I wrote an article a few days ago about starting to work on my MGB GT again after almost 5 years… Finally back to work on my 1967 MGB GT. Much has changed since the car was last on the road, one of them being that I bought a used 4 post lift for my garage. What does this have to do with my MGB you might ask? Well, when you look under a car that hasn’t run for a while it can be a somewhat depressing sight, especially on a lift. I knew that some oil had been leaking… nothing new here but something to address. But what I wasn’t prepared for is how bad the freshly painted and brand new componants looked. There is rust everywhere. The caliper paint is already failing. Even the grade 5 zinc plated bolts look terrible. And stainless steel?
To be fair, the car has spent some time living outside under a carport but it also likely spent about half of the time in a dry garage where I store my tools and other cars.
So where are we heading? Well, the first thing I’ll do is give everything a good wash and then evaluate the situation further. It will be easy to replace the grade 5 bolts but will this just happen again? I would love to try plated grade 8 bolts but don’t have a source for them where I live.
The brake calipers really need another coat of paint but once again would it last? They were painted with high end caliper paint that was baked according to instructions… and installed about 6 years ago.
There are a few ways of looking at this and the best for my mind is that the MGB still looks way better than when I started. I’m trying to be positiive. I guess what it really gets down to is store your vehicles indoors and don’t drive them! But of course they are meant to be driven, not sitting.
