Shutting it Off Before Getting it Going: Battery Cutoff Switch

It may seem counter intuitive at first, installing a shut off switch when my goal is to get things going. In my view its like working on your brakes before tuning the engine - make sure you can stop what you get started. Also, given my inexperience with wiring and the age of the car, the battery disconnect is a quick and easy modification that may some day save your bacon (or wire loom). It may also prevent the car from being stolen by a thief of less than average intelligence.

There are few materials to buy. I purchased a battery cutoff switch from Waytek wire for under $18.

Update December 2010:
This is the switch at Waytek: http://order.waytekwire.com/productdetail2/M37/44029/MASTER%20DISCONNECT%20SWITCH%20%20%203/8/
Price is now just over $21.00.

At that price I was was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the keyed switch. The face plate was around $1, with a minimum purchase quantity of five. My only complaint was the component was out of stock. Be careful when ordering and specify in the comments field on their web page to "ship together" you will get billed for separate shipping when parts are out of stock.

The grounding wire (red) is from my local Advance Autoparts and is for lawn mowers! Astley's 'MGB Electrical Systems" recommends a minimum of 6G, shorter than 18 inches. This one is 6G and 20 inches, so I'm pretty close. The grounding strap for a Harley Davidson would be ideal.

I located the switch on the bulkhead behind the passenger seat, an easy reach from the driver seat. Don't you just love how everything is "within reach" in these little cars! I drilled larger hole first, then used the face plate to orient the switch for the drilling of the second, smaller hole seen on the middle right. I consider this the primary use of the faceplate: solely as a locater for the smaller hole. Do I really want to shout to a potential thief : "Hey! Don't forget to turn is on if you want to steal the car!" Then again, who would want to steal this mingy thing anyway? Plus, it is keyed, so taking the key would then only indicate that they had to bypass the switch. Okay, I'm still debating the use of the face plate...
View from inside the battery well. Black wire on right goes to negative post on battery. My new red (lawn mower!) wire on left goes to ground (not shown).
Could they have made it a tighter fit? Battery in place, wires all over the place. That's the negative post on the left that loops around the compartment and to the switch. Positive on the right goes down the front of the battery and under the car to the starter in the front. All done! To the left of the key you can just make out the small post on the switch through from the back and helps anchor the switch in place. I will put a similar switch in the LE.

Carburetor Rebuild

The car would start easily, then falter as soon as the accelerator was depressed. It seemed like a carburetor problem. The GT has a 32/36 down draught Weber DGEV (electronic choke). Upon opening the bonnet the first question was: "WHY? Why did the previous owner paint the air filter with red primer???" Or is that just really bad red paint? I can understand wanting to pait the cover. Weber air filters are poorly chromed and tend to rust,...but why not some rattle-can silver or a gloss black?
There was also a small leak from where the carburetor mates to the manifold. Dripping fuel so close to the hot exhaust manifold is a GT-inferno waiting to happen. That gasket needed replacement before attempting to restart the car. With two good reasons to remove the unit it was time to get going. The bay looks ratty but we're not going for "pretty" at this stage of the game.
Sure enough! Lots of rust had made it past the fuel filter and into the float bowls. It was likely clogging the jets and who knows what else. That's not just "varnish" from stale fuel, but actual rust grit from the old tank.
It was time for a complete rebuild so I purchased a kit from Weber Carbs Direct . The full rebuild kit was just under $25 plus shipping. I also purchased the top filter housing, air filter, and cover for an additional $20.00. Painted cover be gone!!

With the help of the Haynes Weber carburetor manual the tear down and rebuild was straight forward. I took lots of pictures and placed all the pieces in labeled sandwich bags to keep everything separate.

Here is it after cleanup that included a soak in carb cleaner and polishing of the air intakes and float bowl. Reassembly is well underway in this picture.
Now the prettiest thing in the bay, the carburetor is installed back on the intake manifold. No connections yet - I still have some other fuel-related work to finish after reading an article in the latest issue of MGB Driver magazine where Dave Dubois has an excellent article on fuel system improvements.
Next up: Reconnecting the fuel, air, and electronics for the carburetor, plus my final improvements to the fuel line. More on that in a week or two!

Predictable Rust

You never know what awaits you underneath the wing. I was not surprised by what I found. It could have been worse, I had hoped for better. Here is the front part of the inner sill. You can just make out a perforation where the taper ends toward the front. I should have cut that out and replaced it with solid metal. But, its a GT so its less prone to sagging and my goal is to get this car on the road and "do it right" later (like I am with the roadster). I stripped the rust off the inner sill that fits under the wing...
..and did the same with the trumpet section. Removal of the rust with a twisted wire wheel on my angle grinder revealed two perforations. At a minimum I should have plug welded those closed before proceeding futher, but with my goal in mind I left it for later. The metal here is prepared with "Metal Ready" primer in advance of applying POR-15 paint. POR-15 paint applied to the inner sill, trumpet section and area where the wing fits to the body. All had surface rust that cleaned up easily. Next up: Finishing the carb rebuild and body work on the front valence before attaching a new wing!

Wing Removal

Here is the damage present when I rescued the car. It runs from the center of the wheel well forward with minor damage to the bumper and grill.
A closeup of the damage near the front, after removal of the bumper - the first step in wing removal. The valence suffered some good old wrinkling. I'll get to practice some hammer and dolly work on those V-channels and ridges!
Front valence off and grill out.Next to remove the nuts and bolts that hold the wing in place. This last tricky little beggar is accessed through the brake failure indicator light which was broken anyway.
Wing off! The front wheel rim was damaged during the accident and the spare, used as a temporary replacement, has most of the tread sheared off. It must have been a desperate get away. There is some rust along the top edge that must be removed and the trumpet (triangular box section near the top) needs cleaned up for rust assessment. The splash panel at the far right looks iffy along the edge. Yep, that's a broom holding the bonnet open.
Its a real challenge to keep from tearing it all down and "doing it right." I must keep the goal in sight: getting the car on the road by end of the summer. Must focus...must.... focus....!.

We Have Ignition (switch) !

Back in February I had the ignition switch re-keyed only to discover the entire switch was completely knackered. I ordered a new switch and keys from Moss Motors.
For the '73, you must remove the connector (arrowed) and attach bullet connectors to wire it into the dash harness. The wires pulled with surprising ease from the plastic connector.
I ordered a combination pack of bullets and sleeves from British Wiring and the crimping tool for attaching the bullets. Only problem was, the crimping tool was on back order from England and would take a month to arrive. There is debate about the usefulness of this tool, with many saying it is best to solder the bullets on. I knew my soldering skills were not up to the task so I decided to wait for the crimper.

The bullets came packaged all together but are easy to tell part based on their markings. The 24-strand bullets required for the ignition are the 10 in the second column from the right.
Strip the wires such that the end of the wire goes to the end of the bullet, but don't strip too much insulation! If you look up inside the bullet there is a constricted area where the insulation should end and the stripped wire should be begin. The crimp will be placed in the indentation you see on the exterior of the bullet.
Check out this crimping action photo! The tool has a ratcheting mechanism and forms a perfect crimp around the bullet. I checked the wire and could not pull it out. In my opinion it is worth the wait and cost (around $50.00 for the crimper) if you will do much rewiring. If I could solder in a decent fashion I may have a different opinion but for me this was the way to go.Attaching the switch to the steering column was easy. Note the "break away" bolt . The head shears away (as seen on the right) when the proper torque is reached. At least that is my story and I'm stickin' to it.Here is the cover replaced on the steering column and the bullets pushed into the connectors (shown under the dash).
I should have fire now. Next I need fuel. The tank is in, so that leaves the carburetor rebuild before I can try firing her up again.

Minger Defined

From urbandictionary.com: (I'll spare you the link lest some definitions offend)

minger - Now often used by chavs all over Britain to define anything remotely disgusting.
or from Wikipedia:
UK (slang) uncomplimentary description of an unattractive person, usually female.

Yes its true. The GT interior is a real minger. It looks disgusting. It smells bad. Its generally nasty. Check out the "carpet" behind the seats. It pulled away easily leaving little but dust. It was well on its way back to nature.Some wasps were building a nest on on the driver's side rear wheel well.
Most enticing of all was the mouse nest found under the body panel over the rear wheel well. I had a run-in with the previous tenants a few weeks ago and all six (adults) were dispatched to the great block of cheese in sky. That's the nest in white, with mouse-urine drenched insulation near the back. Fantastic.
With the vermin and disgusting carpet removed perhaps it will at least start to smell a little better?

GT Fuel System : Mounting the new tank

I had planned on a full weekend of working on the car, but I decided to run a full virus can on my home PC on Friday after work. Virus scan found a virus, removed it, and at the same time corrupted the operating system beyond repair. Many, many hours later I'm back in business, having only lost a few email and the time I had hoped to invest in the GT.

Back to the fuel system! First step was to etch prime and then paint the mounting hardware with acrylic paint. Then bake it in the oven for 20 minutes at 200F to harden the paint. Mmmmm - Just like mom used to make! I scrimped on the prep work so it did not adhere as well as I had hoped. Never skimp on the prep, kids.
The new tank previously coated with truck bed liner was ready for the install. Although you can't see it in this photo, the black isolation rubber strips were run along the tops of the ridges on the tank. Traditional install is to run the strips front to back but they tend to trap dirt and moisture and start to rust the top of the tank. Some spray-on adhesive kept them in place until the tank was raised with the jack to help hold it while it was bolted on. The original isolation piece around the vent and the filler were reused.
The tarp is in place to catch drips from underneath where Penetrol was applied on some rusted areas that were easier to access while the tank was off. Penetrol is a paint conditioner that helps prevent rust by adhering to it and forming a film when it dries. It is often used by owners on the MBG Experience for rust prevention in the sills. Will it help here? Who knows? Its better than doing nothing and I'm not doing a proper restoration at this point. Here it is, all tucked up and bolted in. Now that's some nice GT badonkadonk!
Fuel lines were detached and blown out with compressed air (the carb is out for a rebuild). Some nasty, rusty gas came through the lines. Rubber lines were replaced in the rear area as a precaution. The metal lines will be left alone for now.The original tank had a fuel pickup line built in. The new tank does not and uses a pickup line integral to the gauge. Minor adjustments were needed to the metal lines. Sure, its not pretty and definitely not original, but it gets the job done!Carb rebuild is the next item for the fuel system - a good rainy day job. Body work on the replacement wing is coming soon too.