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MG TD TF 1500 - TD 15470... what I'm doing

Gordon Lawson asked the following in another thread:

"Dave.. you got me again... just looked through half your shots... How is it all coming and maybe we should all drive to Minnesota for the first run?"

Thanks for asking Gordon,

The tub should be in my possession Memorial Weekend (it's early this year, Friday May 25). We can mount it, place the ignition and fuel systems, instrument fascia, and install the wiring loom. I plan to drive it on Sunday, May 27. If that goes well, The interior, top, side curtains and tonneau installation will commence. At the same time, I'll test fit the wings and bonnet; and any adjustments to the bonnet panels will take place (who knows how long my tub is now compared to how it was originally?) and then the bonnet will be painted and installed.

At that point, if nothing catastrophic happens, I'll have a TD back on the road again. I would expect that the first real run of the MG will be the last Thursday in July when it goes to the GOF Central in Chaska, MN. Go to http://www.mnmgtr.org/ and click on GoF 2007 botton. You're all invited!

The picture chapters with the most activity right now are:
http://www.travelaire.photosite.com/MGTDRebuild/tub/
http://www.travelaire.photosite.com/MGTDRebuild/startergenerator/
http://www.travelaire.photosite.com/MGTDRebuild/RadiatorandShell/

Of course, my habbit of placing pictures out of chronological sequence in order to have everything of a like nature together is confusing as heck. Sorry.

Gosh Gordon, only half of my pictures? ;)

warmly,
dave
Dave Braun

Dave (an others who have contributed to his BBS), I hope to see you in Chaska at the GoF 2007 to personally thank you for the extraordinary help your pix and hints/tips are. While my 52 is about 80% original (missing the original dash and air filtering system and sporting a non-std orangy-red exterior), its run for me the last nearly 30yrs. I hope to devote more time to making things safer and slightly more authentic.
Thank You!
Randy
R Biallas

Darn.... 966.9 miles from here...gulp!
gblawson - TD#27667

Dave, you are sure optomistic. Unless you have a crew of about 10 working at the same time and a lot of beer, good luck. Have you trial-fit the fenders/running boards yet- hopefully before painting? I temporarily re-installed my tub in primer,installed the doors- minor fitting and tub shimming this time, and then the stripped and primed exterior panels. The bonnet fit was always horrible on my car, and the different radiator shell made it worse. I spent likely 10 hours fitting it alone. Moved the rad mount turnbuckles back and forth, ended up filing a good 1/4" off of the top left panel at the curve to move the entire panel back to close gaps at the lower panel edge and the hinge area. Sighting down the edges before modifying revealed they were all very curved from the factory. The lower right lower edge had to be shortened to fit the shell, over 1/8" as well. The fit of the front fenders to running boards was (still is) horrible. The ebay straight right running board is inset about 1/4" from the fender edge. The left front fender had been dinged in the past at the back. The fit is now worse than before- the inside edge hits about where the rubber cowl strip comes down, which holds the very back edge almost 1/2" away from the body. This obviously now sticks way out from the running board. This is on the side of the tub that the original wood was perfect and not touched! The body shop picked the whole thing up yesterday. The guy doing the work spent a long time with me, going over all of the above. It will take major re-working of the rear of the left front fender, and fender to running board edges on both sides- metal work, welding, reshaping, etc. Also, the original rear fender to tub area had too large spacing so the piping would fall in- those areas need to be fixed. So I really hope you are not all painted yet, and if you are did a mock-up fit like I did! Keep us posted. George
George Butz

George,

Very good points, and things that I've already covered with Brian, the guy who is doing the tub and paint. He has done several T-Series recently, and has been trial fitting as he goes. He is the one who suggested trial fitting the bonnet before he paints it, something that is best done once the tub is mounted.

Brian also said that an oldtimer told him that front wings and running boards would be assembled and then held up to various cars to find thier best 'match' at the factory!

Of course things may go wrong with my schedule, in which case I won't have my car at the GoF, but that won't be the worst thing that could happen, and I'm prepared for that. As I've said many times, if it stops being fun, I'll slow down and enjoy myself, even if it means it takes me until late fall to finish. Right now, I'm doing everything possible to pre-assemble components, and donating a lot of time to friends' projects, with the understanding they will be there for me. It is both educational and enjoyable to see how other cars have gone together.

Good luck with your major refitting. I'm sure your attention to detail will be well worth it in the long run!

warmly,
dave
Dave Braun

Randy,

Have you been able to attend any other local events with your car? I think we've met. Email me off the board, dbraun99 at comcast dot net

remove the spaces, etc. and let's talk about your project!

dave
Dave Braun

Dave, you're really steaming forward and I love those plans. They give a strong focus and therewith lots of energy to make it happen. But only that naughty pi-factor as recently discussed on this BBS. I personally quit often encounter my own private tripple pi... But anyway, it is a great fun project. Good luck and greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Wow Huib... Triple Pi! that would be 9.42 times the time! ;)

Thanks for the encouragement, it is very much appreciated.

warmly,
dave
Dave Braun

This thread was discussed between 04/05/2007 and 07/05/2007

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.