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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Sebring Kit

Hey, Ive got a 79 Roadster and Im almost finished building a bored and stroked BOP motor (289 cubes!). I am tryin to build what they call a G Machine, Horsepower and handling at the same time. I am trying to find a good quality Sebring set, preferably, one made of steel, not fiberglas, if thats possible. If metal isnt available, I dont mind the full front fenders but I would like to find full rears(?) if possible. I dont like the idea of bonding on little flares to a metal fender. I wouldd like to fit 16's or possibly 17's under the fenders with low profile tires and a different suspension than the antiquated one under there right now. Any one out there know of anything like this? Thanks.
Jarrod Hills

Jarrod,

A quick fix - RV8 Front Suspension and crossmember appox £1,500 or Coil over and crossmember both with 4pots - IRS from Hawk Cars or Maidstone Motorsport with selection of Cossie ratio's and LSD approx £2,500, with boots of at least 215.

Shipping costs may be a pain.

Paul
Paul

Jarrod, You can successfully bond glas to metal guards. I used the system I am about to describe 15 years ago to bond MGA glas guards to the main body tub and it still shows no sign of cracking. First clean the steel down. Then mix up some marine araldite and liberally apply it to the facing surfaces (steel body and fibreglass guards) and bolt or rivet together. Wipe any excess glue up and let it cure. Now get a drill and drill 3/16" holes in both the fibreglass guard and the steel body every 1" - 2". The holes should be close to the joint - say 1/4" in from the edge. Now lay 4" woven glass cloth on the join and apply resin (the resin will go into the holes and help lock everything together. Put 3 layers on and increase the width of the tape as you go (this just feathers the glass in to the steel). After this has cured you can finish off the body as per normal. I would contact a boat building supplier and tell him you are bonding steel to fibreglass and need a strong adhesive.
regards
mark
mark mathiesen

Are there any pictures available for these suspension systems? I would like to design a system but if I can buy one, that would be easier. Thanks
Jarrod Hills

Jarrod,

The MG Owners sell both front suspension systems, the coil over system is used on the V8 Supersports of which there were about 5 articles in EMG - you can get access to these via whats new about Jan this year and late last year. The advantage of this is that you can adjust camber and castor to suit, wheras the RV8 is probably more a tourer set up.

The rear suspension you can obtain via Hawk cars in the UK or Maidstone Sportscars who were developing their own system both come with rear discs. I will have to dig out phone no.s.

Although antiquated the B systems still works and a traction control link will soon be on market which allows you to adjust rear roll axis and can certainly handle 300 and a big plus bhp and torque.


Paul
Paul

Are there any websites explaining these suspension systems? I tried Hawk cars and it is just a giant brochure and no dice with maidstone. I am trying, as I said earlier, to build a G machine and a one of a kind and I think my 300 horse motor and a trick suspension will do the job.
Jarrod Hills

I have seen something similar to a Sebring modification on some pics of US MGBs on the web but it is more subtle. Does anyone know what it is or have the owners done their own thing?

Alan
Alan Boother

Jarrod,

The standard B system works even with 300plus bhp.

The problem with rear is tramp which can be cured with anti tramp bars. There is also a new product available soon-traction control links whereby you can adjust roll centre for rear. The king pins may be old design but only really need regular greasing and you can add negative camber via wishbones.

If you go racing you may need uprated halfshafts but these are obtainable gun drilled.

Paul
Paul

Alan, I think you're talking about a Huffaker flare kit. I don't know if they still make them. I agree, they are much more subtle than a Sebring-style kit, which to my eye looks really odd esp. on roadsters from certain angles. The flares are just comically huge.
Ted

Alan
My car has Huffaker flares on the front, reshaped flares (originally for a Datsun 510) on the rear. They are more subtle than the sebring flares. There are some pics on Larry Embrey's site. I dont know if the flares are still avalible though, I bought mine back in 1983.

Bill bill_jacobson@hotmail.com
bill jacobson

Bill Guzman offers Huffaker fenders which I'm pretty sure are made of steel.
Here is a link to his website:
http://hometown.aol.com/jgu1744/Guzmanhomepageindex.html
Hope this helps.
Mario Funk

Saw the site but the picture is quite small of the green B. Looks nice though. Can't quite make out the rear - is it round arched or square'ish?

Alan
Alan Boother

Alan
I'm not sure who's car that one is.Mine is red. Try www.embreyfamily.com then click on MGB pages, then click on MGB photos, then click on V8 conversions, from there you'll see the guys names listed with the cars.
Bill
bill jacobson

I have Bill Guzman's (Huffaker's) flares on my B and they are fiberglass. My fronts are round arched and the rears have a hint of a corner at the upper right and left looking at them directly from the side, i.e., not a perfect semi-circle. I'm not sure they were meant to be that way, just the way they came out.
Bob Fish

Jarrod
Try http://www.hawkcars.co.uk/mgb/index.html for the suspension systems available from Hawk/NG cars. Their front set up was fitted to the MGOC SuperSports.
Geoff
Geoff King

The samples I've seen have slight variations so are probably not from the same kit. All the same this style I'll refer to as Huffaker is very nice. I think I prefer the rear arches to slightly cover the wheel and be "squarer".

When the time comes to the body work I think I'll try something like that on my car.
Alan Boother

Hi Jarrod,
Bill Guzman is also working on suspension items that sound great. I also showed a few items of Doug Jacksons of British Automotive at MG 2001.
Talk to both Bill and Doug about what they have and what they are prepping.
Bill's link was already listed, so I'll just list Dougs:

http://www.mgbmga.com

he is reccomended by V6 owners... (yup, reccomended even by V8ers!)

He sells very good composite leaf springs, anti tramp bars and other items. We use them on our 3.4L SFI car and would purchase them again.
Both Doug and Bill have/ are going to have there very own design in coil over front susepnsion. I had the display model for Doug Jackson at MG 2001 and LOVED IT!
It has extreme brakes on it and had alot of drool all over it from all the visitors that went by my booth during the show!
Anyways, ther is also IRS for those extreme MG B owners.

BTW: I have nothing against the V8, just not a personal preference. Loved the debate with you though.... Thankx.

As far as pics of the coil over, i am not sure if he has any... I have a few pics that you can just see them at my website. If you goto my website, look at MG 2001 photos and then click the link on the bottom to goto page two. There you will see on the side of some of the pics his coil over... not the best pics but i'll look to see if we have more.

Anyways, Doug or Bill.
Both good people with good products!

-BMC.
Brian Mc Cullough

Hi All,
I've put a similar posting in "Humps and Bumps". Anyone else care to post photos or URLs of their work?

Cheers Alan
Alan Boother

Thanks Brian, Hi Bob F.
The front end kit that we have been designing has CNC machine single knucles with bolt joints, this comes from racing suspensions. We found via a model that regular A arms tend to flex and it's compensated by building the A arms thicker thus increasing the unsprung weight. The only part that it's used from the MG is the spindle, everything else is new.

At present we are testing the design on the computer.
I am hoping to keep the price under $900 minus the brakes and with an option of fully adjustable and adjustable CNC coil overs. Will have pictures availble soon on our new web page.
I am retired now so I can play in the garage designing new items for MG's.
Bill Guzman

This thread was discussed between 30/10/2001 and 14/11/2001

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