My mods so far: stage 2

Arrived back home at 02.00 this morning from my trip to Biarritz and Madrid. I met the "wizard of oz" (Ariel) and he was kind enough to show me around his workshop and his MG TF (which is currently undergoing some more changes and needs a new windscreen). After some sleep, it was straight down to to the body shop with my new kit. Ariel did an amazing job, the quality and fit of the kit is really high and is a real testament to Ariel's skill. So far just checked the fitting and offered the various parts up. Everything fits like a glove, all the mounting points are clearly marked and it will be a real piece of cake to fit. Everything needs prepping for painting but hopefully i can take some pics to put up on here later this week. The journey itself went really smoothly. My only real complaint/surprise we had the 300 euros it cost me in toll fee's. the highpoint of the journey was the road from Biarritz down to Madrid which was full of twists, turns, descents and climbs and at least 10 tunnels through the mountains.

Pleased to hear you got back safely, the tolls do add up but if you do the trip again there are various stretches where you can come off the AutoRoutes and run parallel at almost the same speed, it also breaks up the journey.

The Spanish motorways are much more interesting than the French ones, the Italian ones east of Monte Carlo are even better. I'm sure I know the tunnel pictured but why is that bumper in the back of the car?

talkingcars wrote: but why is that bumper in the back of the car?

It's not a bumper, it's a cup holder :lol:

The bumper was in the back of car because that was the only space we had left after putting everything else in >.< So the fitting work started today. The back bumper was already off having been sold on ebay earlier.






its not attached by any bolts or anything on this pic but it gives you an idea how its going to look. the "arch" comes out around 5 cm from the body

After that it was time to remove the front wings and the front bumper. More or less all the bolt heads snapped off on the wings when i was trying to remove them, but with a bit of perseverance and a liberal amount of brute force, i managed to get it done.






again the front wing isn't bolted on in these pics, but the fit is good and it shouldn't be a problem. Thats where i left it for today. More pics to come as and when

What fantastic views.. and 'wow' at the commitment you've shown. I'm sure that it'll look great when it's all done. Great project. :broon:

Looks like a great trip, if you've got time to enjoy it of course!

Kit looks interesting and very well made. Look forward to see how it progresses

Denial wrote: The bumper was in the back of car because that was the only space we had left after putting everything else in

I was confused as I thought you were taking a van.

Looks like a vectra or passat to me.

So the guys at the body shop wanted to surprise me yesterday by test fitting the kit to my car. As you can see from the pics the fit is pretty much spot on already (this is with no alterations having to be made so far). This is by no means the finished result, and we (me and the body shop guys) have some ideas for changes we are hoping to implement. Wheels are going to be the key to the final look and as yet i am still undecided on what to get. In other news, i want to say big thank you to the guys at mg-rover mechanics. They came up on Wednesday and installed my new 52 mil throttle body, new cam belt, new water pump (old one already had a small leak which we found when we took it off), new spark plugs and oil change/oil filter. Really nice people to deal with and excellent work done. They'll be coming up again to install my new Direnza radiator, new under water pipes in the coming weeks. Once all the work to the underneath is done we can crack on with the kit and then paint.

Having known Ariel for several years now I knew his attention to detail was high - however the preliminary fit looks amazing! I guess he's had time to perfect things as he's been through a very modified F and now the TF.

Can't wait to see it blended and painted - it's gonna be awesome!

How are you gonna get the wheel track out so far without stressing the bearings? Spacers would put quite a strain on them I fear... and knowing how often they go I'd be potentially looking to extend the track in some other way? Unless you could get a really big offset wheel... maybe I'm talking rubbish there though!

adamelphick wrote: How are you gonna get the wheel track out so far without stressing the bearings? Spacers would put quite a strain on them I fear... and knowing how often they go I'd be potentially looking to extend the track in some other way? Unless you could get a really big offset wheel...

I agree, It does look good!
I was thinking much the same about the wheel bearings even serious offset wheels would put the same loading on the bearings as the weight would still be hanging all the way outboard, not only that but then the suspension and steering geometry will be affected too.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but I suggest some serious consideration need's to be given to these potential problems.
How does Ariel fill out those wheel wells? That could be a good way to start.

like it!