…no….dreaming of bringing Old Biddy to the CT MG Club’s annual British By the Sea gathering at Harkness Memorial Park in Waterford, Connecticut for the past six years. Yesterday, that fantasy became reality!

I have some duties that I do every year for the event including setting up all the sound system, speakers and wiring, etc… When I finished, I drove Old Biddy to the MG Saloon category row, a 1957 MG Magnette had already taken the aisle spot, and a Nash Metropolitan took the second spot. The Nash was supposed to park in the “Open Sedan” category row behind us, but somehow snuck in undetected. No matter, the owner was a great guy and I enjoyed his company.

Old Biddy was parked in the third spot, which happened to be the corner spot of the show field since no other MG saloons showed. Here she is amongst the other 317 or so British cars!!!

And her window card. (Yes, I know I misspelled Saloon!)

She received much more attention than I ever imagined. Her picture was taken by literally a gazillion people!! People wanted to talk to me about her, and cars that they had “just like yours” when they were a teenager, and how my car is a special treat to have at the show, and that they have not seen one in “probably 30 years”, and they ogled over the details of the car, and they asked questions about her restoration. I even let people touch her (usually a no-no at car shows)!! I let one lady sit in Old Biddy and it “made her day and brought back a lot of happy memories”.  At one time, a lady (who arrived in a Jaguar Mark II) talked to me for a few minutes then walked over to her husband in the “Open Sedan” row. She told him that I was charming! It was such an amazing indescribable feeling to be able to have that much respect for a little 1965 MG 1100…and I was proud that it was MY 1965 MG 1100!! It was so much fun talking to the folks and making them smile and laugh!

By popular vote, she won 2^nd place in the MG Saloon class…because well, there were only two cars in the class anyway. And, c’mon, who wouldn’t vote for a fancy Magnette? My prize for the day was getting her there and sharing her with other people, not just the mug I received.

Needless to say, John and I had to trailer her down there due to her engine’s tendency to run really warm. Next post will bring us back down to reality to solve the issue and there is already a new punch list of tedious finishing tasks to do.

Thanks for visiting,

Toddy

Body work, colorsanding, trim and more!

It is finally time for an update and some good news for a change. After a couple years of spinning my wheels and not progressing, I did some researching and found someone who does body and paint work and, most importantly, "fixes other's mistakes". His name is Dickie. After a telephone conversation with him back in early April, I just knew he was going to be the one to color sand the paint and fix the dents in the cowl on Old Biddy (and not rip me off as Al did!).

We brought the car on a forty one mile trek across the center of Connecticut to his shop. Dickie was in constant contact with me on his progress and I could tell by his demeanor that he takes pride in his craft. A week and a half later (and a bit of money), we went back over and picked up Old Biddy.

Here she is gleaming in the sunshine at Dickie’s shop awaiting her journey home.

 

In order to make an attempt to drive her to the CT MG Club Gathering in three weeks, I had to get right to work on her. The first thing on the to do list was to finish the exterior trimming. But in order to do that, I had to buy new trim strip fasteners as the first set I bought was too small. I got BSF 078s a few years ago. Here are the correct BSF 076 fasteners fresh from England.

There were forty four of them to rivet in place. Patience and a cup of genuine British tea were my friends during this operation.

But finally…after 12 years of waiting…the gracefully arched trim strips were installed! To me, she just looked naked without them.

The rear boot (trunk) lid handle was tightened down and the thumb latch was adjusted to work properly. The license plate and MG badge of honor were put in place as the crowning touch! Now she is a proud and proper MG!!

Dickie’s color sanding brought out so much depth in the paint that I cannot believe it is the same car! Almost all of the orange peel and paint drips are gone now. Look…there are cloud reflections on her now!!

He did an amazing job fixing the cowl dents, from a couple years ago when the hood flew up on me.

Here are a couple shots of her in full glory.

Next up this week is to tackle the overheating issue. I have had many conversations with many people, who each have their own opinion on what to do. But, I think I have been over thinking the problem and have come up with a new theory with a simple solution. J let me borrow his mechanical temperature gauge from an MG Midget. I will explain why in a couple days.

Thanks for visiting,

Toddy

Year in Review

Yes, it has been nearly five months since an update. I have received a couple messages in the past month wondering if I gave up, and if I had, would I be willing to sell her. Since that is not going to happen, here is what has been going on with her since July.

First, I tried to tackle the overheating issue. I swapped out the temperature sensor from the original “red ring” to the “black ring”. I was told that the red ones read a bit high for 1100s. Then I swapped out the 180’F thermostat with a 160’F thermostat. After I put everything all back together, she still overheats. I am guessing that since the radiator has a brand new and tested core, her water pump is brand new, and the two parts I just mentioned…she probably needs to be burped. I will be calling Chris in spring to help me out as it is a real head scratcher for me.

I wrote an article for the CT MG Club newsletter about my experience in getting the car color sanded and sealed and getting ripped off. There has been much support for having a color sanding “workshop” in spring to get her done. I will be making arrangements in the New Year. I have all this trim and the emblem to put on.

My review for this year is… Old Biddy had the rest of her upholstery finished. I have driven her only about 45 miles, mostly on short test drives. And, a few little doodads were done on her just to checked off the punch list if anything. Due to our early snow this year, Old Biddy has been tucked away for the winter to hibernate. Although I say this every year, even if she has to be a trailer queen, she WILL make it to the CT MG Club Gathering, British By the Sea, next year!!!

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Mid-summer update

There are only a couple things of interest that happened in the past three months that are noteworthy enough to mention. Everything else is still in the works.

First, I got the seats back from Noreen back in mid-April. I installed them and was extremely pleased with her work! The color is a perfect match and her tuck and roll stitching is amazing!

She added a thin sheet of muslin between the seat foam and the material, which adds to the firmness of the seat cushion. The back seat is like a couch!!

Second, after taking a few test drives (both slow and “at speed”), the car seemed to be running good at times and terrible the others. I decided to change out the Champion RN9YC spark plugs for NGK BP6ES and it made a world of difference!! She runs strong and smooth now with no hesitation.

She was still running hot, though. One day I was driving at 50mph uphill on the state highway to test her out at speed. The temperature gauge was starting to red line so I took my foot off the gas pedal to slow down and the gauge dropped immediately to the “N” in the middle. After that little hiccup, she has been heating up but has not hit the red line again. I think she had an air bubble in the cooling fluid circuit that had to bleed out. I have the 180’ Mr. Gasket thermostat installed right now. I think I might put a 170 or even a 160 degree thermostat in to keep her running cool. (Yes, the picture is terrible! My really old dinosaur of a camera is dying a quick death.)

Next up for this summer is to get the front end aligned properly, and to finish the vinyl installation on the interior. Of course, driving her is a must to keep working out the kinks. And, body work and color sanding...

 

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Long winter is finally over!

This past winter arrived late then overstayed its welcome. Old Biddy sat in “The Shed” waiting for me to do something with her, but I could not get out to her. While waiting for warmer weather, some interesting things happened.

I sold both of my tractors and continued to sell stuff on the auction site which gave me a little spending cash. I watched the US dollar to British pound exchange rate.  When the value got below $1.25 per pound sterling, I bought a set of roller foot joint kits from England. I saved about $35 from the last set of these I bought four years ago!!

And, I sent back the incorrect hydrolastic displacer unit rubber boot covers to Seven Enterprises (who had great customer service) for a full refund, which then went to purchasing these…the correct ones from Earlpart in the England. The set from Seven Enterprises is for a Mini hydragas suspension unit even though they have them listed as the same part number 21G1496...BIG difference!!

When the weather finally warmed up, the front subframe was brought outside and painted. I am pretty happy with the results!

But I am not sure if I will rebuild it or leave it as is. If so, I need a short list of parts that I cannot justify buying right now.

I also took some of the tractor money and decided to  bring the remaining seats ( both fronts and the rear bottom) to get reupholstered. I brought them to Noreen, the same person who did the back of the rear seat in August 2012…five years ago. I will be getting them back in ten days because she has to special order the material. I am fine with that as Old Biddy will not be going anywhere in the next week anyway.

Progress…finally!!

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

Winter updates...spare front sub-frame and new parts.

As winter rolls on this year, I have been selling “stuff” on that auction site. It is a win-win for me. Stuff that I no longer need or want is leaving my cellar and going into the hands of people need or want it. And, in the process, it is funding some purchases of bits and pieces I need for Old Biddy and items around the house that need repair. But to get to the stuff to sell, I had to pass by the rusty, dirty spare front sub-frame that has been sitting on the floor since I got it!

First, let us discuss the spare front sub-frame. Since last year when I cleaned up the other rusty, crusty, smelly parts, this “thing” has been calling me to give it some attention, too.

The sub-frame itself was in very good condition. It just needed love and a "spa treatment".

There were just a couple spots that needed more pampering than others. Those areas received the usual process of removing a couple stuck bolts and some caked on grease, but nothing too difficult.



As with all my parts, the sub-frame was sanded down, then thoroughly cleaned and primered.

                                                                             

I am just waiting for a warm spring day to take it outside to paint it black. After spraying the primer, the fumes stunk up the house for three days. Due to the cold weather we were not able to open the windows to air the house out!! But at least the sub-frame is protected from further rusting for the next three months.

I received a new voltage regulator (read my last post about why I think the one installed in Old Biddy  is bad), and a new coolant temperature sensor for Christmas this year. It was brought to my attention that the one in Old Biddy now may be either faulty, or may have been damaged when the car was overheating. When I replace it we will find out if that was why the temperature gauge was reading high.

I took a little bit of my auction site profits and treated myself. I bought four new rubber hydrolastic unit dust covers (part 21A1496) from Seven Enterprises. But when they are compared to the old original one (on the right) the center is much different than the original. I know that these rubbers were also used on the hydrogas units as well. When I have the patience, I will try to fit them. I do not know if they will work. We will see. No one anywhere in the world has the original design rubber dust covers, that I know of. If anyone knows, please let me know!

As stuff from my cellar leaves our house and disappears around the world, it is looking much cleaner down there. I still have things to buy to repair stuff upstairs. Afterwards, I will collect more parts for Old Biddy as spares, and I would like to finish rebuilding some of those “almost done” projects.

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy

 

Overheating issue found

It has been a while, I know. Partially because of shame, and partially because of life’s busy-ness. But now that Old Biddy has been put to bed for the winter, the embarrassing story can be told.

When we left off last, I was trying to figure out why the car was overheating. At first I thought it was because the radiator filler strap was not installed. I sewed one together out of two strips of denim (on my grandmother’s Singer Model 66 “red eye” that I inherited) and loosely fit it in to place. After re-measuring and trimming it, we went for a test drive. The missing strap was not the problem.

Another issue I found was the new thermostat (from Moss Motors). When I opened the radiator cap, the water was not circulating. It was found to be opening at 198*F instead of 180*F as it should when I pulled it out and tested it in a pot of water.  It was swapped out with a high flow Mr. Gasket 180*F, which circulates the water properly now… This is the old faulty one.

The day I was troubleshooting I took many short two mile rides up and down our hill. The temperature gauge needle kept reading “H” although the thermostat was swapped and the strip was installed. I began to get frustrated. I thought that maybe the short 35mph short drives were not circulating enough air. On what was to be my last test drive of the day, I put the hood (bonnet) down and decided to see what would happen if I drove the car at 55mph.We drove down hill to the main road and began to speed up. When we hit 52mph the hood suddenly flew up and hit the windshield blocking my view. Since the road had no traffic, I quickly pulled over to assess the damage. The hood itself was fine. The cowl got bent up and dented by the corners of the hood on both sides.

As I closed the hood in frustration before the ride, it became apparent that I did not push it down to latch it all the way. Thank goodness the windshield is fine as well. Just the cowl got buggered up.

Whenever I had the engine revved up above 3000rpms, the temperature gauge would rise and read “H”. Whenever the engine slowed down to idle, the gauge went back down into the “normal range” I also took a glance at the rest of the instruments connected to the main “green power wire” (oil pressure, voltmeter, fuel). They all behaved the same way!!

Therefore, the conclusion is that the brand new Lucas RB340 voltage regulator replacement (from Moss Motors) is either faulty or needs serious adjustment. Some suggested that the problem could be the voltage stabilizer (located behind the speedometer). But if it was, only the temperature and fuel gauges would be affected…not the others.

Electrical issues aside, it was a historic year! Old Biddy became an official registered motor vehicle, and she is drivable!! She has been driven nearly fifty miles, although twenty five of those miles are test rides. As she sleeps for the winter, we can concentrate on and look forward to next year’s punch list; fix the electrical glitch, get the seats reupholstered, get the cowl repaired, and the perpetual…get the car buffed out! At least the list is shrinking.

As you can tell, Moss Motors has sent me a few unreliable, poor quality products lately. I wish they had better quality control, if any at all. Or they should just stop buying junk from China!!

Thanks for visiting.

Toddy