Good point about valuation. When I got my TC for total restoration I bought 'off the road' insurance to cover it in case the garage burnt down as it would not have been covered by my house contents insurance. As I gradually restore the car its value will be going up significantly (hopefully!!) so I ...

The attitude of many car insurance companies and road side assistance companies in the UK when it comes to renewals is a joke. They show very little respect for existing customers - in most cases it is a bad move to simply accept their renewal quote as a 5 minute call to the same insurer most often ...

The strain on the threads in the casting worries me as well, but it does seem to be a standard way of putting an engine on an engine stand so I'm going to go with it. If it's done up tight it should be ok, but if it's wobbling on the stand then I suppose that it could tear the threads. I guess that ...

My bad, both Steve and Tom are of course correct, it's 8x1mm that I need. I can easily buy these on e-bay. However, I have one further question. Like a lot of engine stands, the bolts to the engine block pass through four tubes on the engine stand mounting plate. These tubes are of much wider diamet...

I need to mount my TC engine on a stand so that I can strip and rebuild it. This is normally done by bolting the engine stand mounting bracket to where the gearbox bell housing bolts to the engine block. On a TC engine I understand that these are M6 fine threads. Due to the dimensions on the engine ...

"The difference in circumference between the 2 tires (from 602 inches to 804 inches) is a total of 202". The total circumference difference is 33%. This means that the Dunlop must spin around 4 times for each 3 times that the Model A tire spins." I think that there is something wrong with your calcu...

Hi Ray, I wasn't really querying whether or not you had assembled them correctly, I was just giving you the dimensions of the spring in case you didn't have them. When I got my car I had exacly the same problem as you described and I traced it to the main spring having been manufactured incorrectly....

Hi Ray, Do you have a copy of the Brown Book ("Workshop and Tuning Manual by W.E. Blower). If so, that has a diagram that shows the correct dimensions of the springs and the locating dimples. With the spring under load so that it's flat, the dimple on the main leaf is 18" from the end with the large...

There is no need to take the axle to a shop to have it checked. All that I did was find a long rod that fitted in the kingpin holes and then set the axle down on a level surface. If you then hang a plumb line from the rod you can measure the distance between the line (hanging vertical) and the rod (...

An alternative to using teflon between the springs is to make a mixture of grease and carbon powder (bags available on e-bay). I stripped my springs down to the individual leafs (leaves?), took them back to bare metal, ground down the ends to round them (so persumably mine are not original) and then...

Hi Chris, There is a place in Ilkeston that sells bearings. I took my original wheel bearings in and they found a direct replacement for lower cost that the MG suppliers who charge a premium. I forget what it's called, but I know where it is. By the way, I should have some time next week if you want...

Progress is being made with my ambition to finish the tub this summer before I have to all but stop for the autumn/winter (as I turn into an astronomer for the season). Today was warm and sunny so I took the opportunity to spray one side of the car with 2K epoxy primer. I'm quite happy with the resu...

Nice job Steve. My rear wings are in a very poor state so I don't know how well they will fit up to the tub. During the process of trying to get the rear of the car right I've noticed that my rear wings are not identical to each other. In particular, the way that the rear tip curves back up again i...

frenchblatter wrote:.. He tapped it here, tapped it there and in less than half hour had a perfect panel fitted. I just stood and watched in amazement.

Skilled indeed. In my case it took a week and not half an hour!
Steve

After a battle of epic proportions, I have at last managed to make and fit the rear quarter panel to my satisfaction. This is an original panel that I topped and tailed with new metal to remove the rusted parts. My advice to anyone building their own tub (aside from don't! :eek: ) is to trial fit th...

Steve, my rear wing is level with the running board. I can pop over so you can look and measuree anything sometime next week. Hi Norman, As always, you are welcome to come over, however, I think that I have the measurements that I need now to get the rear quarter panel and wing to fit properly - I'...

I've resumed my battle with getting the rear quarter of the tub correct and I'm trial fitting a rear wing. As always, I have a question: My wing has a line of holes in it which are presumably the ones for the screws that go into the wood frame to hold the wing in place. These look original to me. Ho...

Hi Chris, I've been thinking about how the water could get up the thread with so little head pressure. I dont know how the water gets to the threads in the first place, but once there, it could rise up along the threads by capillary action, so it wouldn't need any pressure. The height that a liquid ...

Ok, I've had my moment of throwing my rattle out of my pram (as they say in the UK, not sure what the US translation is). I've been convinced by a couple of people that what I've done so far isn't that far off being acceptable (you know who you are and there will be retribution for making be carry o...

I've been struggling for too long with the tub on my TC and only making slow progress. Over the last couple of days I've been fitting the rear quarter panel. It seemed to be going ok, but when I did a trial fit of the wing (fender), it was way out. After a lot of messing about, I realised that the p...