Owner: NB
City: Kansas City
Car Model: 1963 CB MGB
Build Plans
Engine:1990 302 V8 EFI out of a 1990 Lincoln MK VII
Heads: Aluminium AFR 185, 1.6 Scorpion roller rockers
Cooling: Champion 3 core Champion Aluminium Radiator (66-67 Mustang)
Exhaust: Custom headers, Dual flowmasters, custom X-pipe and exhaust
Transmission: 1990 T-5 Borg-Warner
Rear Axle: Shorten 8.8 with 4.10 gears
Front Susp.: Stock
Rear Susp.: Custom Fabricated 4 link coil over suspension, work in progess
Master Cylinder: 1989 Toyota camry
Front Brakes: 65-67 Mustang 5 lug, 11.7 Drilled and Slotted Rotors for a Dodge Interpid, wilwood 4 pot calipers (1.62 and 1.75)
Rear Brakes: 99 mustang Disc Brakes and calipers
Wheels: 17" Mustang oem torq thrust wheels(Custom fitted Knock-Off spinners from a 05 mustang)
Tires: 245/45R17 Kuhmo, custom made knock offs with MGB insert
Body Mods: Rabbit Fender Flares modified, Custom cowl hood, Frenched license plate, CBR gas filler nozzle. more to come
Lights: Custom made LED Tail Lights, Clear Front lens Covers
Interior: Custom, Custom made steering wheel, panels and others
Electrical: E-Z 20 Circuit Wiring Harness, meshed with a stock 1990 Mk VII Electircal harness
Interesting story on how I decided to convert the MGB to a V8. This MGB was originally my dads' that he bought after he got out of the service in california. This car made it's way across the country until one day it stopped running (I have never heard why) and ended up in his garage until he passed away. My brother took the car and then put it in his garage where it remained. This car to my knowledge has not been touched in any way. Fast Forward; I was at work, talking cars with a friend and I was telling him I would like to redo an old car and we where talking about different options and engines and somehow the MGB came up and he Jokingly said you could put a V8 in that! I asked if it could be done? Well obviously it had and that is how I ended up finding this site (thanks!), and looks like I am way behind on the curve. And here is the car after I recieved it. It was in pretty good shape. Interior was rough and very little rust looks like mostly surface rust but will have to look at it more carefully as I get things torn apart. If you are wondering what the white primed section is, the car got backed out of a driveway and somebody forgot to close the door and bent the door back into the fender and was fixed at a dealership but never repainted. I will have to look at that to, I already know I need to replace hinges door doesn't close very good.
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3/31/12
I am starting this journal late, I have already done alot of work but I will try and go back in time and post some pictures with what I have done and some of the things I have run into
Well first thing is first, out with the old
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12/20/12
I have done alot since my last post, well it seems like alot. I was going through my pictures and I am rather disappointed with myself and how many pictures I had taken to document my process. It is funny as I was going through them and thinking about all the work that I have done I could have sworn I have taken alot more pictures. So where am I at on my build you ask? Currently I have the car completely stripped and made the necessary tunnel and fire wall modifcations, rebuilt the front suspension, fabricated my rear suspension, fitted the engine and transmission for proper clearance and other odd and ends.
Firewall Mods- Just one thing to note for all these modifications I am not using any special tools. Using a SawZaw, 4 1/2 Grinder/Cutting wheel, 120V Flux Core welder and a Cordless drill. I know my welding could use alot of work
Firewallmodifications.jpg
Driverssidefootwell.jpg
Passengerside.jpg
Heatershelf.jpg
Firewallandmounts.jpg
enginebay.jpg
Transmission Tunnel Mods
insidedriversfootwell.jpg
Passengerfootwell.jpg
TunnelHole.jpg
Tunnelcovered.jpg
When I took this car apart and uncovered the shifter cover it was cut into two pieces and the tunnel had been cut further back, turns out they replaced the original transmission with a 3 synchro mesh transmission and it must have sat further back
ShifterCovered.jpg
Front Suspension
- I completely took front crossmember and suspension apart and sandblasted and repainted. installed new poly bushings
FrontCrossmember.jpg
Frontbushings.jpg
Frontview.jpg
Front Disc Brakes and Rotors
-I decided to use the 66-67 Mustang 5 Lug Hub, 11.7 Intrepid Rotor, and toyota Calipers. However, it looks like my calipers and rotors are not working together and I am going to have to make a new caliper bracket. As of now I am going to leave this and will look at it later.
Frontcaliperandrotor.jpg
backviewofrotorandcaliper.jpg
Engine Placement and Clearances
- I went ahead and put the money out for the Mock 302 Shortblock. It turns out the company that sells these is local so i was able to pick up a block without the shipping charges and got a pretty decent deal on one. It has been well worth the money. I recommend them to any body who is doing a conversion
mockBlock.jpg
-Crossmember clearance and modification
Crossmemberclearance.jpg
-Motor Clearances and test fitting
motorview.jpg
Rear Suspension
-Once again out with the old
rearsuspensionremoval.jpg
-New rear end out of a 1999 mustang with 4.10 gears
88rearend.jpg
-Rear-end and axles back from the machine shop and shortened to 42 inches and and ready to be put back together with new seals
shortenedrear-end.jpg
-Picked a set of alden eagle coil-over shocks for the rear end
rearshocks.jpg
-Rear-end put back together and painted, trail fitting the new rear end
newrearend.jpg
-Other odds and ends that I have been working on when I can't use a grinder or welder, or it is to cold to work outside
Steering Wheel- Cut existing steering wheel to fit to a 15 inch steering wheel that i got of craiglist for 5$, i really thought I was doing something new, but was reading a couple of weeks ago and I saw that geoff did the same thing to his
steeringwheel.jpg
Started making the new interior for the car, the old had alot of water warpage to them and didn't go with what I had I had a plan on doing. The door panels have changed some and I still need to cover them, right now they just have headliner padding on them
rearinterior.jpg
doorinterior.jpg
Custom made LED tail lights
- Started a thread on this earlier, Search homemade LED taillights in the search tool bar
http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?2,29194,page=1
ledtailights.jpg
Coverting the old MGB Seats to BMW cushions ans seats
Old
oldseat.jpg
New
http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?2,34534
newseat.jpg
Cutting Hood and making new hood scoop
hoodscoopehole.jpg
frontscoop.jpg
sidehoodscoop.JPG
newscoop.jpg
MGB back down on all four wheels, These are not the wheels I will be using on the car, but the spares to my daily driver( a mustang of course). I am working out of a one car garage so don't mind all the crap on top of the car I have to make the most of my space
driverssideview.jpg
passengersideview.jpg
Started playing with the fender flares for the car, I think they really are a good fit with very little cutting
rabbitfenderflareplacement.jpg
Bought a weld it yourself header kit from speedway motors for about 100$, It took me a couple of days to build the headers but well worth the experience to build my own headers!
Headerstartingpoint.jpg
Driverssideheaderfit.jpg
passengersideheaderfit.jpg
Closingtheendonheaders.jpg
I was really concerned about stripping the engine and painting and not wanting the engine to flake and look like crap! I started a thread on this asking the best engine and cleaning advice
http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?6,37669
Strippingengineandnewpaint.jpg
Frontsideofengineandnewpaint.jpg
While stripping the engine and painting checked the timing chain and it had alot of slack in it and decided to replace with a new one
Timingchainslack.jpg
NewTimingchain.jpg
Enginefullydressedandpainted.jpg
Started putting the fender flares on, These are rabbit fender flares and are very easy to adapt to the MGB Body
Driverssidefenderflare.jpg
Driversidefenderflare2.jpg
Driverssiderearfenderflare.jpg
Driverssiderearfenderflare2.jpg
RearPassengersidefenderflare.jpg
FrontPassengersidefenderflare.jpg
I started modify my fuel tank and installing an submersible pump for my EFI system on a stock MGB tank. Also started a detailed thread on how I did this application
http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?2,38611
Fuelandbafflewithstainlesstube.jpg
Mountedfuelpump.jpg
I was looking at my brake, clutch and gas pedal situation and with my current firewall modifications it left things way to tight so I modified it again and gained about three inches in the footwell hopefully this will give me the clearances I need
closeupfirewall.jpg
NewFirewall2.jpg
Insidefootwellshot.jpg
While doing the footwell mods, decided to start stripping engine bay and priming, I have the engine pretty much done and ready to drop it in when I finish the fuel and brake lines. This is not going to be the finish product, Before I spend alot of money on paint, I want to put everything together and make sure the car functions as it should. So i am going to put everything together and drive it around testing it and then strip it back down for a complete and nice paint job. I know this sounds crazy but i have done everything on this car myself and dont know if everything is going to work as planned.
PrimedEngineBay.jpg
PaintedPrimerenginebay.jpg
I have really like the idea of using a motorcycle gas cap on the car and I have manage to get all my parts pretty cheap. So here is my first try with the cap, However it turned out pretty crappy in my opinion and I have another way I want to try that I think will work better. Not to mention the welding looks really bad and I want to clean that up. So I will cut it out and try again once I get the fuel lines ran
Gascapfirsttry.jpg
These are the wheels that I Plan on using on the car. I am really debating this, I think the 17" wheels are to much and think that a 16" wheel would almost be better but will not know until I get the car set with the engine and adjust my spring hieght
Newwheels.jpg
Started running new brake lines to the disc brakes
BrakeLines.jpg
Making the alternator bracket and a couple of shoots of the engine almost done and ready to go in
Alternatorpic.jpg
Engine1.jpg
Engine2.jpg
Steering linkage for the modified steering column
steeringlinkage.jpg
Making a new shifter from the t-5 short throw shifter with a little MGB flare
Shiter1.jpg
Shifter2.jpg
Startin gto put things back together, Polished foot pedals, way better than the rubber replacements
FootPedals.jpg
Rebuildingfrontcoolingvalence.jpg
Steeringrebuild.jpg
SteeringCoulumnrebuild.jpg
Strippedcabin.jpg
Rearcabinremoval.jpg
Okay, I am in a pretty good debate with my brother, about wheel size and the look of the MGB, There is quite alot to discuss but what do you think?
upclosebullitwheels.jpg
oldwheels.jpg
Wheel.jpg
lizardskin.jpg
lizardskinrear2.jpg
husmat.jpg
Engineandtras.jpg
Engineandtras2.jpg
install1.jpg
install2.jpg
install3.jpg
install4.jpg
install7.jpg
install8.jpg
install5.jpg
Started wiring the engine and interior for first start to check engine and mods
ignitionswitch.jpg
engninebaywiring.jpg
interiorwiringpic.jpg
fusepanelwiring.jpg
enginebaywiring2.jpg
Exhaust1.jpg
exhaust2.jpg
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