MGF to TF Sub Frame Conversion

Update time...

Its been a while but lots been done,

Painted the subframe with synthetic CMU Enammel, looks great so far

stripped the hubs and got a friend to press new bearings into place and all assembled with a good coat of red oxide and gloss black enammel

and I was given a lathe!

Takes up a lot of room but worth it, for making poly bushes...

Lots of ancillary bits and bobs cleaned up and painted... new wishbones purchaced from MGF n TF Bitz, New upper ball joints and new nuts and bolts from Rimmer, I have assembled the front subframe but waiting spax shock absorbers to finish it all off...

Not the best picture but better one when its being fitted...

In the mean time, I have got the car off the floor and started stripping the front end down ready for a complete restoration of the underside ready for the new subframe

Pics a little out of order but you get the idea

I stripped a lot of components to a) lighten for lifting and b) I will be painting the underside after cleaning up.

So its out with the grinder and wire brush! and yes... one of the rear mounting bolts snapped :dry: kinda half expected it.

regards

Great photo journal. I love the synthetic CMU solar red enamel. Where did you get it from?

:broon: : broon: really spot on run-down thank you :clap: :clap:

Hi, I went to my local auto paint suppliers and they can match to just about anything I believe... Inc vat, £31.00 for 1 lt, Its also quick drying which was very handy !

Thanks for the comments

Search on line for your local "car paint supplies" shop, they will be able to mix paint to your chosen paint code.

They will be able to package it however you need it i.e. for spraying, brushing, in a rattle can.

My local outlet charge about £11 for a 400mlrattle can.

IIRC there is a place in Brighton who'll do mail order.

talkingcars wrote: IIRC there is a place in Brighton who'll do mail order.

http://www.autopaintsbrighton.com/

Well... It was raining and I couldn't work on the underside of the body so I decided to recondition the calipers removed from the existing MGF subframe...

first job was to strip them down, it doesn't take to long to lay out the various components,

Then I start grinding with various wire brushes, I also used a stone wheel to remove the casting marks, just to smarted them up. Once both sets of casting were cleaned up, they had an hour in the dish washer to get the dirt residue out of all the nooks and crannies,

An hour in the dish washer warms up the castings nicely for a coat of primer paint and once dry, the first of 3 coats of VHT gloss red paint, and 30mins in the oven at 50oC (fan assisted) :lol:

In the meantime, I ordered a new rubber seal kit, bleed nipples and bolts from the www which arrived the next morning... :clap: So, I start the rebuild,

The above 2 pictures show the inner square section seal and the outer bellow seal with a liberal coating of red grease,

The above picture shows the piston in place. To fit the piston, I firstly coated the sliding surface with silicone grease, held it in place against the bellow rubber seal and used compressed air through the brake pipe connection to blow the bellows over the piston and allowed the rubber bellow seal to seat itself into the groove around the piston.

The above 2 pictures shows the sliders in place with the new seals

The finished product! I'm really pleased with the final look, they may not be 4 pots but they will look good with the new subframe... The cost; Rubber seal kit for 2 calipers £11.99, 4 bleed nipples £4.99, new set of bolts £8.00 and paint, £14.00. The whole job took about 10 hours including drying time and well worth it.

Regards
Simon

Simon h wrote:

I asked Mrs TC if I could scare her and showed her this.

She just went "NO".

This is one he'll of a good job you're doing. Great pictures too .
John .

Thanks for the thumbs up... cannot wait to start on the underside of the body, just need some good weather on my days off!

Up here in Leeds fine weather has been a tad hard to find all year ! Keep up the good work. Have you set a date / year for completion?

Hi John,

The planned list of work to be completed is:

Restoration of the underside of the body shell, fit restored front and rear MGTF sub frames
Rebuild the engine (whilst it is so accessible)
Check the wiring loom
Respray the body shell
Restoration of the interior
New hood
Restoration of the alloys

With all the above and my accountant (wife :lol: ) taken into consideration, I'm aiming for August 2019 which is also the MGF's 20th birthday :clap:

It's something I have always wanted to achieve so I will do the best I can to do the work to the best standard possible and with help from the T bar forum and local car friends I feel it is an achievable deadline.

Regards
Simon