Frank,

I relocated the E brake to it’s “proper” position between the seats. It’s a pretty difficult process requiring that you cut about 3 ft. from a donor car tunnel including both the brake and shifter, and transplant the whole thing to it’s correct position with the shifter centered over the end of the (shortened) shaft which changes gears. I ended up having to fabricate a new shaft because I missed the mark by a 1/2″. Hardest part of the whole job is bending the tubing at the rear of the tunnel which directs the wires for the heater/defroster flaps and the E brake cables.  It’s a brutal, frustrating knuckle tearing job. I’m glad I did it, but I really don’t recomend it unless you’re a fairly good welder and have a lot of patience. Keep in mind that if you screw it up you’ll compromise the strength of the whole pan, which relies on that tunnel for its strength. Not to rain on your parade…but you can pick up hydraulic parking brakes pretty cheap. If you still wish to go ahead, you might hook up with a dune buggy shop: they can probably help you find a junker pan, or direct you to a welder/fabricator who could do it for you if that’s how you want to go.

I replaced my seats with Corbeou Classic Buckets, which slide on tracks and sit on steel platforms I had fabricated for them. The original bench style seat could be moved forward but it would be a little work and might look odd given the shape of the car which sort of wraps around those seat backs. Bucket seats are the obvious solutin, if you aren’t concerned about staying close to the original MG pattern. Look for used ones if you don’t have the bucks for new.

Good luck with your car.

Michael, the Merlin guy

Hi all,

On my BCW rather than moving the bench seat back and forth,

which would be uncomfortable because the steering wheel

would be to close to the driver?s chest, I made pedal extenders

for shorter drivers to use. The extenders bolt onto the clutch

and brake pedals. The accelerator seemed to be all right for

everyone. The extenders work well except that they take a

couple of minutes to put on and they have to be taken off before

I can drive. They also beat up my pedal pads, although with a

simple design change I could resolve that problem.

I have been toying with the idea of going to a fully hydraulic

pedal assembly (clutch, brake, and accelerator pedals).

Performance VW shops like Bugstuff and CB Performance

carry hydraulic pedal assemblies for dune buggies. With the

hydraulic assemblies, pressing on the pedal actuates a piston

behind the pedal creating pressure in a line running to a slave

cylinder that turns that pressure into movement, just as in any

braking system. With the use of flexible hoses at the pedals (to

connect them to the steel lines) and a pedal track mounting

system, all three pedals could be easily relocated for different

drivers. Performance shops also carry track systems for

mounting the pedals to the floor pan.

Brian