Author: Jon & Claire

Leamington Spa this morning for work on a BRM. What a brilliant piece of history associated with this car. Sam had recently bought it at auction quite by chance as had been after something completely different. The car hadn’t run since 2012 as had been a museum exhibit, and prior to that was in a private car collection of over 500 vehicles. So, we were asked to go and do a cambelt service and pre-emptive head gasket replacement, as Sam is planning a tour of Europe. Sam now works with the lady who actually did the original upholstery as one of her first employments. The interior of these cars is amazing, and so comfortable, akin to a Chesterfield sofa! Absolutely immaculate throughout, with the original jack kit still in it’s cellophane, a rare parcel shelf as an added extra plus a teddy bear!

Prior to starting additional oil was put directly into the head, over the cams and lifters, and then the engine was turned over by hand a few times, then cranked, with no ignition and then fired up, to make sure, with it being stood for so long there was plenty of oil around the vital parts. After starting, it was found that a new alloy throttle body, that had been fitted prior, had not been set up correctly. While it would run with a slight bit of accelerator, it wouldn’t tic over on its own. We then manually set up the throttle body and reset the idle air control valve, it then sat ticking over nicely at 900 rpm.

Great to meet you Sam, look forward to seeing you and the car at ‘Pride of Longbridge’ in April.

We then continued a bit further south, to Broadway, to see Liz and Marc for the annual service and some other things on ‘Little Red’. Liz had reported a couple of issues, one of which on code reading proved to be the Lambda sensor, so we replaced this. When the car was taken for the MOT the tester noticed a slight coolant leak, so on pressure testing the system it was found to be from the thermostat. So we replaced the thermostat housing with a new one. The minor misfire was traced to a dodgy HT lead so this was replaced too.

Thank you so much for your lovely hospitality, plus you made Jon a happy man with bacon butty and chocolate cake! We look forward to seeing you and Little Red again in a few weeks time at ‘Friends Round London’.

Should be home for about midnight. Bit foggy now on the M1.

GTM Libra k-series 143 VVC kit car was interesting to work on yesterday morning. Great to meet Jim who had asked us to carry out cambelt service.

Really good to see how another vehicle manufacturer has different approaches to mounting the engine. The whole rear of the car is formed into a triangular box section using the engine itself to make up part of the frame.

We also noticed that they used MGF front hubs in the rear. It has great little features such as a rear clam shell with an engine window and a removable roof panel that can be stored behind the seats.

The whole car only weighs just over 800 kg.

Desborough was our first call this morning and great to see Marcus again for full cambelt service on his TF135. We were due to go in March but Lorraine asked if we come a bit earlier as the alternator had completely seized, snapping the alternator belt. Fortunately, no further damage done! New alternator fitted. Had a bit of soaking, was a tad chilly but at least everything behaved itself and we soon got thawed out in the trusty steed en route to the next call.

From there we went back to Roger’s MGF in Northampton to change the heater matrix that had sprung a leak. System bled and back up and running nicely again.

We received a phone call first thing this morning regarding the Rover 45 that we had done the head gasket on a couple of days ago, saying that the car was misfiring. So, for our own peace of mind we tagged it on to the end of the days work so ‘popped’ down to Amersham, where it had been driven to work. After code reading and listening to it misfiring, the customer admitted it was no where near as bad as it had been. We narrowed it down to coil pack number 1. It is quite common with coil packs when they go when warm, they tend to run a lot more rough than on cold starting. As a precaution, we also changed the full set of plugs, together with replacement coil pack. Instantly ran a lot smoother. Bit of a longer day than anticipated but that’s what we do!

Bit of a late start also due to massive hold up on the M1 this morning. Had a wave and a hello from Mick Welch whilst stuck though, great to have a chat at the services, look forward to seeing you at Blythe services for the run down to FRL 😀

Great to receive a visitor at ‘Norris Garage’ this morning and lovely to meet Peter. He had recently bought a TF135 and wanted us to carry out a health check and discuss any issues that needed addressing if any.

Couple of bits needing doing and date booked in to get everything done and make the car sound.

You’ve got a good one there Peter. Sorry we were late! Hope you had a good topless run back to Leeds.

A few more bits completed on the steppy we have in, not too much more to do now and then all complete ready for return to its owner.

Absolutely brilliant service from Steve and Taryn at Black Sheep Customs. What great neighbours to have at the workshop. Their attention to detail and hard work really shows. Can highly recommend them.

Thank you, to you both for putting the finishing and much needed touches to the TF. ‘Madam’ looks stunning!

New decals arrived today! Bit of a modification to them, which looks great. Sorry to everyone that we didn’t have them on stock for, if you could send me a message I will get them posted out to you. Still waiting for the Chrome ones.

A nice little article in this months Classics magazine, courtesy of Simon Goldsworthy. It was an interesting and enjoyable day working on his lovely looking TF135.

🎄🎄 MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄 🎄

We would like to wish each and everyone of you a truly great festive season, wherever you are and whatever you may be doing, and to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you for your support throughout 2019.

It really has been such a great year, with many adventures throughout the U.K. and this year as far as Mallorca. We enjoyed seeing our overseas visitors from Norway, Ireland and meeting new ones from Sweden.

We were fortunate to make it to quite a few of the MG and other car events and have some fun. It was also so great having our first trade stand, which was at the Harrogate MG club’s annual show at Pateley Bridge.

We are also so pleased to have taken on our workshop at Holme-on-Spalding-Moor which has, so far, we’re very relieved to say, been a success, with quite a few projects completed, others in progress and many more booked in for next year.

Health and prosperity to all for 2020,

Our thanks & warmest wishes,

Jon & Claire.

🎄🎄🎄