Year: 2021

It was supposed to be a day off…

But this lovely MGF needed to be reunited with its owner in Ilford, Essex. After a couple of quotes from couriers they were a tad out of both of our budgets so we returned her ourselves, and glad to do so.

Great to meet David finally, after all these months and he was pleased to see POKO safely returned with a new lease of life. Respray is planned next and she will be back to full spec (along with her mods). Look forward to seeing the finished result.

We were supposed to be collecting another from Col, in Braintree, to share the travel costs, but unfortunately he had broken his shoulder! So we made our way back home.

At least my TF 160 gets to spend a couple of nights inside the workshop, with some company, after failing her MOT on Friday! Oops, my poor neglected car will get some attention tomorrow, while we continue work on the steppy and get prepped for the week ahead in London.

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Rough Luck Racing Facebook page.

As good progress had been made on the stepspeed and the welding on TF 135 was complete we went on a relatively short trip down to Clarborough near Retford this morning, where it was lovely to meet Mike.

Mike had previously owned from new back in the day a MGF, but unfortunately it had been written off after only 5 months, and ever since then he wanted to find a, near as possible replacement, and he found himself this one a few months ago. So we were asked us to come and carry out a full cambelt service. Including removing a squirrels old nest and belongings!

Mike had changed the underfloor coolant pipes and was having a problem with bleeding the system and getting the required amount of coolant in. We found there to be an air lock, which was stubborn to remove, system all bled, ran up to temperature and radiator getting nice and hit, which it previously hadn’t been.

Fab looking car, and low mileage which had obviously been very well cared for with the previous owner. New exhaust to be sourced and the back window is currently getting sorted with GE Fittings in Ireland, then the car will be back to full spec again.

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Brake upgrade on Sean’s TF 135 (in Sonic blue) this morning, nice to do some more work on this lovely looking, very low mileage car.

Sean had treated himself to some new wheels and wanted the bigger brake kit to go with them. So we fitted a TT brake upgrade and 2 pot AP calipers. Looks really good.

Cracked on with the list on the steppy we have in, some very stubborn bolts, but making good progress.

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Peter had treated himself to a TT Mk 7 stainless exhaust and asked if we could fit it when we got chance, so as we were supposed to be in Scotland this week we’ve been trying to catch-up on a few things. So we went over to Morley this morning and fitted it for Peter, looks very tidy and sounds really good.

We then went over to Yeadon and lovely to meet Lorna and her husband, whose very tidy TF 135 had decided to lock them out a couple of months ago.

The battery had gone flat, which affects the Pektron units and totally immobilises these models, and this one wouldn’t even allow entry via the key in the lock.

So we went over armed with a new ECU Pektron and key fob set, but we managed to gain entry and re-sync the system, and much to their joy the car sparked into life. Very nice looking car, date to be arranged to return for some other things.

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Stotfold this morning for work on Daniel’s fab looking MGF.

Daniel thought he was looking at head gasket replacement, but fortunately for him after pressure testing the system it was found to be a blown expansion tank. Unfortunately, we had used our last bottle from stock last week so a quick nip to Brown & Gammons, who were nice and handy 10 minutes up the road.

We also replaced the underfloor coolant pipes with stainless as Daniel’s were a bit on the crusty side. 52 mm throttle body fitted. Hydragas pump up. Crank sensor looked at as there were 2 errors showing, sensor was taken out and cleaned and couldn’t find any issues with it, refitted and faults didn’t reoccur. New bottle fitted and car nicely up to temperature and behaving.

Pleased to have got Daniel sorted as the car is needed for work. Car looks great, just needs the grills and things fitting when he gets chance.

Bit of a nippy one, but managed to get sorted before the rain really set in.

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A snowy, but sunny morning in Altrincham today for more work on Karl’s lovely Trophy…

Head gasket replacement carried out, along with replacing the underfloor coolant pipes with stainless steel ones as they had previously been replaced with some very poor quality ones as part of this car’s ‘restoration’ some years ago.

The gasket that was used was a copy if the new N series gasket, that unfortunately for Karl, had failed on cylinders 2, 3 and 4. However, we did notice that the gasket had also been fitted with silicone sealant, which can’t have helped.

Car now running lovely and smooth. Good to see Karl again (at distance).

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What a busy week that was, didn’t even get chance to do a daily blog! So here’s a weekly one instead…

Monday was spent at the workshop, on Paul’s TF 135, he wanted us to check over to make sure that it was viable to spend money on. We found it to be a very sound car and well worth keeping on the road. Head gasket replacement and cambelt service carried out, radiator replaced, heater control valve replaced and a few other bits sorted.

A visit to Peterborough on Tuesday as ‘Meg’, Simon’s TF 135 was having some issues, on investigation we found it be a faulty alternator, so we replaced the regulator and all good to go again.

Back in the workshop on Wednesday for head gasket replacement and cambelt service on Arif’s striking looking TF 135 that he had inherited from his father.

A very windy day on Thursday near Barnsley, where it was great to meet Pete for cambelt service on his very tidy TF 135. Date booked in to the workshop for some further work later in the year.

So that brings us to today, and a trip over to Binbrook, near Market Rasen, for head gasket replacement and cambelt service on Dan’s fab looking TF 135 that he had recently acquired from a friend. Date booked in at the workshop later in the year for some other work.

The first few days of the week were originally booked out, and had been for many months, for a whole list of things, but we found out last minute that the car had been sold and the owner hadn’t let us know. At least we managed to get through some more of our waiting list and make some others happy!

Storm Kristoff was a bit of a challenge at times 🥶

Back in to the workshop tomorrow and Sunday to finish off the welding on the TF 135, and to make a start on the next big job on the Stepspeed we have in, that made it’s way from Scotland.

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A very busy and a very cold week, and a bit of a change to what was planned.

A localish call on Monday to meet Ruben (beyond the garden wall!) who had taken on an MGF that had been stood for 12 years, as a project during the first lockdown, his mum bought for him the ‘MGF Manual’ and he set about putting the car back to rights, having never worked on a car before. Absolute credit to him for what he’s done to give this car a new lease of life, not least in first removing the 7 dead rats in it! So we went over to carry out the cambelt service for him. Found the fault that he and others had been struggling to find, which on code reading was found to be the cam position sensor, so Ruben will be on with sorting that next. We look forward to seeing it once it’s been for it’s full respray. The interior is lovely.

The LE that we had in before Christmas was returned to Alan on Tuesday as he wasn’t able to get his train that he’d booked before new year. Great to finally give him his car back!

Our donor car finally got taken away, there wasn’t a great deal left! Many other cars have benefited from this one though that wasn’t viable enough to do up. So, this freed up the space for another one to save that we brought back with us.

Wednesday and Thursday spent at the workshop welding up sills on another TF. Plus sorting out the none running issue on the new ‘doer upper’ and cleaning up the carpets and seats to go back in.

Friday found us in Broseley to fit internal coolant pipes to Grant’s MGF mpi 120. Always a long fiddly job, but well worth doing as his had certainly seen better days. An interesting hose configuration found in the engine bay, which would have been causing an air lock. Correct hose duly fitted.

More work on the TF at the workshop today while we waited for a steppy to be delivered from Scotland for drive plate replacement.

Bit tight for space at the moment, but have to do what we can in these turbulent times.

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Rough Luck Racing Facebook page.