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We headed east along the coast this morning to East Preston, where it was great to meet Alan and his fairly recent purchase of an MGF 1.6 in HFF.

Alan had previously owned MGBs in the past and really fancied a green MGF, so he bought this one, knowing it had head gasket failure, wanting to save it from being scrapped.

New head gasket duly replaced and all sludge cleared out from the system as best as can be.

Enjoyable morning in Alan’s company and meeting Lucy too.

Making the most of a fairly early finish we headed to Littlehampton to see the sea and partake of some seaside delights, hotdog and doughnuts (well Jon did!) Shame Mike had headed off to the MG & Triumph show this morning, otherwise we would have met up for a cuppa! – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

What an unexpected and enjoyable end to a busy day… more on that later…

We headed over to Southampton from our digs in Fareham for clutch replacement, on a TF 135, this morning. Good to meet Stephen and Ianto. The clutch hadn’t actually gone as such, but Stephen could feel it was on its way out, and the car was becoming an unpleasant drive for him.

New clutch kit fitted. The release arm had seized up too, taking out the seals on the slave cylinder, release arm duly freed off and new seals fitted to the slave cylinder.

We then headed a few miles, along the road, for the annual service on Mark’s MGF 120 mpi (in Copperleaf), shame not to see Mark this time, but lovely to see Joanne, who welcomed us with a much needed cracking brew! Thank you, both for your order of the polos and baseball caps.

We had a message from Leigh Crane, owner of a very good looking TF 135, who lives not far from where we are staying, and who had wanted to meet up with us at some point whilst in the area.

The ideal opportunity presented itself this evening, with a car meet at Lock Heath. We quickly got ourselves scrubbed up and headed over. So glad that we did, what an absolutely fantastic turnout of some amazing cars. Wow!

Lovely to meet Leigh, albeit it brief, thank you for the invite and thinking of us. Just so good to see people getting together again doing what they love.

Bit of a drizzly morning and not what was forecast, but at least there was a bit of a sunset to get some nice shots of some very well cared for cars.

Thanks, to Susan at, ‘Anne Thomas workwear’, for the quick delivery on the black polo, that was kindly delivered to us last week at Pateley Bridge. – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

Really nice to see Bill again in Wolston, near Coventry this morning.

Bill had thought the clutch had gone on his MGF VVC 143, but it was as we thought from his description, the slave cylinder had blown due the clutch release arm being a bit stiff.

This is quite common at the moment, due to many cars having been stood for a while during lockdown.

New slave cylinder fitted and the arm didn’t take too much to ease off. Minor service also done while we were there.

We then headed further south and are now in some lovely digs for the next few days, in Fareham, and the sun is out too ☀️ – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

John was there to meet us bright and early at the workshop this morning to see where his squeaks and clunks were coming from on his TF 160.

Found to be the front nearside wheel bearing that had gone, so this was duly replaced. Jon enjoyed the chance of getting to drive the car following all the recent upgrades that we had done.

Steve came over from Scotter with his MGF VVC 143 that had been having issues with the battery/alternator. Voltage regulator fitted and all back to running well again.

Stocked up the trusty steed ahead for our trip to the south coast and south west for a few days.

Enjoyable day having a chat and a cuppa with our visitors with a bit of sunshine thrown in too ☀️ 🫖 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

A productive and enjoyable day back in the north east again…

First call was to see Alan in Cramlington and his LE 500, that had sprung a leak from the t-piece on the engine bay coolant hoses. Unfortunately, this part is not available anywhere, despite an extensive search. So we used one of the 4 way split pieces on stock and blanked off one of the outlets.

We then went a mile down the road to see Jim, and his TF 135 that was still misbehaving when running at low revs. They’d had a good run on the NC500 recently, but during the last couple of days the issue started again. All wiring checked over to make sure there wasn’t an issue there, none found, so a new Lambda sensor fitted. Hopefully this will have resolved the issue.

Then on to Durham to fit a new ECU and 5AS alarm unit to Rod’s MGF to resolve a problem with the front fan continually running. Success! All sorted and fan now off. Shame not to see Rob again, but no point in disrupting his day at work.

Good day, great company. Thank you Jennifer for the cuppa and tray of treats, Jon thought the coffee and walnut cake was delicious! 🍰 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

Harrogate MG Club annual show.

What a fantastic day spent at this always lovely show. Brilliant seeing everyone today and having long overdue catch-ups!

Great turn out of cars despite the awful weather forecast, which wasn’t too bad in the end.

Wouldn’t be right if we had stayed clean for the day, a couple of things to sort… hydragas pump up, coolant cap failure, hose leak and a couple of diagnostics done.

The stand had many visitors, which was so great to see, observing the tables laid with carnage! Plus a place to shelter from the showers. Thanks to Tony, Maggy and Phil for looking after it while we went off to do repairs! 😀 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

Busy day at the workshop…

Mike came over from Hull to have the wing mirror refitted to his very nice TF 160 in Le Mans green. Always good to see Mike and have a chat.

Col and Anna then came over. Great to meet Col who had recently purchased an MGF 120 mpi in Aramanth and wanted us to carry out a health check. Being new to the MG scene, having driven Anna’s fairly recent purchase of a TF 135 (as featured a couple of months ago) on a run with the North Yorkshire group he was hooked!

What a fab car he’s got himself, which originally started off in Japan and then relocated to France. Look forward to seeing the car and Col again for a few things.

We then had a visit from a really fab looking Metro for hydragas pump up. Ross had contacted us on behalf of his Dad, who it turns out works on the same estate! What a stunning car, so great to see.

So that was our work day, we just felt we should add the following …

Now that everyone knows we just wanted to say how shocked we were to hear of Adrian Clifford’s decision to sell his beloved Pearl, and to leave the MG scene. Although we understand his reasons, we’re saddened to hear of this massive loss to this amazing community. You’ve only to read through all the comments on his post.

Adrian is our friend and we will of course stay in touch, but it just won’t seem right without his presence at the events and his input, help and advice that everyone has become accustomed to. Not to mention the absolutely amazing travels that he and Dawn have enjoyed over the years in beautiful and faithful ‘Pearl’.

Don’t go Adrian, you will be missed, you have more travels and adventures to come. 🖤 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

Daryl was very pleased to see us arrive this morning at his house, just near Telford, for investigation of a problem with his TF 135.

From his description we thought the engine may have hydra-locked, so we carried out our usual checks to determine what was going on. Borescope down into the pistons showed that there wasn’t any coolant in there, but evidence of something not good…

Cylinder head removed, which showed damage to 10 out of the 16 valves. All exhaust ones snapped or damaged and 2 inlet ones bent. 2 pistons damaged beyond use and 2 of the liners cracked.

Nothing that can’t be fixed though. After discussing with Daryl he wants to keep the car. There were also a few recent MOT failures, plus we found a couple of other things that need to be sorted, so a date arranged to get his car up to the workshop to get everything done.

Despite the bad news with his TF it was great to meet Daryl and have a good chat!

Another interesting and enjoyable trip, good be back home and be welcomed by a very vocal cat 😻 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI