1958 MGA Coupe

denpo · Jun 27, 2012

Stpman said:
1Michel said:

With compression allright, I dont see why it wouldnt start.
Are you going to video it?
It would be cool to see it wake up and breathe
.

Click to expand...

I agree

+1

bobs77vet · Jun 27, 2012

1Michel said:
With compression allright, I dont see why it wouldnt start.
Are you going to video it?
It would be cool to see it wake up and breathe
.

well i have never done that before i will have to see if the kids know how to do it...stay tuned.

bobs77vet · Jun 27, 2012

well she runs and breathes..........no surprises, the jb weld did not hold so no more fine tuning until I get a new intake manifold, I will take a break for several days and now and pay some attention to the Mrs. 50 psi of oil pressure at 2000rpm, no noticable oil consumption other then burning off the trans fluid i used to "free" the rings.

here is the videos, the longest is a minute long, i have never posted videos before, on my laptop you just click on the picture and the video starts

this is the crude that came flying out of the exhaust...

1Michel · Jun 27, 2012

Congratulation my friend, like you said, "it's a pretty successfull day"
How long has this engine been sitting?

denpo · Jun 27, 2012

Thanks, that was some cool videos.

MYBAD79 · Jun 27, 2012

a very successful day !!!

awesome videos, when you got the car painted and back on the road you can sit back, relax and watch the vids again :thumbs:

Stpman · Jun 28, 2012

Very Cool to see it fire up and run

Kid Vette · Jun 28, 2012

Very cool! Bring on back from the dead. :clap:

SmokinBBC · Jun 28, 2012

That must be exciting..to actually see it come back like that!

bobs77vet · Jun 28, 2012

I was so excited to get to that moment because all the clues from looking at the engine pointed to it having been rebuilt, i am still excited about it today.... the problem obviously was the last owner for 28 yrs never had it running and he bought it with no history or that he could remember anyway. it came to life pretty effortlessly and only smoked when we first started it burning off the trans fluid. you may not be able to hear it but on that last video the car is actually running really well considering that i didnt adjust the carbs in any fashion what so ever and the one broken intake manifold was broken again and flopping about... i cant wait to put the "fine tune" on it. this morning i went out and there are no puddles or leaks under the car. having a car that actually runs will be a great plus for me since i can then drive it out of the garage and sand it outside and eliminate having to clean up paint dust. next i will look to see if i can rebuild the slave cylinder and brake/clutch master cylinder and see if i can the clutch to disengage. being able to move from one area to the next keeps me pretty motivated and i dont get tired of doing any one thing

Richard454 · Jun 29, 2012

Nice work.....

Here's a neat video on a Spitfire engine rebuild-

http://youtu.be/daVDrGsaDME

bobs77vet · Jul 5, 2012

yeah that is a pretty cool video, i wsih i had the artistic talent to pull off something like that...

well taking a week off felt pretty good, i got the chance tonight to work for a couple of hours and I was able to pick up a replacement intake and i straightend out the heat shield and welded up the cracked portions. my goal is to try and get a "finer tune" on the car this weekend. maybe first thing saturday morning before it gets to be 105* will fit into the schedule.

this looks pretty normal but i do have a broken exhaust stud on the last one on the left

although it didnt effect starting the car last week it does seem to me that my choke mechanism that pulls the assembly down is stuck so I will need to brush up on my SUs a little bit to reolve this one.

your normal battered and beaten out of shape heat shield

after a little massaging and persuasion and welding

and with somne shiny paint on it.

bobs77vet · Jul 6, 2012

well tonight I reinstalled my frankenstien heat shield, painted intake and carbs. I was able to make the choke mechanism work without much effort they just had been sitting so long they just needed to be worked a little bit. I started the car up using a temporary gravity fed fuel tank with a shut off petcock. the car ran for 35 minutes and here were the tune up specs I observed. the car timing was set at 10 static BTDC. the car was not burning oil at all and ran very well, even the 30 yr old exhaust sounded pretty good.

1400 rpm, 26* advance with distrib vac plugged, oil 30 psi,18" of vacuum with a rock steady reading, 185* water temp no thermostat
2000 rpm 31* advance with dist vac plugged, oil 40 psi, 185* water temp (no thermostat, 18" vacuum steady
2500 rpm 31* advance with dist plugged and that was the maximum advance

do these sound correct?

big2bird · Jul 7, 2012

Looking good Bob. As for the specs, I haven't a clue. My Healey days are long, long ago.

bobs77vet · Jul 8, 2012

worked on the inner sill somemore today.

I need to cut away rust but only after I have a really good mock up on the inner sill and lots of witness marks. this is the only original refernce I have.

start the cutting out process

my inner sill had a slightbow to it from 4" to 4.5" and it made it hard to get things lined up so I just tacked in some braces to keep everything at 4", not really original but it was fighting me to much to get things lined up....

my template

not everything gets bent on a big brake sometimes the vise and scraps works very well for making small bends

1Michel · Jul 9, 2012

A vice a hammer and a few visegrips pliers will go a long way.
Bit by bit this little car is coming back to life.
Great job sir.

010752 · Jul 9, 2012

bobs77vet · Jul 11, 2012

those are fun articles

bobs77vet · Jul 22, 2012

some more effort today, removed the rear body mount bolt while I could see it and put it back in place with lots on antisieze so when I lift the body it will come off easy. cut out portions of the old body mount that were rusty and made a new piece. used plug welds to connect the body mount to the repair panel.

I also added my repair panel for the back of the pillar

I then moved to repairing a hole in the frame, I welded on a "handle" to the repair piece to make it easy to hold inside the frame so I could weld it in place. I used the big vice to bend it shape.

Stpman · Aug 17, 2012

Hey Bob

we need more pictures:bounce:

bobs77vet · Aug 17, 2012

well I agree!!!! but I promised the Mrs. I would finish the back basement "weight room" 15x12 with stud walls and drywall and in Virginia August is the perfect time to do an inside basement project.....read naturally cool. so we got back from vacation last week and I have been out buying 2x4s this week and this weekend I will build the stud walls and then next week start hanging the drywall. The good news is that this is the last thing i could do to this house with the exception of building some "built in cabinets" in the other part of the finished basement . so after this is done, my garage time will quickly come back to me and hopefully it will be a bit cooler.

bobs77vet · Sep 6, 2012

i am happy to report the wall studs are up, elecetricity is done and 50% of the drywall is up, maybe by the end of september it will be finished and ready for paint....then back to the car...i seem to some how have collected a beer "kegerator" in the garage....so i may look like fred mertz in the near future...

MYBAD79 · Sep 15, 2012

looking forward to October garage time ?? it should be nice and cool by then, when is it getting too old ? November ?? do you have heaters in your garage ?

mrvette · Sep 15, 2012

MYBAD79 said:
looking forward to October garage time ?? it should be nice and cool by then, when is it getting too old ? November ?? do you have heaters in your garage ?

HEHE...in Rockville Md, just maybe 20 miles north of him, I had a ~125k BTU Gas furnace in my garage.....in about 15 minits it was warm to work, no matter the outside weather....it was GREAT@@!!!!!! Bob will need something similar or DIE....:flash:

Stpman · Sep 19, 2012

mrvette said:
MYBAD79 said:

looking forward to October garage time ?? it should be nice and cool by then, when is it getting too old ? November ?? do you have heaters in your garage ?

Click to expand...

HEHE...in Rockville Md, just maybe 20 miles north of him, I had a ~125k BTU Gas furnace in my garage.....in about 15 minits it was warm to work, no matter the outside weather....it was GREAT@@!!!!!! Bob will need something similar or DIE....:flash:

I have an 80K BTU in my 2 car nd keep it around 55f

bobs77vet · Oct 10, 2012

woohoo the painting of the finished drywall has started. october is perfect car weather with an open garage door here. after thanksgiving the heat will get turned on. I have a cieling mounted Dayton 240v electric heater and my garage is so well insulated that it doesnt cost much to keep it warm. i actually think that the beer refrigerator that the keg sits in is so old and inefficient that just keeping the refrig on will keep the place warm. I am thinking I am two weekends away.....heres what i have been working on...i may have slipped over the edge on this one....

thats a 139" diagonal, epson 8350 projector with an onkyo 7.1 HTiB and a pioneer bluray player

SuperBuickGuy · Oct 11, 2012

wow, with a 3d cheerleader.... all looks good

bobs77vet · Oct 27, 2012

hard top believe its been about three monthssince i worked on the car last so i wanted to sart slow with an easy project so i worked on the door hinge plate.

here it is i drilled out the old screws and retapped the holes