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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.

🎄🎄🎄

Pilling in Lancashire was our destination this morning for head gasket and cambelt service on another MGF in alumina. On pressure testing the system we found that the radiator was also at fault, and could have been the possible cause of the head gasket failure.

Lovely to meet Chris and Sarah who provided us with plenty of warning cuppas. Fortunately, the rain ceased and the sun came out.

Now we can actually put away the spanners for five whole days and enjoy the festive season.

What a brilliant few days with Mark and Jamie in a garage in Carshalton. Mark’s very tidy MGF 143 VVC wanted a few things doing and Jamie wanted a few pointers on his fab project.

So on ‘Big Ears’ (Mark’s car) the following was carried out; replacement of refurbished hydragas spheres, fitting of lowering knuckles all round, new drop links, Schultz underseal after wire brush and painting with anti-rust paint, minor service, fit glass rear window, heater controls replaced, fit reprogrammed ECU, fit front and rear anti-roll bar polybushes, hydragas lift.

Some time ago Jamie had bought himself a Midget (Betsy) as a project and was only 14 at the time. He is now at Brooklands college and as a project is going to transplant a k-series engine complete with a ford sierra gearbox in to it. He bought Alan’s written-off MGF 143 VVC (Peppa) in order to do this. So they had wanted Jon to help him remove the engine and impart his knowledge on how it’s done. So the pair of them set about with the removal and also advising on which bits to keep as spares etc.

They also removed the bell housing today and clutch to see how the other gearbox will fit. Ford Sierra gearbox is interesting as it has also got a full hydraulic integrated slave cylinder that’s mounted inside the bell housing and around the drive spigot. The gearbox that Jamie got has also been adapted to be a slick-shift so as not to have the old Sierra massive movement on the gearstick. From mounting the bell housing it will have to take a smaller flywheel and possibly something like a Steptronic starter motor which is mounted just underneath the exhaust manifold and alongside the engine block, rather than the starter motor being on the other side of the engine and over the top of the gearbox. We look forward very much to seeing how this develops, it’s so great seeing Jamie’s enthusiasm and it was fab watching him get stuck in with his fab set of spanners despite feeling under the weather.

Great to see Alan again on Wednesday afternoon and have a catch-up, then all of us enjoy a lovely evening with the best curry ever!

Thank you so much Mark and Jamie for your lovely company, enjoying lots of chats and laughs, accompanied by festive tunes and a cracking brew!

Picked up this sorry looking car at the weekend. Andrew & his father had taken it on as a project following a rear side impact which had bent the subframe etc. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the time to do it so called upon us to help.

We swapped out the rear subframe and all the ancillaries. Whilst we had the engine out cambelt, water pump, tensioner and alternator belt replaced. Engine and subframe back in and everything connected back up.

Full wire brush and Schultz to the underneath. Underfloor pipes replaced. New battery fitted, discs and pads all round. Spheres drained of old manky fluid and refilled with fresh. Clutch bled. Two new wheels fitted, with a big thank you to Jason at MG & Alpha Spares for getting these out to us with little notice!

Andrew had sourced a new rear bumper and had it sprayed to the correct colour. This was fitted this morning. MOT carried out this afternoon with a pass we’re pleased to say.

Lots of bits done that weren’t on the original spec, it’s just what we like to do. Full valet and all nooks and crannies cleaned out and polished up. Car now returned to its former glory and given a new lease of life. With a very low mileage let’s hope it will clock up many more over the years to come.

All loaded up this evening ready to return to Aike in the morning.

What a really interesting and enjoyable weekend spent in Dudley with Rob & Jane carrying out the mechanical part of a full restoration of ‘Nemo’, a pre-production MGF 143 VVC (special development vehicle as can still be seen marked on the subframe). Fantastic bit of history involved with this car, that was originally in Volcano but had been painted red. Rob & Jane will be getting a full respray back to original colour. It’s not known if this was actually resprayed at the factory or by someone else. There are so many subtle differences on this car that never went into production. Different coloured and different connectors for the wiring. Mounting bolts slightly different, not captive nuts, but standard. Great to see the original fitters signatures and dates even on internal parts.

We carried out head gasket, cambelt service plus general service, full clutch replacement, stainless steel engine bay pipes fitted, underfloor stainless steel coolant pipes, alloy radiator, refitted alternator, refitted the ECU, refitted exhaust (temporarily to run it up). It was also found that the underfloor coolant pipes one of the brackets had been welded about quarter of an inch in the wrong place so they had missed out the centre bolt to compensate, these were originally fitted from the factory.

Thanks to Rob & Jane for your lovely company and many cuppas! Really great to meet you both.