The MGF(ree)

Great news :tada: :broon:


:beer: :beer: Steve

Well, I'd gotten there finally and so I had a soft top to drive during the last of the sunny weather (it was early September by this point).

Impressions were good in so much that it was tight to drive with no ominous noises. It started and stopped as it should and the kids had fallen in love with it.

I did a few post-MOT fixes/bodges as well.

The wheel nuts were those awful capped ones that, once the chrome cover drops off, fit no known socket size.



A look through eBay found me some solid replacements with the correct pitch and taper (for a Ford focus). There turned up a few days later and after a fight removing the old ones that involved Urwin nut removers and other implements of destruction, the new ones were fitted.





Then I moved on to a problem that had stopped me being able to drive the car;



The right-hand exhaust hanger had dropped out of its knackered rubber mount;



I bodged it by spacing the hanger on the other side out with a jubilee clip to hold it in the other end;



I then ordered a replacement hanger with stainless fittings that is still unused in the glovebox to this day.... I will do it this summer, promise!

Then the battery called time so a new one was bought and fitted;



The MG then did a fair amount of commuting during the Autumn which it did in fine style and reliability. It was then that our house extension was started, and needing a clear drive way, the MG and my Puma had to go and live at the inlaws for a while.

During the Winter, other than the odd run out, my old Subaru resumed duties and the MG retired until sunnier weather.

Sadly, due to the building work and other stuff being stored, The MG never got the garage to live in and had to fend for itself on the drive in all weathers until March.

Not ideal....

So the MGF(ree) had spent the Winter outside in the worst of the British weather. By March, I was feeling pretty guilty so set about inspecting how it had fared. First off, the interior was pretty manky and mould had started growing on the leather and the door cards. Luckily, it was an easy job to clean it off and make it habitable.

Next, I turned to the sills which looked a little crispier than I remembered. A poke revealed that they were still fairly sound but had deteriorated.



The front wing hadn't gotten any worse;



When I got to the front of the sills, the driver's side had a scab I didn't remember being there in the Autumn. A poke about with a screw driver revealed the following;





Oh dear! Still could be worse and the Spring involved a great deal of open-top driving as often as possible.

I'm lucky enough to work near the Ashdown forest, so one pleasant lunchtime in May, I found a likely spot and did a bit of a photo shoot!

If you go down to the woods today....

Well done that man for saving the car . From time to time I tell my wife about all things ' tbar' and told her about your tale . Her reaction ' was the hair cut any good ' :spank: Keep up the good work . John.

Really enjoying this tale... :yesnod: :clap:

Cheers! I like doing car threads, if nothing else than for motivation from other like-minded souls!

Moving on, I decided to start doing a few bits and bobs to improve the general appearance. First of all was the ratty filler cap;

First I rubbed it down to remove the silver paint and the base coat;



Quick polish (not my finest effort admittedly) and lacquer;



And reassembled;



And on the car (missing a hex-head that needed gluing back on);



The other thing that had been bothering me was the mesh on the intakes which had gone white and corroded, so I removed the side grills;



and set to it with some satin black and a child's paint brush;



Took a while but they looked a lot cleaner afterwards;



I've yet to tackle the front grills, but they are on my to-do list!

More miles were done until an issue stopped play...

I love these type of threads,its great reading about about the work being done to save our cars,good luck with it :clap:

I had agreed to drive over to Funky Gold Patina to get a quote for the sills to get a proper going over before Autumn set in so, asked Mrs. ArchBishop to move my daily so I could get the MG out. However, as I climbed aboard, she asked whether the car should be wetting itself on the driveway...

Clearly the radiator had decided it had done its time. I ordered a new one from eBay and set to removing the old one using a guide on a forum (may have been this one). First I raised the car on axle stands and clamped the coolant pipes near the radiator and then removed the radiator top cover. The two awkward bolts in the middle behind the MG badge gave a little bit of trouble, but nothing too bad. However, when I came to remove the coolant pipe clips, I found that they'd been installed so that the release tabs were on the underneath. Access was made worse by this car having been spec'd with aircon meaning less room for hands or manoeuvring. The top hose clip eventually gave in to some slippery spray-lube and a huge pair of mole grips enabling me to rotate the release tabs to the top, making removal a cinch. However, the bottom hose clip was, frankly, the spawn of Satan as the tabs were tucked right into the corner of the radiator space.

Eventually, I decided that it had drawn enough blood for one day and slept on the problem. Going back the next morning with fresh eyes and plasters, I managed to twist my hands with a set of pliers in from under the car and pull it off.

Radiator removed!



The old radiator was totally shot and I was surprised it had lasted this long!

Back;



Front not great!



I removed the fans, gave them a clean up (no point really other than it makes for nicer photos) and fitted them on the new radiator;



I then moved my attention to the state of the radiator cross-member which looked a little scabby;



However, a bit of a clean up and it actually turned out to be in pretty good condition, so I gave it a quick coat in Hydrate 80 to keep it that way;



After the pain of removing the old one, fitting the new radiator was dead simple. I installed some new jubilee clips and made damn sure that they were easily accessible from the top!



After that, I filled the radiator slowly from the bleed screw until I couldn't get any more in and then removed the clamps on the coolant pipes. topped up again and then ran the car to ensure that there was no air in the system. Surprisingly there wasn't and the radiator reached temperature evenly. Put everything back together and triumphantly closed the bonnet.... A good job done I thought until I tried the now non-working bonnet release handle.....