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I’m going to keep this stuff until Monday the 25th. Unless somebody wants it by then, it’s going to the garbage heap.
“ASVE” simply means “assembled vehicle”. That’s the way Nevada chose to title my car. The title from Utah that I received when I bought the car referred to the make as “SPCN” — special construction, maybe?
Well, I did learn a lot of things out of this:
- Don’t trust a mechanic unless you know what questions to ask and get references from real people who’ve used him to do the same work. What goes on in dealerships and most repair facilities is “parts replacement.” The older vehicles require a true mechanic, and those are hard to find. You can’t trust Yelp or Angie’s List for things of this nature. What you’re getting are reviews by people who got an oil change or parts replacement, which have no bearing on the kind of work needed on a TDR. My first mechanic — the incompetent asshole who cheated me so much — has good reviews on Yelp. If all I needed was an oil change, he’d probably be okay. The second mechanic I used was pretty good, but my friend in Missouri who’s a mechanic himself found the guy for me — because he knew what questions to ask.
- Know yourself. I didn’t. I imagined myself as Walter Mitty, the brilliant mechanic who was going to restore a prize-winning car. In reality I am a retired lawyer with no mechanical training. My real expertise today is in reading s*** on the internet. Realistically that is all I have time for anyway, since my hands are full with a wife’s honey-do list of home improvement projects, a house filled with electronics and equipment that seems to break every time I turn around, and three other modern cars to maintain.
- Don’t expect perfection. I am a perfectionist. A perfectionist should NEVER own a TDR. Ever. These cars cannot be made perfect no matter what you do. My experience with the doors and hood on my replica proves that. I could work on them a hundred times and spend $10K in repaints and those doors and the hood would never fit right — because FiberFab didn’t make them right in the first place.
- Buy your TDR for love, not money. Not only do TDRs not “appreciate” in value, you can easily spend just as much restoring one as you could buying a 99 point “real TD” off Hemmings. I’m losing several shirts and a couple of pairs of pants selling my car now because I ignored my personality and exaggerated my abilities. It might have been different if I could have done the work myself. Having someone else do the work for you when you don’t know what you’re doing leaves you at the mercy of unscrupulous persons every step of the way. Also, having tools in your shop does not mean you have the time or expertise to use them.
- Restoring a built car is the height of stupidity. I was saddled from the beginning with the mistakes of the DPO (“Dreaded Previous Owner”). The DPO is a joke that is no joke. This guy that originally built my car in 1999 obviously had some skill but he also slopped through a number of areas that conflicted with the perfectionist in me (see #3). I actually think I have enough skill to have assembled the body myself from a kit and done a better job; instead I spent hours and hours trying to fix his mistakes. Mechanically speaking, I would have been FAR better off to have bought one of those completely rebuilt VW pans you can buy on the internet, together with a completely rebuilt high-performance engine and high-performance transmission. In hindsight, I could have done all that and had my second mechanic put it all together. I would have had a better car for half the money. Of course, hindsight is always 20-20.
- Safety of the TDR is questionable. I built seats with built-in headrests and put in seat belts. I was not able to find anything solid enough to mount shoulder belts. Without shoulder belts, I would slam into the dashboard in a head-on collision and probably be killed even with the lap belt. Then there’s the gas tank that’s almost directly above your lap and separated by a smidgen of highly flammable fiberglass, and the lack of side rails if hit from the side. My second mechanic kept referring to my car as a deathtrap and I really think he’s not far off. I thought it would be safer than a motorcycle but the more I think about it, the more I think that’s wrong. Modern motorcycles have ABS and stability control to avoid accidents, and you’re presumably wearing a helmet, boots, and armor in your jacket in case you get in one anyway. Back when I had my 1930 Ford Model A in high school, I figured it was safe because it sat up so high and went so slow that nobody could miss seeing it. That’s not true with a TDR.
- If you’re 6′-4″, you might fit in a TDR but you’ll look like a clown. It’s difficult to accept, but I’m just not designed to fit in really small cars. I spent all that time lowering my TDR seat and cranking it back, and I still can barely get in. Then, when I looked at my pictures of me in it, I thought, “Man, I am way too big for this car.” I suggest the following rule of thumb for big guys who want a TDR: If you can’t fit in a Miata, you can’t fit in a TDR. I can’t fit in a Miata. I don’t know why I ever thought I’d fit in a TDR.
My car was originally built in 1999; when I received it, the passenger’s door had to be lifted up to get it to open and there were rub marks all around. In my restoration, I spent hours re-fitting the doors, latches, and hinges, and preventing them from rubbing. I found that a thin washer or two behind one hinge or the other made a huge difference. I succeeded in that the doors opened and latched really well. I also ground off all the places where they were rubbing and it went in for paint.
After driving it home from painting and to the mechanic, I noticed that the doors were still opening and closing well but were rubbing different spots. Since this was on the inside of the doors, I used my Dremel and did more grinding, then did a home repaint with good results. After 50 miles more, there was more rubbing, again in different spots. Another grinding, another repaint. Drive another 50 miles and the same thing happened again.
There is no noticeable slop in the hinges; the doors close solid and don’t rattle. The mechanic told me that the VW pan simply flexes too much when not connected to a steel body and that I’d never get rid of the rubbing. That may be true but IMHO the FiberFab kit was simply poorly made; the tolerances are too tight to prevent the rubbing from flexing no matter how the doors are adjusted. Given that the shape of the fiberglass hood doesn’t even line up very well with the TD grill shell, this isn’t surprising. All of this relates to my next post this morning.
We lived in Wellington (West Palm Beach) for seven years 2000-2007. We loved it. The whole area is beautiful and there are lots of great places to drive, ride bikes, or walk, not to mention having a beach nearby. No state income tax and we had coconuts, papayas, and bananas growing in the postage-stamp yard. Makes me sick to this day to think that we ever left … until I remember the downside. That was when Hurricanes Frances, Jean, and Wilma came to visit. The eye of all three passed right over our house and we survived without major damage, but we never wanted to go through that again, which is why we chose to retire in Nevada rather than Florida.
My advice is to assume you’re going to get hit, because sometime you will. Get a generator and get a supply of roof tiles and glue as soon as you arrive. We typically lost 40 tiles per hurricane but they’re easy to replace as DIY using glue Home Depot sells for that specific purpose. You have to stock up in the off season, though, because after a storm, you cannot find either the roof tiles or the labor to install them at ANY price. Accordion or Rolladen hurricane shutters are also advisable since putting up the metal panels is a PITA and they also occupy a lot of space in your garage. Far better to just close the accordions when the storm actually hits and open them when it’s gone … while all your neighbors are wrestling with the metal panels and screwdrivers. That, and always unzip the screens on your birdcage screen before the storm. The screens give the wind something to push against until it pushes over your enclosure — we unzipped them and our screened porch survived all three hurricanes with no damage, while our neighbors’ screened porches were all totally crushed along with their furniture.
Took the car out today for 30 or 45 minutes for a followup test. Utter silence except for minor squeaks two times, and they were more like an emasculated mouse than a Screamin’ Eagle. At the end of my test, I repeated the 50-0 panic stop exercise several more times, then drove a little further and the mouse remained silent again. I’ll do another test over the weekend, but my “take” on the brakes right now is that there is or was something on the drum or the shoe that was causing the sounds, and that the repeated panic stops have worn it away so that it’s no longer pestering me. Perhaps my previous symptoms just meant my brakes needed “bedding in” and now they’re getting to be bedded in?
Certainly the car stops well enough. The only problem with stopping is that the front discs are so powerful that the tendency to lock up actually lengthens my stopping distances. In the long run I plan to make a removeable concrete-and-lead “brick” to fit into the space now occupied by the jack under the hood. The weight I’ve already added has helped the discs get grip, and the additional weight of the “brick” should make them even better. The weight should also help neutralize the balance and reduce the tail-wag caused by all that weight at the rear (not that it doesn’t handle well — it corners pretty darned good already but I’d still accept improvement). I can find another place to store the jack, so that’s not a problem.
That looks just fantastic! What a nice finish on the wood, and the chrome really makes the center “pop.” Very professional looking. I’m curious, though, what chrome you used. It turned out great even with the corner joints … apparently you have both a sharp eye and a sharp knife.
I took some of Ed’s advice today: “Take the car out and speed it up to 50 or 60 and jam on the brakes for a panic stop. Do it 5 or 6 times. Then drive slowly home braking as normal.” I also did Royal’s test: “Do the brakes squeal when you apply the parking/emergency brake?”
First the parking brake. I used only the parking brake to slow me as I backed out of my driveway and also used it solo to stop me the first couple of times going straight while the brakes were cold. Not a sound, although using my parking brake to stop is about as effective as skidding my shoe on the highway. It definitely “applies” and there is pressure to it and some effect, but not enough effect to hold the car on the 15 degree incline of my driveway. Anyway, the point was, no sound.
Then the panic stop test. Pulling out of our subdivision (after the parking brake test) over to my chosen street for the test, it was still howling at every stop sign. I pulled onto my chosen street* and did the first panic stop from 50 mph and never heard anything (one limitation is that the front discs tend to lock up and slide, so I stopped with as much pressure as I could apply without locking them). Did this perhaps a dozen times and never once heard a sound. Felt the rear drums, which were really hot by then, which I figured to be a good thing. Drove home very moderately and never heard another sound. I even turned off the engine and coasted just to be sure.
As well as this went, I am mindful that the previous time I took the car out the brakes were quiet if I applied heavy pressure but they howled at light pressure and low speeds. I’m also mindful that I thought the brakes were fixed twice before when I left the mechanic’s shop and started howling before the end of the 20-mile drive home. I will go out again tomorrow or Wednesday and try it again at low speed with cold brakes, then take it on another 20 mile trip in stop-and-go city streets. If it’s still quiet after those tests, then maybe the problem is truly solved.
Regardless, thanks for the advice. If the problem still doesn’t go away, I’ll print out this thread and give it to the mechanic to check all the internal stuff.
* This was a straight residential street with a 35 mph speed limit and no stop signs; however, there are very few houses and almost no traffic. Still, it must have really looked weird to the residents as there can’t be too many 1952 MG TD Replicas doing panic stops there. Either nobody cared or I got back home before the cops were called.
According to my research — and what my mechanic told me — the brake light switches in old VWs are pressure-operated. When they get old, they tend to go bad and either fail or require an inordinate amount of pressure to operate. If you were able to get yours to work with a reasonable amount of pressure, that’s fantastic. If they work but you still have to really squash the pedal, the switches are bad. Once the guy replaced my switches, they work well and the brake lights come on easily with hardly any pressure. Of course, my car also has a sonic warning that the brakes are being applied lightly — that is when they start squealing like a wounded pig.
Royal is absolutely correct about “equivalency” and the consequences of the wrong profile. I was only trying to address the OP’s question about determining the width of the rim that the 205/60s are mounted on. The OP said he was assuming that because the 205/60s were wider than the 165/15s, they must be on a different (i.e., wider) rim. That isn’t necessarily true. The 205/60s could fit on common 4″ or 4.5″ VW wheels and therefore it cannot be concluded that the rim must be wider in the front than in the back. Of course, mounting such wide tires on such narrow rims would never be recommended, but not everybody follows recommendations. Also, a guy who puts 165R-15s on the back and 205/60s on the front is probably not paying attention to recommendations anyway. Bottom Line: Unless the wheels are stamped with the width, to be sure of the width the OP has to take the 205/60s off and measure the width of the rim.
We are in total agreement that 205/60s should not be used on a MG TD replica. Like Royal, I’m using 165/15s all around on my car. If I recall correctly, the original TD (and the original VW) used 155/15s, but those may not be readily available. The difference between 155/15 and 165/15 is negligible anyway.
Some OEM VW wheels have the wheel size stamped on them in letters about 1/8″ high. “4Jx15” as I recall. There’s no guarantee with this. All of my own wheels look alike but some of them have the stamping and some don’t.
Also, according to Tire Rack, your 205/60s are actually equivalent to the 165R15s, so I’d bet the wheels are the same front and back. See http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/45_conversionchart.jsp
If I were you, I’d continue to use the Sedona Red because IMHO the other colors clash and look “wrong.” What you COULD do to set off the instrument panel, however, is to wrap it in plastic chrome molding like this:
http://www.brandsport.com/trmg-0301-05.html
That is the exact stuff that I put on the entire perimeter of my dashboard.
You could also consider putting an applique on the face of the instrument panel. My instrument panel is a reproduction “real” TD instrument panel, but I got it cheap because the chrome was so *&^%% poor. I didn’t want to pay to rechrome it, so I covered the face of it with engine-turned vinyl applique, similar to this:
You can see this in my photos on Flickr. It’s on the instrument panel, the radio opening, and the radio opening door. I like it and if I get tired of it, I can pull it off and replace it with something else.
There is no doubt that edsnova suggests the “best” solution. However, according to my local mechanic here in Las Vegas, it’s not totally necessary. I have a FiberFab and do not have my engine compartment sealed like edsnova suggests. I have not experienced temps over 210 (since I fixed an exhaust leak). This, despite 100% stop and go driving for 20+ miles in 95+ heat. Even with the exhaust leak over the summer I never got over 230, and my mechanic says 230 is nothing to worry about. He points out that the sand rails in use here have the engine completely exposed and they don’t overheat out there in the desert when it’s 120 degrees.
As I understand it, the important thing is just to keep the hot exhaust from getting sucked back into the engine compartment. That’s what the sealing does that edsnova suggests. I have a single-pipe exhaust with an extension; maybe that gets my exhaust far enough away that I’m not having a problem. It also may very well depend on how often you get in traffic jams in hot weather. Maybe I have just been lucky. YMMV.
As for seeing the engine through the slots in the spare tire … really? Heck, my air cleaner extends up inside the wheel itself and yet it’s hardly visible. Yeah, I can see it if I look for it but it’s dark in there and who really looks inside the slots of the spare wheel? Most people don’t even realize that the engine is back there. Seems like a lot of trouble for little gain.
I just posted pictures of my car, which is a FiberFab (molded into the cowl under the hood). Under the seat I also found the original receipt for a cashier’s check issued to FiberFab on August 3, 1983, in the amount of $4985. In my case, there was a 16 year gap between the purchase price and the first titling of the car in 1999. Hard to imagine the kit sat there unbuilt for 16 years but that seems to be the case.
Even though it’s a FiberFab, I found that it has different characteristics from most other FiberFabs owned by members of this board. I’m not the only one like this but there aren’t many. Key differences are: My engine cover tilts backwards from the bottom; there’s a real spare tire; and there’s no lump on the running board just ahead of the rear fender like on most. The original builder used a “real TD” grill shell with a real MG badge so I have no idea whether it’s a MIGI or whatever.
Maybe mine is a later model? Maybe the date on the receipt might help identify it, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter; everything has to be custom fitted no matter which manufacturer or model you have. My car is truly “hand built” to the Nth degree and my understanding is that everyone else’s is just the same.
FYI – I didn’t move the brake on my car, the original builder did that. What I did do with the brake was remove the heater and defroster handles from the unit. This narrowed down the assembly and took out those pointy little parts, and I also removed the tops of the adjustment screws, something I’ll probably regret later. My changes, however, did allow a conventional e-brake boot and let me put the seats closer together.
You can’t do what I did unless you are doing without a heater (or have some other way to control it). I live in Las Vegas and don’t need a heater; also, since I also lack side curtains, I figured a heater wouldn’t do much good anyway. IMHO the original VW e-brake and heater/defroster assembly isn’t going to look good if you move it where mine is UNLESS you also remove the heater parts. If you’re keeping the heater, I’d keep the e-brake forward. I have heard, however, that there is a way of changing the angle of the e-brake handle so it’s easier to access even though it’s forward of the shifter.
I would say that it doesn’t look that hard to move the e-brake assembly (spoken like a guy who didn’t actually do it). The e-brake assembly is simply bolted to the tunnel and connects to the brakes using cables. So, aside from the issue of cutting a new hole in the tunnel and closing the old one, it shouldn’t be that difficult just to shorten the e-brake cables.
I would caution that if you are working in the tunnel, it would be a good idea to replace the shifter bushing at the same time. That little SOB will really screw up your shifting if it’s worn out or missing and you’d have to remove and replace your carpeting to access it later. It’s just a cheap nylon piece but difficult to replace and a dirty job. Mine was replaced before I put in the new carpet. It fixed my shifting, but if I had only known about this piece, I would have had it installed: http://www.ev4unow.com/VWShiftRodBushing.html
That solves the problem more-or-less permanently.
Tombstones? LOL, I never thought of that! They were just intended to mimic the shape of the dashboard while acting as head restraints but now that you mention it … yeah, tombstones! Maybe I should also get little skull decorations for the car, too! 😀
The “engine turned” part to the instrument panel is just an applique to an original TD instrument panel (mainly, so I wouldn’t need to replate it). As it happens, the four holes are perfect for four gauges. I did drill out a hole for the ignition switch, which is also a TD part. In 20-20 hindsight, it was a lot of unnecessary work.
The hinges for the radio door are “Quadrant Hinges” and here is where I got them: http://www.hardwaresource.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=4054
The quadrant hinges were a huge PITA to fit because you need a semicircular opening for the back side of the hinge to fit into. I used my Dremel and a large amount of cursing. Part of the reason my radio compartment is “lined” with engine-turned applique is that it covers up where the hole for my quadrant hinge got a little too close to the edge of the radio opening. My excuse for this kind of “workmanship” is that I don’t own a wood shop or even a work bench. All I have are hand tools and a couple of portable power tools plus the Dremel. I did most of this work either sitting on a stool on my driveway or using a couple of 2x4s for support. I really hoped having a four-car garage would lead to a real workshop but until I can get rid of kids living at home, my entire garage is full.
I second what the other guys said but based on my experience, I also recommend you make sure the top of the sending unit is level if you can possibly do so.
My gas gauge works but it’s about as dependable as a broken clock; it’s right twice a day. It sometimes won’t show full for quite a while after a fillup; then it sometimes continues to show full when it’s actually 3/4 full; it sometimes drops suddenly by 1/4 tank or more; and it shows empty when there is still quite a bit of gas visible. The resistance values have been checked and adjusted several times and the new mechanic assures me the float is okay. I’m pretty sure the problem is that the top of the tank isn’t level. The tank (and thus the sending unit) slant toward the front of the car. I’m pretty sure this makes the float either “hang” or not read properly. Not much I can do about that other than to fill the tank when the gauge starts to drop. Of course, that’s at least a clue about the tank and therefore better than nothing — and “nothing” was what I had when I got the car because the gauge then wasn’t working at all.
I have an extra rear bumper in my garage. This was part of the original kit but it’s imperfect enough that I didn’t reuse it on my car. I originally was going to sell it but decided to keep it based on difficulty in packing and expense in mailing — then I started thinking that I might someday back into something and need it. Sorry ’bout that.
“Which kit has the most correct body, and uses most td trim. lights, etc?”
It doesn’t matter. All the kits look pretty much like the real thing. Just get hold of the Moss Motors and MG Magic web sites and there are plenty of original parts you can either bolt on directly or adapt to fit. With enough money to burn, you can make any TDR look enough like a “real TD” to fool anybody but a “real TD” owner. You will need plenty of money to burn, because for value purposes, you’re going to lose it all. Beautiful as it may be, a kit car will always be a kit car. It’s not an investment and it and will never have monetary appreciation or respect from “real” TD owners no matter how much it looks like the real deal.
There are good reasons to get a TDR. Maybe you enjoy working on it yourself. Maybe you like the styling and you don’t care about authenticity. Maybe you’re getting it dirt cheap and plan to leave it as-is and just drive for fun. Maybe you just believe a VW or Chevette engine is more reliable, powerful, easy to mod, and easy to find mechanics for than a real 1952 MG engine. Maybe you need a project to fill your days and you prefer a cloud of fiberglass dust in your garage versus a cloud of rust particles. Or in my case, maybe you’re 6′-4″ and can’t fit in the real one but you can mod the TDR to fit.
If authenticity, perfection, and investment are more important to you than other factors like I mentioned, then just buy a real TD and skip the kit. There are over 80 (!) MG TDs listed on Hemmings Motor News right now, ranging from $4500 up to $45,000. By the time you restore a TDR to equal condition, you’ll likely spend less just buying a real TD. I also daresay that restoring a real TD with (relatively) standardized metal parts cannot possibly be more difficult than fixing a kit car where every piece is different on every kit and the dreaded original builder cobbled the thing together and hid his screwups for you to discover several thousand dollars later.
My own TDR is beautiful now. It draws attention, it accelerates, handles, and brakes better than a real TD. Most importantly, I fit in it. It has also been a tremendous PITA and a money pit; had I known the extent of these two factors I absolutely would never have bought it in the first place. I was naive and thought it was a Volkswagen Beetle, how hard could it be to fix? Hahahahahahahaha …
Toller, I drilled the holes for my instruments into 7/16″ walnut veneer plywood with my hand drill using hole saws I bought for that purpose at Home Depot. These were 4-1/4″ diameter and 2-1/2″ diameter respectively (as I recall, I had to order the larger one from Home Depot online rather than in-store). Essentially these are just regular saws that are made into a circle and designed to put a drill chuck in the center. With a light touch, the holes turned out perfectly, or very nearly so. I also cut out the basic shape of the dash using my saber saw with a brand-new, fine-tooth blade. It also turned out very well. In both cases there were very minor chips to the veneer that Allen would never get with a solid piece of oak. In any event, the chips are not noticeable at all on the instruments, because the bezels totally cover the chips. The chips on the edge of the dash were filled with wood filler and stained, sealed, and varnished like the rest. Perfect? No, but pretty darned good if you aren’t looking for defects. My car has so many other defects that if a perfectionist is looking for defects, his eyes will glaze over long before he gets to the dashboard.
Granted that a drill press would be better yet … but unless Allen already has access to a drill press, what I did seems like a good alternative. Allen, go to Home Depot and look in the tool section and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I made my dash out of walnut-veneer plywood from Home Depot, and sanded and stained it. Two things I didn’t like. The veneer made tiny chips along the edge while I was cutting it (but repairable), and the polyurethane varnish I used caught every dust particle in Las Vegas despite my best efforts. I wish I could have found solid wood and used Cetol like Toller suggests. That would have been better but solid walnut or mahogany in the right size is hard to find and I thought polyurethane would be better for outside exposure. What was I thinking? It doesn’t rain here! Well, not until this week anyway. Nevertheless my dash turned out very nice.
For the edge I have to disagree with edsnova. Why fool with stainless steel banding unless you are a glutton for punishment? I used a 7/16″ plastic chrome molding which was cheap, easy to work with, and conforms to all those curves. I only used a couple of small screws where the adhesive needed help. IMHO it actually looks better than stainless because it has “depth” (rounded thickness”) to it that stainless would lack.
I never considered covering the dash with vinyl. Original or not, wood just looks much better. You can also match wood to a wood steering wheel which also looks nice.
Steve, I got a good chuckle out of your belief that we wouldn’t use a top here in Las Vegas. To the contrary, rare would be the day that we would NOT use the top. It’s not a matter of comfort (it’s in the 70s today) or rain (rain? I don’t even have side curtains), it’s a matter of the strength of the sun here. We still get plenty of sunshine and fresh air with the top UP but we don’t get that severe sunburn in 30 minutes!
Awfully sorry to hear about your problems. It IS heart-breaking. It can be very hard to balance all the priorities in one’s life and sad when things get out of kilter. I’m sure everyone on the forum wishes you the best for the future.
May I inquire further about your car? Do I understand that you already sold it, or that you intend to? If you’re actively selling it, can we have a link to any advertising? If you’ve actually sold it, what was its condition at the time and what can you tell us about the sales price? .
