SPL311 17277

[Ralph]

Thanks, Greg. Nice to have a coach watching for the detail.

Installed the wheels (yup, it still is up on blocks)

Got the washers in along with the rubber bushings (& nut), installed the rubber gear-shift dust cover, cut & painted a piece of sheet metal for the hole under the carpet in the console ... (I'll screw it down later this week), thought about adjusting the clutch, but I'm not confident the screw/shaft is attached properly as it seems to wiggle quite a bit when the spring is released. The two adjusting nuts are there & seem fine, though. I'll hae another search through the wiki.
Installed two sets of fender washers, bolts & nuts just behind the vertical piece on the front bumpers. Trying to figure out how to attach the bottom/under side of the fenders just in front of the doors. There are holes in the fenders, but they don't line up with the holes in the rocker panels. (the PO advertised new rocker panels, I guess it is up to me to find the holes ...). Not bad progress for late on a Sunday afternoon.

[Ralph]

Popped the fuel sending unit out to see if I could figure out why the gauge is reading over full when there is less than 1/4 tank ... found there was no o-ring between the unit & the tank. I'll get one...any hints on calibrating the sending unit? On visual inspection, the unit looks pretty good.

[Ralph]

With apologies to the purists out there, the car is keeping the dash as is. We have the wiring sorted and everything needed to pass the BC inspection works as it should. I only have the dash cap, hood, grill and windshield left to install, plus some minor gluing down of interior bits and some molding. Photos to come soon...hopefully without snow.

[Ralph]

A very quick update for now...more details later. The inspection went OK...A fail, but nothing unreasonable. The speedo wasn't working, which I knew about, and there are some loose bits in the front end....which we looked at but thought were OK. But that was not the important part of the story today.
The best and most important part of the day was driving down to the inspection station & back ... the sound of the car is one-of-a kind...I got smiles from a lot of pedestrians and my son had his first ride in a "real" convertible (not a jeep with the hard top off or an SUV with the sun roof open & all the windows down). The car pulls strong, and it feels pretty solid. The heater works well (9 degrees C ...dry roads)
I had my first adventure post-inspection though...I decided I would take the long way home since the permit is good 'till midnight, but wanted to be sure I had enough gas. So did a bit of a fill-up on the way. Long story short, found another boo-boo... fuel line at the tank looked like it was almost cross-threaded. (we thought it looked OK from a visual inspection, but obviously not OK enough) Not sure how much fuel leaked out, but now the fitting is tight and we should be good.
I'll be looking for some advice on the front end next, and will get details out soon. And we will deal with the speedo.
Oh, yah ... all the electrical bits worked well enough to pass inspection

[Daryl Smith]

Congratulations!
Sorry I've missed you the few times I've been up, but they were all rushed trips...Maybe the next trip....Do you ski?

[garth]

Good news Ralph!

Are you getting snowtires and an electric auto blanket for Xmas?

[sports imports]

Well done Ralph!! Perseverance pays off in spades. Now you need to organize a Kelowna meet.

Ross

[Ralph]

Congratulations!
Sorry I've missed you the few times I've been up, but they were all rushed trips...Maybe the next trip....Do you ski?

But of course I ski ... hill of choice is Silver Star, but I'm not too proud to attend Big White(out), Apex ... Revelstoke or even Baldy.

[Ralph]

Good news Ralph!

Are you getting snowtires and an electric auto blanket for Xmas?

You saw my driveway ... so probably just a winch to get up in the snow. I'll need to upgrade the alternator for the blankets needed for my latitude ... right Linda?

Just a 311s.org sticker with the MG would do for this year

[Ralph]

Well done Ralph!! Perseverance pays off in spades. Now you need to organize a Kelowna meet.

Ross

Thanks, Ross. A meet up here again in Kelowna would be a blast. I guess now is the time to do the planning so I'll do some digging, connect with the local hill climb club and anyone else. I think it might have been DatsunDave who did the last ones here....or maybe we can just all join http://www.area27.ca/ and have the meet there.

[Ralph]

New Idler box from Ross on the way, the rest of the front end tightened up. Speedo issue was a missing part at the transmission-to-cable connection. My mechanic fabricated a part in less than an hour and now we should know about how fast we are going for the next inspection ... when we will look something like this....

[Gregs672000]

Great lookin car, congrats on being back on the road! I really like the color and the wheels look great.

[Linda]

Looks like a Roadster fan in the passenger seat.
Enjoy the ride!
Linda

[garth]

Ralph

Are you ready to join the BC contingent going to Solvang in April?

[Ralph]

Ralph

Are you ready to join the BC contingent going to Solvang in April?

We have Solvang on the bucket list ... Shake down trips to the grocery store, a local winery, Vernon via the West Side road by your place, Christina Lake via Highway 33 through Rock Creek, and then via the "long way" through Fauquier, Nakusp & Castlegar, and the Shasta Meet are all on the trip list, too.

FYI ... I knew this would happen ... the final part I need for the car is in town ... and it is now snowing