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Our work took us over to Fotherby, near Louth, this morning where it was really great to meet Colin for work on his TF and his ZR race car.

Colin had rescued this great looking TF 135 Anniversary (in HQM) from a scrap yard in Southampton. He’d realised it was something special, despite looking in a bit of a sorry state, so brought her home and fixed her up and asked if we would come over and carry out the cambelt service.

Next up was his ZR 160, that he’s enjoyed racing over the last 5 years, throughout the UK, which was also requiring new belts.

What a really interesting and enjoyable day chatting to Colin and working on his cars. We’ll hopefully get a plan together to see him on track this year.

Another Baltic day, but so glad of his fab workshop to work in that’s got a ton of history in it, accompanied by gallons of tea! Thanks, Colin. Great to meet puss too.

An amazing sunset on the way back, but not enough daylight to do my usual walk back over the Humber Bridge to home, roll on lighter nights and warmer days! – https://ift.tt/qzkwSoH

Monday morning and we got started, bright and early, on these fab three that were dropped off with us at the weekend.

Graham brought his TF 160 (in MNX) down from Gosforth for a full cambelt service, underfloor treatment and a remote battery isolater to be fitted. Great to see this car again and also to see Graham who travelled down today to collect. We waved him off for a top down run back to the north east.

Bob brought his TF 135 (in JGY) over from Beeford for full underfloor treatment. Good to see this car in again with us, and we look forward to seeing Bob and Lis at the weekend when they come over to collect. Let’s hope there isn’t a huge dumping of snow for them.

Simon brought his TF 135 (in MBB) over from Howden. Good to see this one in again, and also to see Simon and Sal this afternoon, when they came over to collect, following welding to the offside sill, replacement of the alternator, minor service and an MOT.

A busy and productive three days. Great to get everything completed this afternoon and good to be in the shelter of the workshop on another very chill cold spell. Hope everyone has stayed safe on the roads. – https://ift.tt/uVf7pYO

Dursley was our first destination yesterday after departing from our really fab digs in Saint Mellons, near Cardiff.

It was great to meet Rod who had got in touch to see if we could come over work on his TF 160 (in HFF) that he’s owned for the past 10 years and enjoyed many trips around the UK and abroad in.

We replaced the head gasket, and carried out the cambelt service for him. Really nice car to work on with no issues. Plus we were so pleased to find when we arrived that he had a garage as we weren’t looking forward to another soaking!

From there we went on to Gloucester where it was lovely to meet Jack who was needing the hydragas pumping up on his fab 1.3 Metro, that he had learnt to drive in and had kept hold of. Now the car is back to the correct ride height, he will be getting out in her once more.

On to our next digs a few miles along the road, another great spot that we last stayed in during lockdown when we got back on the road again.

I had a cracking walk first thing to our call this morning, but unfortunately when we got there the chap wasn’t in as there had been a bit of confusion over dates. Not to worry these things happen, at least it we had an earlier than planned trip home, which was good to get back and see our very chatty cat! We’ll see Brian later in the year when we venture down that way again. A good few days on the road to kick-start the year.

Looking forward to seeing a few people tomorrow for drop-off day at the workshop. – https://ift.tt/SXkKLfp

We left our digs in Worcester yesterday morning, and headed to Kingstone, near Hereford to see what was happening with Keith’s MGF 120 mpi (in JRJ).

The car had suffered from a blown cap and after replacing with a new one the car then overheated, so Keith erred on the side of caution and left it until could take a look.

After all our checks the cap that he replaced it with was good, but when he’d filled the coolant back up hadn’t bled the system fully, which had caused an airlock and restricted the flow of coolant. System subsequently bled and ran up to temperature, and all good. Shame not to see Keith on this visit.

We then ventured further south west to our next digs just outside of Cardiff.

A short commute to our work this morning, where it was great to finally meet Geoffrey, and his MGF 120 mpi (in JRJ). He’d only owned the car for 5 months before experiencing issues with overheating and had to be recovered home. Following a recommendation from his friend he had got in touch to see when we could get over to see him.

So this morning we replaced the head gasket, the water pump and fitted a 52mm throttle body. Unfortunately, the car had at some point had the dreaded k-seal added, so this was cleared out as best as we could.

Bit of a challenge given the conditions, rain, sleet, thunder and lightning! We got the main bit done before it really chucked it down! After sheltering in the van a few times we finally got everything done.

Geoffrey had wanted a remap carrying out too, but wants to wait until he gets used to the car once more, now that the head gasket etc has been sorted. It’s a cracking car and he will now carry on with the things on his list of things to do.

Thanks to Geoffrey for lots of tea, well needed. Good also to see Ian for a quick chat too, mid storm!

Back at our really lovely digs for a second night, and time to get everything dried off. Room service steak may well be needed tonight.

Photos aren’t the best due to the inclement conditions, but they’re virtually the same car on both days anyway! – https://ift.tt/u1TbeWw

Back to it and on with 2023 and back on the road at very early o’clock this morning…

Our first call of the day, with a late start due to an absolute load of holdups, simply due to traffic volume, despite putting in a contingency of an earlier departure time, was in Kingswinford where it was great to meet Richard for work on his fab looking TF 135, (in JFV) that he’s owned since June of last year. The car developed an issue where it would turn over briefly but then cut out, on our investigation we found that both fobs needed reprogramming to the alarm unit, once this done it fired up straight away and stayed on running. Great result for Richard. Minor service was carried out too and a date to be arranged for cambelt service and a couple of other things.

We then headed down to Redditch where it was great to meet Richard! His fab looking MGF 120 mpi (in GUF) was in need of a head gasket replacement. He’d bought the car last year, but then found that it was over-heating so tried replacing the cap and the coolant expansion tank. All up and running lovely again this afternoon. Date to be arranged to replace the radiator that was looking a bit suspect. So pleased that Richard and his wife can get out and about again and enjoy some top-down runs, having both been bikers in past.

Apart from replacing the head gasket on Paul’s car, in Hull last Tuesday, we enjoyed a week off to recharge our batteries. A really nice break it was too, well apart from servicing the van for Jon and doing some maintenance on it, a load of cleaning and sorting for me in the house, and what is now finally ours, we’re so pleased to say, we found out just before Christmas, (after a fair amount of faffing), yippee and phew equally.

All went smoothly on Paul’s TF (in MNX), so he’s pleased to have that sorted and is now looking forward to having some fun over the summer months, then coming over to the workshop at the end of the year for underfloor treatment and a remap. Thanks Paul for the endless supply of tea you supplied, very appreciated on a pretty cold day!

Now tucked up in our first digs of the week, in Worcester. A fab airbnb complete with microwave for Jon’s tea! – https://ift.tt/xAWm8YU

An interesting week at the workshop to round off the year…

Tim brought over his race spec Caterham, from Ilkley, first thing on Wednesday morning. Tim had bought the car from a friend of his who used to race it, but hadn’t turned a key for 12 years. When the opportunity arose Tim fancied the idea of taking it on and restoring it to its former glory. With quite a bit to do he set about the list with his son in law, Martin, and sorted out all the electrics, the gear linkages and various suspension components etc etc. The next next step was to have all the mechanical issues sorted. He knew that when he bought the car it had a misfire and no compression on cylinder 4, so he got in touch and asked us to look at this for him.

Once we removed the head we found scoring to cylinder 2 and on removal of the cam rack found the valve spring cap in two pieces, amazingly though although there was nothing holding the valve in place it hadn’t dropped into the engine and we even found both of the collets that retain the valve. With all parts accounted for, and as a matter of course, we replaced the stem seal, the valve, the spring and the collets.

Sump removed, and piston dropped out to replace the liner on number two, this sounds simple (and it should have been), but one of the bolts in the sump had been previously snapped and corrosion had set in, obviously this needed removing to take the sump off, 5 hours later this was achieved! Poor Jon!

Everything put back together, on firing up we noticed that the tick-over was slightly high, an air leak was traced to a blanked off air supply, which was leaking. Once this was sorted the car was sounding very smooth.

Tim and Martin came over today to collect her. Once they’ve worked through the rest of the list they will be enjoying taking her to some track days next year to kick up her heels again as she rightly should! We’re looking forward to hearing of the further developments and seeing the final result.

Lovely to see Adrian on Thursday who popped over from Beverley to have a remote battery isolater fitted to his TF.

Warren dropped off his TF 160 with us on Tuesday as the EML had come on. This was found to be the Lambda sensor, as suspected. Unfortunately, the old sensor wouldn’t come out, and despite trying retap the old flexi section as can happen too many of the threads had stripped out. New flexi and Lambda sensor fitted.

A really good end to the year, and apart from going over to see Paul, in Hull, to sort the head gasket on his TF next week, we will be having a few days off to recharge our batteries, before heading back out on the road again.

Happy New Year to one and all! 🎉 – https://ift.tt/wOqBJoX

🌟🎄🌟 MERRY CHRISTMAS 🌟🎄🌟

Wishing everyone a wonderful festive season, may you find some time to spend with your family and friends. 🥳

Can we please just say a huge, “Thank You”, for the amazing support we have received the warm welcomes we have found on our extensive travels throughout the U.K. this year.

We’ve visited some amazing and interesting places, along with meeting so many fantastic people. A shame we didn’t get to work abroad, as planned, due to the crazy increase in travel costs. It’s been really fab to welcome everyone to new workshop, that we moved into in June, which, we have to say, the move over from the old one couldn’t have been achieved so seamlessly without the huge amount of effort from our friends.

We were fortunate to get to a few events; Pride of Longbridge, The Highlander, Harrogate MG car club annual event at Pateley Bridge and MG Live! Always good opportunities to have time to catch-up with friends from near and far.

2022 has proved to be a challenging year for so many. Let’s hope that 2023 brings about some welcome changes.

Here’s to safe and enjoyable travels, work commutes, runs out, trips to the shops, events to attend and holidays to go on throughout 2023 in your MGs!

Warmest of wishes wherever you may be.

🌟🎄🌟🎄Jon & Claire 🎄🌟🎄🌟 – https://ift.tt/u7w5H3L

Workshop week has gone well, we got cracking on Monday morning with the lists of things to do on a couple of John’s fab fleet.

John had dropped off his ZT 120 on Sunday and we then went over to collect his TF and drop John off at home in the process.

Full underfloor treatment carried out on the ZT, spring protectors fitted to the front. New bonnet cable to be fitted tomorrow morning.

The TF (in PBT) also had full underfloor treatment carried out, rear brake pads and one new caliper, one of the wishbones replaced. Welding to both rear sills. Plus a few other things to get everything sorted on the car, won’t be boring a do a list! Now all ready for the MOT that we’ve booked in for the morning.

Both cars to be returned back to John tomorrow. It was nice to see him today when he popped over for a brew.

Paul brought his Abingdon over from Barmby on the Marsh for a pre MOT check and subsequent MOT first thing on Monday. The car is looking fantastic following the respray he had done. It’s certainly looking really good now, complete with new hood and dipped console and vent surrounds, (should have got a pic!) bit of a contrast from when we first saw the car, so good to see the car being invested in and saved. Good to have a cuppa and a catch-up with Paul.

Not many ‘glam’ outdoor shots this time, there wasn’t really time, thanks to John for pinging me over a couple of shiny ones! Did get a glam one of Jon though 😃

Pleased that the weather rose to above freezing this week, making things a bit more bearable. – https://ift.tt/IVUsXQP