- This topic has 20 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I hope I’m in the right spot. I just received the title and plates for an MG replica Kit car 1952 London Roadster. It’s said to have an ’87 VW engine in it and I know little else, as I bought it on eBay in Washington and I live in Phoenix, AZ. I’ll be up soon to drive it down, but I wanted to get it checked out by a good mechanic in Port Townsend, WA. Can anyone recommend a good aircooled vehicle shop with something else that a VW body?
Welcome aboard MGL…R…
You are definitely in the right place!
I’m not going to give you a recommendation, seeing as I’m in NJ.
We have five members in Washington, I’m sure you’ll hear from them!
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Hi MGLR, Glad to have you on the forum!!.
I reread your post to be sure I was seeing correctly and you did say ”drive it back”. I checked mapquest to be sure and it’s about 1500 miles. I have owned a VW based london roadster since 1994 and 200 miles is my longest trip. I wish you well ,it’s going to be an adventure to say the least. I’m not trying to discourage you but thats a long way in a car of this type. Not impossible but not like riding in today’s vehicles. Keep us informed and make lots of pictures on the trip.
These cars are 25+ years old and most have sat arround for much of that time so you have to plan for little things going wrong often at inconvenient times.
I’d flat-tow it. Drag it home, sort it out, then do the epic road trip.
I’m getting old though. 10-15 years ago I’d’ve drove. You’ll get a better story that way.
Welcome MGLR.. I’m with the others too. My longest trip to date is about 3 hours with lots of stops to stretch my legs, but then I’m 6′ tall and almost 60. I would tow it home, a VW style tow bar is fairly cheap and just slips on the lower tube of the ft axle. Either way hope you have a safe trip. Montie
I’m up for the challenge. I used to have a ’67 Beetle and took that up and down California, and doing the tune ups myself back then. I loved being able to adjust my own valves and have that baby humming.
I’ll be up for taking breaks and hope that there are no break downs, but that’s a risk I’m willing to try for now. The offers to have it hauled are about twice to three times this trip will cost, and my tow vehicle would need a transmission cooler and possible power steering fluid cooler installed before then, again, adding to the costs that I really don’t want to spend right now.
Worst case, it breaks down and has to be hauled, yes, I’d be out a lot of dough. I hope I can do some regular maintenance on this ’87 model VW.
Welcome MGLR
You might want to store it up there untill the weather get better . Because calif. is getting hit pretty good with rain and snow. Rock slides ,mud slides,snow slides . Yep time to be a snow bird and head for warmer climate.
TDREPLICA Map
http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=7f9174ad614e43b680deba085b0abf48
The trip is planned for mid May. I’m hoping that the snow is gone by then. I hope the old girl is up to it. I won’t push her too hard along the route. I just hope she makes it over the Grapevine.
OK, guys, I’m wanting to share my excitement and enthusiasim. I am having the car checked out at a local VW garage and they tell me is has an almost new looking GEX engine, size unkown. It is reported to be running smoothly with no oil leaks. I going to put new tires on it as the shops says the old ones have cracks in their side walls and I don’t want to make that trip on those old ones.
I have a question about cleaning the wire wheels/covers once I get her home. I want to keep them shiney and clean. Will I be polishing each spoke?
No oil leaks puts you way ahead of me & Bridget. Good call on the tires too. I should’ve done that last year, and it won’t be done until next week.
I’ll let the wire-wheel-havin’ guys address your “each spoke” question.
Um, yeah…you will end up cleaning it a spoke at a time.
Wheel brushes do a good job. But if you are picky, each spoke will get some personal attention.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
That reminds me of my younger days when I polished the chrome rims and spokes of my Schwinn 10-speed. It’s good thing it is still cool in the mornings now.
What products and tools can anyone recommend?
and do I need to make a change in my profile or settings? I am not getting e-mail notices that there are new additions to this post.
Welcome! I recently bought a Design Classics MG kit in Florida and drove back to Indiana, 1200 miles. It was fun and some times exciting, make sure the cooling system is working right. Have fun.
You can get a VW towbar really cheap. They will allow you to flat tow the car. You almost don’t know the car is behind you. You just can’t back-up with the car hooked up.
These cars are VERY light and you really don’t need a trans cooler as long as you don’t use OverDrive (read your owner’s manual to verify).
VW didn’t sell air cooled Beetles in the US after 1979. 1978-79 were convertible Beetles only. From 1975 up they were also fuel injected. If your donor car was an ’87, it was a Mexican Beetle. I doubt if that’s the case.
I suggest you have the serial number stamped on the floor pan over the shifter/trans coupler verified. It will tell you EXACTLTY what year the donor floor pan was…if it’s not been altered that is. The engine and can be from any year. If the transaxle is IRS, it’s from ’69-up. If it’s Swing Axle, it’s up to ’68.
The front beam (suspension) is also different some being king-pin and some ball joint.
If I were you, get the serial number off the engine and check it. The best website for VW Data is: http://www.thesamba.com. Best place to ask VW related questions.
Read the vendor feedback on GEX on the Samba forums too.
I got the engine number off of the engine and called GEX. They told me their records don’t go back far enough to include this number.
I made it back to Phoenix with several break downs and tows. Now I can’t get the engine to turn over, but the battery still has power, as I can turn the headlights on.
I’ve got a laundry list of repairs to make on this one. She’s spitting oil out about a quart ever 500 miles all over the rear of the car. Every fuel fill up results in a spillage of gas on my fender and running boards, often also on the ground.
I had to replace the voltage regulator twice and put in a new carburetor, then she died on the highway, just 50 miles from home and had to be towed in. The odometer does not work, the heater tubes were never hooked up. My windshield wipers stopped working before the rain ended on a dark night of a 12 hour drive.What can I clean the oil off of the body and top with? I think my main seal might need to be replaced. I might have more than one leak.
Try to turn the engine using a wrench on the crankshaft pulley. That will tell you if the engine is locked up or if you have a starter or other electrical problem.
A pressure washer or coin operated car wash should clean off the oil.
After you get the engine cleaned off .you can look for where the oil is coming from.If it is leaking at the crank pulley,the problem may be that the engine is not properly ventilated.My LR has a system of hoses running from the valve covers to a breather on the engine fan shroud. Your mechanic may have eliminated these thinking that they were not necessary.
Check here for engine and Chassis numbers.
http://www.lightner.net/ybdb/serno.html
http://www.vwoc.euromarques.com/serial_numbers/chassis.htm
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Here is finally a picture of the old girl, taken somewhere along the road in either Oregon or northern California last month on the way home.
You bought a pretty ride. How many thumbs up did you receive on the trip?
The worst road trips make the best stories. In years to come, this will be an epic. You did make it home.
You might not want to use a pressure washer on the top. It’s just fabric, and old at that. Gelcoat isn’t tolerant of pressure washers either. It’s porous. Water penetrates to the fiberglass and promotes separation. Pep Boys et al carry oil specific detergents. I would wash the oil off, gently.
Oil leak. The engine wasn’t leaking oil when the shop checked it out. It is unlikely that something major has failed. Look for the simple leaks first. Start with the valve covers. The gaskets may be leaking, particularly if they haven’t been changed in a while. They are rubber filled cork and stiffen with age and heat. The heat cycles on the trip could have compressed them to the failure point. The plate on your oil drain has cardboard gaskets that compress as well. You need to change the oil and check the valves anyway.
Does “I can’t get the engine to turn over” mean that the engine doesn’t spin when you turn the key or that it spins but doesn’t fire? If it’s the latter, look at your points. They could have closed. The distributor could have retarded. You could have moisture inside the cap. You were driving through a monsoon. Oddly enough, one path for moisture being boiled off from the crankcase is up the distributor shaft. It condenses inside the cap. Dry it out. Mop up the rest of the engine too. The coil is out in the open as are the ignition connections.
Yup. That’s one pretty ride.
Thanks for your comments. She looks great with a 2MB cell phone camera. Up close and personal, I’ve discovered middle-age cracks and chips in the fiberglass that I would love to get repaired. There is more rust than I anticipated on the chrome from the steering wheel to the wire wheel covers and bumper to bumper, so a bottle of chrome polish is getting used, but it might be faster for me to just order replacement parts, if I can find them, like the wheel covers. There be a lot of spokes that need rust remover.
The “engine doesn’t turn over” comment was misleading, I see. I apologize for any confusion. Sometimes the starter would spin, but the engine wouldn’t engage. Other times, the battery was dead and nothing turned at all. The points were gaped, the timing was reset, and the carburetor was adjusted, so it seems to be running well again. The oil leak was at least from one of the valve covers, so I changed the rubber gaskets to the premium cork ones from Germany.
I think the battery was getting drained because my voltage regulator became unfastened and may have shorted out when it fell down on the fan housing, draining my battery more than once. We installed some rubber gaskets for the voltage regulator attachment points, and I tightened the sheet metal screws again today.
I got thumbs up, tractor-trailer honks, and waves, at least once per day, and at most stops I made along the way. Just yesterday, a friendly lady with 2 kids in her car stopped on the freeway to offer me a ride when it broke down yesterday evening. She told me was a “cute car”. My girlfriend thinks this is a masculine car, but I keep referring to it as a “she”. On a test run today, as I got on the freeway, the car just passing honked and gave me a thumbs up. She is definitely a slower cruiser, comfortable on city streets at speed limits, and the freeway at about 55-65. I pushed her to higher revs and faster speed on my journey, but I don’t think I’ll do that again. I have my Honda S2000 for that need.
Thanks for the pressure washing tips. I don’t take my other cars to the pressure washer, so I was just going for the degreaser stall to do the engine. I’ll do it by hand now, as I don’t want to damage the fiberglass any further.
This is a life-long desire, fueled by a book I read as a 12-year old in school, called The Red Car. I purchased a new copy of that book and took it with me to read each night on my journey as I went to bed. I don’t think I could have kept or refurbished a real MG TD or TC, and buying one in rebuilt condition was out of budget, but the VW engine is something I’m not afraid to do regular maintenance on, as I’ve owned a VW bug as my first car, and the price was attractive to me at the time, even though it wasn’t red.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.