MG Sports Cars

Jim,
I can't make the Roadmaster weekend this month. It is rush time for admissions at the college. Hope someone will go.

Steve

BADASS Ways and Means committee members:

Steve DeGroat, Bill Young, and Bill Guzman:

Please send me via e-mail your own e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

mowog1@aol.com
217-469-2007 (home)
217-373-0702 (work)

Thanks!

rick

Some more good news. Graham's check came in, so that's another hundred in the till. Also I just got off the phone with Pete and he has volunteered to chair the Internet committee. Pete doesn't claim to be any more web savvy than many of us, but he shouldn't need to be, as he should be able to rely on his committee members to find the best ways to proceed. I've recommended Graham, Dan M, and Curtis as potential committee members along with anyone he feels would be an asset and they can organize as they feel appropriate.

Guys, it's an honor and a privilege to serve on these committees because it's a chance to do something good for your friends. I know a lot of times it may seem like you don't have any idea what you can do to help and it seems like a bother and a waste of time when you have more important things on your mind. But many hands make light work, and if you just make a phone call or send out a few emails, by the time you multiply that by our number we become a much more powerful force. Plus these phone calls are mostly going to be to people you like talking to anyway and what could possibly be bad about that? Maybe asking someone if they can help seems like a hard thing to do, but when you realize that they are expecting you to ask them, doesn't it just give you something else good to talk about?

We have two committees yet to fill. Detail and Membership, and I'm asking for volunteers or recommendations. Here it is almost September and nothing's been done on the car. Personally, I sort of doubt anything will be done on it until we have a Detail committee setting up work weekends. So until we set up the Detail committee I'm skeptical of anything else getting done on the car at all. When that happens is up to you guys. More on Membership below.

I haven't heard anything from Carl as to whether he can chair the Search committee, maybe because I haven't gotten around to a personal invite. Sorry Carl, my mistake. Well, I'm just a volunteer same as the rest of you guys so I hope that's excusable. Can you do it Carl? We sure need you. We also need to know how much the Inop car transport companies Joe gave us can transport Bill's GT for. If they can get us down around 7-800 bucks I'd think we're suddenly in the ballpark.

Now a little something on membership. Today I went over to the lodge to help out with a yard sale and since I was taking Matthew along I took my roadster. Almost immediately it drew a crowd, and it seemed I couldn't get much done for answering questions so I took the bottom of one of these foam boxes you take food home from the restaurant in and wrote on the bottom, "Like this car? Go to: BritishV8.Org 1971MGB/215Olds" and I was left in relative peace after that. But the crowd around the car stayed, ebbing and flowing as people came and went, most of them reading the placard which I had placed under the wiper. The car attracted people in off the street who then bought food and drinks, and many of the curious were younger drivers.

We have talked about how we need to attract younger drivers to the BritishV8 group and this will benefit BADASS as well. So this is just one small example of what we can do to move the cause along. Make up a dash plaque to leave in your car when you take it out. You KNOW people are going to look at it, it's like a magnet already, so why not use that magnetism to do some good for our entire group? They are our friends, right? If we all do that one small thing I don't imagine we'll have much trouble attracting new enthusiasts. Do we need a membership committee for this? Not necessarily. Should we have one? I don't know, and there's no reason why I should have to make all of the decisions. It'd be easy duty if anyone wants it.

Jim

Here's an idea... Since Bill's donation of the car body is in CA, and it is to be painted in Terry's shop, also out west, why not have the western contingent of BADASS complete the bodywork through the paint stage? All the mechanical fitting can be done on the body that is in Florence, then transferred over. Eastern US Roadmaster weekends for the next few months could concentrate on mechanicals, and western US Roadmaster weekends could concentrate on bodywork.

Thoughts?

that's seems like the most efficient flow in terms of transportation expense, but any cutting, welding, etc. needs to be done before body work/paint. Not sure how that could be accomplished if the shell doesn't make it to Jim's 1st.

I can give exact specifications for the body mods. There are only three things other than location of the radiator and the fender flares that need to be done, and I can mock up the radiator mounts and give exact specs for that too by the time you guys get to it. I can ship the fender flares and the steering cone section which is a simple cut-n-weld modification. That leaves the right side bulkhead mod which is a simple matter of taking a 1/2" slice and shoving the corner back. The engine mounts are easy enough, drill a hole through the frame rail, weld in a length of tubing, and weld a cap on top of the rail and I'll provide the parts and hole location. If we miss the mark a little we can tweak the engine plates to line up. What's left? Oh yeah, header holes. That's done with a holesaw and I can make a template.

There's an outside chance I could have found some aluminum heads. They have been damaged, the engine was dropped off a truck so they'd have to be welded and I've only just made the inquiry. No telling how that'll come out. But they;re full-on TA racing heads which means they have the short exhaust ports. If we're able to get them, that would mean there would be enough room for a log type exhaust manifold or possibly even RV8 style headers. I'll keep you all advised. I have been too busy the last few months to be able to call sponsors and pursue deals but I'm hoping that will change. I do enjoy talking to those guys but I'll admit I have to work up to it. I want to be at my best before I pick up the phone to ask someone to sink hundreds or thousands of dollars into a car he's never even heard of before. If they enjoy talking to me maybe I have a chance but I don't dare touch that dial if I'm even a little down. Anyway, that means we should probably leave the inner fender mods for last.

Dan, I think that was a great idea, and Rob, you're right, that's the key to making it work. You guys are the best.

Jim

Where in California is the car body?

Calvin

Bill is in Camarillo, CA. Some of you western guys should take a trip out there to look the car over real close, and figure out a place to work on it. If you need it, I think I have a spare steering column that might work on it.

How do you guys think we should set up the Detail committee in light of this new development?

Jim

BlownMGB-V8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How do you guys think we should set up the Detail
> committee in light of this new development?
>
> Jim


Regional representatives....by time zone?

I think that's a reasonable idea.

I hope we can get some people to volunteer for that, I'll be here, in case anybody wants to. I don't see much activity directed towards getting things moving on the west coast but maybe in time something will happen.

The concept of Roadmaster Weekend probably needs to change. This year we've seen participation in roughly one out of four scheduled weekends and not only does that make scheduling difficult for me, it may induce a sort of apathy, since the next one is always there. So I'm canceling all scheduled weekends as of today. It will be up to the Detail Committee to schedule the next one.

On a positive note, I've been able to do a little work on the forward link for the IRS. It's slow going but that's allowed me to make a few helpful revisions.

Jim

Just to stir things up a bit (acting like my big brother) I just fired off an email to Horsepower TV. Here is the text:

"Joe and Mike,

I don't know if you have heard of the little nationwide project undertaken by some of the British V8 people, so I am sending you a link to the forum:

[forum.britishv8.org]

This is the thread that is taking the car through the conversion from a stock MGB-GT to a fire breather with 455 Buick power! On the thread you can read about the organization and its desire to achieve synergy with great handling British sportcars and good old American V8 muscle!

Currently the body for the car is being prepped in California, and the mechanical work is being done in Kentucky, with volunteer members of the organization working as time permits, traveling weekends to the garage where the car is. All the parts have been donated or paid for with donated money or other parts that were sold for the needed revenue.

This project is truly what your show is all about. You may want to do a segment or two on it.


Dan Blackwood
South Charleston, WV

1966 TR4AIRS EFI
1980 TR7 DHC"

Dan B Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just to stir things up a bit (acting like my big
> brother) I just fired off an email to Horsepower
> TV. Here is the text:
< snip>

Excellent.

Other potential outlets are My Classic Car (after the porject is down the road a bit) and Car Crazy.

Stacy David (formerly of "Trucks!") is also doing a program for SpeedTV (I think); this may be right up his alley. (He recently featured a V8 Miata).





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2008 09:58PM by mowog1.

It looks like our committees are becoming successful. We have empowered our members by giving them positions of responsibility and they are taking the reins and moving the project forward. I love to see creative approaches like those above, and there has also been a good bit of activity on a more concrete level. Our members have found what may be a suitable GT at what may be a reasonable and affordable price and are currently in negotiations with the owner.

All of this activity tells me that forming the committees was the right thing to do, even if the structure may not be the best. Well, what can I say? It's all still pretty new to me too and I gave it my best shot. But at the winter meeting I expect I'll hear some suggestions for restructuring, which again, will be a good thing. And let me just apologize to anyone who felt I overstepped my bounds. I'm sure you're right and I probably did. I guess it goes with the territory. The important thing to remember is that it is your organization, and it is from your decisions that the organization gets it's direction, whether by general consensus or by committee. I'm just a temporary custodian and it is an honor and a privilege to serve in that capacity. I'll try my best to make the correct executive decisions to achieve our objectives, but it is the will of the membership that rules.

Anyway, I hope there will be some good news for us soon, so stay tuned.

Jim

JIm,
I paid for the 69 BGT today.
It looks good to me. I will pick it up on 9/6/8. What shall we do with it then?

Steve

That's excellent news Steve. Since a number of us will be in Townsend in about a week, I'd suggest you tow it there and we can get it up here from there. Pete mentioned shuttling it up here, that would allow your car dolly to stay with you. Otherwise I could use that to tow it here, so those are a couple of options.

Jim

OK.
I will tow it to Towsend.
See you next weekend.

Steve

Steve...talk with Pete Mantell...he may be delivering a conversion to South Carolina in the next few weeks, and could pick up the GT shell from you and deliver it to Kentucky on his way home.

Rick,
I plan to call him tomorrow. Jim called and left a message saying the same thing.
I can not reach Pete by e-mail, for some reason.
Getting Pete to pick it up will let me take my BGT to Townsend. That is better than towing a car up there. More fun.
Steve

Steve gave us a report on the new GT at Townsend. From all indications it is an extremely solid body with very minimal rust or other damage, perhaps a badly repaired ding in a rear quarter as I understood it. The car is now at his house, awaiting transport via Pete's trailer to Florence. Once it is here we will assess the situation and I will recommend a course of action after conferring with Pete, Steve and whoever else has input. It would be premature to recommend action yet but we did have some discussion as to how the project should progress.

First item to come up was the exhaust system and the heads. It has come to my attention that the alloy heads made by TA Performance are of two distinct configurations. Stage 1 heads are extremely similar to the stock cast iron ones in terms of most major dimensions, other than ports and such, but Stage 2 and higher are different. Where the stock head has an extended exhaust runner they do not. Instead they are more similar to what we see on most V8's where the manifold bolts to a very short port projection, almost right up against the side of the head. The difference between the two could be as much as 2" per side and this is a huge thing for us. It means we should be able to make up a set of RV8 style headers and run the outlet out through a single hole in the fenderwell. It means we would not have a tube wrapping around the lever arm shock and blocking it's oil fill hole. And of course there is the weight savings.

After discussion, we decided this was something we should pursue. Mike at TA has expressed a willingness to help us so I'm projecting a cost to us of about $1500 to pursue this option. In addition we need a starter, flywheel, pressure plate, clutch, and HTOB. Jim Stuart suggested we need to raise about $3000 for this stage of the build and I would say that is reasonably accurate. Our Ways and Means committee is looking into how we might do that, several suggestions were made and discussed.

Ted Lathrop strongly suggested that we make the car street driveable prior to sending it out for paint. Although we are not at the decision point for that yet it is something to keep in mind. This was not a formal BADASS meeting but since we had a number of occifers, members and committee members present I brought up a couple of items for group discussion and we went from there. If anyone has more to report or comments to make please do so.

Jim

I sold the Dayton wire wheels on ebay for $122. The buyer also bought the 3 stock wheels for $50 and the front suspension units for $75 (for which he will be sending a check) so in total $247 that I should be able to deposit soon. That gets us closer to being able to buy the heads or the rear coil-over units, or the clutch/starter assemblies.

It's too bad I don't have more time to sell off the other spares or to get photos and descriptions to Rob or to package and ship them, as I think we could raise some cash that way. But I've come to the conclusion that it's more important that we have a collective project to work on than it is to meet any sort of arbitrary deadline. True, we'd all like to be able to drive the car this spring, but that may not be very realistic since there is so much to do to make that happen. I've been pretty tied up with getting my car back on the road and hope to be there in a few more weeks, and while I'm working on that I'm also figuring out how to put the finishing touches on the IRS. It turns out to have been a very good idea to install an identical unit in my car, as I plan to upgrade that while the car is up on jackstands for the engine repair, and I can complete the Roadmaster's IRS at the same time. When the time comes I will see if I can get any discount by buying 4 coil-over units at the same time which could help on both cars.

Jim