76 MGB Stewardship

While I was in the process of working through my list of things to do and waiting for the paint to dry on the rear differential cover, I decided to take a few minutes for a simple project. Adding some screening to the Vent Cowl. The basic process was to remove the cowl grill, insert the screen, and replace the grill. Uh, right. Have I ever mentioned my life motto? Well, it basically boils down to this, "Nothin's ever easy!" Removing the grill is simple enough with the right tool and a little force. It's essentially held on by these little metal clips. Be prepared fish these clips out of the vent box as they will likely fall. I used a magnet to reach mine. Anyway, once the grill is off you just place the screen over the vent opening and position the grill back into place. The problem is keeping the grill in place. With screen in the way you cannot reuse the clips so you have to take another approach. Some forum posts suggested using car emblem/badge gr...

Some time ago I remember seeing a post of a MGB with the caption, "If it isn't leaking, it's empty!" While funny, it's true and in my experience the harder you run 'em the leaky they get. My long-term plan is to seal things up that can be sealed but I noticed a "new" leak after driving the car a couple times. The rear differential. I will tackle that in another post but for now let's have a look at the valve cover. Before I get into the overview replacing the valve cover gasket I want to take a minute to briefly describe the first process I went through. When I set out to replace the gasket I decided to go with a silicone gasket and for added coverage I further decided to use gasket maker. This was a colossal failure and generally bad idea. After cleaning up the valve cover and head surface I squeezed out a small bead of gasket maker on both surfaces. Then I fitted the gasket on valve cover and allowed the material to set up for a bit. Afte...

My latest post is a simple one. In the course of working on a few things under the bonnet I managed to "snap off" the Hood Support bracket. This bracket is welded to the engine bay seal frame and with all of the up and down of the bonnet the part just gave up. I guess after 40+ years you can expect these things. In the photo below you can see where the bracket separated. Anyway, instead welding the piece back in I decided to use some screws and nuts. The process wasn't difficult. I simply cleaned up the area where the bracket was located, drilled some holes, and fastened the bracket with the screws. Screws from above Screws from below Side view of the bracket Once that was done I was able to reassemble the hood support and put the broom handle back on the rack.