A New Winter Coat

Not much activity MG wise. The weather and wifeys constant nagging re D.I.Y list has taken priority. What days off I had was devoted to either a nice long walk in the fine weather or resting. I must admit I wasted several days doing god knows what. The hours flew by and I can't remember anything. Only being annoyed at wasting time on nothing.

The MG has a new winter coat. £15 from Argos. Its fully waterproof, fits like a dream and has elasticated corners. Ever since I took out the rear window to repair the seams and lip its been kind of vulnerable to water ingress. The Blue poly sheets I've been using had eventually become porous, kept coming loose and generally were a real pain to remove/fasten up. Not helped by the fact the giant ( Not an understatement, its about the size of a tennis court) outer blue cover was ripped to shreds, full of holes and becoming snagged on every corner of the MG. The new under cover over the rear window just sagged into the tailgate space due to the weight of rain water collected so I had to be careful how I dragged the cover off. After several times of complaining about some of the water ingress wifey suggested the Argos catalogue ( She has up to date catalogues of every consumer selection on the planet) Well, we have no money so why not dream and spend the imaginary lottery millions. I don't think I'd shop at Argos if i did though.
It seems strange to be saying "winter coat" since its the last Sunday in August and the weather this month has been rubbish. Not hot and settled at all. Generally sunny with some rain and scudding clouds & wind, changeable and average. Where oh where have the long, hot and lazy summers of my childhood gone ?
Here it is covered, as I've just finished a couple of hours between D.I.Y'ing.

Below shows the end plates of the Rubber bumper mounting removed. I intend to convert to chrome bumpers so theses must come off. Its not as straight forward as you think to convert a RB car to chrome bumpers. It now leaves the longitudinal chassis end plate open so I can chop off about 2" ( 50mm) back inside the grill opening ( to allow the fitting of a grille) of the top half, the bottom half needs only be cut back to be behind the valence when fitted. A plate is then welded to the top half to re-cover the section and a nut welded somewhere to hold the bumper bracket.


Then, the lower valence has to have its two square holes ( where the above mounts poked through) welded up.
The wings have to have two square holes filled in and new square hole cut to suit the light fitting with chrome surrounds.
If you can remember the RB cars have the lights( Indicators) integral into the bumper and are larger than chrome bumper cars.
The rear needs the pointy body extensions under the lights ( done when I fitted the rear wings yonks ago). A conversion mount can be bought cheaply to fix the mountings and bumper.

Fortunately I have most of the stuff bought in the mists of time from E-bay and collected
from various parts of the country back when I was travelling this fair isle.

Incidentally, here is a list of places I've travelled to collecting my E-bay purchases :-


Enfield . North London...............................MGB-GT purchase...............................£180
Doncaster ( S.Yorks)........LH & RH sills/castle rail/jacking points and x-member.....£35
Harlow ( Essex)..................................MIG welder.........................£60
Mitcham ( Surrey)..............................Front chrome bumper & lights.............£15
Somewhere north of Wolverhampton miles from anywhere...... rear chrome bumper ....£10
Slough (Berks).........complete roof section......£10............still in storage at former employers ?
Dewsbury ( W Yorks)...........pair doors ....£15 .......Rubbish, never used, in shed I think.
Belper (Derbys).....................doorskin..............................£ 25
Doncaster ( S Yorks ) Head gasket set....................£8
Chesterfield ( Derbys).................Chrome bumper front springs.....................£10
Liverpool (Merseyside ).........Oil cooler & pipes........£15 ( Scouser Jim collected, ex colleague)

And that's not counting the trips to MGOC (many), MGB Hive (three), Mechspec( two) & Watford MG for proper purchases with real money for NEW stuff. Or stuff bought on E-bay that's been posted ( Mostly tools but did include VW golf repair rim for wheel arch) and "other" stuff generally purchased on E-bay.
I might like to add that I am not being paid by E-bay for all this promotion. of their wonderful product. A donation would be appreciated though !

More soon.