Catching up on the this-and-that work I've gotten done since the last video. Doesn't sound like much but as usual with this car, everything is like ten times more complicated than it's supposed to be.
BACKSTORY: Through a series of honestly quite odd coincidences, I ended up being unable to avoid buying another MG. Originally, I needed to get it running by spring break because our oldest was done learning to drive by then and wanted her Subaru, which I've been driving. But the car was less nine-days-from-driving and a lot more several months until driving was conceivable. Every job has been more complex than I envisaged, with many more steps to completion. But some things went far more smoothly than I'd ever imagined. It'd be nice to say they balance out, but while the answer is no I am getting my hands on a lot more systems than I'd ever planned, which hopefully will reduce my shakedown failure rate.
MORE BACKSTORY: I'd been watching this '69 MGB on marketplace for like a month, but it was a good 3-hour drive so I never got that serious; I just did not want to drive down there. Eventually it sold. Well, turns out it was sold to a guy here in town. He bought it to mod & race but he'd need to make it street legal first, which he didn't know when he bought it. I got it for less than the original guy was asking and no transport fees; our houses are about five minutes apart. Floors have been done, all rust gone, new undercoating, new interior (not in yet but that's great since I can do the insulation and sound deadening), a bunch of new extras. It'll be my bopping around town car while I'm working on restoring the GT.
EVEN MORE BACKSTORY: In 1981 two cousins, Ted & Mike, worked together to restore this car that had been someone's daily around Boston. That, who was, I believe, the original owner, had named the car "The Daring Miss Fitzdare". It had accumulated a lot of miles, and rust.
The cousins redid everything, rebuilt the motor, all new suspension, all rust cut out and replaced, and a new outside coat of BRG. Which immediately started peeling off the car. At that point, they just stopped. They kept everything in terms of receipts and packing lists, which was nice. I went through all the receipts and paperwork so I could give you a verifiable answer for how much they spent on the huge of amount of work they did. All the work was done between 1981 and 1987. Adding up the receipts, these guys put, respectively, $1354.10 (Ted) & $3913.13 (Mike). At 2024 values, that's $13,277.51 worth of parts & labor into the car, plus Ted recorded 350 hours of shop time. And then the paint job failed, and they just said to heck with it. So, it's a mostly completely overhauled car with all the work being done 40-ish years ago, give or take, except that it was also an optical illusion. The car was in fact mostly just a roller, hastily put back together just enough to be saleable. Many of the new parts, and many parts on the car had serious rusting problems, surface at a minimum. The amount of undone stuff is beyond imagining, and every step has blossomed into ten. It's been a ridiculous amount of work, and the end might be in sight but I sure am squinting and hoping.
2 окт 2024
