MGB GT V8 Motorsport Build

Following the overwhelming poll result in favour of polishing out the plug welds on the inner wing cut outs, that's what I've done. Then I've blown a bit of primer over to keep the rust at bay. The engine bay will need painting properly, but that that's not my strong point so I'll put it off for a while. Tonight, I've made a little aluminium bracket to hold the hydraulic reservoirs. I'm reasonable happy with it, but I might decide to rivet in a stiffener, or learn to weld aluminium.

I've got some paint on the underside and the engine bay. It's ok and will polish up, but it's not concours by any means. I've put the RV8 crossmember and rack in tonight. One of the bump stop studs had broken off and took a bit of work to sort out, but it's done now.

I have also made and welded in some 3/4" brackets to space out the steel front valance to make it look better without the bumper to hide the step under the grill.

Onwards and upwards!

After a frustrating weekend failing to make any braided hoses I did some more homework and realised what I was doing wrong. This afternoon I've made good progress on the clutch and brake reservoirs and the fuel pump and filter pipework. I've also run 3/8 copper pipe with a tap along the transmission tunnel, through the bulkhead and up to the pressure regulator. Mind you, it took four attempts to make the swan neck pipe up to the BG regulator!

Next is the pedal box pipe work and sorting something out for the clutch. I'm thinking of putting a dry break fitting in the clutch line to make life easier when the engine and gearbox come out.

I think that I've made some progress with the engine bay. The hydraulic reservoirs are in place, with no plans to take them out... I decided that I would make a panel to seal the aperture in the inner wing rather than try and seal it from inside the cockpit. I still wanted to run the wiring loom through that space so I made an aluminium cover with a tube welded in to take the loom. I also needed to run the brake pipe to the offside caliper and the clutch pipe around the back of the reservoirs before bolting them into place. The nearside brake pipe will run across the car inside the cockpit so avoiding the problem of interfering with the heater or the bonnet hinges.

Next task is to fit the floor mounted pedal box, and then the steering column.

I've finally got the heater in. It's taken weeks to do, with a sorry saga of removing rust, stripping and painting, paint reacting and wrinkling, stripping again and repainting, dismally failing to fit the heater, cutting and welding the box, repainting, successfully installing the heater and touching up the scratched paint.

I know that everyone says that it's probably the worst job to do on the MGB, but I didn't really believe them. I didn't have the pleasure of removing the heater since I bought the car as a completely dismantled abandoned project. Oh, the naivety! Who on earth is responsible for this? It has all the hallmarks of a last minute cost cutting decision by the production people.

Anyway, having failed to get the thing in, and I'm not a 7 stone weakling... I removed the little bracket on the top and welded in a captive 1/4 UNF nut to the heater box to buy a bit of space. Then I cut up the front panel and made a bevelled lower edge to help it into the bulkhead aperture. This means that the front panel is now removable for access to the fan motor and heater matrix without taking the whole box out.

Now that's out of the way, I'm finishing off all the brake and the fuel pipes, and then on to the next big task of rebuilding the engine...

Managed to do 3 hours tonight. Bent up some more fuel pipe, bolted in the pedal box and connected all the pipes and got the MGF EPAS column in. My Momo wheel needed a boss from a mid 90s Honda to mate up to the column.

Next job is to run the fuel pipe to the tank, fit the rubber strips and bolt the tank in properly.