1958 MGA Coupe

[bobs77vet]

well instead of dinner I finished the mounting of the sway bar brackets,

marked and drilled the top bracket , painted and mounted it. I was kind of nervous about the orientation of the brackets but they lined up very nicely, i used grade 8 hardware on them .











next to paint the sway bar, add the limiting couplers and bolt up the sway bar ends. I have decided to leave the original eye bushings that are in good shape in place, and keep my new ones as spares.

 

[bobs77vet]

and lets wrap it up

loosen everything one more time and i mean everything so i can get the angle of the drag bar links from the A arm to the eye of the sway bar perfectly lined up on both sides. then tighten down the sway brackets which basically locks the sway bar in place, add the sway bar Eye bolts, and tightenen up the sway bar drag links



then add the sway bar limiting couplers



test drive was amazing. no roll into any turn, its like a totally different car. seriously its fun to drive now. it wasn't so much before. now admittedly I have been spoiled by my daily drivers but this feels now like a normal car by todays stnadards.

thanks again to Eric and Bill for the help

 

[mfain]

I am enjoying the progress. Very nice work!

 

[bobs77vet]

what a great day for a car show today, beautiful weather in the sprawling farms area of Hunt country Virginia.

Great cars maybe 250, and my guess 500 spectators the MG club of DC did a great job putting it together. I got to meet and talk with John Twist and he went over my car with me , i got some nice compliments from him on the car and he especially liked how my doors closed, we talked about how I rebuilt the pinions and star wheels. amongst other things




We parked next to Barney and had a good time. visiting with him.




two of my kids enjoyed the day with me




my favorite car





my next favorite car

 

[bobs77vet]

the mgas









white car next to mine Bill Marshall was third place



Jim Cheatham was 2nd place the car is blue to the left of Barneys red roadster



blue coupe on the right was first place








like I said wonderful day, got to visit with my MGA friends , couldnt ask for a better day...... I took a short cut coming home and wound on gravel roads for 20 minutes driving throught horse farms, the only thing that passed me was an F250 pulling a horse trailer we both had to stop and to navigate around each other the roads were so narrow, I was seriously lost but roads have to go some where and i kept preserving and finally hit a black top road, and cell phone coverage was non existent. i was very happy to hit the black top. then on to route 66 for the 45 mile home and after 20 miles i thought my car popped out of gear....and then i realized it was in gear but had turned off, luckily there was an exit ramp at that moment and i was going 70 so had good momentum and wound up here.






quick check revealed gas was sloshing in tank, all electrical connections were in place, car would crank but not start, so the best tool ever, the cell phone ruled the day.

triple A and $60 tow and $30 tip and we are home again



a quick survy determined gas in floats and with float top off gas flowed into it, 12 volts to the coil and no spark at the spark plugs....final diagnosing will be tomorrow.

and next modification will be a towing bracket under the car for easy snatching

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

it's nice when you don't have to hike for cell coverage....

 

[bobs77vet]

I would have been so screwed if I broke down on the gravel road.

well my buddy Eric O (Ohmite) and I did some easy trouble shooting with a volt meter, test light and spark plug tester, and my coil was the culprit.


Purchased a new one today at Auto zone and its exactly the same as the Standard one they sell on Amazon for half the price, and the same as the broken one, I took my broken one back to Advance auto with the receipt and showed them the limited life time warranty and after some back and forth discussion they ordered me a replacement free of charge , without a doubt the auto zone warranty is far better. When they said it was 12 yrs old and not covered by warranty I asked what does lifetime warranty refer to ? they said "not that, it means like two years and i should call corporate " I said why am I calling anyone the warranty says lifetime thats what you should be doing. They called their manager on the phone and then ordered me a new one "as a courtesy." Auto zones lifetime warranty says if it fails in your lifetime of owning it they will replace it. Took about 15 minutes to replace the coil.


although I will say my purchase of the solar power cell phone external battery saved my ass, when I broke down the phone was on red low battery from driving around in the middle of no where when the phone was looking for service.

 

[bobs77vet]

lets just say i found a weeping core plug



and lets just say someone tightened it up to much



and lets just say the broken stud had to fished out of the water jacket with a welding rod hook

plan B uses Hemi core plugs that are stainless and have some extra maching done to fit the mg B series engine


this time i used my thumb to tighten it

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

interesting stuff

 

[BBShark]

It's Halloween right, Spooky:

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

It's Halloween right, Spooky:

View attachment 54342

pretty sure that's his other hand

 

[bobs77vet]

pretty sure that's his other hand

that was the hand on the 24" breaker bar

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Did you make bionic noises when you pulled on the bar?

 

[bobs77vet]

more of a howling noises


I never should have tossed that old honda, i need to find one again

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

nice to see Death got something more reliable than a Harley...

 

[bobs77vet]

ok time to be totally humiliated by 22ga SS

there is a trim piece that holds the door seal in place at the rocker sill area, this piece is just about unobtainium and you can try and use an MGB GT piece that is similar and reshape it on the bead roller, then cut off the mounting flange, use a stretcher shrinker to put in the upward curve and then TIG weld the mounting flange back on

the first photo shows two parts and original with the curve and the second piece is the similar but straight MGB GT part


tipping wheel puts the crease in to get 90* mounting flange



this gets in a better and more true radius


you can see the curve we need to put in

i used the top of the bead roller with some 3/8 stock to hammer form some spots that got funky from stretching



cut off mounting flange


this shows the final product installed in an award winning car


and this is where we are at 95% done, all the welds and stretching marks are hidden by the carpet, i still have more grinding and burnishing to do. if you want to be totally humiliated by a TIG welder try welding 22ga on a 90* angle , holy crap it looked like an 8th grade project. I finally just laid the TIG rod on the 90* crease and let it get hot over the three pieces and then get off the pedal. more of like teaching some one to make tack weld, I had no chance of doing a bead and was at 20amps






ARGH...this should be straight


this is really nice and straight


need to straighten out the unintentional curve on the one piece, grind up the ugly welds and then burnish it with a contour burnishing tool.
( i have always wanted one)

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

use a chill bar when welding thin stainless. Aluminum is good (3/8" thick), brass or copper works as well and can be thinner - 1/8" or so. Also, weld from the back - that does 2 things, first it gets a flat weld on the front side, and second where the chill bar is will be flat - the weld divot will be on the back side.

 

[bobs77vet]

use a chill bar when welding thin stainless. Aluminum is good (3/8" thick), brass or copper works as well and can be thinner - 1/8" or so. Also, weld from the back - that does 2 things, first it gets a flat weld on the front side, and second where the chill bar is will be flat - the weld divot will be on the back side.

thanks for the tip , I will do that if I need to do any more touch ups, I dont think I need full continuous welds for the mounting flange.

 

[rtj]

Nice solution. Looks good installed.

 

[BBShark]

I can appreciate the effort that took. My experience with fitting/tweaking stainless trim has not been good, even when the trim was made for the car! Nice job.