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KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics now here)
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So I got interest in another thread, and have wanted to kind of do something like this for awhile, so I'm going to be updating this thread with any progress/updates that occur.

The car is a 1964 MGB that my fathers grandfather bought used back in the 1970's, and then sold to my dad in 1980. He daily drove it in Los Angeles for years, but then when he moved up to the PNW it went to a mechanic that did minor work for nearly five years, (during this time the car was stored outside, which is where the majority of the rust comes from,) and then went to a hangar for at least 10 or 15 years.

I've bugged my dad about it enough in the last few years, as I've gotten older and more into cars and willing to put in time on something like this, that we've pulled it out, and started making actual progress on it. It was completely driveable, which meant that last year, inevitably, my 17 year old self took it just a wee bit too fast over a nasty speed bump, and came down hard on the exhaust. Of course, its a fun little British two seat roadster, a nice little exhaust leak, that wont stop me from driving it :) but then we decided to fix it, which is where the fun begins...

I'll go ahead and post this as sort of the background, and I'll start writing about the current shtuff going on and upload pictures in just a minute.
Last edited by: Koala Bear: May 17, 17 20:49
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics coming) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Too cool. I've owned multiple British cars including (for a very short time) a 1966 MGB. Must admit to being more of a Triumph guy. :-)
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics coming) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Can't wait to see the pics!

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics coming) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Thank you for another non political shit show topic!

Sounds like a really cool project!
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics coming) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Disassembly:
(First, a disclaimer. This is the first car I've worked on(because I don't count putting mudflaps and adding windshield wiper fluid to a subaru as "working on a car," but, believe it or not, some people do). I'm going to screw up names of things, you'll probably want to correct things you see in pictures. I don't have all of the answers. But I'm learning, and having a blast doing it, and I love it.)
(Second disclaimer: I don't have adequate photos right now. I decided to do this after the process had begun, but will be documenting better during the process going forward)

So as mentioned in the first post, the exhaust troubles started last year, when I came down over a nasty speed bump. That is actually related to the suspension, but we'll get to that. So immediately when the front wheels were on the other side of the speed bump, and I gave it some gas to get the back over, as you do, I knew something was up. Super fun sound, and awesome performance. So I called my dad, and then continued to drive it before we put it away for the winter. This spring we went and pulled it out of storage, and knew that the first thing we should do was get the exhaust leak taken care of. Diagnosis was extremely straight forward, as you could fee air billowing out... about a 1/3 of the way down, where the twin pipes of the header merged into one, right as they merged into the mid pipe.

First step of disassembly should have been straightforward... removing the exhaust system from the original cast iron exhaust manifold. However, as we all knew would happen, one of the studs on the exhaust manifold snapped, which mean that the exhaust manifold needed to come off of the car. So then off came the carbs, air filters, and intake manifold just to get to the exhaust manifold.
After a little bit of frustration, we managed to get the manifold out, and my dad found a machinist who was able to remove all six studs, including the broken one, and sandblast it, for $10. Not bad. Once we got it home, we decided to paint it the original colour.

Here is the cleaned up, painted, exhaust manifold.
(Pic 1) (dammit I want the pictures in my post, I'll work on it)
(Pic 2)

My dad also has connections through work to get onto the local airport, where he has access to some nice toys, including a sandblaster. Friday while I was at school he took the intake manifold over and got it cleaned up really nice, I wish I had pictures of it before.
(Pic 3)

As far as the exhaust itself goes, we went with the Tourist Trophy from Moss, which I'm going to try not to kill this time...
(Pic 4)

Now the reason why the exhaust is not installed yet is that while we had the engine block so exposed, we decided to replace some gaskets that we belive are the main cause of the oil that loves making it's way out. However, when we got the gaskets, they didn't work. Here's what I mean. The old gaskets are a darker red, under the new ones which I just laid on top for the pictures.
(Pic 5)

(Now I don't get more photos it seems, so to beat the system, I will post this, and reply to my own post!)
(Be back soon)
Last edited by: Koala Bear: May 17, 17 20:53
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics coming) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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So to begin where I left off, here's another picture that shows the gasket mismatch.
(Pic 1)

There are two covers next to each other with these gaskets, you can see them on the block here.
(Pic 2)

The new gaskets should be in hopefully tomorrow, and I'll either be at church or installing those. Once those are in, the manifold can go back on, and we can reassemble everything, and install the exhaust.

You can also see in the last picture the paper towels in the engine, we had to scrape the old gasket that was between the exhaust manifold and the block off, and didn't want to get any pieces in the engine (duh) so that was our quick fix to close those off.

The other thing that just went on was a new cylinder head cover and gasket, I hate to ditch the original (don't worry, we still have it,) but it had a nice dent somehow, and it doesn't look half bad anyhow.
(Pic 3)
(Pic 4)

So as it sits currently, half the engine bay is looking a little bit empty, but hopefully tomorrow, or maybe friday, that will be all reassembled.
(Pic 5)

(Also is there a way to upload more pictures? Or should I just start an account somewhere to dump it all? I don't know, advice is appreciated.)
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics coming) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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And just some more pics because why the heck not :)
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics now here) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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if i ever settle down in one place (particularly back in canada, where i'd have the room to do it) i'd really, really love to do a project like this.

i'm also more of a triumph man - my dad drove a TR6 when he was younger. i prefer the look of the spitfire, purely for aesthetic reasons, but having a 6-cylinder motor sure would be nice.

anyway, well done - sounds like an awesome project. good luck with it!

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics now here) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Nice project. I had a 1964 and a 1973 MGB. I found them fun to drive, cornered really well. My 73 was like you handed down from my dad.

The picture of the interior of the 64 looks similar to mine, but I recall 3 wipers. I know the 73 had 3. My 64 had positive ground, does yours? On my 64 the previous owner was a amateur race car dude, and fitted the engine with a bunch of racing cams and assorted junk. My 73 had overdrive, which made freeway driving bearable.

I really like what you have done to the manifolds and such. I found the engines quite fun and easy to work on. Your carbs looks sweet!
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics now here) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
The car is a 1964 MGB

pics or it didn't happen. or did I miss a picture of an actual car?

________
It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics coming) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Koala Bear wrote:
Disassembly:
(First, a disclaimer. This is the first car I've worked on(because I don't count putting mudflaps and adding windshield wiper fluid to a subaru as "working on a car," but, believe it or not, some people do). I'm going to screw up names of things, you'll probably want to correct things you see in pictures. I don't have all of the answers. But I'm learning, and having a blast doing it, and I love it.

The best way to learn how to work on a car is to be poor and own a car that needs work. :) It is always more fun if you don't need that car to drive to work in a half hour.

I keep threatening to get an older car to restore, but then I remember that when I was about 10 my oldest brother bought a '36 Chevy and when I was 25 my other brother bought a Willys pickup. I am 50 now and while it is possible to drive both, it is a very slow ride, it is very very breezy and I think you still sit on milk crates in both.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics coming) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Koala Bear wrote:
Disassembly:
(First, a disclaimer. This is the first car I've worked on(because I don't count putting mudflaps and adding windshield wiper fluid to a subaru as "working on a car," but, believe it or not, some people do). I'm going to screw up names of things, you'll probably want to correct things you see in pictures. I don't have all of the answers. But I'm learning, and having a blast doing it, and I love it.)
(Second disclaimer: I don't have adequate photos right now. I decided to do this after the process had begun, but will be documenting better during the process going forward)

So as mentioned in the first post, the exhaust troubles started last year, when I came down over a nasty speed bump. That is

I've owned 3 of these: 2 x '70 MGB and a '71.

Bought the '71 when I was 16 years old, and learned a LOT about fixing cars over the years I owned it (between the 3 cars, I don't think there were many bolts that didn't get turned at some point). They're easy to work on, and well supported from a parts perspective.

Great to see you going down the same road, and looking forward to more posts.
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Re: KoalaBear's 1964 MGB "Restoration" (w/ pics now here) [Koala Bear] [ In reply to ]
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Cool project.

Suffer Well.
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