It’s been about 18 months since I removed the front suspension from my MGB GT. While I really hadn’t planned on it being this long before I put everything back together it has turned out this way.
The original bushings were completely shot and the metal components were truly ugly so an overhaul was needed. I media blasted the parts and painted everything with a good black glossy paint. Looking back at it now I wish I had either had the parts powder coated or perhaps used POR15 instead of the paint. As I assemble pieces I’m finding that the paint chips down to the primer fairly easily. Oh well, I’m sure it will hold up reasonably well and I’m not redoing anything at this stage.
I’m switching over to polyurethane bushings for the front suspension except for the lower A-arm bushings where I’m using the MGB V8 bushings with metal sleeves. This is due to wear on the pivot shaft. I could have bought new shafts and used the polyurethane bushings here as well but this should work.
Installing the V8 bushings went easily using dishwashing soap, a vice and a socket.
The new bushings sure look a lot better and hopefully the MGB GT will handle better as well. I’m also replacing all of the old hardware with new grade 5 fasteners, partly for the safety factor but it also seems a shame to repaint everything and reuse the rusty old fasteners. That just wouldn’t look good!
I’ll likely add a few more components before installation. Whether I build up the suspension completely at this stage I’m debating.. it does get very heavy!
