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MG MGA - Fall drive pics

I haven't been on the BBS in years but recently pulled the unfinished and in primer MGA out of storage where it was hibernating for the last three years, rebuilt the engine and got it rolling in time to get out for some nice fall drives before winter sets in here up north, so I thought it would be fun to post some fall drive pics and see if anyone else wants to post any of their fall drive pics before we might be inclined to put the cars up for the winter. I guess this would be Spring drive pics for all you down under. I will probably have plenty of technical questions for all of you now that I am actually driving the MGA. All systems have been rebuilt and a temporary wiring harness has been installed and all is working fine except headlights are not wired yet so first question: relays or no for standard sealed beam lights.
Thanks,
Matt
M Grover

Matt, relays are not necessary for the sealed beams, but some people opt for doing that.
Art
Art Pearse

Properly installed, the relay will increase the brightness slightly. I ran a 10 or 12 gauge from the main power source (other than right from the battery connection) to the front of the car, installing the relay under the slam panel. From there, I ran 14 gauge wire to each head light bulb. I also set up another relay that will turn on the low beams of the headlights through a relay, the first time I hit the brakes, giving me daylight headlights. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

Thanks Art and Dave. Since the wiring will be all new I think I'll install relays in case I upgrade to more powerful headlights in the future and maybe to save the old original light and dip switches. I'll take your advice on the wire gauge Dave.

A few images follow including one of the freshly rebuilt engine.

M Grover

Image 2

M Grover

Image 3

M Grover

Image 4 - completed engine

M Grover

Matt

Good to see photos. Is car a Deluxe or ex Twin Cam? By the way I ran 75 watt sealed beams on standard wiring for years without problems.

Paul
Paul Dean

Matt

Nice car and engine bay.

Most of us vary from originality so I am not out to pick holes. However, I am interested in the odd routing of the choke cable. It looks a slightly tortuous route, going down through the horizontal shelf in front of the heater blanking plate. The more direct route (less bendy) is through the vertical firewall, No.20 in the photo. I can't quite make out from the photo if the current hole has a grommet. You will discover that you need to blank off or grommet all holes otherwise you can get a lot of cockpit fumes.

Cheers

Steve


Steve Gyles

Thanks Steve for the diagram of where all the cables and wires are meant to go. I think my picture's perspective hides where the choke cable is actually going to, which is through #21 in your diagram. The pic shows it curving around the fuel line then going through a clip on the shelf attached to the blanking plate then on to the fire wall. The black grommet looking thing is a piece of hose wrapped around the cable to prevent chafing on the fuel line.
Paul, the car is actually a standard 1600. Engine was rebuilt 030 over so now a 1622 and with a ported and polished head really goes! Wheels were standard disk but were not very round so I found that 1986 and earlier Saab 5" wide steel wheels have the same bolt pattern and offset. I took the Saab wheels and welded a threaded tube to the centers and put on spinners to look like twin cam wheels and they actually run smooth and straight at speed! They also seem like much better built wheels than MG wheels. The car was such a basket case when I got it years ago I figured anything I did to it was better than the way it was.
M Grover

Matt

Brilliant. I can see that now - thanks. Just expanded the photo. It seems an unnecessary right angle bend. The normal is to go from the blanking plate area straight to the carb bracket.

I am guessing you are already familiar with Barney's site as you have had the car in restoration for a few years now. If not, he has masses of data that will help you immensely: http://www.mgaguru.com/

Another good reference book many of us use is Clausager's Original MGA by Anders Ditlev Clausager. It has recently been re-issued and costs around $30 + p&p.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Just about Fall. 6th September in Normandy

Lindsay Sampford

Here in the Lowcountry of South Carolina we have an extended Fall season. Here's one of Melon with her '62 MGA at the Hilton Head Motoring Festival last weekend (11/4/17)

KR Doris

Were those leaves on the ground before you parked your car there Lindsay, or did they fall as a result of you overshooting the parking bay and driving into the tree?😁

I have attached a picture of Lindsay being presented with the "Pride" of ownership award for his lovely car at last Augusts MGA Day event at Croome Court. Lindsay was taken aback by this but the committee liked his car a lot, commenting that it was "an honest UK car that hadn't been over-restored". Well done Lindsay.

Is the picture relevent to this thread?
Well yes, they do say that "Pride" comes before the "Fall" (or something like that😁)
Colyn


Colyn Firth

My 17 year old son giving it a go yesterday, and doing his best to not look proud;)

M Grover

Very interesting treatment on the front Matt. I altered mine over 40 years ago when I could not afford a new bumper!

Photo shows an air scoop below, directs air over the oil cooler mounted below the gravel tray.

Barry.


Barry Gannon

And another, taken in 2012, with Steve Gyles helping fit new K&N filters.

Barry

Barry Gannon

This thread was discussed between 24/10/2017 and 13/11/2017

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