Hey Gang,
I made just a little progress on the restoration of
my '70 B.
My steering wheel puller, purchased when my son was
restoring a '66 Mustang, does not fit the MGB. The
spoke mounting holes are too far apart, so I used a
big three-jaw gear puller to remove the hub. Only a
small amount of encouragement was needed before the
hub popped loose. Its now on the workbench awaiting
refinishing. The rest of the wheel is done and ready
for reassembly with the hub.
I also removed the switchgear from the column and
cleaned everything carefully (column and switches).
My headlight switch assembly (left-hand) appears to be
relatively new. The other side is probably original
and in excellent condition. I got a break there.
The ignition switch was stiff and a little
challenging. Upon removal of the electrical switch
from the mechanical bit, I realized that the
'stiffness' was in the switch. I good bath in contact
cleaner flushed away the old dirt and grease and
restored free movement. The mechanical bit was then
flushed out with a copious quantity of brake cleaner
and now also works smoothly.
I have to say; Much of the pleasure I get from
restoration work is from making the old parts work as
new - not from swapping parts from the
Moss/Victoria/TRF catalog.
I also removed the offending choke cable - the
component that started the whole shipwright's disease
thing.
The dash itself is salvageable with a lot of
cleaning, patching (Leatherique's crack filler) and
refinishing (again, Leatherique dye). I have a
CoverLay left over from a previous restoration and I
will use that to dress the damaged top surface of the
dash. I'll refinish the whole dash as a unit,
including the new CoverLay, once its installed.
Everything else will come out nicely.
All gauges need to come apart, if for no other
reason, they are dirty inside. The oil pressure gauge
needs maintenance. When I restored a Lotus Europa I
made tables of all the reading-to-voltage correlations
for Smiths gauges but these instruments may be
different models (different senders?)- and I may not
be able to find the old Lotus reference work. I'll
hopefully be adding Barrie's new o-rings upon
reassembly.
Needless to say, there is some wiring jury-rigging
but nothing serious. There are wires attached for
radios, two generations I have found so far, but no
work-arounds for damaged harness bits. That's a plus.
On projects like this I like to restore the wiring to
the stock configuration then test everything before
reassembly.
Okay, I've gotten the MG buzz out of my system this
morning and I now have to go to work. :-(
Top-of-the-morning to you all.
rick
'70 MGB Tourer
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