Year: 2022

What a really fab Friday, to round off the week…

This morning we were back in Gosberton, where it was lovely to see Rodge and Dave again.

Cambelt service carried out on Rodge’s LE 500 (393 of 500) in 110. Mike Satur bell crank fitted too.

Resister pack fitted to his Trophy (in CMU).

Dave’s TF 135 (in HFN) had recently suffered a blown hose and when it came to replacing it, he noticed that the coolant pipes were very corroded, so had sourced some replacement ones and asked us to fit. Couple of awkward bolts, but everything bled through nicely and all sorted for him ready for a top down drive home in the sun.

Good natter throughout the day and we were very spoilt with cakes, scones, chocolates and a many cuppas. Baking hot weather thrown in too ☀️

Yesterday, Thursday, found us back in Halifax, as Jade was convinced the head gasket had gone again on her TF 115 (in JGY) that we had fitted in May of last year. The expansion tank cap found to be faulty and not holding any pressure at all, but as it was still under warranty we replaced the head gasket again anyway, just to be 100% sure. All found to be sound in that respect. There are a couple of further issues with the car that do need sorted for preventative maintenance, that we have highlighted. Shame not to see Jade this time as she was at work.

Wednesday was spent working on Don’s MGF at the workshop. We picked the car back up on Sunday as planned. We had the car in with us for quite a bit of work, in January, and avid readers of our blog will remember that we weren’t too happy about the head that Don had supplied, as it had been sat for quite some time, but the decision was made to go with it. But, unfortunately, long story short, as we had suspected the stem seals had evidently perished, which is common when a head has been stored for too long.

We did remove all the pistons again to check that there were no issues with the new rings etc, but all were found to be good.

So we refitted with one of our heads, swapping over the cams and all ancillaries. All back up and running lovely again. Having a bit of time on our side, we delivered the car back to Don in Trowell.

Don will continue with the restoration of what will be a really fab car, once he’s finished with it. We look forward to the progress reports and the final result.

Tuesday was spent carrying on with the work on Grahams TF 135, the list is now almost complete. MOT carried out, and now we’re just waiting for the rear window to come back from Ireland. Post to follow when all done and ready for collection.

Busy and really productive week, with so many interesting projects going on, with the people and their enthusiasm to keep these cars on the road, not just as a necessity, but a passion too.

Have a great weekend everyone. Weather forecast is looking good so hope you can get out and about and have some fun in the sun 🌞 – https://ift.tt/sYrEaAC

Phil dropped his TF 135 at the workshop on Sunday, with a list that had grown quite a bit since we last saw him, as is the way!

A lovely sunny Monday morning saw us up bright and breezy to get cracking…

Phil had thought that the clutch itself had gone, but on investigation this morning was found to be the clutch line front to back that had split, the slave cylinder had also done its time, so these were both replaced. Clutch release arm freed off too.

Braided brake hoses fitted all round, plus the rear side to side brake lines replaced.

Resister pack replaced as the blowers weren’t working on 1 & 2. One of the coolant hoses refitted.

MOT done and she’s all good-to-go, ready for collection later in the week.

More things ticked off the list of things to do on Grahams TF.

A very productive day to start off what is a bit of a jam packed week 😃✊ – https://ift.tt/LYpAzwH

Another busy one at the workshop to round off a busy and productive week…

Barry came over from Redcar to collect his MGF 1.8 mpi (GUF). Great looking car that he bought for his wife a couple of years ago and that we last saw for hydragas pump up.

Full underfloor treatment done, and minor service and check over with advisories on further work that is to be done.

Graham drove over from Warwick to drop off his TF 135 this morning and we got cracking with the list of things to do on this one this afternoon and got through quite a bit with a late finish.

Derek came over from Scunthorpe to collect his TF 135.

Weather a bit disappointing so no topless drives for anyone. 🌧

Time now for admin and looking forward to a rare day off tomorrow. Have a lovely weekend everyone, whatever you may be doing. Of course our thoughts are with the awful situation for the people of Ukraine 🇺🇦 – https://ift.tt/Bus4iar

It’s been a busy couple of days in the workshop…

Barry drove down from Redcar yesterday to leave his year 2000 MGF with us for some work. Post to follow…

David came over from Holton-le-Clay in his fab TF 135 (CEV Firefrost Red pearlescent) for replacement of wheel bearing and MOT. Couple of advisories on the MOT, which will be sorted later in the year. Good to see him again and have a chat between jobs about walks, although he didn’t go on such a big hike this time.

Kevin came over from Selby with his very well loved TF 135 (in British Racing Green) for replacement of the heater-control-valve wire, as the outer plastic section of the cable had perished and was slipping within the cable-holder. Kevin wanted a coolant flush carrying out and on running up to temperature after this was done it was found that the the thermostat was stuck open. So a new PRT (pressure release thermostat) was duly fitted, which resolved this problem. Car back up and running again at normal temperature with fans coming on and off again as they should.

Good to see Kevin again, and a date booked in for later in the year for underfloor treatment and fog-light fitting.

Work continued on Barry’s MGF, which will all be finished off tomorrow.

Bit tired now, but we did it and made enjoyable by good company, nice weather thrown in and some really great cars. ☺️ – https://ift.tt/Bus4iar

Another good day at the workshop today…

It was really good to meet Steve and his Dad, Bob who drove down from Sunderland this morning.

Steve has owned this lovely TF 135 from new, and up until recently the car has been cared for by a local chap who moved on to work in a Jag garage. Following a conversation with Susan Farley at the Northumbria MG club she pointed him in our direction. Thank you, Susan!

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner, plugs and all filters plus alternator belt all replaced this morning. The car is absolutely mint and has been very well cared for by Steve.

Really great to meet them both, and look forward to seeing them again soon in the north east, when we will be remapping the car and give it a few subtle ‘pops and bangs’.

Work all finished off on Mark’s TF 135. Couple of niggles sorted out for him and all good to go for him ready to collect.

Home in daylight, but with a stack of admin to catch up on today. Good job it’s a ready meal night! 😄 – https://ift.tt/fSrhgq7

Well that was a better day today, following a really nice weekend too…

Back at the workshop early on Saturday morning to carry on with Kevin’s Trophy, walked in to where we had left off on Friday to our abandoned tools. The rear hydragas hose duly fitted with the replacement one we had and the car is now sat absolutely spot on and looking good.

Keith came over with his friend Pete to collect his TF 160. Really great to see Keith’s reaction to the difference in sound of the engine, he was pleased it no longer sounded like a Perkins tractor. Cuppa and chat and off they went, though Keith did say he would disappoint us by not having the top down!

Jim and Karen came over to collect their TF 160. Great to have a cuppa and a chat with them before they took the car home, 4 years since the car had been driven, so it was good to see them pulling away to enjoy once more.

A lovely bright sunny morning on Sunday to greet Kevin and Amanda who drove down from Broomhill in Northumberland to collect the Trophy. Great to see them both as always, good chat and a cuppa before they headed back north.

Mark dropped off his TF 135 and Derek dropped off his TF 135.

So this morning we got cracking and replaced the head gasket on Mark’s TF and carried out the first stages on the underfloor treatment on Derek’s TF. A very productive day was had.

Can we just say here, Thank You for everyone’s lovely messages to us and comments about our grotty day on Friday, it’s really appreciated, with offers of moving bookings etc. Thankfully, we have a full week in the workshop this week to see what can be done with the camper. But, we are fortunate to have the van (trusty steed) to use in the meantime. So we will keep on keeping on 😀 – https://ift.tt/fSrhgq7

Well that was a deeply joyous day…not!

Set off nice and early this morning ready for our last call of the week in Cuddington to see Steve for cambelt service and a few other things on his Trophy. But…disaster! Our lovely camper to get us sorted after Covid and get us out working again and has been amazing and just had a new engine fitted 10k miles ago went BANG on the M62 on top of the Pennines! 😧

Call put in to the RAC and 4.5 (not bad) hours later they came and recovered us. That was one cold and noisy grass verge to wait! At least we are always prepared for the cold and wet, but still totally grim. 🥶

Absolutely top man picked us up and took us over to the workshop, where we had a chat with the company that fitted the engine, watch this space…

Have to give a mention to the couple of chaps from the Highway’s agency who came to see if we were alright, really great men doing a very hard job, big thanks to them for being kind, meant a lot.

Next problem sorted, our other form of transportation, the trusty steed had been resting due to ‘Covid contingency van’ being used, but it had ran over the MOT due date, call made and huge thanks to our local MOT station for getting us sorted last minute, which meant we could get home at least.

While we were waiting for that to be done we were still not convinced with the rear spheres on Kevin’s Trophy, and so decided to take one of them off and have a look. Sure enough, our suspicions were proved right, they had also been fitted with standard front spheres and then packed out with spacers and washers. (We will do a separate feature of this issue as it’s mentioned in our previous post on this car and may be of interest to some). So, we refitted it with a Trophy rear sphere, and pumped back up and sitting correctly.

When we came to do the same on the nearside rear, found that this one wouldn’t pump up. This was found to be due to a blockage in the hydragas pipe. With it getting very late we decided to call it a day and will return to refit a replacement pipe in the morning.

Just got home now and thawing out. Feeling very dispirited. A nice welcoming meow from the cat though who was wondering where her tea was! 🐈‍⬛

Diary scoured for a day to get back over to Steve. 🧙‍♀️ – https://ift.tt/AxXWHnP

A long, but really good day, just got home, after starting off the day in Linby for some things on this fab looking TF 135 (in British Racing Green) …

New CAT and new Lambda sensor fitted as the car had just failed the MOT on emissions. The front brake lines were found to be showing signs of corrosion, so these were replaced. Rear calipers cleaned up and freed off. The re-test was due this afternoon.

Great to meet Ian, he has owned the car from new, that he bought to impress his then girlfriend and who has been his wife ever since! It’s always so good to have a nice story and history with these cars.

Some really interesting chats about what he does for a living, plus his interest in cars. One of which, we took a couple of pics of, an Opel Manta GTE in absolutely mint condition, complete with original seats. Date to be arranged to return to sort a couple of other things.

From there we trundled up the motorway to Rotherham, as Jo had got in touch about her fab TF 135, that is currently in her sister Maria’s care and who had unfortunately found that that the exhaust flexi section decided to give way, as Maria is relying on the car for her work as a carer we were glad to be able to get over and sort it for them. Lovely to see Jo, after such a long time and meet her family. Date to be arranged to return for a couple of other things.

A visit to the workshop on the way back, for a few bit and pieces, food shop and now home, tea in the oven and admin time ensues! – https://ift.tt/rexBEpa