I want to thank everyone for their feedback. Be assured that I will merrily
ignore most everyone and do what I d**n well please. (smile)
The votes were pretty much equal. To leave the car original, or to
put it to the torch. Since I have already put two Z Magnettes to the torch,
my soul is already damned.
But Max Heim had the most cutting comment, wondering if I was ever
going to get a project on the road.
Max, you win. I am going to do the most expeditious thing to get
the car running. Put a clutch in it, and drive the bloody thing. It is
going to be slow, ugly and smelly but at least it will no longer be a lawn
ornament. I have already killed 10 black widow spiders that had made homes
in the undercarriage. The manifolds are off, and I am trying to figure out
how to pull the radiator without dismantling the entire car. The front
drums came off after a little bit of persuasion to show all new brake
components. What is interesting is that the boots on the front wheel
cylinders are melted. I am pretty sure the rebuilder would have used
Castrol brake fluid, as they were a T-Series shop. So now it looks like
evidence that Castrol will turn rubber to goo if left alone long enough (at
least ten years).
So new cylinders, are in order. Given time I will try to rekit
these ones for my MGA. I am also looking into replacing the steel lines as
the originals are BSF. This requires weird BSF to UNF rubber lines that
appear to be unobtainable. Rather than go that route, I am looking into
replacing all the hard lines with UNF to match the MGA master and wheel
cylinders. The ZA/ZB Magnette master cylinder is a mirror image of the MGA,
but has BSF fittings.
The main reason for my change of heart is TIME. I want a
convertible, so bad my teeth itch. Cutting the roof off the Magnette is
out, I tried that with a Marina and it was not my best idea.
I want the Magnette out of the garage and my BV8 back in. But the
Magnette is not leaving till it putts out under it's own power. I
definitely want to put an 1800 in the Magnette. But it would be nice to do
it without damaging the lovely character of the car. I need to look more
into the 5M to stock trannie conversion, and also see how the car fares with
the 4.30 rear end I am having to put in. Barney Gaylord's comments about
engine rev's keep springing to mind. Also I am not going to put an 1800
into the car until I can figure out how to build some kind of exhaust
manifold.
So, there will be no cutting today. The nice little Maggot is going
to stay crunchy and time is going to be spent making sure the hydraulickie
bits work correctly. Once the car is drivable, I can make some
determinations of future mods.
Putting the torch away. Kelvin.
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