MG Sports Cars

OK, I'll make the offer and we'll see.
I've changed the timeline a bit. Instead of waiting to get the heads done and then frantically trying to finish everything, I have them boxed up and will ship them to Dale in the morning. He has the clutch, flywheel and pressure plate balanced and should be able to finish up the heads before Easter. This means I have to contact Dave, Steve, and Brian to get things worked out there as well as I can. I've also got to come up with a cam, lifters and pushrods. Dave hasn't come through for us on that stuff, so I'm going to have to see what I can do to find an alternative. We also don't have a battery or alternator and I'm not sure of the condition of the water pump. For an alternator I think the small Denso unit is the best choice, and a junkyard pull is acceptable, especially if it comes with the connecting plug.

The main reason for rearranging the timeline was that is gives us more time at the end to work out the details as opposed to having a lull over the next three weeks. I hope everyone is ok with that. Tomorrow I should have matters a little more sorted out on the wheels

Jim

I can pick up a Denso alternator locally. Let me know so we don't duplicate. Single wire?

That would be excellent Tom, go ahead. I'm OK with either 1 or 2 wire but you might check with Steve to see if we need to drive an indicator light, I don't recall exactly what you guys had planned for the dash.

Our offer has been accepted for the air cleaner housing. Dan, I should have listened to you and bid lower, we might have saved some more money. Sorry. Well anyhow the deed is done, $172 including shipping.

I shipped the heads to Dale this am. $58.90 priority including $16 worth of insurance.

Jim

Jim,
Since we have a volt meter installed, I think the one wire will do fine.

Steve

Jim,
So when do think Dale will be done with everything?
I'm trying to figure out if I can pick them up and bring them to you. Time is getting short near Easter.

Steve

Steve,

He's going to try to finish up the heads before Easter. They should get there Wednesday but he'll have to get valves and springs. Probably it'd be best for you to get in touch and follow his progress so you'll know what works out the best. I'll try to keep Dave advised also, so that we can coordinate it as well as possible. Haven't heard back from him yet (I think he's on vacation) but maybe the weekend after Easter would work out OK. If you can follow your customary pattern of coming in on Thursday we should be able to have the car together and ready to go by the time he gets here.

I finished up the cross brace. Pressed out the bushings and welded in gussets, then annealed, normalized and needle-peened the eyes so I think the bushing mounts will be plenty strong. Once the paint drys and the bushings are back in everything will go together except for the diagonal braces, which I haven't made yet. They have to be done last.

I did some more checking on the wheels and tires, and a 17" wheel with up to 6" of backspacing should work fine on the rear. We could probably get by with 6-1/2 and maybe a little more if we have to. The front needs a 17" wheel with 4-1/2" backspacing max. Any more than that and the tire will contact the bulge above the shock I think. So Tom, if you want to start looking around at wheels those are our targets. As far as rim width, I don't think we can go narrower than backspacing plus about 1-1/2" so that probably means at least a 6" rim in the front and 8 will probably be OK. On the back about a 7-1/2" rim with 6" backspacing *might* be made to fit under the stock fenders (I haven't cut the sheet metal yet) but we could go as wide as 10" I think. I see where Weld has undergone some sort of reorganization in a management buyout. I'm still going to call them but we'd better make plans in case they can't come through for us.

Oh, Carl, I've started on oiling modifications so the sooner I can get the pump lower housing the better.

Jim

Jim,
I can probably make it the weekend after Easter. I'll check with Margaret and see.

Steve

Jim, here's what I did to extend the Omni flares on the back of my car. I added about an inch an a half this way. In addition to adding width, it also brings the flare up a bit higher on the side of the car too...

Sounds really good Steve, if you can do that. If not, we'll just have to figure something else out. If some slippage is unavoidable, we'll just deal with it as well as we can, which is what we're trying to do in other areas as well such as the cam for instance.

Rob, that does look really good. In fact it isn't that much different from the way I did the flares on my car, just used a wider piece of metal. I'm sure that approach can be made to work. I don't know exactly when I will cut the wheelwells, could be today, could be next week, but probably sooner than later. I've nearly finished up the IRS and I'd like to complete that first though. How far we extend the inner wheelwell will determine the exact fender treatment. I will initially retain the wheelwell lip and tack the pieces into place I think, and then take a look to see what will work the best.

Honestly guys, I can't guarantee that we'll get this car running in time. I know we'll be real close, but there are still key pieces missing. We have 73 days left. That's 10 weeks and 3 days. I know that sounds like a long time but it's easy to lose a week or two at a time so really it's not. Take out Easter and it's even less, figure in shipping delays and we're coming into the crunch. I'm putting as much time aside for this as I can but I'm afraid it may not be enough. So anything you guys can do to help things along is a big benefit.

Some things we need which are still real uncertain:
Water pump ('67 430 Buick, aluminum)
'71 cam, lifters, pushrods
clutch mechanism- Brian may or may not be able to handle this piece, I haven't gotten a definite commitment from him. (EDIT: Correction, I have just heard from Brian. He said just give him a date and that's when we'll get the HTOB. What a guy, eh? It's great to have such enthusiastic supporters.)

In addition to that we need to do many many small tasks of every description, from removing the struts off the green GT and installing them, to brakes, to interior work, to wiring and plumbing. If anyone can come and help, now is the time to be doing it.

Jim

Edit: see above.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2009 09:35AM by BlownMGB-V8.

Jim,
I will pick up the stuff from Dale the weekend after Easter.
It may be just me, don't know if Margaret can make it. She rarely works on the car anyway.

Steve

Re Denso alternator. I plan to go to Pull-A-Part and pull one and then have it checked out. I've tried finding an application chart to no avail. Anyone with knowledge of which cars/trucks these alternators were used? It seems p/n 8060 and 8162 were higher amp and single wire and they don't take up much space.

The higher amp ones do not have the tin cover on the rear, and they might have a little better plug I'm not sure about that though. They are just slightly larger than the tin cover ones.

Jim

I'm quite happy to be able to report that aside from a few minor hardware details the IRS suspension is finally complete. If you've been following the 340 thread there may be a few of you with especially sharp eyes who will be able to pick out the tell-tale differences between the two units. Visible differences are there, I assure you.



But this is not the only news. First, Bill has mailed us a check to cover the water pump, plus we sold the Holley carb that Tom donated for about $225, at the moment I don't recall the exact figure, and I made a deal with one of the V8Buick guys for a new cam, lifters and pushrods for $165 including shipping. The upshot is that it leaves us with about $65 in the bank, but aside from a battery, belts, hoses and things of that nature we have or should soon have everything we need to get the car running. Well, other than wheels, tires, and whatever else I've forgotten. But the point is, there should be no other major items that can prevent us from meeting our goal. So now it's just a matter of getting everything here and putting it together.

I spoke with Dale today, he has the heads and is in the process of ordering parts. Incidentally, that cam is a Crower # 52241 and I guess I sorta messed up on it a little as it's going to be a little hotter than stock. The powerband is 1800-4500, but as Carl or somebody suggested earlier on that might let the tires have another second or two before they turn to jelly. I don't have a clue what we'll be looking at for horsepower but I'd bet good money it isn't going to be much under 500. Well, it may not be the perfect cam, but those guys have been saying the Buicks like a lot of cam so maybe it'll be OK. I hope so anyway. Oh, and while we're on that subject, I told Dale to go ahead and put the big valves in the heads. At about the same cost and labor it seemed like it'd be a shame to fit smaller ones. So I guess the heads are going to breathe pretty good. This really wasn't the plan and it's a good thing our ignition system has a rev limiter.

So next on my to-do list will be to cut the fenders. Can't say for sure when I'll be able to get started on that, but in a few days when some supplies have come in and I have both IRS's ready to install it's going to get real interesting trying to put those up into place using just a floor jack. We did it before without the front mounts, but I had help then. And I'm not going to wait until after Easter to do it either. Having to get the crossmember over the wiring harness and fuel lines makes it interesting to say the least.

Jim

Jim,
I gat an E-mail from Dale and he will have the stuff ready for me to pick up after Easter, so it is is go for me to come up and work starting on 4/16/9. I might be able to make it on the 15th. I'll have to check with work, Dale, and most importantly Margaret.
Wish I could get there to help with the rear suspension.

Steve

Jim, Steve I picked up the Denso alternator and a slightly smaller one that was on a Mitsibusi Galant. Its a little more compact. No luck yet on the rims. I'm hoping to have a pair by the time Steve's trucking and delivery goes north.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2009 02:46PM by CBV8.

There may be a slight delay, Matthew has an "Odyssey of the Mind" state competition that I have to go to on the 17/18th, so maybe we should push things back a week. Getting out of that is extremely remote. Does this work with you guys? That will leave us with about 40 days left to finish up.

Also, do either of you need a table saw or radial saw? The table saw needs a motor and the radial saw sometimes won't start if the blade is in the wrong position but they are otherwise good tools. Craftsman and Delta, with stands. They are extras that were given to me and I need the space.

I think I'm going to concentrate on clean-up for a few days now that the mule is freed up and can be rolled outside. Be a good time to do some minor re-organizing and get everything put away. Then during the final push missing parts and tools shouldn't be much of a problem.

Jim

Jim,
I can't make it at all before Easter.
Is there something I can work on while your at the Meet?
Steve

Steve, I was thinking about the 23rd instead of the 16th. You may have misunderstood my intent. Does that help any?

Jim

Jim, I put my car back on the rotisserie this weekend -- came up with a way that worked easily & will help with one man IRS install too... Essentially, I used the engine hoist to raise the back end. Used a come-along from the cieling to hold it while I then moved the hoist to riase the front... engine hoist made it easy to lift the shell offf the IRS -- opposite would be true to... lift the back end, slide the IRS under. Slowely lower the back end adjusting position of IRS as needed to slip it in. Come along or something else for safety just in case the hoist were to give out. Thought this may give an idea or two for how to get the IRS under the Roadmaster or your car working single handed...

Jim,
We are working on it. I may be able to make it as early as the 22 nd.
It would be late at night. I'll let you know.

Steve