Oh the progress!

Well what can I say, it's been a huge week of work and progress! It's easy to get things done when it's a labor of love I guess. 
I put in 2 hrs every evening and then a full day on Saturday to keep things moving along.
I've been making good use of my zinc-electroplating system, cleaning up all my hardware on the wire wheel and re-plating them in zinc as original.

After receiving a shipment of new stuff from the Roadster Factory, I was able to refurbish my carburetors. I replaced the fuel lines, re-plated all the hardware, transferred over the original 'Smiths petro-flex' label to the new fuel line. I also got my new heat shield correctly plated in golden cad.

The carburetors I just gave a good cleaning and replaced all the gaskets. I avoided the temptation to over polish these as they never were originally. 

I was able to find a brand new/old stock starter motor on e-bay to replace the modern one that had been put in mine. The date stamp says 12/63 so it's perfect!  I painted it in the MG maroon engine colour as original.
I also stripped and painted the fan and pulley in yellow and re-plated the hardware as original.

I also received my new/old stock clutch master cylinder in the mail. After giving the brake and clutch master cylinders a light hone a few weeks ago I found that the clutch cyl. had some corrosion on the inner cylinder wall. Luckily I found this brand new one online for a reasonable cost. To go with it, I've ordered a new pair of the correct metal caps from Scarborough Fair. I also rebuilt the clutch slave cylinder with new rebuild kit.

Last but certainly not least - today I worked all day on cleaning and painting my engine/gearbox assembly. I came prepared with a big tarp to work on. I spread the tarp out outside, rolled the drive train out onto the tarp (to collect any mess from the process)
I washed everything down carefully by hand, scrubbing every nook with small wire brushes and plenty of Varsol. Soaking up the mess periodically with paper towels and making sure every port or opening remained sealed off. When it was all clean and dry, I masked off what was not to be painted and gave the engine a few coats of colour. I ended up using Krylon Dual (paint/primer) in their Burgundy colour. I think it's a great match for the MG colour and from what I've read it should hold up to the temps that this little engine puts out. I'm still probably going to sandblast and paint the rocker cover and oil pan separately later on to get a better finish on them.

That was probably the most productive week of work yet, between upholstery work and MGB work, it's all work that I'm genuinely proud of and enjoy doing.

Until next time -