Tanny's 1967 MGB GT

[tannyo]

Told ya so! Although it should hold fine. It's just the field of view that sucks. They are more of an overtaking mirror than a rear view mirror.

Yes you did and you were right. But it does look cool.

[spitfire]

The car looks fantastic Tanny. Great find.

[tannyo]

Well four and a half months after I got the car from the painter, it's finally back there to get some things fixed that needed work. There were more paint runs than I was satisfied with, the driver's door sagged a little making it difficult to close, there were two bumps on rear fender that showed through to the metal, the front valence had a bend in it, there were some very rough spots around the front turn signals, the rear bumper bracket needed to be straitened so the bumper doesn't look bent, the bonnet had been scratched by his cat and the paint looked two toned (you could see a line) and the rear emblems need to be mounted so they aren't loose. I think I got it all.

At the same time my speedometer is back at Morris'. We hooked up a different speedometer and no wave above 50 MPH. It has cost me a lot of time and money to try to get this problem fixed after Morris said that the speedometer wasn't the problem. Four different speedometer cables (the original, a Moss replacement that was 9 inches longer than the stock cable, a special cable with nylon piece from Morris and a proper size cable for the car), swapped out the angle drive and put the original back in because it didn't work (it has the washer) and checked the gears in the transmission. The cables were checked for kinks and had none. A frustrating time because Morris said the speedometer was okay when it wasn't okay.

Well Pete says it should take him four working days to get the body work completed. Should be done by Wednesday. When I got my wife's car fixed after someone hit it, it took them three weeks to do the whole front end, it's garenteed for life, looked beautiful, didn't have any runs and didnt have to go back to be finished. That's the reason I didn't go back to Henry's, because I had to go back several times to get the 71 finished. Even then it had problems. Am I expecting too much?

[VWNate1]

Tanny ;

I doubt any of your friends here will tell you the truth but i will :

Yes , you're a picky , whiny son-of-a-gun at times .

However , since you pay the bills as requested and on time too , I don't see anything wrong with it , just be aware what others think .

I'm picky too , although I drive a piece of junk , I drive it rather hard and I like the nether regions to all be " Just So ' if at all possible , in this I have Malcom and the rest of you alls to either do the job right for me , of to help out in noticing details I missed , those pesky details , the Devil is always in them .

Relax , go have some Coffee and when Pete gives you a call , be nice , pay him then GO THRASH THE DAMG THING like i know you want to .

.

Seriously Tanny , it's a thing I always here : why Nate , if you're so darn picky , does your car look like a reject from Pick-A-part ?! .

It doesn't bother me atall as I know if you alls didn't like me , you'd never talk to me nor invite me along for the fun drives .

Your cars , OT OH are always nice and clean and properly prepared for the twisty roads , like they should be .

O.K. ? I'm not slamming you here Tanny .

[tannyo]

Nate,

I really don't like to take the bus and while my car is not working and in my possession, I have to take the bus to work. Like you and Malcolm, I'm in pain every day (this is the whiny part) and the bus is very painful for me to ride. By comparison, my 67 MGB GT has a boulevard ride. I find the MGB seats quite comfortable. Because of the pain and mobility problems I have to pay for work to be done to my car and I expect it to be done right the first time. That's why I like Malcolm, it is usually done right the first time and he stands by his work. I rarely have to go back a second time.

When a third party gives us wrong information, it's not Malcolm's fault it can't be fixed as in the case of the speedometer. Morris told me that the problem was not with the speedometer, but with the car. He was wrong and is going to fix it now that he was proved to be wrong. However, I still had to buy parts I didn't need, pay for labor (though Malcolm only charged me for new parts he had to put in) and I've had the problem for over four months. I even brought my car in for Morris to look at after making an appointment and all he did the whole time is complain about the amount of time it was taking and how he was loosing money. That's when I paid him a ton of money to have his employee install a special speedometer cable that didn't fix the problem and then he wouldn't look at my car. He said I had to come back another day and miss another day of work that I wouldn't get paid for and maybe jeopardize my job since I hadn't been working there very long.

Okay, I'm done complaining for now.

I like your car and I'm amazed every time I see you go around a corner on three wheels. I've talked to you and know that you've put a lot of work into your car to make it better than mechanically sound and I respect that. I do like MY cars to run well and look nice too. It doesn't mean that I don't like your car or Malcolm's fantastic Jaguar saloon or a dozen other cars that have "patina".

[VWNate1]

FWIW ;

Patina is BULLSHIT ! it's for lazy or poor (me) folks who don't have the whatever to remove it like they should .

If ever I win The Lotto , you'll quickly see my old , nasty beat to shit survivor Met FHC transformed into a stupid , ugly RUST FREE totally rebuilt & re sprayed the same foolish wrong scheme fire truck red...... and , I'll continue to thrash it mercilessly as I like it , more than you can imagine .

As I said before : You're footing the bill , you get to choose how it goes .

If you think I never wa$te $$ on foolish goose chases after wrong things , incorrect parts or advice , sublet repairs etc. you're blind .

For me , it's the price of admission ~ I could get rid of all my junkers and buy a nice recently made car , one that's reliable and comfy with good seats for my injuries but I won't until I absolutely have to .

Sometime Tanny , even a top Journeyman Mechanic (nevermind a sod like me) has to chase the snake a goodly way and makes a mistake at times .

It's why most Mechanics either won't touch old cars or charge way more than the Dealer does , because they know that sometimes the job goes sick and the customer rarely remembers when you saved their bacon , only when you tried to $ave them a few $ by fitting a rebuilt mast cylinder and of course , it failed and you , the Mechanic is the bad guy even though the customer whined & bitched incessantly to save $35 on the part....

So , my friend , just take your downs with the ups and enjoy it when you can .

I ride the bus too , not often but always through the very worst parts of L.A. , I lived to tell the tale , so will you .

[Steve Simmons]

All I know is that Tanny's car looked really good to me. Just be sure your expectations are in line with the price you pay for the job. Old cars will never come out as nicely as new cars for the same price.

Nate, your viewpoint on "patina" is very refreshing to see. I share your sentiments, although I do prefer a tired-looking (but reliable) original car to a freshly painted one. But I don't play the rust game, ever. That's just silly. If I can afford to repair the rust then I will.

[VWNate1]

Just so ! .


It's only ever original once so I prefer to have old decent originals over restored or re sprayed , I'm just lacking fund$ to do my Met because it has 5 or 6 resale paint jobs on it and very little rust , I'd love to halt the rust now .

Now , back to Tanny's cool new (old) RHD MGB GT MKI ! .

[tannyo]

After five working days I got my car back from Pete and he fixed all the problems. The runs are gone and the driver's door closes nicely, I no longer have to slam the door shut.

Morris returned my speedometer, he said there was nothing wrong with it but decided to replace the magnet and frame. No wave nor two MPH jiggle that he said was normal. It's also spot on with my GPS as far as speed accuracy is concerned.

[VWNate1]

YAY ! .

So this means I'll be seeing you Wednesday morning then ? .

You'll have to go slower so I can keep you in sight please .

[tannyo]

Took the tach out to be fixed. Didn't work when cold.

[malcolmr18zoy]

Hi Tanny,
I thought it was re-built already. Do you think it had a problem all along?
Malcolm

[tannyo]

Hi Tanny,
I thought it was re-built already. Do you think it had a problem all along?
Malcolm

It was just converted to negative ground. Morris didn't think it needed to be rebuilt. The tach would work when warm and finally stopped working when cold and wouldn't show over 4500 when warm. Morris is going to rebuild the tach so if I want to, I can convert to electronic ignition. However Jeff at advanced says that points are better for the MGB, so I'll probably leave it with points but the tach will have modern internals.

[tannyo]

Rebuilt tach is in. Had to run an extra wire to the distributor side of the coil. When I turn on the lights, the tach no longer goes to zero and when the turn signals are on the tach needle no longer keeps time with the turn signal.

The question now is how reliable are these tachs with modern internals? Are the accurate? If the tach says 4500 RPM, is it really 4500 RPM?

Getting ready for the Carrera California this weekend.

Doug will be there, maybe Malcolm, is anyone else going?

[VWNate1]

I never had any issues with my original '67 MGB GT's tach whatsoever .

The turn signal issues clearly indicate ground path faults .

I've been asking about The Carrerra California for over a month and never got any reply , their site was dead from last year so I assumed it was called off ~ too bad as my Son wanted to run his old VW Race Car in it one last time before selling it .

Have a great drive and please post pix & stories .

[Stewart]

Rebuilt tach is in. Had to run an extra wire to the distributor side of the coil. When I turn on the lights, the tach no longer goes to zero and when the turn signals are on the tach needle no longer keeps time with the turn signal.

The question now is how reliable are these tachs with modern internals? Are the accurate? If the tach says 4500 RPM, is it really 4500 RPM?

Getting ready for the Carrera California this weekend.

Doug will be there, maybe Malcolm, is anyone else going?

If it's still working in 30 years you will have your answer. With the later cars in 4th gear it's 18 mph per 1k rpm. So 4500 rpm in 4th will be 81 mph. If the speedo matches the tach you're golden. It may be the same or slightly different with the earlier cars.

[VWNate1]

Was just lain out in the Myrtle Pick-A-Part in Monrovia , complete car , carbys and all , no over drive , disc wheels .

It's white and shoud have been saved IMO .

I don't know what year it is .

Happy hunting .

[tannyo]

Well, not even a year later and the speedometer stopped working completely. That's even with his special cable that's supposed to make the speedometer last longer. The cable connections look good, I'll have to bring it back to Morris to see if the speedometer is broken again. So far I'm not impressed with Morris' work.

It's not just the inconvenience of the speedometer breaking down again, but my time. At my new job I get a lot less time off than I did at my old job. I had built up 5 weeks of vacation time because of the length of time I had worked at my old job before being laid off.

My body seems to breaking down too. I'm going to a research hospital July 5th to see if they can figure out why I have this tremor and why it's spread to my other hand and the medication they gave me isn't as effective as it used to be.

In other news I have a wonderful wife, a great running car, and beautiful new Dayton wheels.

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[tannyo]

Turned out to be the angle drive which I had replaced last year from Morris. It just fell apart. I hope this one lasts at least a year.

[Steve Simmons]

I removed the angle drive many years ago and haven't missed it. In most situations you don't really need it. The only time its useful is when the cable is exposed too far under the car.

[Larry Kluss]

The wheels look great, Tanny.

[tannyo]

The wheels look great, Tanny.

Thank you. I like them too.

[VWNate1]

Looking good there Tanny ;

I hope the Dr's find something , I know a Machinist who's palsy is a b*tch but , he still drives & woks O.K. , hang in there .

[tannyo]

Last week my odometer rolled over to zero.

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[Steve Simmons]

Funny how the little things can be so fun. I pulled over once to take a photo of 77777 in my Y-Type.

I do however refuse to believe that you alone put 100K miles on your car already.