Dutch bloke bought his dream car.

[Barbour]

Good evening all.

I'm from that tiny swamp across the waters to the east. Married, father of two boys and,as an early birthday present for my 50th birthday, I finally bought the car that stole my heart when it was introduced some 23 years ago.

The last of the Mohicans, the pinnacle of British engineering on a tight budget, the MG F.

Mine is a humble 1.8 lefty, in Anthracite (LQW)

Exterior
It has a few little parking dents on the rear fenders, and some scratches front and rear bumper, nothing serious that a round of restyling won't fix. Underside is nice, little rust and I'll have the underbody done before winter.

The hood will need replacing some time in the future, it has the standard issue punctures but it's basically watertight, except at the mirror triangle, it drips on the speakers there, not too happy with that. I'm thinking of getting a blue hood, preferably with a glass rear window, if anyone has a good suggestion as to where to get those I'll be very happy.

Interior:
Mine has the black leather interior (PUU)

Looking to do some upgrading there, already replaced those cheap looking vinyl armrests for nice leather ones. More to follow, i really like the minimalistic approach but it does look quite cheap here and there, also, what twat designed those non-fit doorcards?

Technical:
The HG, cambelt and water pump have been renewed, so we're the rear brake calipers and front discs. I'm upgrading the original battered 15" alloys to those nice 16" flat spokes, have to collect them as they are still in my friend's barn in West Yorkshire.

Falken tyres are the go to option it seems, I'll make it so.

I'm hoping to find some interesting info here, and the occasional nice chat.

Cheers!

[Bazzajay]

Hello Wilfred,

A very warm welcome to you and your Anthracite MGF. You'll find a great deal of interesting information here. There is a good search facility on each of the sections to help you find the information you want.

All the best,

Barrie

[jaapaap1111]

A warm welcome from Rotterdam. Check this weekends classic cars and aeroplanes at Seppe airport. Last year i could drive on the classics section so i could enter free and park in between the classic planes. Might see you there. Joris

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G920F met Tapatalk

[jaapaap1111]

And you can get yourself caught on camera as i did...

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G920F met Tapatalk

[nigelandjo]

Hello and welcome.

[talkingcars]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

James

[Barbour]

Thank you for the warm welcome.

I've done some small upgrades already.

New left rear light as the old one was broken and badly glued, I was stunned the rear lights standard apparently have no cover on the inside, I ordered those and now I don't have to be afraid to break stuff in the boot. Who's idea was it to skimp on that?

Bought the original rear light covers, as I did with these stickers that make a nice addition me thinks.



Side blinkers also have been replaced with grey ones (as it looks far better on the Anthracite body colour), got the front ones also off FleaBay. Check my battered alloys here.


Second hand front blinkers.

Also, I needed these caps:

bought two of them from AlieX (so my son's can wear one too )

nothing much yet, but more is on the way.

[jaapaap1111]

Nice upgrades. Could you provide the link for the front indicator lights you bought from aliex?

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G920F met Tapatalk

[Barbour]

Sorry Jaap, the hats are from AlieX, the blinkers are second hand, bought them off eBay.

I do know Fontech can deliver new ones in NL/B.

https://amklassiek.nl/oldtimer-bedrijvengids/fontech/

[talkingcars]

The front indicators are from a mk2 F and the sides can be found on eBay listed for classic mini.

[jaapaap1111]

Ok. It already surprised me that they would be on aliex.
Im in search of a cheap set (which tbey are usually not) because i want to build a dlr indicator combi light for a try...

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G920F met Tapatalk

[colintf]

Hello Wilfred,
A lot of our Dutch guys also frequent mgf.be so you'll find local help and support there as well

[Barbour]

A lot of our Dutch guys also frequent mgf.be so you'll find local help and support there as well

Thanks Colin,

I tried to subscribe there, but no luck so far, no response to my subscription with the same handle I use here.

Could you maybe contact the Admin of the Belgian forum for me?

[colintf]

A lot of our Dutch guys also frequent mgf.be so you'll find local help and support there as well

Thanks Colin,

I tried to subscribe there, but no luck so far, no response to my subscription with the same handle I use here.

Could you maybe contact the Admin of the Belgian forum for me?

Message Kasper or Erik on here, they are some of the key mgf.be people, Kasper also being a fellow Dutchman

Link to Kasper is here memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=119

[Barbour]

Message Kasper or Erik on here, they are some of the key mgf.be people, Kasper also being a fellow Dutchman

That worked like a charm, thanks a million Colin.

Cheers!

[Kasper]

... I was stunned the rear lights standard apparently have no cover on the inside, I ordered those and now I don't have to be afraid to break stuff in the boot.

Who's idea was it to skimp on that?..

Well, initially there were no covers. Only after the move to the east, MG came up with these.
It is clear, I do have them in the TF but they are way to heavy for my F
In time you will learn to put things in the boot gently so no damage and proper lights at the rear.

Yep, I'm not only at mgf.be but also here every now and then. Sorry for the delay in registering, I explained why.
Enjoy your MGF

[Barbour]

Sorry for the delay in registering, I explained why.
Enjoy your MGF

Thanks again Kasper, no worries.

Hope to meet you sometime soon

[Neil Rushton]

Don't get involved with Kasper he's a bad influence

[Barbour]

Don't get involved with Kasper he's a bad influence

Seems he earned himself a reputation

[Barbour]

Got me a second key fob at a former MG-Roverdealer some 20 miles from here.

Having just one key fob is the silly way of living life to the max, so I called Gary for a second one early this week, he called me this morning to tell me that it had arrived. And that he had time for me this afternoon.

The temperature was nice, but dark clouds rolled over the city I live in. Few spatters, but hey, I'm not made of sugar and the F has a leather interior, so I took off with the hood down, the sky was already brighter in the direction I was heading.

I love driving the curvy back roads with the F, dodging tractors and other heavy agricultural equipment is part of the fun, so I arrived after some 45 minutes, could have been there in 20 if I had taken the Motorway, but meh...

The fob programming was done in a jiffy, so Gary asked me if I fancied a coffee. Gary is a friendly man, owning a small garage these days. Back In 2005 he had a MG-Roverdealership, he had six people working for his company, he had just ordered a dozen cars because the Dutch car show (RAI) would certainly bring some new sales.

Then MG Rover suddenly went belly up.

Next thing you know some guy from the bank at his doorstep, no more credit on the spot, importer went belly up too and a few of the cars he ordered and were ready to be delivered are confiscated by the tax authorities, but he still had to pay for them because of the finance contract he had.

Long story short, a lot of money was lost, he survived.

But then the crisis came and he had to fire the people he considered family and friends. It's just him and his son in the small-ish garage he has since 2014 now. A nice, knowledgeable, caring man that got crushed in the aftermath of the demise of MG-Rover and the economic crisis.

We finished our coffee and said goodbye. I felt I needed some more fresh air through my hair, life is a bumpy, curvy road, sometimes the ride is harsh, but it's always worth it.

Here is to good guys like Gary, have a great weekend folks...