Louis Shalako: Buying a Low-Budget British Sports Car. Part Four. Louis Shalako.

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Buying a Low-Budget British Sports Car. Part Four. Louis Shalako.

Louis Shalako

You got to have a plan, Stan.

How much you gonna pay, Ray.

It’s just another toy, Roy,

You better listen to me—

There’s fifty ways to empty your wallet.

Especially, with an MGB.

…

How did British Leyland lower the compression ratio on the MGB engine, from 8.8/1 to 8.0/1, circa 1973: deep-dish pistons. Ergo, therefore and thusly, the block and the head are the same as previous years...maybe. These are the deep-dish pistons, this cylinder head (below) has larger valves installed. The ad states that the last three owners all had intentions of restoring this vehicle. $1,000.00 in Collingwood, Ontario, an easy 200-miles from Sarnia.

And is true, that my crusty old minivan will pull a max of 3,800 lbs. and you can rent a utility or car-hauler type trailer by the day or the week or whatever.

Looking at the photos, I would say that my old ’71 roadster had the shallow-dish, in fact the little raised ring was perhaps a bit smaller, a little further out from the cylinder wall. The difference is unmistakable but only if you have seen the other type before. If you are totally a first-timer, you may not spot that without prior research or information.

(Assuming you take the engine apart in the first place. - ed.)

All of those holes are for oiling, cooling, and the eight holes on the far side are for pushrods.

But this ’73 project car would definitely be an 8.0/1 compression ratio engine, with significantly less power than the ’71, which was rated at about 95bhp and 104 lb-ft. of torque—yet the vehicle would still have the dual carbs, it would still have air injection, which most folks simply remove, and it would not have a catalytic converter, for example. (And this would be a good time for a guy like me to go off, read up on it and either check or confirm my facts.)

This gentleman has an interesting blog post on the subject of rebuilds, oil pressure, and oil consumption and things like that.

The Locost mentioned in the text appears to be a one-off, home design.

Larger valves, the water control valve.

Ah, nice. You can see the water control valve for the cockpit heat and windshield defogging.

The link for the parts car is already dead...

How hard is it to take the rubber bumpers from a later model MGB and replace them with chromies. I had wondered, my instinct is that the turn signal castings, lenses and gasket are 'probably' simply re-used from previous iterations. Some guys simply rewire the N. American side marker lamps and that now becomes the turn signals. The frontal visibility would be somewhat reduced, but they’re prepared to live, or to die with it. (It probably does skirt the letter and intent of the law, so you might want to get the safety check first and do the mods later…) Otherwise, you have to cut a couple of rectangular holes in the fenders, not quite centred under, but below the headlights, bearing in mind the curve or conformity of the original castings. Or, you can buy period-correct fenders which will have provision for these lamps, which are stamped and the mounts do stick out from the curve of the fender.

The actual 5-mph collision-safety bumpers also required additional structure. It was an add-on, which interferes with the simple bolt-on chrome bumper mounts. You can get those fenders new or used, one would think. All it takes is patience. And money. If a company modifies a vehicle, they may not have bothered to drill them holes, where the old bumpers attached. What looks simple at first glance will, inevitably spawn complications. The same could be said of modifying any vehicle. And quite frankly modern cars are not meant to be maintained or repaired by the owners. Fifty years ago, the more enthusiastic owners thought nothing of putting in new spark plugs, changing their own oil, air and fuel filters, burned-out bulbs, or doing brakes and things like that.

***

The rear bumper does not have lights in it, but the additional structure must be there, in order to sustain a 5-mph hit.

This guy has done away with the front signal lights, in the images. This is the classic position for turn signals in the early models.

This MGB is a ‘project car’ listed at $1,000.00, in Burlington, Ontario.

(Link will be dead at some point.)

…The Plan Spawns Endless Complications.

Let’s say you do buy that later model MGB, with the rubber bumpers, the ride height increased by one inch, and the engine detuned and pollution controlled, with the result that it is heavier, handles much less well than the previous models, and the horsepower is much reduced. What is the best thing to do with that car? Bear in mind, in a previous post, I concluded that a clean body-shell is ‘everything’ to quote myself, which is a bit like the guy who represents himself in court and has a fool for a client.

I’m a writer, quoting myself.

Why not try a low-ball offer. Why not see if you can get the machine for a little cheaper than the asking price. Why not see if we can get it through a safety check, why not register the thing in our own name, why not put insurance on it, the bare minimum of insurance, and why not just drive the thing as it is. Why try to pretend it’s something that it is not? Let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that it will fetch thirty thousand poonds at auction. We’re simply not playing at that level, but we are playing, and sometimes that alone is enough.

Knowing that you probably aren’t going to make bags of money on your new purchase, influences the decisions about how much to put into it. If you gave someone a completely disassembled MGB or other sports car, and they put it all together again, it’s really only going to be worth so much in the marketplace—and if you really have twenty or thirty grand laying around, you can just go buy a much better car…at a high-end auction. You can also probably afford brand-new parts and any modifications might be done by seasoned professionals. You might be looking for a car that’s original, matching numbers and all that sort of thing, rather than something cobbled together by someone who maybe shouldn’t be doing such things…

It’s a low-budget sports car, true, but that is only a relative concept. It’s not a race car, it’s not a show-car, it’s not a street racer, it’s not going to impress your friends, but then they all think you’re an idiot anyways—they may love you in spite of yourself, but they still think you’re an idiot.

Here is one example. You have the 1977 MGB roadster and you want to upgrade the power, go back to chrome bumpers from the classic era, and you want to lower the machine by one inch. The later model vehicles use the front sub-frame from an MGB V-8. The company welded one-inch steel plates, (probably), under the ends of the sub-frame, in order to mount the suspension…the front sub-frame is held in place by four big bolts, then there is the steering rod and the steering rack to consider, then there is the independent front suspension, and then there are the brake lines, an anti-roll bar, etc.

Assuming you can unbolt and disconnect, you have to lift the rest of the vehicle off of there, dismantle all of that, and then you have two choices. You can try and cut and remove the one-inch steel plates, or you can try and find a front sub-frame from an earlier model, or try and get a new one from some supplier somewhere. You can try to get adaptive bits and pieces (new or re-engineered aftermarket parts) in order to just bolt on and not go that far with the dismantling. You may or may not be able to use the original springs. The plates, in my interpretation, simply push the springs an inch further down, and the shocks are still bolted on top of the sub-frame. This would, in fact, change the geometry of the steering and suspension, which is one of several reasons why later models are not noted for handling. I would have to examine two different cars side-by-side, listen to an expert, or get the proper information somewhere. This is where those online forums are so useful. They’re riddled with expert mechanics, and more than happy to help a fellow enthusiast. They might even have a few things to sell, right? And we are sort of interested in buying.

Those pesky turn signals. 1972 U.K. version.

It’s not an easy job, and one would think having done all of this, it’s a good time to check that steering rack, replace the flexible brake lines at the very least. Naturally, when you take all that apart, you may consider new bushings, bearings, brake pads and rotors and all of that sort of thing…such a simple little plan, and yet it spawns complications.

The rear end may be a bit easier, it is unclear at this point if the rear leaf springs are simply jacked up by shackles, or whether the company found some other way of recycling old parts from the bin, bearing in mind the MGB was showing its age at this point, (1977) and clearly did not justify major expenditures in terms of re-design and re-tooling at the factory.

The importance of a clean body shell. There is simple cosmetic appearance. There is structural strength, and then there are the niggling and persistent little details. In a vehicle of some age, we might decide not only to replace the flexible brake lines, but also the steel brake lines. I have done steel brake lines, borrowing the flaring tool, purchasing the raw steel tubing; piecing all of that together. The problem comes when you go to hang that on the actual vehicle—you need screws, clips, rivets even, and the bottom of your vehicle is rotten. Where are you going to drill all them holes—you can’t drill a hole in air, and screwing or riveting or clipping something to some surface that is corroded or paper thin is a lose-lose proposition. The problem at this point, is that you are already committed.

The same goes for the fuel lines. Just substituting fuel-resistant rubber hosing on wire garbage-bag ties under the vehicle may be a low-cost option for the fuel lines, but it really isn’t going to work for the brakes, which operate at a higher pressure.

Interestingly, for many of the conversion-type jobs listed above, you can probably get some kind of estimate of parts and labour…from somebody, somewhere.

Our surprise pick for this post.

Before you even buy the car—helpful information, to be sure.

Here’s one of those terrible truths that aren’t all that much fun to confront. If I don’t have ten or twelve grand for some reasonably complete and driveable little sports car of any description at all, (option one), I probably don’t have ten or twelve grand to fix up a wreck, assuming I had the tools, the knowledge, the experience and the facilities, (option two). If I honestly thought I could find ten or twelve grand over the next year or two, then I could also, probably find ten or twelve grand to pay off a loan on a vehicle that was clean, whole, complete and driveable from the beginning. Five years ago, the rate was 8.99 %. I checked the other day, and it is now 14.5 % in this town, for a personal loan. So, cash would be decidedly better.

The first option is clearly the better one. I just want to have some fun, and the rest can wait.

END