Oh boy! My winter project.

[CanuckAmok]

I bought this from the last film production I worked on. It was purchased to be used as a picture car, because the purchase price was cheaper than renting it.

When we were done with it, I bought it off the company for $500.

And it runs great!

Now to make it perfect...

[GOPisEvil]

1. Oh, wow! That sounds like a fun project.

$500 well-spent, I'd say.

[Dave Reynolds]

2. That should be fun!

My $100 project boat ended up in the landfill....x(

[CanuckAmok]

3. well, your lake was too small to enjoy it.

And too dry.

That's no fun. What happened?

[Dave Reynolds]

4. The motor was no good,

a melted powerhead cleverly concealed with fiberglass.

I figured at that point I was going to have to dump at least $1000 to make the boat right without even having a trailer yet.

And, moving from the lake to a dairy farm kind of diminished the allure of a boat.

[CanuckAmok]

7. yes, you'd need a lot of cows to float it in milk.

and that's the best title to a thread I've ever made.

[Dave Reynolds]

9. You have strung together words in a manner

never before seen, I think.

:applause:

[CanuckAmok]

10. I'm udderly grateful for your applause

And yet I feel I'm milking the subject.

So before you have a beef agaisnt me, I'm gonna hoof it.

[democracyindanger]

5. Three words

British Racing Green.

[CanuckAmok]

6. You, my friend, are reading my mind!

In fact, here's my objective. Except in dark BRG, with no rollbar, and a "biscuit" leather interior:



Oh, and I'm pulling the existing drivetrain and wiring harness, and replacing it with a Toyota 5-speed mated to a 4AGZE supercharged engine from an '85 MR2.

Because British cars are nice to look at, but they're even nicer when they run.

[democracyindanger]

8. Sweeet. But I hope along with the powertrain work

you're going to be putting in an equally nice suspension.

Power without control, as the saying goes.

[CanuckAmok]

11. Well...

Since you asked, I'm lowering it about an inch (the rubber-bumpered cars sit an inch higher than the better-handling chrome bumper early models), increasing the stock lever-shocks' firmness by 30% or so, replacing the rear lever-shocks with conventional shocks, replacing all bushings with polyurathane ones, and adding slotted rotors with 4 piston calipers (same as the MGV8s), and either slotted drums in the rear, or a (rather complicated, expensive, and probably unnecessary) rear disc conversion.

That oughta do it.

Even though I'm nearly tripling the horespower at the wheels, (from 65 to about 170), the stock suspension is designed to handle that much power. The vintage racing MGBs regularly run 150+HP with basically stock underbits. Even the weird factory variants (MGC with a 6-cyl, or the rare-ish MGV8 with the Rover 3.5L V8) had essentially the same configuration (albeit with front torsion bars instead of springs on the MGC).

But this whole venture will cost me about $7G, so I certainly won't be doing it all this year. First up is the drivetrain swap, much of which I'll be doing myself, and repairing the floors. Then the bodywork.

Then the brakes.

Then a second job at night.

Then maybe paint and finishing.

[Beware the Beast Man]

12. Sweet!

My wife's cousin's wife's father (which makes us absolutely nothing) restores MGs. Have fun!