Luv2Wrench

Amazing how much gets turned off.

Amazing works as usual, you sure don't disappoint!!

Yes, wood frame with sheetmetal wrapped around and nailed. The wood on this poor guys is 90% gone... not just rotted, but decomposition cycle complete gone. Thanks! I made the cabinet long enough to handle axles and it has worked out very well.

Working on a "basket case" restoration is like working on a puzzle without the box top to show you what it looks like. In this case it is even more difficult because I don't have all the pieces and pretty much none of the special BSF nuts and bolts. Today that changed!! I picked this guy up for a reasonable price. The engine is seized, the body is rusted through and it has no usable interior parts... but it is a great "box top" and a great supply of nuts and bolts.

Agreed, I'm not sure what the part is called either, but I've attached a picture with it circled. You might have a different model, but that 'cup' is supposed to be on the jack you have. Without that cup it will slide off every time. Granted you never trust them anyway and only use them to lift and then secure with jack stands.

JV puts his machining skills where is mouth is as well... I wouldn't have my Hendey lathe running if it weren't for him.

So there's nothing on the lap but the paste? Did you fabricate the hold downs or is that something easily purchased?

maybe he should have swapped the tow vehicle with the vehicle he was towing!!

Yep, that's the set, though I paid the full price, no special when I ordered mine. It seemed like the end of the world when I purchased them mainly because the plain steel nozzles didn't last more than a couple of hours. At the time I had no idea there was that big a difference. They mentioned one carbide was 30x longer than a ceramic but I was using the plain steel ones at the time. I didn't realize that the ceramic was way better than plain steel and thus the carbide was nearly infinitely better than the plain steel.

It really is brilliant, thanks for posting the extra pictures to give us some context!!

I think the basic problem is the Clogmaster 2000 was designed to clog. I know that when I first tried a syphon gun (Crapmaster 150) in a cabinet it was terrible, it could hardly pick up any media. I later got a nice syphon gun from TP Tools and the difference was incredible... mind you the rest of the system was unchanged. The only problem I had with it was the nozzles wore out super fast. TP Tools sold carbide nozzles for just under $450,000 (which I thought was expensive) but I've using the same nozzle for over 2 years. Out of curiosity (boredom more likely) I took the two guns apart and compared them. While the TP Tools gun had larger diameter passage ways, the biggest difference was were the passageway changed directions it was a nice radius whereas the Crapmaster 150 would have a 90 turn. The Clogmaster 2000 probably has twice the number of fittings that would need the same attention to detail in the design that likely didn't happen. I have an similar model of the Clogmaster and I took it apart (OK, I'll admit, it clogged one time too many and I beat it to pieces with a baseball bat) and it looked to me that the bottom 'T' fitting was probably where the main problem was. It seemed that one might be able to replace all the various fittings with larger diameter and it would work better. By this time, however, I had the TP Tool syphon gun and I just stuck the feed hose in a bucket and blasted away outside. Chris: What paint are you using on the chassis parts? I really like the sheen.

Joe, looking nice. Do you have a picture of the original parts that you're making? Maybe where it fits on the engine?

Nice job... took me a couple of read throughs to understand that the non-brass part was a fixture to hold the flange so you could turn it and probably other steps to come. I think I got mesmerized by the nice pictures and didn't read the captions!!

Another vote for SPI

Fantastic job and so motivating!!!

Chris, I very much thought the same. I figured I'd just poke my head in there and see what was what. I found multiple sites with great information and it really turned out to be one of the less complicated parts of the car.

I gotta a little bit of motion sickness just imaging it at 7'6" tall on and on full elliptical springs...

Thanks Paul. I'm using iMovie on a Mac. It works fairly well as long as you don't need to do anything more than drop clips into the timeline and insert some transitions. You can do some basic editing on each clip and insert some titles and whatnot but it is pretty basic (it comes free with the operating system). Here's the 3rd part where we stumble our way through taking the engine apart. One of the issues with the MG Workshop Manual is that it is written from the perspective of fixing a certain item, like the oil pump or water pump. It doesn't really serve as a guide to tearing down the entire engine at once.

The machine shop called and, finally, I got some good news about the engine. He magnafluxed everything and found no issues. Valves and guides are fine. Camshaft is fine. Crank is fine but will need a 20 thousandths grind so I'll get 20 under main bearings and rod bearings. Cylinders were fine but were pretty rough at the top. They were already 60 thou over so we're taking them out to 100 thou over. Everything cleaned up great and head was nice and flat so only needs a skim. I've order the parts and they should be here next week. I also ordered gearbox parts as well as chassis and brake parts. I'm probably going to switch the plan up a bit and shoot for a rolling chassis a little sooner. Space is really tight and I still need the shop for occasional vehicle maintenance and repairs (6 cars in the family) so I think the best place to store things is, well, on the car and in a state where it can be rolled around. Here's a link to the next video. These videos are a little boring as their primary goal is to help me remember how I took the things apart so that I have some hope of putting them back together. In addition, I'll apologize ahead of time for repeatedly calling the gearbox a transmission.

Wow that really looks sharp!! I'm getting ready to place a big order with Moss that should cover the engine and gearbox rebuild along with a bunch of suspension stuff. I can't wait to get where you are!

I'll be creating videos as I go. They will be a little behind the posts in here but might contain some additional information. Here is the first one.

Even after all you've done, this is still mind blowing. Those letters are smaller than the letters on the quarter. Incredible.

Yep, me too. Still watching. Long ago ran out of amazement. I remember that day you made the mold for the tire and I realized what that meant and where you were taking this project. I was astounded then and have continued to be as time has gone on.

Wonderful, thanks for sharing... excited to watch this project!!

Thanks for the support guys, I'm sure I'll need it!! We've gotten a pretty good start. All the boxes have been gone through and parts have been sorted. Unfortunately it seems that all the neatly labeled tiny boxes with nuts/bolts and other small parts are for an MGA. Would be great if we had the MGA all the parts came from. I guess that somewhere someone has an MGA with no small parts and maybe they have all the small parts for my TD. In addition, a lot of the new parts are for an MGB. The good news is that it doesn't look like we're missing very much other than nuts, bolts, cables, wires, etc. The engine turns over easily, all valves move properly. Once small concern is that it might turn over a little too easily as the spark plugs are still in it!! The gearbox is my first focus. The "first motion shaft" (the shaft that sticks out and goes into the pressure plate and clutch) was either broken off or cut with a torch. While that can easily be replaced I was worried that whatever force broke the shaft might have damaged the rest of the gearbox. Fortunately after taking it apart and inspecting and measuring, it looks like just replacing bearings, thrust washer and gaskets will put the gearbox back in top condition.