MGB Roadmaster

Bill Young · January 07, 2012, 10:50:19 PM

Get me a price on the plaque and I'll see if I can afford to pay for it next month. Got to start paying a bit of attention to the bills, but not hurting so should be able to put up the cash. I really think we need the plaque more than buttons or such.

rficalora · January 08, 2012, 11:37:47 PM

Boxed up the heater control mechanisms today. Will go out in tomorrow's mail.

BlownMGB-V8 · January 10, 2012, 07:13:15 PM

Interesting doings to report. First, I'm working on trying to print out some vinyl graphics for the window cards. I got some clear/printable self stick vinyl sheets from Office Depot, have figured out how to get the printer to mirror the page, and now if I could just get the darned thing to print in white I'd have it. Oh yeah, I guess white isn't an inkjet color. Duh! Maybe yellow or some pastel color... lessee, the car is red.... pink maybe??? (Is silver an inkjet color? Guess not.)

Anyway, if I can get that to work I was thinking the local sign shop should be able to make a big one to fit the rear window for the sponsors and contributors and it'd be way cheaper than a plaque, visible with the hatch closed, out of the way, and wouldn't interfere with vision.

Terry Kesselring was HIGHLY impressed with the car. He's the owner of Antique Auto Shop, and the guy I was talking to originally about painting the car. We went for a drive and he really liked it a lot. He wants to take some good photos and spread them around. Sounds good to me. Tommy over at our tubing supplier also drove it and I've given a couple more rides also. It makes a really good impression everywhere it goes. I'm going to try to stop by every place locally that has helped us out. I think they deserve that much. So what I'm doing is letting us start putting tick marks in the column for getting to drive or ride in the car for everyone who helped us. We need to make sure we cover every name on that list if it is possible to do so. Now there may be a couple here and there who we can't cover cause we don't know where they live or that sort of thing (Australia may be a little difficult for instance) but where possible it should be done. I intend to take care of those in the greater Cincinnati area. Most of the rest we can do at Palestine, and some at Bowling Green.

Jim

BlownMGB-V8 · January 11, 2012, 08:25:45 AM

Also, yesterday I drove on some interesting roads. For one thing, for the first time I got the car a little sideways coming out of a very tight right hand downhill hairpin under moderate throttle ... well, it was moderate for this car which is to say moderate to heavy throttle normally. It was very controllable as far as I could tell but I only had it sideways for a short time and recovery was quick and not very eventful. Pretty typical MG stuff I'd say, so no real handling surprises there. No over-correction problems, it just pretty much straightened out and went. Slipped the inside tire and all that, nothing radical.

The other road was along the Ohio river where the roadway had slipped down and instead of going to a lot of trouble the road crews have for quite a few years now, simply paved over it. As you can imagine this makes for a lot of irregularities in the road, with different parts of it going in all different directions, and it is forever changing. It's a challenge for any suspension. It's not so much rough as it is up, down and sideways. The section is probably between 1/2 and 1 mile long 2 lane, and if you try to keep up any speed on it, the road tosses the car about rather wildly. I made pretty good time through there, only having a bit of trouble with one particularly nasty section that first tries to toss you off the side of the road and then into oncoming traffic while attempting to get you airborne at the front. I managed to keep in my lane while traveling at a good clip and the ride was not uncomfortable other than a slight pucker factor. I'm certain the oncoming driver was concerned, but the car handled it well. While the front suspension was at it's limits, the rear simply followed along without complaint, the big payoff for that massive 8" of suspension travel back there. Nothing grounded and I noticed no sudden jarring contact with bump stops. So far there have been no big surprises, for which I am grateful.

Jim

rficalora · January 13, 2012, 12:00:31 AM

Jim, did the heater controls get there yet? Check the box; when you open it. In addition to the two controls, there should be a small zip-lock bag in there too. The little knob retaining spring & pin on one of them was a little loose so I put those parts in the bag but now I have a nagging feeling like I forgot to put the zip lock in the box. If it's not there, let me know & I'll find it in the shop & send it tomorrow.

BlownMGB-V8 · January 13, 2012, 10:01:09 AM

It got here yesterday Rob, thanks. That should do the trick. I think these are the longer shafts, which should let us use the pointy knobs with the Racoon Factor shiny button on the end. No ziplock but we can use the spring and pin from the old one that slips.

The header gaskets came in too and the stainless band clamps are here so it should be no problem eliminating the exhaust leaks. The rear hatch does not seem to seal correctly. Water gets in and possibly exhaust as well. Some of you GT guys will need to address that. Larry Shimp, can you think of what the problem might be there?

Scott Costanza is planning to get here tomorrow about 9 or 10, weather permitting, and our main objective is to balance the driveshaft. If that goes quickly maybe we can fix the exhaust leak. We'll have the rear wheels off anyway, might as well pull the fronts at the same time. The heater controls are a little lower priority but we'll see. If anyone else shows we might get more done too. At this rate it may not be long before we are down to things like the speedo calibration and other fairly minor issues.

The big air pump came in but so far I'm not very thrilled with it. More testing required. But, pump up of the air ride isn't required very often and only takes a few seconds so it isn't a priority right now. Bleed off is at the level where a leak is extremely slow and therefore hard to find. I'd be tempted to say it's as good as it gets EXCEPT that the short plumbing on my car (3 fittings and a gauge, no bleed or fill) has held 115 lbs for 2 weeks now with no bleed off. That tells me it is possible. Just have to find the source of that last leak. The bleed valve maybe.

Looks like we'll be sending the car south at the end of the winter gathering so that it can be at the Blount County LBC meet in May. Details are in flux as to how that will be done but I'm confident we can work it out.

Jim

BlownMGB-V8 · January 13, 2012, 01:04:53 PM

The local print shop is working up some ideas for the window graphics, I should know more in a few days.

Some progress on the commemorative shirts too. These will be a quality golf type shirt, red with black embroidered flames on the sleeves. The plan is to do silkscreen patches and sew them on. I will have the patches and a sample shirt at the winter gathering and the patches will be available separately. The shirts and patches will be at cost, a one time order, and prepaid only. I will front the money for the patches so we will have them to look at in Feb. They will be based on a fresh photo of the car.

JB

danmas · January 13, 2012, 03:51:32 PM

QuoteLooks like we'll be sending the car south at the end of the winter gathering so that it can be at the Blount County LBC meet in May. Details are in flux as to how that will be done but I'm confident we can work it out.

Jim,

I talked to Jim Watson yesterday. It's about 4 hours from here to your house, so coming up to get the car and bringing it down here would be a one-day trip. We could get it in time to enter it in the Street Rod show in Knoxville May 4-6, the weekend before our British Car Gathering May 11-13. It'll need to get from here to Texas for the following weekend, May 20-21. I'm not sure I'll be able to make the Texas meet, but if I do, I'll be driving my car so we'll still need a driver for the TN-TX leg. Jim is still undecided about the Texas meet.

BlownMGB-V8 · January 14, 2012, 08:47:46 AM

Sounds good Dan. I've talked to Carl and a plan is afoot to send the car south at the conclusion of the winter gathering. The general idea is for Carl to find his way to S.Charleston and ride in with Dan, then take the car back to Johnson City and keep it there for a bit. Then possibly Steve DeGroat could run up and get it and keep it for awhile, with you guys taking it from Steve's place to yours in time to drive it a bit and take it to the meets there. Then we (Dan B, myself and my older son Dave) will be coming down +1, hopefully in convoy, and will have a driver for the car. We can switch off with other drivers the rest of the way down.

On the return leg we only need to extend the convoy up to the Wayland area to be able to get it to Detroit for the Power Tour. I know I said I'd get the car there, but that was in the absence of someone else being able to do it, and others who have helped with the car need to get to play with it. All we need is someone from that area who is also coming down +1. Steve and Marcia come to mind, or Ted and Judy, or Richard and Lorna, even Dave VanWyck and his wife or others. That leaves getting it over to Detroit, and driving it on the first leg across the peninsula, maybe Mike would like to do that.

Anyway that's the outline. Everyone has to agree to do their part for it to work but that doesn't seem like such a formidable obstacle.

Jim

BlownMGB-V8 · January 14, 2012, 09:23:27 PM

Good news everyone.
The exhaust leaks are gone and the heater controls are fixed. The RH one could use a new cable and it is kinda stiff, but since you generally just put it to "Defrost" and leave it anyway it should be fine. It turns out that the short shaft knobs are kinds susceptible to stripping out. The long shaft ones are much stronger and those are the ones we were able to install, thanks to Rob and David.

Scott Costanza and Mike Maloney came over today and in no time we had the wheels off the car, the full exhaust system on the floor and the old heater control out. Then Scott took command of making the heater controls right while Mike and I replaced gaskets and fitted up those fancy stainless exhaust band clamps. But just so you don't think it was all fun-n-games, before we started Scott and I took a test drive out Hathaway Rd, and after we were done Mike and I did the same. It was a fairly long test drive, and hopefully those guys will be able to post their impressions. I dunno, I couldn't get them to stop grinning.

So there is more good news too. The car is a bit quieter also. And I really like those Walker band clamps. They worked great.

Jim

Scott Costanzo · January 15, 2012, 11:23:02 AM

Jim,
It was a lot of fun, you and Edith are very hospitable...thank you!

First, pictures of the car really don't do it justice. You have to see it in the flesh to really appreciate the work that was done on it.

As far as driving impressions, the first thing that comes to mind is torque....there is a ton of it! Having so much torque available makes the car very easy to drive if you aren't in a hurry and just want to get from point A to B. It just happily rumbles along in any gear you feel like using. You can feel the difference in the ride with the independent rear suspension too. It's much smoother when compared to the stock suspension. I think it's going to be an excellent road car. It feels like you could spend a whole day on the open highway and be as comfortable as one can get in a B.

One thing we didn't do yesterday was go anywhere near full throttle...once familiar with the car it would be really fun to explore what 500 hp in a B would be like.

I think we're going to hear some great stories as the car is driven more.

I'm still smiling!

Thanks for the opportunity to experience the Roadmaster Jim!

-- Scott

RMO 699F · January 15, 2012, 03:19:21 PM

Jim, I mean where else can a guy go on a Saturday and enjoy a day of working on possibly the coolest mgb gt on the planet, having Edith as the perfect host, and to top it off enjoying your excellent vegetable/beef stew to complete the day! It honestly does not get any better than that!
I'm glad I was able to get that much anticipated "seat time" in the BA gt---it was a great experience--yes, the torque was unbelievable, and the power surely put us back in the seat, but my very FIRST impression when driving the car was the harmony of how everything worked in concert-- from the clutch action, the precise shifting and how the power went to the road. This was all testimony to the amount of thought and planning that went into the project!
Scott, enjoyed seeing and working with you and hopefully we can get together soon at Morettis for some pasta--incidentally, on the second run in the BA, we were able to do the full throttle thing a couple of times--this is an experinence not to be missed! It's one of those moments where you don't know whether to do a 'yee-hah"or crap your pants--soooo--I did both:-)
Jim, again thanks to you and Edith for making it a great day--btw--I had forgotten that I have some MG buddies from Cleveland (Jeff Fields and company) coming to my house tomorrow (Monday) for some wrenching and lieing so I may have to cancel out on removing the driveshaft that day--any day after Monday is fine, and I can take the ds back up to Dayton Clutch and Joint for balancing--please let me know--as I say any day other than Monday is good--

Bill Young · January 15, 2012, 04:45:24 PM

Mr. Maloney, how are we going to explain to Mr. Mike that we need another seat cover ?

RMO 699F · January 15, 2012, 08:05:11 PM

Bill, I guess Mr. Mike M. will have to talk to the other Mr. Mike---you know, this is the part where I basically throw myself on the mercy of the court! :-)

kstevusa · January 16, 2012, 08:14:38 AM

perhaps this is a case of "EARNED CURB SERVICE"? squish?

LOL!

BlownMGB-V8 · January 22, 2012, 02:30:13 PM

Friday Mike Moloney came over and brought the driveshaft with him. It had been refurbished and balanced by Dayton Clutch and U-joint with new joints, a polishing job on the yoke, shortened 1/2" and rewelded and then balanced. Mike paid the charges on it, which I think ran about $130 which seemed reasonable to us. We painted it and while we waited for it to dry we applied the vinyl graphics to the windows. Bill Young is covering the cost of those, which was about $121. It came out looking quite good. I don't have any photos of it but Mike took some pictures with his phone and will probably post something soon. I also received a check from Jim Watson for $150 on T-shirt sales and that will bring us up to slightly over $250 in the account. Then we installed the drive-shaft and a short test drive indicated that the vibration issue was resolved.

We loaded the car on the trailer before Mike headed home braving the freezing rain on the way. Since we were headed due east and the storm was too, we skirted the edge of it all the way and had decent driving weather with just a little drizzle in spots. Got to Milton about 8:30, unloaded the trailer and parked the GT in the garage. Saturday morning after the WVBCC breakfast I briefed Dan on care and handling of the car and completed the turnover. He will be getting it to the WV Int'l auto show Wednesday and should be giving us some good feedback.

Jim

RMO 699F · January 22, 2012, 04:19:18 PM

Made it home with no trouble Friday--Jim, glad you were able to outrun the precipitation on your trip to WV--here are the pictures of the vinyl graphics that Jim installed on Friday--I think they turned out really good, especially the way they aligned with the body stripes!
RoadMaster Window Transfers (1).jpg

Dan B · January 23, 2012, 06:43:11 PM

Should we start a new thread on "Driving the MGB Roadmaster" or just post impressions, etc. on here? I drove it to South Charleston this morning, to get ready for the big auto show. This show is patterned after the big Detroit show, and showcases all the new models and concept cars. In the past, they had a car corral or something of that sort with local hot rods and classic American cars. This year, due to a connection with one of the members of the WV British Car Club, they invited us to provide a few examples from our club members. That is how the Roadmaster got into the show, and it will be viewed by a lot of people who would not normally go to one of our typical venues, so that is pretty cool.

The first chance I had to drive the car finished was just a little spin when Jim had it up for our Christmas party, and it was late, dark and rainy. Well, this morning it was dark and rainy too. I am looking forward to driving it in the daylight and dry weather! Even with the wet pavement, it sticks to the road. I won't break the rear tires unless you want it to. Those tires and the IRS do a great job.

GT stands for Grand Touring, and that is what you can do with this car. It feels like a drive to Palestine will be no big deal for whoever draws that straw.

BlownMGB-V8 · January 23, 2012, 10:27:00 PM

Thank you Dan. I think just posting here is appropriate because this thread is a sticky, and any other thread we start will drift down the list. We are all looking forward to your impressions and to hear about how things go at the show.

For all intents and purposes the build is finished, so this thread, in following the progress of the car as it always has, will doubtless morph into an account of its travels. Which is as it should be.

Jim

Dan B · January 24, 2012, 04:16:27 PM

Drove it 30 miles west on I-64 to the farm in Milton last night. I had a new Hemi Charger driving up my tailpipe for a while, moved over and let him pass (i was doing about 80 according to GPS) and he got in front and slowed to wait on me. I punched it a little bit to let him know he didn't have a chance, then fell back in behind. Then another bright set of headlights appeared on my bumper. I eased the speed up a little (90) to get over in the slow lane and as soon as I did an unmarked police car blew by me. Glad he was in a hurry to get somewhere!

No events on the drive back to Charleston. There is a lot of cabin noise, i.e. air leaks, fuel pump. The speedo and tach are screwy. I haven't figured out the radip yet (haven't really tried to). I found out with the warm weather it starts pretty easily. I didn't even choke it at all yesterday evening. As soon as it is running the choke needs to go in!

roverman · January 24, 2012, 05:09:44 PM

If it took 100 hp. to go 100 mph., then it would take 800 hp.to go 200 mph.(without changing body height). That would truly be BadAssed. Good Luck, roverman.

Bill Young · January 24, 2012, 07:08:24 PM

The sound of that big block opening up must be awesome. That alone would cause most pretenders to back off. Can't wait to get another chance behind the wheel now that it's done. It was absolutely amazing in Indy and it wasn't close to being finished then.

Dan B · January 25, 2012, 09:13:39 AM

I had a little issue with the trunk latch yesterday evening. Apparently this is a common occurrence on MGBs. Jim said he made a better part for his roadster. Perhaps a new product for MGBs from Blackwood Labs?

BlownMGB-V8 · January 25, 2012, 04:23:39 PM

Main thing that part needs is a "double-D" punch to make the hole. Which I don't have. The punch is easy, the die, not so much. But it is true that it is a part we all need. Might be easier to laser cut it. Gary?

I'm just guessing that the cop was trying to track your speed the old fashioned way, since rapid speed changes confuse radar. Good thing you weren't at a steady speed for more than a second and a half, he'd of had you.

Bill, I put your check in the bank today. I also deposited a check from Jim Watson as a partial payment for the T-shirts he's sold so far. I think he still has a half dozen or so left if anyone wants one. Steve can verify it if he likes but we should have right at $250.

I'd like to find out what the cost is for the tires Terry put on the car but I keep forgetting to write down what they are. Maybe I can do that at the gathering if I can remember.

As far as the commemorative shirts go, it's up to Dan now to get us a usable photo for the patch. No pressure though...

And now,.... drum roll please,... how did the first day of the show (the load-in) go?

Jim

Dan B · January 26, 2012, 09:22:42 AM

I got there yesterday morning about 10:30. We got the british cars craned into the civic center at about 8:30 PM, so there was a lot of waiting and watching the crane guys work. There are 51 cars around the hallway outside the main arena, which is where you walk in and go down stairs to sit nearer to the floor. We are right across from a concession stand, near the main entry so we should get a good bit of traffic. Why can't you use Mark's picture for the patch? I thought it would look pretty cool.