Grill in place, finally!  FINISHED

Before                                                                              After

Check out Classic Motorsports Nov, 08 issue. Great Magazine!  If anyone would like specific pictures of the build leave a comment on the site and I'll post it to the site.  Thanks to RedSlater.com for terrific picture!

 Amazingly enough everything seems to work together on the car.  IRS really makes a difference in the ride and the cut Jag springs and original Jag Bilstiens match the weight of the car. The brakes stop the car very well although the back locks up a little.  The back end hangs out very well when powered through and seems neutral.  Snaps back to center very nicely.   The old Hurst shifter and Saginaw 4 speed are heavy handed but positive in the throws.  With the fresh 350 it pulls like a freight train!     Amazing how much stronger it is than the 305 that was first put in!  1st gear is too much tire spin but 2nd really makes up for it.  I'm sure getting rid of the iron heads and waterpump helps!

Wiped one of the lobes on the cam so had to pull down the engine.  Put in fresh shortblock with roller cam to prevent it happening again.  I have started bunches of new cams and always followed same procedure. Lots of Moly on the lobes and faces of the lifters, run up oil pressure before starting, minimize initial cranking and run it up to 2500 RPM for about a half hour.  The face of the lifters were all slightly concave already and the one lifter was concave all to heck with about 1/8" missing!  I'm not sure if it was a bad set of lifters or the missing zinc that the EPA has so wisely deleted from the oil.  It was a Crane cam set and they went out of business lately.  NO MORE FLAT TAPPETS!   Heck, back in the day before I knew any better I used a set of used lifters on a brand new Erson cam.  No problems.  I can't remember if I knew to run up the engine speed during break in.  Ignorance is bliss!

The roller engine runs fricking strong!  Sold on rollers. 

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Picture of the new motor.  Gen 1 block with modified LT1 heads.  The heads were welded in a few places to block off the water passages and then milled flat.  Steam holes drilled in and then the front was drilled and tapped for 3/4"  fitting to run the water back out of the heads.     The water pump is also aluminum.  I had planned on putting a supercharger in place but decided I would baseline it with just a fresh 350 and work on the intercooler in the meantime.   Got side tracked on putting in a big block into another MGB so not much will be done on this one for awhile. 

Well, slight change of plans.  My wonderfull wife bought me a 86 Corvette front suspension from Coastal Corvette for my birthday!  So of course it had to go under the B.   It actually worked out pretty good.  A lot of cut and paste but nothing really that affected either structure.  The steering was a little different than I planned.   I had planned on using the Vette rack and converting to power steering but the way the Vette rack was mounted it wouldn't have fit within the MG frame.   I used the MG rack along with the Corvette ends.  No welding involved.   The Corvette sway bar fit with a little tweaking.  Everything fits together like a glove!

The Vette front end doesn't feel much different than the MG front end.  Of course it is much flatter but the sway bar is gigantic so not surprised by that.  The brakes stop better for sure!  Set the camber to about 3 degrees to match the back wheels.

Wheels are about 3" outside the fenders so I'll have to widen the fenders a bit.  The spring rate seems about right although the stance is a little high.   The brakes were easy to hook up.  Just cut the end off of the MG line, replace the nut with the Corvette and double flare it.  It's not exactly a piece of cake but overall not too bad.  I'm really not sure why it hasn't been done before.  Maybe it has?   Sure was nice putting in an extra spacer in the hydraulic throw out bearing!  Beats the heck out of pulling the tranny to do it.   Figured out how to adjust the ride height of the Corvette front end.  Pretty easy but haven't seen anyone do it before and sure couldn't find it on the net. 

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 Just after painting showing width of Jag rear.

 This is the car British Leyland should have built. First Silver MG for me....... Added electric seat track from late model GM.  Tilt wheel and electric seat!  Optional from MG? Not!  Picked up electric telescoping, tilt column from late model Caddy but think I'll just leave the manual tilt in place.  Save the new column for the next one. Cut 3" out of seat back and bottom to allow electric seat a little room to move. 

 Interior with special thanks to my wife for embroidering the MG symbol on the door panels.  She is awesome!!!  She puts up with all my car stuff including grease and that "awfull welding, metal smell"!

Early picture with first engine in place. It's was a 305 but seemed to power it pretty good.  No Comparison to the 350 that replaced it.   The engine was pure stock, complete with worn valve seals.  This is the second SBC MGB that I've built. The first one was a quite a few years ago and only had a 283 but it was pretty impressive. Anyone remember it from Tampa area? It was a white roadster with "California" hardtop and American " Daisy " wheels. The only clue on the outside was the air cleaner sticking out of the hood. I built it because I had blown the stock tranny for the 3rd time ( it was tough to try and keep up with 240Z's )and was tired of pulling the motor to get to the tranny. It was pretty rusty so I put in a bit of an interior subframe to hold it together.
It had the stock low ratio rear so it pulled pretty strong and never broke.  Oddly enough I could never get a 240Z to race me after the carb was sticking out of the hood! 

The car below is not my car!!!!!! See caption below. 

 The above picture is not my car!!!!!!!!!!  It is a picture of the same model top that I had on  an earlier MGB back in the 70's.  The entire car( including top ) was white with American "Daisy" wheels and carb sticking out of hood.  I was curious whatever happened to it?  I sold it to a guy that I ran into years later and he told me he drove it daily to MCDill Air Force base in Tampa.  Said it was the most reliable car he ever had!  If anyone remembers it please let me know.  The 1965 car itself was originally white.   I painted it red.  I purchased the mustard yellow top used  in 1974 from a girl in St. Pete that didn't have a place to store it when not in use.  For a while I drove it with the yellow top and red body!!!!!!  After installing the V8  I painted it a Toyota white that had just a touch of blue in it. (artic white?) I'm pretty sure it was the first car I painted with my Binks#7 that I still use.   

In case anyone is interested it's not too bad putting in the rear, just cut away everything and put it in place. I made a pair of Frame rails that are presently bolted in using the original spring mounts as the primary mounting points and run to the fixed crossover just behind the tranny. They'll be welded in place. It's also tied into the roll bar. I had planned on narrowing the rear but once put it in place realized it looked pretty cool with the Vette wheels. The rear flares are all metal and I've tried to keep the original step so it looks like it belongs.

Still a little clean up to do in the trunk but it shows the cage tie ins.  Notice the tank had to be moved over for clearance.

I used block hugging headers as a starting point but had to cut and paste to exit though the fenderwell and then down with just enough room to clear the swing of the tire.( or should I say tyre?) There just isn't enough room to get a real clean looking exhaust without going through the fenderwell. The access hole makes it a lot easier to get to the starter wiring! There is one more 74 roadster that is currently stripped that will probably get the Olds (4.0L)version of the Northstar. That one will probably involve eliminating the front fenderwells because the Northstar is so wide.

Primer on front end with the best part being the lack of the annoying cowl grill.

Tilt Caddy steering column with Italian wheel and Momo center wheel. This was one of the most time intensive jobs on the car so far. It makes it possible to actually get in the car with the side bars. Have to cut the seat frames to get them to fit properly with the new shifter buldge.

Stock dash backing with new vinyl cover. Have several stock dashes laying around but really just like the look of the original MGB's from the 60's. This is a "pillow" type back cover.

BMW Grey/Silver paint on inner doors, hood and trunk. I like to spray metallics with everything on car so had to take everything off to paint the back side of it all. Also finished floor pans, painted roll bars and coated the entire floor with pickup bed paint. Starting to see the end of the project!

Hood stripped, primed with paint on under side. Hood scoop in place where it may go. Not doing anything special with scoop except painting it as longterm induction could be anything.

Interior with paint on roll bar, inner doors and floor.

Cowl with inlet filled in. That cowl vent has killed a lot of MGB's.

Interior shot with new seat covers layed in place to see what they will look like. Have to cut the seat frames to get clearance for the roll bar and the wider center hump (to fit the hurst shifter)

Last shot before final sanding starts.             Paint Day!